AeroRetro: Build -A- Plane 3D Tutorial: Part 1 >1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 > Part 2

Ready? Good, let's rock!

Project prep:

The first thing you'll want to do is get some reference materials together for your project. This can be as extensive as your project requires, I'd suggest a few photos and a good "3 view" scale drawing of your subject at the very least. Most of which can be googled now days.

Remember that how far your take the level of detail is up to you and your project requirements. Not every project is the same but the concept of plane building remains constant. It's all in the flow =)

So, take your "3 view" and slice it into 3 planes, top, front and side. We'll use these for image planes in just a sec.... Uh...you can do that in a photo editing program like paint , once done simply save the pieces as separate files, I just save them as jpgs.

For the purpose of this tutorial I have chosen a late model P-40 and will give it a medium level of detail.

Step 1:

Fire up your modeler and set up 3 image planes with the images we just made.
We'll use these as our guide through out the project. They will help with shape
and scale across different axis views. You should have something like this:

I usually back the alpha down a bit to make seeing things a bit easier and placing
the front plane behind the others will allow you to model in front for the image plane
rather than through it.

Step 2:

Create a poly cylinder, give the caps a few divisions and scale it to match your reference.
It only needs to be close at this point. We'll be reshaping the mesh as we go. At this
point we need to add some edge loops. You'll want to place them in logical places, like
major shape details, separate parts as well as points to help us shape the mesh.

Nothing fancy at this point.

Step 3:

Now go ahead select some verts and start to shape the fuselage...again keep it loose.
You will want to do this on all 3 axis and as your model takes shape you'll see how intuitive
this becomes.

I like to select a loop of verts and use the scale tool to move them into shape. Also
you can start to add or move edge loops to accommodate future extrudes, like the
air intake or the wings for example.

Step 4:

Speaking of the air intake and extrudes, let's do that now. Grab the faces in the
area around the intake and extrude them into shape. Basically just pulling them down.
Once you have completed the extrude, you might fine tune the shape a bit by playing
with the verts. There that's it!

Step 5:

Now will be a good time to add some more edge loops around the nose. These will give
a hard edge when the spinner is separated and or your model is smoothed. Also we will
prepare for a wing extrude by adding a loop in the area and shape of the wing root. I
used the "split polygon" tool and simply traced the wing root from the image plane.

Remember to keep you mesh clean , it will save you time in the end.

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