Simviation Forums

Well, here is my latest attempt at a fuselage for a Spitfire.  Despite the goofy dog turd look, it actually represents a step forward on my learning curve.  The cylinder is 80 segments high, by 40 around.  My major concer right now is the cockpit area.  I don't get the feeling that it should be that big of a notch.

Pippin. Gmax doesn't suit me at all but I'm sure the basic principles are the same with any modelling. In FSDS I would create the fuselage without worrying too much about the cockpit area. This can be carved out later, just as you would do if you were making it from a piece of balsa wood. This way you get a nice smooth joint with no ripples - as on the real aircraft.

I think I'll do that, Doug.  Thanks a lot.  The notch in the bottom is kind of funky.  It's on the side view, but I can't quite tell in any picture exactly how it goes.  Now, is smoothing the thing simply a matter of adjusting the vetices?  Does anyone have any tips on that?

[quote]I think I'll do that, Doug.

Does this look any better?

I'm not qualified to comment really. Being ultra-critical it looks a tad ripply to me. I would aim at a smooth outline & shape it from there.

First off: you seem to be coming along very nicely in your creations!

Secondly: just as a personal opinion, I think you should cut down on the length segments, as 80x40 turns into 3200 polys, just for the basic outline of the fuselage.

Really, I am just picking from several different tutorials.  I've read a few, but each leaves me with questions in their own way.  The Gmax Tutorial is about useless...

I guess I did get a bit carried away on the segments, but that's only because of a passion for the subject.  I have a tendency to overdo things anyway, and I even went into this telling myself not to set out to build the world's greatest Spitfire...  ;D

Can you point me where to learn how to smooth the fuselage?

Can you point me where to learn how to smooth the fuselage?

Before "smoothing" the fuselage, I would go to less segments first, getting the shapes right in the target cross sections, then adding segments sparingly, as needed, for details.  Too many segments in the first place gets you the "ripply" surface.

The first fuselage I did took me five tries.  I would get it EXACTLY right on the crfoss sections, but it would always have either too many segments or too few.

I would always recommend that you get things how YOU want them.  Its about the most important part of aircraft designing, IMHO.  If I am not happy with the stuff I have come up with, I will throw it away and start over from scratch.  I've only completed two aircraft to date, and both of them are of good quality, simply because I wouldn't accept a poor product.

Moral of the story: KEEP TRYING TILL YOU GET IT RIGHT!

So it's a case of 'Less is More' then, where vertices are concerned?

Pretty much.  A good idear is to just figure out how many straight pieces you're going to need for the length.  You can check the template you're using for that.  Every aircraft is going to be different (of course) but anything more than 30 is pushing it.  As you probably already know, the amount of polys in an aircraft has an effect on the FPS, so I try to keep the polys low, just in case I need to add more to a certain spot later on.

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The only thing I have to add is to say that during my learning curve I went through the exact same stage..rippling fuselages.

Turns out the problem was caused by too many cross-sections. It was making it too hard to get a smooth curve.

Of course, too few and you have trouble avoiding straight lines!

Looking' good Pippen, for a single engine fighter you might want to model the spinner as part of the fuse and then split it off after you have the curves right.

I had thought of that, but decided not to after looking at the abrupt way the fuselage slopes off after the spinner...