itifonhom

Hi there again guys!! Well, I quit flying by the time OFF moved over to SimHQ. Since then I flew a bit RoF now and then but not anything serious. Got into aviation art creation a lot, which is my main hobby at the moment but lately, bought the WOFF:UE and started a Campaign over again, only to get me really frustrated with the rejected claims over and over again. I´m at my third pilot now, a total of 15-17 victories and a record breaking 100% rejected rate!!! Even with two witnesses and ground troops around, 2km from my own aerodrome!!

Hi guys! Just saw at Steam Sid Meier´s Ace Patrol, a casual strategy/dogfight game, also available for iOS. Really fun game indeed for casual gaming, might be interested.....here´s a link:http://www.vg247.com/2013/08/28/sid-meiers-ace-patrol-now-available-on-steam/

Playing CloD lately too, it´s really nice and fluid and the graphics are awesome too!!

Hi again guys! I started lately my very first "serious" attempt to 3D modeling, equipped with lots of tutorials and patience. My first subject, the "Flying Razor" or officially the Fokker D.VIII. I got some nice three side plans and got the main features accurate enough I think and although it's not my intention to add every single screw on the model, I'd like to make it detailed enough. I know there are many members here that take WWI aviation really seriously and have huge knowledge of WWI aircrafts. So, before I go and make a mistake again, I ask for your help. I need to find many of the smaller details, as accurate as possible, details such as struts and their connections, wires, ailerons, you got the idea. For example I'd really like to know if the wing was just plywood or if it was additionally covered with fabric too or the construction of the ailerons. I don't have any WIP images yet, coming really soon. Many thanks in advance for any help on this!!

Your kind words are highly motivating gentlemen, please keep them coming!! :-) Working on the prop right now, I think it´ll be finished by tomorrow and then I´m moving to the guns!!

Well Olham, if I was going for a photoshoot at East Berlin not so long ago I could get even greater troubles, even if I was working for Disney. Not everyone is blessed with good neighbors like Germany, Sweden or Belgium for example, there are some things that are serious, even if they're hard to understand for people not knowing the status quo of a region. Edit: and of course no real spy would have "Spy" for his profession!!

I can see Jim and Bullethead got a point here. The only thing that doesn't really match is the fact that if Jim and BH are right, then this means that the Greek Secret Service or the Security Forces are efficient, which, as far as I know, they aren't! So I suppose this is just bad luck for the two chaps. But nobody can say anything for sure except those two guys. To be honest, I don't think it'll be a trial at all, they're going to settle this in some other way, no matter if they really are spies or not.

Just noticed you're Greek too elephant, nice to know! Did my service 91-92. I suppose too the guys photographed something delicate for sure but I don't think they were actually spying, just took too light how serious that could be in Greece. It happened before and will happen again.

Hi Jim. Well, I don't know it for sure of course but since I know very good how delicate and serious these things are in Greece, I suppose that for someone coming from a country that photography is not restricted anywhere, it feels natural on a tourist island to take out the camera and shoot. But getting caught photographing anything military, specially on that borders, is extremely seriously taken by authorities. That is why I suppose it is just a misunderstanding, because it can happen all too easily.

No Olham, I'm afraid not. I served at the Greek Armed Forces some twenty years ago and these things were just the same. I know these guys didn't do anything bad on purpose but if they had the idea to photograph anything military on that island, they got really trouble. Authorities are really touchy about these matters there although for someone coming from the Netherlands for example, seems quite harmful. I can say with some certainty that between those two borders, a small "Cold War" is still going on. There are even deaths among the border and that year after year.

Yes, I know what you mean. But keep in mind two factors: first, although the islands are open, photography there is restricted, like I said, depends where you stand and which way someone is photographing. Secondly, is bad luck. You can take million photographs but only get caught once is enough! I know the guys are innocent but they can have a hard time coming out of this, depending what they photographed. I know it's maybe hard to understand. I work at the major German airport and I can photograph everything as I like but every time I travel back to Greece, I'm not allowed to take a single photo of a runway of a local airport. Sounds strange but it's like this.

Being a Greek, I can say that there are two things that can go totally wrong there, diving and photography. The first because of the antiquities and the second because of the ongoing, since centuries, fear of the mighty neighbor. Most of all, photography on that side of Greece should be really thoughtful. Depends of course where they were or what they photographed but even without knowing, if get caught like they did, someone can be in real trouble in just minutes. I know it sound absurd but unfortunately not every part of this world is like Central Europe, there are still places that not everything's so innocent.

Thanks Olham, glad you liked it! Well, low poly modeling is kind of trying to carve a plastic model out of a single plastic block instead of putting plastic parts together. It's not really hard to make a low poly model but I think to get a good low poly needs some experience. From what I understand though, in 3D modeling there are "ways" to do things, meaning the mesh is good to run across "patterns" for pre-defined shapes so I suppose there are such ways/patterns for low poly modeling too.

Thanks Olham, kind of you! The valve springs are actually quite easy, there is a well known trick about them. Making models for sims is something really difficult, making high polygon model is relative easy, just needs patience but make them low poly means you know exactly where to cut and that means experience, experience I don´t have. ATM I just learn, as I said, this is my very first model that looks a bit descent and actually the second at all, my first one looked really bad and I never finished it. So, the engine is finally finished and I´m going to start modeling the propeller next, after that the Spandaus. Still a lot of work to do but one after the other is finished and my model takes slowly shape. Here are some images from the finished engine (I´m really sorry for the huge resolution of the last two images, had different render settings and noticed too late):

Some further update on my progress. Struts, wires and other smaller details added. Work on the engine also started but still too much to be done. I have to say here that a great help to my first modeling adventure is the tutorial DVD of Pavel Zoch (the creator of the superb Fokker Dr.1 3D model), for anyone that´s interested it can be found here:http://www.c4d.cz/en_tutorials.html . The guy not only knows exactly what he does but shows the best tricks too!!

Thanks BH! My model is going to be a payware 3D model for illustration use and that's why I chose the accurate hi poly path. Not sure if anyone will ever buy it but it's really fun creating it so it doesn't really matter to me. @ Olham: you can find Cinema 4D at the Maxon website, a new version came out just a week or so ago but I have to warn you, this software is one of the market leaders and not cheap. Of course, worths every cent but still.

The nice roundings comes from sub-division modeling or how it's called in Cinema 4D HyperNURBS. It's a process that smooths everything but explodes the poly count even higher! And for the most part this model is sub-divided. Unfortunately you have to take care personally the poly count number, no program settings here afaik and some good planning and experience is needed to keep the numbers low, it's easy to add polygons but not so to remove them. The program isn't important I think, it's the file format and the poly count. So any program that can export the desired file format is good and Blender 2.6 is really good at it, supports all the "usual" file formats, import and export. All in all, I can recommend Blender as a starter (not only) 3D application, it's free and you can't really loose anything! And since you can speak German, if you ever get serious about starting with 3D, just let me know, there are some good DVDs out there in German about starting with Blender and not that expensive either!

Hi Olham, glad you liked it! I'm still not sure about the wing thickness and I also think there should be an "edge" behind the cockpit area, looks maybe too rounded at the moment but I think the overall shape is accurate enough. To your questions: -I use Cinema 4D but started 3D with Blender 2.6 which has similar modeling capabilities and a better price (it's free!). Any low polygon model is suitable for gaming afaik, so yes, the program can do this kind of modeling. My model though is really hi poly. -This took me almost 30 hours to finish but that's because I'm a real newbie, pretty sure someone experienced can do this in four to five hours, if not less. - If you start with the correct scale from the beginning, you can zoom close enough to get the small details right too, so no need for bigger versions. But even if you want to do so, yes, it is possible. -Yes you can, I done this one with a cut and added the "leather" part using the same "cut" part. - Yes, given it's the right shape and scale and fits the space good, there are no problems. You can almost do anything you want in 3D, I was a plastic modeler for decades but this digital version of modeling fascinates me even more! -

Like promised, some WIP images of my modeling process. Please guys, tell me what you think, now that the mesh is still "fluid" and I can easily correct any problem areas. As you can see, still lots to do but the main shape and parts are there, next comes the motor and of course, the Spandaus!!

Nice painting! Anybody knows if there are any great external differences between the Fokker E.V and the D.VIII? Well, maybe apart from the side stencil I mean.

Thanks Jim, really kind of you! Well, to be honest, haven't thought about what this model will do, it's a fully new experience to me since it's the very first model that I create. At the moment it's important to me to get it as right as I can, the renders will come later and I suppose will include some "what if" scenarios or something like it but with the correct title and description, I promise. I read though that this type had the "privilege" of the last victory of WWI, are you sure about the no recorded victories? Many thanks for your time......

Thanks BH! I don't think I got a problem with "how" (or I just don't know I got a problem). At the moment, the PC I got OFF+HITR installed is out of order, so I can't really use this source. I got the aircraft on RoF though but I'm afraid by looking to someone else's model, I will make the same mistakes as he might done. For example, I see on the textures of the wing a plywood pattern showing through, which might look nice but I'm not sure how accurate it is. That is the reason I see a bit suspicious modern reproductions. And from the only one I think it's good enough, the Vintage Aviator one, I can't find any close ups.

On 25th of July, around 19:50, Lothar Freiherr von Richthofen shot down a Camel somewhere over Fismes, France. It was his 30th victory! I have no idea if this is anywhere near to how it could look but surely this report inspired me to create this image, LvR getting his 30th victory. Lothar gets level again while the poor chap in the Camel, badly wounded, turns his last pirouette trying to control his burning aircraft. The pilot of the Camel will remain unidentified, giving his life just as "No 30". Rendered in C4D, post processed in Photoshop, 3D model from Pavel Zoch, background from CGTextures and myself, Camel aircraft from RoF.

I really hated "Red Baron" for that, as well I hate "Flyboys", "Troy", "Alexander", "300", "Gladiator" and many other films that due to artistic licence everything can happen in a story. And it's my right to do so! As it's the creators' right to do such a movie. So I don't go and discuss about how he could make the movie better, I say though my opinion on this movie/picture/sculpture/book/song. That is Art. You can love it or hate it, criticize it and even sometimes even burn it but it's the creators free choice to change anything on it, it's never a "must"!

Many many thanks guys for your kind words, it's really good to know you liked my work. I will surely try to take some accurate advice from this Forum when I'm about to create such an artwork again, really appreciate your offer. And of course Jim, next time you'll be in Frankfurt I'll be glad to meet you Sir! As for this "issue", I think Jim talked the truth when he said "we agree to disagree" and of course it's nothing personal.