StarDestroyer.Net BBS

As yoy may have guessed from the thread title I got bored while having to sit an hour or two at work, so I churned out a little low-detail fighter for something to do. I haven't had any time on Lightwave for a few weeks now, busy putting myself out of a job implementing a new network, so I had to get this nonsense out my system. I also figured I haven't posted here in a while, and also you eccentrics dont often get the chance to rip apart 3D models these days. Awfully quiet on the 3D front at the moment, maybe everyone else is busy too?

Here's the ship anyway. I made 3 versions of it where I changed the tail configuration, I'll let you guys decide which is best looking and when I next get a chance I'll slap some weapons and a proper paintjob on it. Right now it has a feeble desert style camo on it, just because it was the first preset I came across. Choose between the single, double or T tail config.

I'm a fan of the t-tail, myself. Though maybe if you set the single tail back farther on the chasis, it might look less awkward.

The twin tail's my favorite. See my avatar for explanation.

Twin Tail is my favorite. Stealth wise the twin tail is also good.

Once again you prove your artistic flair Kenny, good job.

I think I like the one with the spoiler, it reminds me of thunderbird 2, faintly, if only because of that bit.

Actually, the more I look at it, the twin-tail fighter looks useful for a story of mine.....

It was originally made as the spoiler/T-tail design, but I realised it might be worth trying out some others. The single tail just doesn't fit in my opinion, I cant sit it far enough back on the body to look right due to the shape of the cut-out at the rear where the engines are. The twin tail has grown on me though, although it makes it look a little too normal perhaps.

the twintail is the best

<9 year old girl>

Ouuuuu.....pretty!

</9 year old girl>

say, do you model in lightwave? i´ve never tried lightwave but heard that lightwave roxorz for rendering, especially all the advanced lighting stuff, but suxorz for modeling?

I think its fantastic man, the twin tail rocks, would love to see more of this machine.

The twin tail or the spoiler look to be the best.

The twin tail though evokes for fighter plane image for me. Still great job.

Yeah, I think the twin tail looks the best. That's a nice machine.

I do indeed use Lightwave, and as far as I know it doesn't suck at either modelling or rendering. I've tried out other packages and they made no sense to me at all, but Lightwave I could use from day 1. The place where Lightwave falls down is character animation, it's not as intuitive as some other packages, but there's aftermarket packages you can buy if that's yer thing.

I'm leaning towards doing up the twin tail ship if I get the time, I want to detail it up, add a decent paintjob, weapons stations, landing gear etc. Busy the next couple of days though, but you never know...

Could you do a shot with landing gear or skids? Right now I am wondering where the gear are and how they can possibly be long enough to account for the wing tips. Also some missiles and missile rails might be nice.

Alyeska wrote:Could you do a shot with landing gear or skids? Right now I am wondering where the gear are and how they can possibly be long enough to account for the wing tips. Also some missiles and missile rails might be nice.

Looks to me like there's a seam on the wingtips that suggests they are adjustable. They could straighten out for landing purposes. That would help with reduce the length of the landing gear.

I did indeed put a seam on the wingtip to suggest that it folds for landing or storage, much like the ventral fin on some MiGs (23 and 27 I think) and I was also thinking that if I had it so that the main wings folded up and the tips fold down it would be an awesome carrier fighter. The wings would just concertina out of the way! Not realistic maybe, but might look good deploying in a little animation. Might test that out now.

As a personal opinion I find the T-tail more original, although the twin one is also very nice. Looking forward to see more images.

Check out the follwoing quick test animation, showing the fighter in Stowed mode, then take/off landing and finally full flight mode. The wings are not actually hinged or made correctly yet, I just bent the hell out of them for the test using morph maps to see how it looks. I'll actually have to make proper articulated wings. I also notice I managed to warp the ends of the canards too, must fix that as well.

Canard fighter animation, 574k DivX 5.2

One thing is sure ... you do know how to work 3D

Could the nose have any impact on aircraft perfomance on higher speed?

well the nose is about as unaerodynamic as you can get, also the wing deployment seem a bit too complex for me.

Looks good.

I only have one real design change suggestion. Change the intake. You have a single intake feeding to engines. The location of the intake makes loading ordinance on the fighter most difficult. Try moving the intake onto the very side of the aircraft, something along the lines of the F-22. The intake would line up nicely with the engines nicely and give you more room on the belley of the plane for weapon pylons.

And there is a problem with the animation. You have the wing tips fold out, go straight with the wing, then fold back down. They should just fold right into position and lock.

If you read it you'll see they are actually in 3 positions for a reason. Stowed - takeoff/landing - Flight. I had the wingtips go straight rather than straight down to show the clearance needed for landing and takeoff.

If I move the intake I then have to redesign the whole aircraft, and it'll end up looking like a Raptor if we keep adding bits that look like a Raptor to it. The Falcon gets away with one big intake, maybe I can do the same with one wide one on the underside. Stores are more inhibited by the landing gear than anything else, and I agree the wing folding is complex and a bit dodgy, but still fun to animate. I'll have a rethink and maybe rebuild the model a bit better this time, rather than the low-detail this one was made in. Any more tips or suggestions before I restart?

The Falcon gets away with one big intake because its so far forward and its a fairly long fighter. Yours is rather small all things considered. Space for ordinance would be a premium. So far you have room for maybe 4 missiles total due to the nature of the wings.