Sods Law: Art thou a bi....

The main thing to take away from this week? Always. Always have a backup copy with files. The only time I didn't have a backup copy of a file, the main file breaks.....
I spent a good day trying to recover the broken file. In Painter, despite having the same UV's and the textures were fine. When I went to work on the file the next day, sections of the textures weren't showing and the file kept crashing.
 This was the only time I didn't have a backup file. Fortunately, I managed to recover the work. Though I did lose a day worth of work.
Moral of the story? Always keep a backup file.

 I tried to connect the wings to the main section of the Spitfire, however, this caused some problems in Painter (UVs not painting despite remapping the UV) but caused crashed in Maya. I can see why the other artist kept these two sections separate...
I seperated the two pieces again. Fortunatley, this made the curved and alignment of the two meshes perfect(ish). See below:

Before everything went wrong, I finally created a Benson graphic for the Spitfire nose art.

Benson Graphics: Same graphic but two different tones.
It's also worth mentioning I also made more graphics for the Spitfire in Photoshop.

Render of Spitfire with turntable base before I change my idea on how I want the Spitfire to be presented.

Also this week, I spent some time playing around with the render options in Painter.
Note: After this, I got an idea on how I want to present the Spitfire for the MA show. Instead of a turntable base with the model on top, have the Spitfire looks like it's flying in the air. This does make more sense as the turntable base idea made the Spitfire look like a little toy - Though it looks cool and looks like an Airfix model, it's not the way I want the Spitfire to look for this project.

Spitfire fully textured (Taken before the file broke)

After file recovery. Playing around with the renderer in Painter.

To make the Spitfire as authentic as possible, I wanted the Squadron code and Spitfire serial number to be real and not made up.

The serial number I found (P7540) actually turned out to be belonging to a Spitfire that was lost during WW2 and was only found again in 1982. It was located in Loch Doon. It was later restored. P7540 belonged to an MK II spitfire that at one point with 66 Squadron. But I may change the serial number to a Spitfire that would have been in The Battle of Britain.

Loch Doon Spitfire P7540

Whilst looking for Squadron codes for the Spitfire, I came across 66 Squadron (Squad code LZ). The reason why I chose this Squadron is that not only was it the second unit to ever receive Spitfires during WW2 (The first being 19 Squadron, also originally based Duxford). But I also chose 66 Squadron as it was based not only Duxford (the present day a museum aka my favorite museum) it was also based in Norfolk a couple of times during the beginning of the war - Horsham St. Faiths (now Norwich Airport) and Coltishall. Also, throughout the war, 66 Squadron only used Spitfires.

Additional research this week:
No. 19 Squadron (RAF): Second World War
The Spitfire
National Museums Scotland - Supermarine Spitfire LF.XVIe
Five Things to Know About the Spitfire, the Legend of Dunkirk
Women with Wings: The 75-Year-Legacy of the WASP
RAF - SQUADRON CODES - WWII
WWII Warplanes: The Superb Supermarine Spitfire
No. 66 Squadron (RAF): Second World War
No. 66 Squadron Royal Air Force During the Second World War