Gliese

[kborak]

Ok in honor of monkey I started the cockpit. Went back to an earlier version of the M-146 and reshaped it a little. Cut out a section and went to work. This is what I have started.

[Berkut]

Originally Posted by kborak

Monkey the Idea about EDI I love it I almost forgot about that movie Ill see about that one.

Berkut I think your right about the older one looking more like a mig. But about using turbo smooth Im not sure how I would get that flow in the lines without it. you have any suggestions?

It depends on the application. There are a few techniques for getting smooth lines. But right now what I mean is that you'll almost never see a fighter or anything mechanical smooth everywhere

ex.

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...tealthpubl.jpg

EDI from stealth as you can see although lines are very smooth, the outline of the fighter is sharp, the top of the engines is sharp and the intakes. It's the same with all modern fighters.

also when you start going into further detailing a meshsmoothed model is a nightmare to work with

what 3d app are you using?

also good start on the cockpit,, gotta lean that seat back a bit though, ever tried to sit in a car at a 90 degree angle? heh

[Monkey Boy]

@Berkut: If you are looking at a planetary atmospheric plane, then yeah, the seat is usually leaning back (in some cases - like the F-16, it leans back a *lot*), this is because the primary gee force is acting vertically, they are pushed down into the seat during a turn, so you get your head low so that it is easier to pump blood to your brain during a 7g turn. But in a space ship, usually the primary direction of Gee force is from nose to tail, hence if you look at the seating in the Apollo space craft they are seated upright (actually leaning slightly head forward towards the nose)

However, as this is atmospheric in looks, probably better to go for an atmospheric plane type seat, and lean back a little.



@Kborak: Maybe if the plane has a sidestick controls, I'd consider having side control panels come down with the seat, but I would have nothing in front of the pilots legs, allow him (her?) to step off easy and to get in he just sits down and leans back - and his ground crew can strap him in, like real astronaughts do,
leave the front panel up inside the ship. This would also allow you to bring the panel up his thighs, closer to his chest and in easier reach of his arms.

Not sure if it is just my perspective, but the main gear looks a little far back to the rear, planes usually have their main wheels just behind the point of balance, I think the wheels as they currently are, will have too much weight on the nose wheel.

The deep keel in the front-on view looks great, very like that old german jet (ME 163 Komet? or something?)

[kborak]

@berkut Im using Max 9 You are right there are the sharp angle on aircraft (the fasster the flight speed and the higher the altitude you tend to have sharper edges.) I should counsider making the leading an trailing edges of the wings sharper. But as far as the Fuesalage, if you look at a Mig-29 or F-18 they are both very smooth. I am going to play with the wings a little bit to see what I can do about that. But as the model is now the wings are extruded from the fuesalage. i may have to rebuild the fuesalage and them mate wings that arent turbo smoothed to it. And your right detailing the turbo smoothed mesh is hard.

@monkey boy I will bring the seat angle back you are both right on that, just wasnt thinking. Good eye on the deep keel. After ww 2 russian aircraft started looking more german(wonder why lol) so I followed it through to my design.



Ty for the comments guys.

[kborak]

Ok after much consideration I have started the mig over and this time NO TURBO SMOOTHING lol. so tell me what you think of this.

[Berkut]

much much better, but I think all migs since like mig-21 had 2 engines, and if you consider its space worthiness even 4 engines wouldn't be that far fetched, although I'm not sure how it would look

[star_creations]

Your work does look great...your on the road of being a wonderful 3D artist..keep it up, and I will have a update on the fighter on Monday.

Oh, also since these fighters can travel through space and air, instead of giving the ships Wing Flaps, i think that we should give them Maneuvers Thrusters located in key locations that will give the pilot max control of the fighter when it comes to flying and landing.

Also, one hint...a good way to make the edges smooth, first select the edge, and Chamfer it...not to much, just enough to give it that curve look.

Hope that helps.....chat later's boss

[kborak]

@star I will practice eith the camfering. Ty for the compliment. Im Trying to learn more every time I sit down.

@berkut ty man And Im going to go with a hyper accellerated Ion drive for the power on the ships in my verse. So it will be one engine, maybe with some sort of helper engines maybe small rockets of some sort.

[star_creations]

NP Boss...

Also, for the engines, it is good idea to give the jets, (since they can travel in space and air) Four different type of engines.

such as the Traditional Jet engines, Aerospike Engines, Sub-Light engines and the Hyper I-On Drive. I got this idea of the multi engine from the X-302 from Stargate, since that fighter can also travel from space to air.

Just an idea boss...

[Monkey Boy]

Looking good, but certainly seing some serious changes over time here, my only concern here, would be that the current design looks a little too like the french Rafale fighter.

I think the wingtips are now far too sharp, do you intend to mount missile rails on the tips or keep this sharp tip, or maybe round them out a little?
How about a RCS pod on each wing-tip - make it like a wing-tip fuel tank, but much smaller, and flattened - perhaps you could also put split top and bottom airbrakes on the rear end of these pods, then they could not only act as air brakes, but could act differentially like the control surfaces on a B2 bomber to provide pitch and roll as well, to supplement the RCS thrusters.
Vectored thrust would also provide some degree of pitch and yaw, but you would need two engines to use vectoring for roll.
I have to say that I am always a fan of the redundency that at least two engines provides - damage to one, still get out of trouble.

Those twin holes underneath about midway, are they intakes or reverse thrusters?
If they are reverse thrusters, perhaps they could also be vectored downwards for some degree of vertical landing?

The flarings on the nose, are they sensors, weapon ports or are they the reverse thrusters?

@Berkut: just to be a trainspotter, the Mig-23 flogger and the Mig-27 (basically the same aircraft but for ground attack rather than air-to-air) both had one single large engine. And besides, the number of engines should not really be considered a step in design evolution, after all, the F-16 has one, and the up-comming joint strike fighter (f-35) will have one, and it will be same generation as the F-22 (but let's not get into argument over which one is best!)