WIP: F-14 B/D
-
It’s nice isn’t it?
Yeah, at 2000+ tris I probably moved that part to the nice but another time layer :). Instead worked on mesh optimization and reduced the number of tris per wheel to under 1000:
Before: 12.000 After: <3.000 - I like.
Then proceeded to the nose gear and made some progress. Parts have to be connected still but overall it’s getting close to the real thing. The whole geometry of the strut was wrong though which I only found out after I attached the nose gear strut actuator - corrected now.
That nose gear is a beautiful assembly once it comes together. Looking forward to ‘welding it’ into one piece including landing light, the box and other details.
FYI you see the gear in the compression stage that a fully fueled, semi loaded Tomcat would have on deck. Main landing gear is almost fully compressed and front has enough room to kneel otherwise also compressed. Before it’s rigged it’s a pain to move all the parts…
-
Stunning. Do the nose gear indexer lights work in BMS? That would be fun to see from the flight deck.
I really can’t wait to see this thing in action…I suspect that some of the virtual VFA squadrons out there will become virtual VF squadrons in a hurry.
-
The F-110 nozzles are not mirror images but if there is a Falcon game engine restriction I understand. Right now it looks like the nozzles are mirrored off each other, they should be the same.
Stingray, I think what Turkeydriver ment is that your engines (on the images at least) have different petal “spin” - left engine spins anti-clokwise, and right spins clockwise. I think the petals should be arranged in the same direction… (view directly from behind)
-
Stingray, I think what Turkeydriver ment is that your engines (on the images at least) have different petal “spin” - left engine spins anti-clokwise, and right spins clockwise. I think the petals should be arranged in the same direction… (view directly from behind)
See last part of my post, what you’re describing is a mirror across the y axis of the plane. Meaning the left engine outlet and nozzle is mirrored horizontally across the axis thereby resulting in a ‘clockwise’ spin.
Currently the nozzles are part of the main fuselage object which means the mirror is applied to it as well. As long as the vertices on any part of the main body aren’t in their final position the mirror cannot be applied to make it one part because then any modification of any vertices will not be mirrored and potentially result in asymmetry.
To make it clear I know about the issue, it will be sorted out once the main body mirror is applied and then the outlets and nozzles will be separate parts and left will be duplicated and moved to the right. This issue applies to many parts of the model which is simply a result of modeling.
-
Stunning. Do the nose gear indexer lights work in BMS? That would be fun to see from the flight deck.
I really can’t wait to see this thing in action…I suspect that some of the virtual VFA squadrons out there will become virtual VF squadrons in a hurry.
Thanks :). I’ll model the lights and give it proper textures and functionality. Whether it works I can’t tell ya atm. Once I move it to Max and deal with prepping it for BMS I’ll deal with that stuff. That being said as far as I recall the whole (IFL)OLS and glidepath logic isn’t in the code.
As for the squadrons if LANTIRN FLIR and TCS are working in the D pit and the FM is tweaked accordingly I don’t see why anyone would follow the mandate and not his own choice:
Bugs by mandate - Tomcats by choice.
However, there’s so much false and outright misleading info out there about the big cat and tons of propaganda that’s been regurgitated beyond belief here and elsewhere I wouldn’t be surprised if the general reaction would be: nice to look at but pretty useless because ‘enter false reason of choice courtesy of Boeing lobby here’
Nobody cares, Baby.
-
See last part of my post, what you’re describing is a mirror across the y axis of the plane. Meaning the left engine outlet and nozzle is mirrored horizontally across the axis thereby resulting in a ‘clockwise’ spin.
Currently the nozzles are part of the main fuselage object which means the mirror is applied to it as well. As long as the vertices on any part of the main body aren’t in their final position the mirror cannot be applied to make it one part because then any modification of any vertices will not be mirrored and potentially result in asymmetry.
To make it clear I know about the issue, it will be sorted out once the main body mirror is applied and then the outlets and nozzles will be separate parts and left will be duplicated and moved to the right. This issue applies to many parts of the model which is simply a result of modeling.
Thanks! I missed that part, thanks for explanation
-
Great work with the landing gears mate, Bravo!!!
Keep on it.
Nikos. -
nth modification of the nozzles and inner plates. I’ll leave it for now but it is now not mirrored anymore
6000 tris with little reduction potential as 24 plates are needed one way or the other.
Took me a while to figure this out but one of the plates has to be rotated in order to achieve this look. In reality the dark spots are footprints the nozzles leave on eachother so that plate can be dropped and I’ll save around 800 tris. The look will be achieved by textures on the nozzles. Anyway impressive that this look is achievable with some materials and a ‘plate’ :D.
When the gear doors, nose gear details and wing roots are sorted out it’s time for some renders!
-
She’s a real beaty! Thank you!
-
Really solid and lovely work.
One issue I noticed about the petals. IRL they are actually symmetrical along their long axis. The asymmetrical “footprint” comes from the wear of the adjacent petal on the surface.
-
Really solid and lovely work.
One issue I noticed about the petals. IRL they are actually symmetrical along their long axis. The asymmetrical “footprint” comes from the wear of the adjacent petal on the surface.
Thanks Pumpy, glad you like it. As for the petals, these are symmetrical which I tried to explain in my post above “In reality the dark spots are footprints the ‘petals’ leave on eachother so that ‘helper’ plate can be dropped and I’ll save around 800 tris. The look will be achieved by textures on the nozzles.”
I’m simply emulating the real look with my helper plate in the absence of textures. The petals are modeled based on the real thing, symmetric and with the small indentation on top:
-
Amazing detail and work! Can’t believe this is gonna be a reality!
-
Thanks Pumpy, glad you like it. As for the petals, these are symmetrical which I tried to explain in my post above “In reality the dark spots are footprints the ‘petals’ leave on eachother so that ‘helper’ plate can be dropped and I’ll save around 800 tris. The look will be achieved by textures on the nozzles.”
I’m simply emulating the real look with my helper plate in the absence of textures. The petals are modeled based on the real thing, symmetric and with the small indentation on top:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8684/28126890833_45315daa29_b.jpg
Looks good now. Sorry, I was going by the meshes in the earlier pics.[emoji106]
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk
-
-
Do you have by any chance any pics with engine nozzles closed? Very nice Tomcat!
-
Do you have by any chance any pics with engine nozzles closed? Very nice Tomcat!
Without parenting etc. rotating all nozzles simultaneously around one axis doesn’t work. That kind of operation will be done in Max not in Blender. I’ll do it the manual way at some point just to check that the nozzle petal shape works together.
-
-
This is amazing! Thanks for sharing. Never before had the chance to lay my eyes on these…
-
Ok guys, now that it’s time to finalize the shape and optimize the mesh as much as possible I unzipped something I’ve had for a while - 1969 Grumman F-14 blueprints :).
https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8666/28710226511_4cb5b0209f_h.jpg
Will post some updates, comments and renders over the weekend before going into my summer projects (no modeling :)).
Definition of WORK! Great job Stingray!
-
Definition of ‘commanding presence’. The more I get into the design the more admiration and respect I have for the designers and engineers at GRUMMAN.
Small update following what was planned as ‘some adjustments’ which resulted in ‘major adustments’ as usual I guess. If you know the cat or have seen it in RL you will recognize the changes and how it now comes a lot closer to RL proportions and looks.
What has been done based on the blueprints in detail:
-
intake geometry adjusted in angle, width, height
-
front fuselage rounded off on bottom, slimmed down along the sides
-
windshield redesigned
-
intake area adjusted and prepped for intake ramps
-
wing root pivot point area on glove completely redesigned top and bottom
-
wing body completely reworked - now rotates correctly and doesn’t protrude anywhere into the fuselage
-
wing spoilers and cove and eyebrow door completely reworked and straightened
-
wings and vertical stabilizers put into correct angle
-
added beavertail details
-
added chinpod (WIP)
-
added landing light and LSO signal box
-
corrected landing gear doors
-
lots of small adjustments on the gear, among others MLG wheels now have camber
-
rear section of main fuselage widened, straightened on the sides
-
reduced Tris count by 10.000+
-
realized coke bottle shape on rear fuselage based on blueprint:
Some more impressions:
Wings at zero sweep:
Full sweep:
Nose/front fuselage in detail, note the intake/glove/fuselage adjustments:
Oversweep:
-