Work in progress - Guardian AF-2S

[Lethal69GTO]

Good evening to all. After a bunch of trial and error, tons of reading and oogling the works of art here, I am trying a bit of modeling in Blender. Below is the initial stages of a Grumman Guardian AF-2S work in progress after about 6 hours of actual modelling time. Still need to add the fin.

VE (Vertex?) count: 5826

I tried Extruding the wings and elevator but it wasn't working out very well so I made one side with the other being mirrored. Probably not the best method, but hey, at least it looks like a plane.

The elevator I am having a bit of trouble with, whenever I add the Subsurf modifier the elevator doesn't maintain the shape of the wireframe. I am sure has something to how I modeled the elevator using mirror. Any help with producing a smoother surface without the shrinking of the wireframe should would be appreciated.

[abaser]

First of all......DO NOT USE SUBSURF!!!!!

What version are you using to model in? You can NOT use a Bmesh supported version as 2.49b (which you must use for exporting the .kex) will not recognize the faces of your model. Bmesh uses actual polys, and previous versions use faces. Go ahead, ask me how I know Also help for posting pics if you give a version # as the UI has changed quite a bit over time.

Seriously, the subsurf modifier adds many, many more polys than you want. Poly count is what you want to look at, not vert count. In Blender, Convert all faces to triangles, ans select all faces to get the poly count.

Next, edge flow is going to be a key in keeping things smooth. The easiest way to see a smoother model is to open the tool bar (press T) and select smooth. You may then start to see dark shading errors. This is where you need to start placing sharp edges. Once you add the sharps, you will not see a difference until you add an edge split modifier. In that option box, I generally will uncheck the "angles" box and just use the sharp option.

Hope this helps, and good luck. It's looking good so far. Just be careful of the modifiers that you use. Ive always been told that if it seems too easy, it usually is. Get in a habit of watching your face count when playing with modifiers you are not familiar with. If the face count jumps significantly (unless using the mirror, in which the count should exactly double), close it out unless you can spare the polys. Stay away from subsurf though.........it will KILL your poly count.

[Lethal69GTO]

Originally Posted by abaser

First of all......DO NOT USE SUBSURF!!!!!

What version are you using to model in?

2.49b was the version I did the model in, but also have 2.62 in hand. I went with 2.49b as the Python script for export to .kex was it's baseline and won't work with the newer Blender vesion.

Originally Posted by abaser

if you give a version # as the UI has changed quite a bit over time.

Thought of that and adding my name to my signature... after the post was sent.

Originally Posted by abaser

Seriously, the subsurf modifier adds many, many more polys than you want. Poly count is what you want to look at, not vert count. In Blender, Convert all faces to triangles, ans select all faces to get the poly count.

Saw that menu item and will use it and will remove the subsurf modifier. There is so much material here on the forums and maybe I missed it, but didn't come across a post saying NOT to use it. As advised here, I followed some YouTube tutorials and tried building the my knowledge on my own so went with it.

Originally Posted by abaser

Next, edge flow is going to be a key in keeping things smooth. The easiest way to see a smoother model is to open the tool bar (press T) and select smooth. You may then start to see dark shading errors. This is where you need to start placing sharp edges. Once you add the sharps, you will not see a difference until you add an edge split modifier. In that option box, I generally will uncheck the "angles" box and just use the sharp option.

Thanks for the tips.

Originally Posted by abaser

Hope this helps, and good luck. It's looking good so far. Just be careful of the modifiers that you use. Ive always been told that if it seems too easy, it usually is. Get in a habit of watching your face count when playing with modifiers you are not familiar with. If the face count jumps significantly (unless using the mirror, in which the count should exactly double), close it out unless you can spare the polys. Stay away from subsurf though.........it will KILL your poly count.

Again, thanks. So if I understand your comment, stay away from modifiers if the intent of the model is to use for RF?

I have a some Blender books on order, but of course none address the specifics of modeling for RF. Yes, there is a wealth of information here but it is the proverbial needle in a haystack. There isn't much organization in terms of tip-n-tricks and how-tos, or tutorials grouped by specific modeling tools, its a hodge-podge really. There really should be sticky sections for Blender, Wings3D, etc. Yeah, I use the search tool but from a beginner's perspective, I can't find something if I don't know where to start looking for that doo-hickie thing-a-ma-job that does whatcha-ma-call-it to the vertical face. Just need to learn the speak-ese as it were and become more verse in the techniques.

Darryl
Macon, GA

[abaser]

In my Blender experience, The only modifiers I use regularly are mirror, and edge split. Here are some quick steps of using the edge split to smooth an object.

1st pic shows the cylinder as it spawns.
2nd pic shows it after hitting "set smooth" notice the dark shaded areas you now have.
3rd pic shows where I apply the sharp edges.
4th pic shows the edge split modifier settings I use. (look for the Cursor)

[Lethal69GTO]

A kudos and huge thank you to 'dhk79' for supplying me with his tutorial. An even bigger thank you to 'abaser' who without his help these past few days this project would still be stuck in the mud.

Unfortunately (or maybe not) the model shown in my first post has been lost to the binary goblins of a HD crash. It was an old drive, but it had a very long and happy service life.

Anywho, with abaser's phenomenal guidance and utmost patience the model has been resuscitated but using Blender 2.6 this time around. It is still a work in progress but is turning out much better than the original - I learned quite a bit these past few days, especially the ability to separate parts using the 'P' command (don't ask me, I guess the letter 'S' is occupied for some other higher purpose).

[jeffpn]

Nice! Good to to have another modeler on board.

[abaser]

...............

Glad I could help.

[Lethal69GTO]

Here is an update rendering. Just detached the control surfaces today. Working on the struts.

[Madratter]

First welcome. I almost never check this designers forum because I work with RF6. However, I do work with Blender. Most of the guys use Wings3d or 3dMAX instead, but it is a very capable (if frustrating at times) program.

Do yourself a BIG favor and map at least one part. Then import the plane into Realflight. Depending on how you do things, you might find some issues that are much better corrected now rather than later.

Personally, there are two modifiers I use, and the are not the same two Andy mentioned. I do use Edge Split for the purpose he mentioned. I do NOT use mirror. I do use the boolean operator. That one is fiddly, but occasionally very useful.

I do almost all my work in 2.62. When I want to export to Realflight, I open the file in 2.49 and then export the KEX. I do NOTHING else in 2.49.

Andy has been at this with Blender longer than I have. So he is the better source in general. On the other hand, I still use Blender (at least until I finish my current model) and he has moved on to 3dMax.

I can tell you that there is at least one gotcha that very well might hit you once you import to Realflight. It is very possible that some of your pieces may show up other than where you expect them. If that occurs, don't panic. It is pretty easily fixable.