What a difference an environment map makes

Wow, this is a great model, really well done!

Great stuff how did get transparent heat wobble coming out of the jet engines in the second bit?

I made smoke with particles and turned the initial velocity way up so it looks like the smoke is shooting up like crazy, duplicate it four times for the engines, spin em around and line them up, and then you use that result for your displacement maps (in After Effects) to create the wave effect.