hey guys so I've been doing a lot of work to our house lately. so I spuraticly get to fly at weird times so I've seldomly been on teamspeak. but I have been playing with skinning! been using a lot of 2k templates. was wondering how much more in depth does it get in order to paint on 4k? or am I overthinking it?

Overthinking it IMO. No different as far as I can tell, but I've just started as well.

The 4K skins obviously look better up close.  But at distance, or flying by at 100mph, the difference between  2K and 4K isn't very noticeable.

 

Because of this, Vonrd has gone with 2K skins mostly to help with the file bloat when creating skin packs:

 

http://forum.jg1.org/topic/6098-fc-skins/page-5?do=findComment&comment=45981

 

But, that's just a personal choice.

is the 4k what makes the bare metal p47's shine so much? I think that's the only reason why I'd want to do 4k. other than that I've just been having an awesome time going paint crazy in 2k! personalizing a plane gives the game a whole new dimension.

As far as the painting goes, I see no difference working with one or the other. The Alpha layer in BOS however, is what makes that "Shine". TBH... It's wayyyyy too much for a WWI skin.

 

  So yes, the P47 will Shine, Shine, Shine.

No, the shine or matt is a function of the alpha layer. Here's an explanation for Gimp but it's basically the same in PS:

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/15420-custom-alpha-channel-tutorial-for-gimp-advanced-skinners/