Here's a simplistic tutorial on how to edit a plane for a custom card or an avatar. There's many different editing software programs and I use Corel Draw, but the terms should be the same.
First you need to download the photoshop file of the layered plane you need from the files section ( in this case the Albatros DIII) and find a top down image of the plane you are attempting to match. (in this case Franz Muller's Albatros).
First we'll mask off the white tail section with a RECTANGLE MASK TOOL:
Nearly all color changing is done with the HUE / SATURATION window so find that and take the saturation slider all the way down removing all the color:
If a color is too dark or light you will need to adjust it with either BRIGHTNESS / CONTRAST window. The CONTRAST window works best as it retains more of the shading and highlights of the original image. Slide the Brightness till the tail is white:
The reverse of this can be done by sliding the darkness slider up if you require a black tail.
Next we mask off the rear fuselage section with the RECTANGLE MASK TOOL and use a BRUSH MASK TOOL to mask off the wing sections:
Open the HUE / SATURATION window again and slide the HUE till it's green then slide the SATURATION to make it the right green:
Most software has a REVERSE MASK button that will reverse your selected mask area which is the easiest way to mask the middle portion of the wing.
Open the HUE / SATURATION window again and slide the HUE till it's purple then slide the SATURATION to make it the right purple:
Lastly, mask out the remaining cockpit fuselage area and open the HUE / SATURATION window again and slide the HUE till it's tan then slide the SATURATION to make it the right tan:
The nose was already red so it's done, but if you need it another color you simply follow the same steps above by masking out a section and adjusting the HUE / SATURATION.
Hope this helps some of you and bear in mind this is simply a beginners intro and should get you started, but if anyone wants further tutorials I can work on some others for more complex editing including roundels and insignia etc.
Max.
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