WIP: F-14 B/D
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Sometimes you take a risk with a model like ripping apart and eventually completely rebuilding almost the entire bottom side of an airplane and you don’t know if it’s worth the risk or even gonna work out. In this case I’m happy to report it was absolutely worth the risk and it worked out quite nicely. I’ll let the before and after images speak for themselves. The fuselage side including the main landing gear doors have also been completely reworked in line with the pods.
Notice the silky smooth surface of the engine pods. All quads for now, assembled them basically by extruding the engine shroud from behind and the intakes from the front. Merged them and then beveled some edges. All the time trying to keep the inside out kink the pod shape has upfront, around the same area where it transitions from a rectangle to a circle. Wasn’t exactly a walk in the park but I’m quite happy with the result.
ToDos now:
- Weld everything together
- Iron out some details
- Finish the intake canal toward the compressor
- Reattach the NACA duct on the inside walls of the pods
I also rebuilt the nose and the bottom section of the front fuselage, much smoother and also slimmer now. Difference almost not noticeable but the look works much better now. AC lights and gun still need to be finalized. Then the entire bird will be welded together.
Here goes:
Before
After
Before
After
Blueprint before
After
Before (note the bottom right near the edge of the left intake, that is how wide that section was before):
After
Some detail shots:
The crosses represent the baselines for the gear doors, note how far the line has been moved to the inside following the correction
The nose, check the front edge of the weapon rail fairing for reference where the bottom line used to be
Good news is there is no other part that was that much out of line :).
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I don’t think there’s a better engine start up video out there…
Red Rippers Vf-11 F-14B Final fleet version. Complete procedure including tests of all moving surfaces, refueling probe, front landing gear compression and so on.
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Dude, whoa.
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Shape is really well rendered now. A must have beast !!!
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@SEG:
Shape is really well rendered now. A must have beast !!!
Thank you! It’s just a viewport shot though, will render once the irregularities in the front fuselage geometry and remaining details are taken care of.
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Looking great, man! Progressively cleaner, too.
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Thanks man, appreciate that! I’m doing the quad rebuilding on most parts. Fortunately the engine pods were the only part that I fiddled with so much that it was beyond repair :D.
The front fuselage and edges of the glovebox are the last remaining parts with messed up geometry.
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Nose, glove, front fuselage, waistline, gear doors and rear deck rebuilt and cleaned up. Added some Sparrows here and there. ToDos now rebuild the main landing gear compartment and clean up the upper front intake edges.
I removed the horizontal stabs so you can see the actual shape of the rear deck sidewalls, note the upper line from the inflatable bag merging with the waistline at the very end:
Smooth quads, Baby.
Edit: Accidentally ‘unhid’ some parts I had removed like the gun and lower front fuselage. Need to sort out my objects :).
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Out****ingstanding, dude…!
Continues to ROCK along like a vanilla enema.
(In this context, that is a good thing.)
The Gorn.
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Nice work!!! (understatement of the year)
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Absolutely awesome work.
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Out****ingstanding, dude…!
Continues to ROCK along like a vanilla enema.
(In this context, that is a good thing.)
Copy all. And your attention to any type of detail is amazing, stingray.
Bravo!With best regards,
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Slowly coming out of the rebuilding stage :). The mainbody is once again one piece. I rejoined all objects and then cut out the gear doors once again. Side effect: the tiny inside door up front is now a tad longer than the main door as in RL.
Sparrow recesses were cut out and removed, front fuselage corrected and straightened, then reconnected. I then welded the bottom side, front fuselage, glovebox and engine pods together and smoothed it out from each angle. I’d say it’s version 0.9 now.
MLG doors also rebuilt, extruded and some hinges and details added. Works pretty good with the landing gear even though I can’t edit that at the moment due to some confused aperture and rigging relations I yet have to remove.
Also rebuilt the MLG compartment, check out the previous version!! No idea whatever how that came about :). Some seriously messed up geometry there.
Results below:
Last remaining trouble areas highlighted on the main body part:
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I’d really love to print this beaty in 3d!
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I’d really love to print this beaty in 3d!
As far as I know the only issue that keeps 3D printers from completely obliterating the classic CNC turning machine industry is their inability to cut perfect circles. Since my model by defintion doesn’t have those as it’s a 3D model it should be no problem to print it :D.