Third “Y” stories voting reminder . . . and more model planes

The “Y” stories voting block is going pretty well so this will be the last reminder for a few (or more) days.

If you are a regular reader of our stories, and if you feel like it, forward this post to someone who might enjoy them (and vote). Your friend — and even your enemies — will appreciate it, and the writers will be grateful. 

And, as usual, if you’re a regular reader of our stories and someone who votes, thank you in advance for casting a vote for your favorite of the three. Links to the stories and the poll for voting for “Alphabet Challenge Y-Stories” are HERE(link). Votes will be accepted until  Noon (Central Time) on Monday, March 15th, 2021.

Side Note: while this blog’s first post was on the 19th of March, 2010, yesterday — March 6th — was the day I created this blog. Why the delay? I tried out Blogger and Live Journal before settling on WordPress. Why mention this? Because; just because.

So, model planes . . . well, sculptures, really . . . .

I’m going back to 2010 for these three photos (with multiple versions of each photo). The first plane, above, is the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress(link). That photo is as-shot (Nikon D200 camera).

The planes are in what is known as the Cadet Honor Court at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. These planes are all sculpted by one person (LINK).

I didn’t do anything with that photo . . . instead, I used this version of the B-17 Flying Fortress sculpture.

I used Topaz Mask AI to isolate the sculpture . . .

For them wondering, this is made easier by the fact I snapped the photo with that process in mind. Meaning, the sculpture is against the sky without any other feature intruding on the background (besides the post). I did that because it used to be a real pain isolating subjects and more so when the background wasn’t “clean”. Now? . . . a lot easier either in Photoshop or Mask AI.

The first stop after that was Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 to add a bit of oompf and add a border.

The last thing I did with the photo was run it through the Topaz Simplify 4 plugin with the aim to turn it into an illustration/painting-like photo, and then framed it using Topaz Studio . . .

The process was repeated with this sculpture of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress(link) . . .

Again, here is the sequence (read the captions) . . .

Obviously, the shadows are all wrong . . . as them who like to nitpick (me) would point out, but the overall effect isn’t bad.

I had another view of that plane that I wanted to work with . . .

Once again, read the captions . . .

This LINK will take you to the SmugMug gallery that has the full-size versions of the above and also photos in recent reminder posts. You can also click on the individual photos for a larger version . . . and here’s the gallery of the above photos.

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress masked and cut

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress — processed with Luminar AI and its Sky Replacement feature.

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress — Sky replacement and Color Efex Pro 4 processing.

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress — Topaz Simplify 4 and Topaz Studio 1.0

Consolidated B-24 Liberator

Consolidated B-24 Liberator — masked and cut.

Consolidated B-24 Liberator — Luminar Ai, Sky Replacement and Sky Enhancement (the lightning).

Consolidated B-24 Liberator — previous plus Topaz Impression to turn it into a painting.

Consolidated B-24 Liberator — the above plus a few more tweaks and framed in Topaz Studio.

Consolidated B-24 Liberator — masked and cut.

Consolidated B-24 Liberator — Luminar AI Sky Replacement

Consolidated B-24 Liberator — processed and border added in Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4

Consolidated B-24 Liberator — simplified details using Lightroom

Consolidated B-24 Liberator — used Topaz Studio 1.0 to add a digital frame

Consolidated B-24 Liberator — another version with fewer details and framed in Studio 1.0

For them who might want to look at something else, here’s a LINK of a 2017 look back at . . . well, 2017.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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