Long long time since I managed to post some work, so here you are:-
Inspired by the film The Incredibles. This is one of the heli discs that Syndrome’s henchmen fly in the jungle.
–EDIT – Update also at following link. --EDIT
Second image is an early UV mapping test which has some stretching. I’m unsure whether to keep this kind of texture or use the plain type in the first image.
Small .gif at the bottom to show rotor blades in motion.
C&C most welcome and valued.
Sonix.
cool one, though i’m sure there not so much palm in the movie
alos this is from your website:
Created and rendered with Blender 2.34a.
odd number.
Not so much palm? I don’t understand.
2.34a is the version I use, a couple of other people have mentioned this, perhaps my version is only 2.34. 
Must check.
Sonix.
That looks great. I like the texture on the 2nd one, it gives the impression it’s made of old metal.
But I didn’t see the movie so I can’t tell if it looks like the one from the movie.
And I guess Gabio wanted to say “blades” instead of “palms” . 
Nice ! :D, i’m a bit curious how will it fly. btw. nice textures, and ofcourse model.
I thought the ones in the movie only had 2 blades… O well, it is a great model, I’d like to see it finished.
It’s a great model, but as I recall, the blades would pivot in 2 directions, sideways and backwards/forwards. I only see one set of hinges on your model…
Sorry for ruining your day 
I hope it won’t be too hard to fix.
Nice work, I like the texturing.
Great model, but what prevents the center from spinning in the opposite direction from the blades. There should be two sets of blades spinning, each in opposite directions.
Cool otherwise!
Thanks. It’s only inspired by the film, not an exact copy. I don’t think the one in the film has two jet engines on it. Thanks too for the explanation about the palms. 
&
Ok, firstly think of it as a helicopter. The rotors spin as shown in the gif, they pivot in the middle around the midpoint axle to produce forward or backward motion. Banking left and right is achived by the disk titling around the central axis front to back. I haven’t shown the flaps positioned on the top and bottom of the disk, that lift up like an aeroplane’s wing flaps. (Y axis in Blender) You didn’t ruin my day BTW.
Thanks, will be more improvements to remove the stretching on the textures.
Yeah I think you’re right, but this is inspired by the ones in the film, with my own interpretation woven in to the design.
Thanks. If you look in the textured render, the view from the rear of the craft, you can see the exit vents for the jet engines in the bottom right corner of the render. These help to stabalise the craft due to the rotor spin. They also let the craft pivot left and right around the Z axis. (Yaw?)
Many thanks for the feedback. I really do appreciate it.
Sonix.
Thanks. If you look in the textured render, the view from the rear of the craft, you can see the exit vents for the jet engines in the bottom right corner of the render. These help to stabalise the craft due to the rotor spin. They also let the craft pivot left and right around the Z axis. (Yaw?)[/quote]
If only it worked that way in real life :-?
Think about it… if the rotors spin this way: <---------
then the middle part is going to spin this way: ----------->
As you said, think of it as a helicopter. The spinny-ness is the reason helicopters have tail rotors. Notice the tail rotor only goes on one side, not both. To rotate one direction, they inrease the speed of the tail rotor, to spin the other direction, they decrease it. At least, I’m pretty sure.
You were on the right track with the pitch of the blades thing, but that’s a different control altogether, called the cyclic. The blades pivot forward to push air backward, moving the craft forward. The blades pivot back to move back, left to move left, and so on.
Awesome job on this either way though, I like it!
I think its great though I don’t recall the movie version having quite that many blades
Superx10 your right, that craft would never fly in real life, but…
its based on a cartoon, so it isn’t constrained by the physcis that allow real helicopters to fly. 
Goeland86 wrote:
It’s a great model, but as I recall, the blades would pivot in 2 directions, sideways and backwards/forwards. I only see one set of hinges on your model…
Sorry for ruining your day
I hope it won’t be too hard to fix.
Ok, firstly think of it as a helicopter. The rotors spin as shown in the gif, they pivot in the middle around the midpoint axle to produce forward or backward motion. Banking left and right is achived by the disk titling around the central axis front to back. I haven’t shown the flaps positioned on the top and bottom of the disk, that lift up like an aeroplane’s wing flaps. (Y axis in Blender) You didn’t ruin my day BTW.
I’m sorry to insist, but the rotors did manage to pivot in 2 directions. Exactly like a helicopter head. Helicopters can go forwards, backwards and sideways, not to mention spinning around their main rotor center by varying the speed of the tail rotor. The only way to create helicopters with not need for a tail rotor is to have two contra-rotary rotors. But even then, the rotor pivots in 2 axis, X and Y in blender.
I’ll find more documentation if you want to see how it works, but I know for sure that’s how it’s designed, because for remote-controlled helicopters it’s the trickiest part to setup, and it’s a replica of the original rotors.
you dont even need a tail rotor all you have to do is negate the -tve motion of the main rotor, which can be done (physiocally speaking) with a set of gyros it has been done before.
Heh, thanks for the info. I have thought about this during the design stages.
Rotor spins one way, jet vents on the back counter act this rotation. This is already a working principle in helis which don’t have a tail rotor.
Although perhaps I need to remove one of the rear vents. The vents on either side of the cockpit allow for banking, which I forgot to mention in my explanation above.
Perhaps I will remove some of the blades too as getting in and out would be tricky.
BTW I have a working version in my PC version of GTA Vice City, replacing one of the normal helicopters. It really does fly, all be it inside a game physics engine which isn’t 100% real. 8) I’ll post some screens tonight.
Animation will follow to show maneuverabilty. Also some more renders showing the landing gear and underneath.
Thanks for the replies,
Sonix.
New update. My server was off line yesterday, but it’s back online today.
Removed texture stretching, redesigned rear vent to oppose motion of rotor.
Some screen shots too of it in GTAVC at the bottom of the page, it’s not a textured version though.
Thanks.
Sonix.