Restarted the Halberstadt Now on version 3

[ConradB 0]

Thanks to a bunch of reference material sent by Shredward, I decided it best to restart the Halberstadt CLII. I tried to bring the old model in to conform with better pics and drawings than I originally had. Man, I can't spell this morning. So I just decided it would be prudent to restart the plane from scratch and work the shapes to conform better with the higher quality material I now have. Also some of the tricks that others have passed on, that have made life easier, are too many to name, but thanks guys! It is greatly appreciated! Trust me.

 

Here's a few pics of version 3 so far:

 

 

 

 

Also, having the better quality and quantity reference material has lent to better detailing so far. Maybe not better, but more so, a better refinement in the quality of details.

 

Many thanks again to everybody who has been instructive to date! Otherwise I would have done this long ago!

Edited January 31, 2010 by ConradB

[Bullethead 12]

Damn, you work fast . Nice job on the hinges, too.

 

 

[ConradB 0]

Thanks BH! But again, pat yourself on the back! Working with the goemetric shapes is easy enough for me. It was the initial setup that was kickin' my @$$. Workin' quick, is from lots of intial experimenting, and figuring out that part had to be waded through. The fuselage is an interesting combination of flat surfaces, and and gradually changing curved areas, like the top decking, and metal engine coverings up front.

 

One of things I've learned along the way though, is to make sure you take enough time cleaning up extra vetices from boolean cuts, or mating surfaces to form a whole unit. That really speeds things up in the end, so you're not tearing your hair out afterwards. So the best way to put it, is to have the least ammount of vertices possible, so that the welding of two of them is to a minimum. It really makes a big difference. Like the old model construction days, "use the glue sparingly", that will leave more for later extra-curricular use.

 

Thanks on the hinging points! They are actually very easy to make. Just make them the same thickness as the control surface and with the same segment heights so you can cuvre the back part of it, then just do a boolean cut to attach the hinge point. Cut the tail or wing surface, to make a notch, then do a cut to then hinge to clear un-needed polys. Clean uo the extra vertices real quick, slide the hinge in to place and use the attaching list to attach it, then wld the vertices where needed. Once you do one, they only take about 10 to 15 minutes to knock out each. Just remember to save often. It allieviates a lot of headaches.

[Bullethead 12]

One of things I've learned along the way though, is to make sure you take enough time cleaning up extra vetices from boolean cuts, or mating surfaces to form a whole unit.

 

No kidding. I must have spent 8 hours on that today

 

Thanks on the hinging points!

 

Yours look better than most stock models, with the round rear edges.

[ConradB 0]

The hinges are actually really easy to make. Just make a small box, that has 5 or 6 segments on the same plain as the surface, i.e.: you'll want them on the horizontal for ailerons, and the elevator, and of course on the vertical for the rudder. The other 2 settings will be "1". Once made, just zoom in close and line it up on the center mark for the surface, then just line the rest up with the blue dots. Once that's done, just work the rounded part to what looks good to you. Just clone however many you need for your plane, and just use the boolean cuts to notch out the surface, then do another for the excess on the hinge. Delete those polys, clean up the vertices, and attach and weld.

 

Here's how they look with the rudder and elevator:

 

[ConradB 0]

Heres's a couple pics of the struts. The landing gear for some reason, gave me a fit tryin' to get it attached. Nothing wanted to line up. Very odd.

 

 

[Bullethead 12]

The hinges are actually really easy to make.....Here's how they look with the rudder and elevator:

 

The outlines of the objects look great, but the process seems to have wrinkled the surfaces of the fin and rudder a bit. Is that unavoidable or can you iron that out? It might be something you could fix with smoothing groups.

 

Heres's a couple pics of the struts. The landing gear for some reason, gave me a fit tryin' to get it attached. Nothing wanted to line up. Very odd.

 

The gear certainly looks quite professional. One of my favorite things about WW1 planes is that they used model airplane suspension systems. Just tie some rubber bands around the ends of the axle so it could bounce a bit in the V frame .

[ConradB 0]

Nah, it's not wrinkled. I was messin' with edge turn to line things up, but the lighting is kinda weird, and is showing funny. I replaced the polys on a few things thinking there were folded or hidden polys or vertices, only to find that wasn't the case. But the new polys seem to have accented the "light / shadow" effect, and won't really smooth out. So I'm gonna try a couple more things like changing the angle of the light. Cause if I rotate the plane just right, it smooths out fine.

[Bullethead 12]

Nah, it's not wrinkled. I was messin' with edge turn to line things up, but the lighting is kinda weird, and is showing funny. I replaced the polys on a few things thinking there were folded or hidden polys or vertices, only to find that wasn't the case. But the new polys seem to have accented the "light / shadow" effect, and won't really smooth out. So I'm gonna try a couple more things like changing the angle of the light. Cause if I rotate the plane just right, it smooths out fine.

 

This sounds like a smoothing group problem. When you deleted the poly and replaced it with a new one, it got worse because the new poly probably isn't in the same smoothing group as the rest of the fin.

 

I suggest you play with smoothing groups some, using the general theory shown in this video. This is how I iron out such wrinkles.

 

http://

 

Another thing Hairyspin turned me onto

[ConradB 0]

Oh yeah, I do have that one. Forgot about that. I was also playing with edge turning in editmesh to try to help smooth things out too. Cause I have had some issue with the new polys around the wingroot fuselage joints as the pictures show.

 

 

 

I'll mess around with that.

 

Hows the front fuselage coming along? Lots of cool little details on that one if you can et them work out. I know, I have some that I need to figure out how I want to incorporate them, like the front cabane struts. They passed through a hole in the metal cowling and were anchored to the fuselage frame with nut and bolt and what looks like a rubber bushing. So I thunk I will leave that to the texture, by just indicating a hole in the metal cowling. Also the same for the rear radiator plumbing. The cowl is cut to accomodate the pipe and a couple other things on the engine.

 

I don't know if I'll mess with it or not, but some of the CLII's has airspeed indicators mounted on te cabane strut. But it will all depend on what I can get away with in the SDK hierarchy, and if possible maybe in the VC like Hairyspin mentioned when I was working on the aileron controls belcranks, and pushrods. Thats the other thing I need to plan out, as the pushrods pass through a pretty big hole in the topdecking in front of the cockpit, so I need to figure out exactly how to deal with that as in do I make big holes, or just on that the rod will pass through and fake the rest wth the texture.

 

Best thing is, catching on with how to manipulate the parts from basic cylinders spheres and boxes and the like. I haven't done a lot of extruding as I like to form everything "by hand" so to speak, and attach things accordingly. I just chalk it up to force of habit from building models. I can keep things organised better that way.

 

The other thing that is buggin' me is the lighting and shadowing effects, as they seem to be too contrasting and it makes things look weird. So I am going to play with that a bit to see if I can tone it down a bit.

[Bullethead 12]

Hows the front fuselage coming along?

 

That's a subject for another thread

 

So I thunk I will leave that to the texture, by just indicating a hole in the metal cowling

 

I plan on doing a lot of that. If for no other reason than I'm lazy.

 

est thing is, catching on with how to manipulate the parts from basic cylinders spheres and boxes and the like. I haven't done a lot of extruding as I like to form everything "by hand" so to speak, and attach things accordingly. I just chalk it up to force of habit from building models. I can keep things organised better that way.

 

I extrude everything I can, especially tapered things. Extrude a segment, resize the new end, extrude again, resize, until you get it down to a point. SO much faster than whittling.