I was looking at some of Mike Badrocke’s cutaway images of aeroplanes the other day and was inspired to have a go at creating that level of detail in a Blender model. So I have decided to have a go at recreating a 3D cutaway of a spitfire. This will probably be a long term project due to the amount of detail needed and the difficulty in finding good reference images and plans.
I have started with a basic wire cage just as a marker to hold all the components.
Edit: Current Progress
I have spent quite a bit of time finding reference drawings and photos over the weekend. But with such a lot of changes and revisions to the design during its service, it will be difficult to know if everything is correct for the version I decide the model will represent. For now I will crack on with the fuselage as I
don’t think there were too many changes.
Looking good - you’ve taken on quite a task but it looks like you know what you’re doing . Looking forward to seeing it progress.
Based on your awesome tutorials (thank you!) I’m thinking this will end up being quite impressive.
Thanks for the supportive comments NeilF92 and Cadaei. I am hoping that keeping a work in progress thread will help me stay motivated to continue this over the coming weeks and months.
I cant believe it has been 10 years since I first wrote the Blender Precision Modelling Tutorials. Most of my graphics work stopped 8 years ago when I moved from product design to looking after the industries standards and regulations. Seeing as I parted company with that employer four months ago, the good news is I should be able to concentrate a lot more on blender and graphics again.
A bit more progress on the fuselage and tail section.
The framework of the tail section is pretty much done, baring a little bit of detailing. Unfortunately the reference sections I was using for the main fuselage were a long way from being accurate and after finding some better drawings I need to restart from the tail section forward.
Looking great already! I love technical renders, I keep following this thread.
Its took a while but I ma finally starting to pull the fuselage together, there are a lot of conflicting drawings on the web, but I think this is starting to come together with a little more accuracy than the last attempt.
This is slow going , mainly due to lack of good reference images, and conflicting photos on google images. But I will keep plodding on with it until it is finished.
Keep up the good work, I think you have taken on a massive task here! I will look at some of my books on Spits to see if I have anything to help you.
Cheers, Clock.
references are always missing things!
look at the guy doing the DB plane
he has over 1000 pictures to work with
but coming along nicely
happy cl
Thanks Clockmender, and yes I think this project will run for a few months before it starts to approach completion. Luckily I can break it down into individual components rather than being overwhelmed by trying to do it all at once. Any good reference you can fire my way will always be a help. By the way I am loving your Mangnum Opus project, its a cracking story you are building around the model, it can’t help but make people smile :).
Ricky, do you have a link to the DB plane, I would be interested to have a look at how he is doing. A search on the forum didn’t bring anything up for me.
Thanks both for the comments.
Rob
I think Ricky means this one https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?370606-SBD-Dauntless-(US-Navy-dive-bomber)
By Witold .
That is the thread from Witold
Witold wrote 3 books up to now and working on another book for this DB 3 or 4 and showing progress in this thread
it is unbelievably detailed and nice but takes for ever to do that kind of details
very nicely done but high res
happy cl
Very nice work. Sure as hell kicks my spitfire out of the water. Also, once Witold comes back (around March?) he can probably give you a lot of tips. Also, here’s an incomplete thread that might give you a bit of help. http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=43&t=211527&page=1&pp=15
@ NeilF92 and RickyBlender - Thanks for pointing me to Witold’s posts on the SBD Dauntless plane. It will be a while before I get around to adding an external skin to parts of the Spitfire, but Witold’s work will certainly help with some of the trickier areas.
@ GraphiX - Thanks for the link, I had looked at Raymond Ore’s thread, and it looks like he had the same problems as me with conflicting references found on Google. I can only hope mine turns out as good as his, but there is a long way to go to achieve that sort of result.
I have made a little bit more progress with the general layout of the engine compartment. At the moment it is still mainly place holders that will need detailing, but it shows the correct positioning of all the components.
Well, I found the statement in my last post, “that everything was in the right position” was a bit premature. Having found a reasonably decent set of plans for a Mk IX Spitfire, almost everything on my model was wrong. I have had to rework the tale and fuselage for a third time, but finally things are starting to come together.
That’s a really complex project you’ve got there. But I can see you’re handling it without a problem.
