Before we get on to the fun stuff there is one final thing we need to do.

I felt it needed its own section as I find it a pretty important part of the process. Due to my method of painting I usually end up with a lot of "Layer XX" layer names, trying to work with psds containing 100+ layers all named very very similar can be fairly tedious at times!

So what I usually do is, once I've completed the standard paint kit I set aside some time to sort it out before I go on to weathering and other details. This section involves naming layers and layer folders appropriately, perhaps removing unneeded layers or unnecessarily duplicated ones. You probably won't come across the latter much with this paint scheme as you've been following the tutorial but when going solo you will probably come across such instances.

Lets have a look at a few examples.

The names of deactivated layers are just as important as the activated ones, if you ever need to find a layer you're going to want to be able to find it quickly and easily. Temporarily reactivate the layer to determine what the layer contains, occasionally it is difficult to spot the contents, press Crtl and click the layer in the layers palette to produce a selection of the layer contents (in Photoshop CS2 press Crtl and click the layer thumbnail instead).

This image consists of my tail layer in use, I've named it "Tail" as it contains all of the paint scheme on the tail. Something I do is name any duplicated back up layers with the prefix "ORIGINAL" in capital letters. This draws my attention to the fact these are the original layers and I should exercise care when modifying them. Naming them in this way also draws my attention to where the original layers are if ever I want them. In this image we can see I've named my layer folder "ORIGINAL Tail". This is to be consistent with the tail layer I am currently using, it allows me to easily refer back to the originals if I ever need them.

Within the "ORIGINAL Tail" layer folder, I've named all of the layers appropriately but have also included the prefix "Tail". If the layers ever end up being out of the layer folder I will know what they relate to on the paint scheme. I could have included "ORIGINAL" in each individual layer name as well.

Here we can see the layers within my "My Travel Logo" layer folder.

Once again as you can see I've named all the layers appropriately, even the deactivated ones. We can also see here that I have named certain layers as "ORIGINAL", as previously explained these are layers I would use incase I wished to change something at a later time. As both the originals and in use layers reside in the same layer folder it also acts as a method to avoid confusion.

For the final example, these are the remaining layers for one of the fuselage psds. Here is another example of the "ORIGINAL" prefix in use. I decided to keep the real image layers but at this point in to the paint scheme it's unlikely we are going to use them again.

Work through all of your psds making sure all of the layers are named appropriately to something you'd be able to understand. You should also make decisions on what you're likely to use again in the future and what you're not, do not be afraid to remove any unneeded layers.

This in fact concludes the creation of the basic paint scheme. At this stage many choose to finish the paint scheme and upload for others to enjoy. It is however good to have the paint scheme standing out, in the next sections we are going to add all the fun effects that make paint schemes "come alive".

If you are happy to finish the paint scheme here then return to the Complete Repaint Walkthrough main menu and advance straight to the "Post Completion Work" section, here I explain everything required to get a paint scheme ready to be uploaded!