Thank you for your post.
Steve S: 
Nice of you to think I would be capable of such animation, but I lack knowledge, resources and will to do that. With this model I plan to do just few stills.
Anyway I decided to change the paint scheme a little, since I did not liked the “chrome” parts. Here is the current render:
it is models like this that make me wanna continue trying to teach myself blender
Hi,
how I miss this wip 
Nice modelling, I’ve not look at references but it seems to be accurate. Texturing is on a good way, I prefer the last one without any chrome part. It’s an E or F version isn’t it ? Which campaign ?
Good blend !
ookka: Never mind my wip, but how did I missed yours is beyond me. That Mig is gorgeous. Anyway for your questions. It is a Bf 109-E, but maybe there are some elements from the G version, since I used some reference from G. And I thing that the camo pattern is from Bulgaria, though the decals on the body (4 and the cross) are from other pattern.
Anyway here current state of the model. I added some damege to the body texture, because you know, I like my models dirty:D. Next step is making proper texture for the nose.
EDIT: Hups, now I noticed I forgot to activate the layer with lights, have to rerender. Back in a tick.
EDIT: Here is the rerender. I left the bad render here so you can see the difference. Sight, I just noticed, that I did not included the cockpit layer, I wont rerender it though.
Outstanding work…I’m constantly amazed at what can be created with blender.
Really looking good! I like the texture on the wings. I only think that the propeller wings look just little bit too glossy and plastic. Just in my opinion, I’d better be quiet with my CG knowledge great job!
Very neat. I like the texture work.
Mahoney: Every comment is valuable. You don´t have to be CG guru to identify errors or bad CGI.
Anyway, here is another render:
now this one is really awesome
Ha ha thanks a lot for kind words. Your last render came very dirty (but you said you like this, so…). Have you already put specular maps on it or not (I think metallic parts should be a little bit more reflective) ?
Do you plan a specific scene for this model ?
I can see this being Gallery worthy when it’s finished. Really great work, especially with the textures!
Your work is very appealing to me, eprdox! The texturing seems to be living up to the quality of the modeling, which is great.
I have a question, how are you approaching the texturing workflow? I cannot see any seams on the wings, or the body for that matter. I have always had the problem of how to make the textures at the edges of the UV map appear seamless. On objects which often have scuffed edges, it is difficult to have a truly realistic appearance when texturing only in Photoshop. Often times to have to give the entire edge on both sides of the seam the same appearance, to hide seams. But doing this doesn’t look realistic. Do you have any advice?
Beautifull work !
When will you make a render with a sky texture or an sky environment texture ?
I agree with James Candy. Your seamless UV map texturing is perfect. What is your secret ???
ooka: Yes there is specular map, but basically only on the wings, other parts don’t have it, since I want to finish the diffuse first. Well I have something in mind (3 stills), but I am always open to suggestions…
James Candy: Well I do not think I have any special approach to texturing. Also keep in mind I am no expert and that this model have more than one texture (separate materials: Wings, Nose, Body, plus some procedural materials) and since it is not for game or anything “serious”, I did not put much effort into unwrapping, since I hate it (frankly I never met anyone who actually likes it). In any case you have to place the seams in places where they do little harm (for example where they wont be seen or where it is natural to have a seam). And if you do not have any other choice and you have to place seam on visible spot, then use “feature-less” base texture with few major details (rust, dirty spots etc.) that you will have to painstakingly match by hand on both sides of the seam in photoshop (exporting uv map from blender and overlaying it over the texture in photoshop really helps). Or just paint the texture, don care much about seams, and after you finish, switch to blender and retouch the seams on the actual model in the texture paint mode (I prefer this).
And like I said, my work-flow is nothing special. After I unwrap the model, I export the uvs, then bake the AO map, put these into Gimp. After that I chose some nice base texture and after that I just paint, or rather do image manipulation, since I can´t paint really well. For the wings texture I have these layers: 3 Base texture layers (mixed with different blending modes), Dark green layer for the camo, Greyscale panel layer set on multiply (you can see them on the model, but they are not that visible), Dirt layer, Rust layer, Decals layer, light blue metal layer for the damaged spots on the leading edge, and on top of that is AO map set to multiply. And that is all (All layer have masks).
Hope that makes any sense, and to illustrate the fact I did not cared much about the unwrapp, here is the downscaled version of the wings diffuse texture with overlayed uv map.
Thank you for your detailed explanation, eprdox! Your insight is very helpful. I especially like the idea of keeping the major work inside Photoshop, but then touching up problem areas in Blender’s texture painting. This suggestion alone is very helpful, I don’t know why I hadn’t considered it before!
Often I find myself wishing Photoshop allowed you to paint on a 3D model, instead of only in 2D. How simple it would be then! For now, I will have to continue wishing, until that happens, or until Blender becomes more advanced in it’s texture painting mode.
Thank you again for your help!
James Candy:You are welcome. I think that there were Photoshop Extended that incorporated direct painting onto 3d models, but it was way beyond my budget.
Wow! Awesome!
@eprdox Man this model cries out to be animated and you should be the one to do that. But, barring that please put it on Blend Swap and someone will do it justice in a sky setting.
BEAST
You seriously got those wings perfect.
Sorry for weeks of silence. I was really busy with work and other projects, but still I was able to do some work on this.
The plane looked wrong with empty cockpit, so I made a Dummy Pilot, only the head has some details since the rest of the body will be barely visible:
Also I started to make some props for the scene like flak explosions, lowres B17 and I also choose a backplate for the final image (combination of several stock images):
