Filii Aquilae - 3D cockpit development thread
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What?
The time is early Vietnam War, when the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy fought each other over future tactical aircraft. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara was pressing for both services to use as many common aircraft as possible, even if performance compromises were involved. As part of this policy, the USAF and Navy had embarked on the TFX (F-111) program, aiming to deliver a medium-range interdiction aircraft for the Air Force that would also serve as a long-range interceptor aircraft for the Navy.
In 1967, the Soviet Union revealed the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 at the Domodedovo airfield near Moscow. The MiG-25 was designed as a high-speed, high-altitude interceptor aircraft, and made many performance tradeoffs to excel in this role. Among these was the requirement for very high speed, over Mach 2.8, which demanded the use of stainless steel instead of aluminum for many parts of the aircraft. The added weight demanded a much larger wing to allow the aircraft to operate at the required high altitudes. The demonstration of this aircraft changed planes.
In September 1968, a request for proposals was released to major aerospace companies. These requirements called for single-seat fighter having a maximum take-off weight of 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) for the air-to-air role with a maximum speed of Mach 2.5 and a thrust-to-weight ratio of nearly 1:1 at mission weight. It also called for a twin-engined arrangement, as this was believed to respond to throttle changes more rapidly and might offer commonality with the Navy’s VFX program. However, details of the avionics were left largely undefined, as whether to build a larger aircraft with a powerful radar that could detect the enemy at longer ranges was not clear, or alternatively a smaller aircraft that would make detecting it more difficult for the enemy.
Four companies submitted proposals, with the Air Force eliminating General Dynamics and awarding contracts to Fairchild Republic, North American Rockwell, and McDonnell Douglas for the definition phase in December 1968. The companies submitted technical proposals by June 1969. The Air Force announced the selection of McDonnell Douglas on 23 December 1969. The winning design resembled the twin-tailed F-14, but with fixed wings; both designs were based on configurations studied in wind-tunnel testing by NASA.
The result that happened shook the very cores of modern aerial warfare, for it was as deadly as it’s namesake…
…The McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle.
Early WIP photos:
I am very new modder… but I wish to give back to the community in any shape I can. Post your questions and concerns below, I’ll try my best to answer
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Sweet stuff mate! I oughtta have some dogfights with the F-15C once your project is done:D
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Great, keep us updated
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Good start. :clap2:
Using 3Ds Max? -
Awesome…!!! How do you go about making custom objects? Could you show a photo of the process? I love the way that cabin looks. Cheers
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Hi Eghi, thanks for the kind words. I am using blender as I am proficient in it.
Hi Trueno, good to see that you like the model. Attached below are some screenshots of me within editing mode, making various knobs and such. I was not sure of what exactly you wanted me to show, so here’s a screenshot of the general process. If you would like me to show something specific, feel free to ask.
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Making the backplate on the left console. It’s a bit of meshy-mess
Overview of the backplate.
Working on the knobs related to FCR controls.
The basic left panel configuration is complete. I intend to work on the switches after this, and then add in details on the last stage.
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Wow very nice!
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You are doing a very good job there - one pic shows more that a long speech, you know.
And if your projects are aligned with your way of driving, I guess you’re not as ‘Dumb’ as you claimed for, mate
Please keep us updated, it will be only a pleasure.With best wishes and regards.
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It was a national holiday today, so got a quite a bit of work done. Thank you for your kind words Jackal
Here is the progress so far on the left console, and an additional bit of HUD frame modelling. I still can’t quite get my head to wrap around on how exactly I’ll make the sunshield, but we’ll definitely see it happen one way or the other.
BFMing in this will be real fun one day, hopefully…
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A late night update. Only a few items left on the left console(see what I did there? left on the left console… heh), which are guard switches and some indentations. Throttle I am not even touching for now
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WIP on the right console.
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Your project looks very good. As a pilot in love with the F-14 Tomcat and F-15 Eagle, I follow your project with great pleasure. I look forward to the days when I will use your cockpit with Tomcatz’s F-15.
I hope someday you’ll build the cockpit of the F-14 Tomcat.
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An F15 pit would be awesome. Looks great
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Hello guys, thank you for the incredible words. It makes me really happy to see that all of you love this project. I hope I will do my best to deliver.
The left, center and right consoles all have passed stage 1. Stage 2 is where I will try and make their performance better(less vertices for same or greater quality), add in throttle/stick, and so on. However before I do this, I must address a crucial issue: dimensions. Due to the way that I have created the cockpit, scaling all of them is not an issue, but to create an accurate cockpit(canopy, seating, moving equipment) I would need to place the consoles correctly, as they make the base layout of the cockpit. As you’ve seen by now, the right console looks smaller than the left console - because I have referenced it via imagery and scaled it to correct size and position. I am having trouble doing this with the left console, although I am trying. If any of you have any advice/pointers/imagery I’ve missed, feel free to help.
Just to reflect back, the cockpit started from this :eek:
Post your questions and concerns, I will respond to them.
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I would like to massively, utterly thank Rypley, and my friend oldcraig for this one. Rypley helped me a ton with making the glareshield. Without oldcraig though, I wouldn’t have gotten to the correct dimensions… :bowd::bowd::bowd:
Here are the updates for today.
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Very good. Please just continue with this project. Looking very nice!
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Your project is progressing very well. Will you model the exterior of the F-15?
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A detailed F-15C cockpit video. Hope it helps you.
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Your project is progressing very well. Will you model the exterior of the F-15?
Hi buraktunahan, currently I don’t have enough skills or experience to model the exterior, haha… maybe sometime in the future? I have learnt a lot with this cockpit. Maybe I’ll learn even more and then be able to delivery something of worth in regards to that.