Vaught F4U Corsair

[braxton]

Well well before starting to give the Jupiter Class by Zanith a shot i wanted to test my modelling abilities a bit and started to model my favorite WWII aircraft.

how do you like so far?

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wip1.jpg

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wip2.jpg

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wip3.jpg

Cheers Brax

[kingfish]

Hi,
It looks good so far. I have read books on WWII and your picture is very good for a beginning.


Paul

[Zanith]

Wow. You choose one of the awesome birds of the war. The first single-engine prop to break the sound barrier! Those bent wings . . . Goota love 'em!!! Awesome work.

[thomas7g]

absolutely gorgeous!!!

I've loved the plane ever since the Baa Baa Black Sheep days! Woohoo!

The tail section looks a little small for some reason...but it has that definite F4U feel. :)

have you thought about what kind of paintjob you are going to do? Are you going to make the mythical Boyington plane?

heres a site with a good top side pictures on it
http://users.belgacom.net/gc817555/F4U_Download/htm/Wallpapers/Corsair_Wallpapers.htm

and her is a sound file if you want to do a flyby animation
http://dfwwing.natca.org/f4u/f4u.htm

I love these birds!

[thomas7g]

btw- I didn't recognize your cockpit styling. I had to look that one up. Its the very early frame style cockpit windows that the first corsairs had. I had never seen one before. All my experience has been with the bubbletype which was much more common because it gave better visibility. :)

[p.s. Cargile]

Vought

[braxton]

Originally posted by thomas7g
absolutely gorgeous!!!

I've loved the plane ever since the Baa Baa Black Sheep days! Woohoo!

The tail section looks a little small for some reason...but it has that definite F4U feel. :)

have you thought about what kind of paintjob you are going to do? Are you going to make the mythical Boyington plane?

heres a site with a good top side pictures on it
http://users.belgacom.net/gc817555/F4U_Download/htm/Wallpapers/Corsair_Wallpapers.htm

and her is a sound file if you want to do a flyby animation
http://dfwwing.natca.org/f4u/f4u.htm

I love these birds!


Thx Thomas, i modelled it after pretty detailed blueprints i had here, so the tail section should be right, must be the perspective but i will look it up again :)

Dont know about the paint job yet, but Boyington is one hell of a good idea :D

And Thx for those links they are perfect :)


Originally posted by thomas7g
btw- I didn't recognize your cockpit styling. I had to look that one up. Its the very early frame style cockpit windows that the first corsairs had. I had never seen one before. All my experience has been with the bubbletype which was much more common because it gave better visibility. :)

Yeah i chose the F4u-1 for me to modell cause i think the old cockpit style and fuselage layout looked way meaner :devil:

maybe i will do the common version as well, will see :)


Originally posted by p.s. Cargile
Vought

doh, tha
thats what i get for copy&pasteing topic headers :(

[thomas7g]

hmmm...I actually prefer the newer look myself. But its artistic freedom. :)

I remember finding a few good pics of the Boyington Plane. Though it had the bubble cockpit. I can look if you are interested. But the Boyington plane is a myth. All the black sheep contrary to the show, didn' have assigned planes. They just hoped into the nearest one available and took off. The myth of a Boyington plane was from a photograph. Apparently the PR guy thought they needed a good background for a shot, so a random plane was painted up including the correct number of kill flags. So there never was a Boyington plane. :)

btw black sheep is on here tommorrow. do you need more reference?

[thomas7g]

about the tail verticle stabilizer. take a close look at your refs. I think there are two different designs. I'm not sure, but I think one is more rounded on the top. meesa not sure. :)

[braxton]

hehe the tail fin was redone some minutes ago, just have to export it from rhino into max and make some nice renders, also the canopy got thos curvy back windows which are here still missing :) cheers

and yes i am happy for all the reference you could give me :)

[braxton]

well here we go. redid the aft wings compltly cuase they didnt really want to attach to the fuselage right. according to my blueprints they are accurate (except the pointy tip on the side rudder but that will be taken care of tomorrow :)

the canopy got its final "aft windows" which were a bitch to get right.

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wip4.jpg

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wip5.jpg

[thomas7g]

woohooo! Looking good!


I found the page that had the boyigton pic for his "lulubell"
http://www.acepilots.com/usmc_boyington3.html#top

It also has a pic of your cockpit :)

Its a cool page. I'm sure you will enjoy reading it. :)

[thomas7g]

oh, and here is a really great page for reference!
http://www.voughtaircraft.com/photos/pages/pre_f4u.htm

[Zanith]

Heh Heh!! MORE MORE!!

[Drakath]

Very aggressive plane... Keep it up!

[kingfish]

Hi,
It is right on the money. Looks GREAT!!!!


Paul

[SeanP]

Beautiful job so far Braxton!
I too am a big fan of the Corsair.
(Corsairs and F14 Tomcats are the absolute coolest fighters ever built.)
I just compared your model to my die cast model of "Lulubelle" (Boyington's plane).
Yours looks pretty much bang on - except for the canopy of course.
Can't wait to see this one done.

[kingfish]

Hi,
As far as the canopy is concerned I believe that it was the teardrop version that was on Boyington's plane. I could be wrong.


Paul

[SeanP]

No, you're right - Boyington's plane had the bubble canopy. :D

[thomas7g]

I got the ref from this weeks show. Actually it kinda sucked for caps. But here ya go :)

blacksheep.zip (http://thomas7g.3dgladiators.com/post/blacksheep.zip)

[braxton]

well well well after a serious long time of not working on it, i am back at work, thus i have massive time again :)

this is a combined model-wireframe render. took me ages to get those flaps into the wings!

more renders in max quality later

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/corsair21.jpg

[braxton]

here is another update.

- right wing rebuild, this time it is final :) disregard the left wing, i have to mirror the right one over there when i have added details.

- tried some basic propellers but the suck... well maybe in the next hours i will get better

- put her up in a more serious lightning rig

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wipshot1.jpg

[Zanith]

What specific model of the F-4U is this?

[braxton]

its the F4U-1

[Zanith]

Okay, I gotcha. I was just not sure, the canopy was throwing me off a tad.

[braxton]

hehe even I didnt know that there were soooo many versions of this plane, ah well, UPDATE TIME!

here are some new images. the propeller is supposed to be final, well i will take a look at it tomorrow again, but dont like to FFD again :D The backfin got its rudder and trim and there a two nice shots again with the wings up

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wipshot2.jpg
http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wipshot3.jpg
http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wipshot4.jpg

cheers

Brax

[kingfish]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Zanith]

Heh Heh. Watch that interior wing structure. Gotta make some sweet textures there

[braxton]

bah textures :)

the stuff is gonna be modelled :) like the gear, the cockpit and so on... (at least i hope that i get that stuff done, remember i am still a newbie to modelling)

cheers

Brax

[braxton]

closeup of the rudder

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wipshot5.jpg

[Drakath]

It gets better and better...

[braxton]

woohoo thx drakath!

UPDATE time:

- "hullplating" done :D
- engine exhaust done

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wipshot6.jpg
http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wipshot7.jpg

and one of the underside which i havent shown yet i think :)
http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wipshot8.jpg

[mercutiojb]

She's a looker! :D

[thomas7g]

"We are poooor little lambs.....who have loooost our waaaayyy....baaaaaa...baaaaaaa...baaaaaaa........"

:thumbsup:

[braxton]

well not much today, i was working on the gear when everything went havoc and i had to rebuild the wings.. but i added the fixations of the trimms on the ruder and the elevation

http://home.t-online.de/home/mightymicha/images/wipshot12.jpg

and one of the redone wing interconnection:
http://home.t-online.de/home/mightymicha/images/wipshot13.jpg

cheers
brax

[KBOC]

just out of curiosity, the last time I built an aircraft I had an issue resolving the aelerons and elevator flaps and how they joined up to the wing.

Will be interested to note how you detail that

Beautiful model :D

[kingfish]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Zanith]

Brax - Based on the last image that is a close up to the prop, the shaft looked a little too long, keeping the prop a little too far from the forward engine casing.

[braxton]

hehe you are right, that shaft is just a placeholder till i finished modelling the whole engine for which i found superb references today :) still messing with the wings at the moment and adding the main gear :)

but thx for the advice

cheers
brax

[mercutiojb]

Wow! Will you teach me how to model sometime?? :D:D I'd love to do some WWII stuff

[braxton]

EAT THIS! :D

she is armed and dangerous now! the whole wing got redone today cause i ran into too many errors there. the front gears are also there, the air intake is missing the interior but that will follow shortly.

DO NOT regard the center fuselage cause it will be reconstructed tomorrow as well, it simply refuses to work out as i want :)

Scene rendered with Brazil and about 30 raytraced lights. nothing is too much for my lady :)

http://home.t-online.de/home/mightymicha/images/wipshot14.jpg

cheers
Brax

[thomas7g]

LuluBelle is looking awfully pretty :D

[Captain Cheese]

Stunning work.. your attention to detail is top-notch..
I can't wait to see this thing lift off for the first time :)

[braxton]

thx guys! liftoff is still pretty far away though. i decided i will redo the center fuselage completly and now celebrate: it will get its "orginal" blacksheep canopy :) so the boyington-plane isn far away any longer

cheers
brax

[thomas7g]

YIPEEEE!!!!!

BUBBLE CANOPIES RULE!!!!!!

[braxton]

yeah they rule but creating the pline cage for that new fuselage is giving me a headache you cant imagine right now :)

[Zanith]

Very nice!!! The gun barrels look a bit off, but it may be me. I will check my resources at work, all my books are packed away in the shed.

[thomas7g]

what ap are you using?

[braxton]

@thomas - i am using Rhino as a modeller and max4.2 for the renderings

@zanith - yeah the look off in the image but i triple checked them with my blueprints and they are right :) there are sooo many gun configurations for the corsair even for the same version of the f4u you find at least 3 diffrent ones, so i decided to go with this one

cheers
Brax

[Zanith]

Okay. Some of the pics I found at work at them pushed in a tad more into the wing. However, like you said, there were various configurations and different models, so hey, who knows. God this is an awesome plane!

[braxton]

thx zanith!

well before anyone says i would have given up on her, here is a WIP pic of the new fuselage wireframe. it took me 20 hours so far to get to this point (yeah you can laugh now) but there were always things wrong which made me start again and again... i want her to be perfect :)

cheers
Brax

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/new_wireframe.jpg

[braxton]

Well people. First i wanted to redo the canopy only. then i went to the fuselage with its panelling lines... now i am gonna crap the rest as well and start new. soo.. after nearly 40hours and hundreds of diffrent starts and approaches here it is, the new fuselage :)

http://mightymicha.bei.t-online.de/images/3.jpg

here is a closeup of the new panel lines

http://mightymicha.bei.t-online.de/images/2.jpg

and one from behind to show her nice ass :)

http://mightymicha.bei.t-online.de/images/4.jpg

The transperant stuff will be redone completely cause i learned very much while modelling the plane so far that i think i can do them much better than they are right now. on the fuselage there are some panel lines missing in front of the cockpit but they will come soon :)

ah and because i loved that transperant materials :) click here (http://mightymicha.bei.t-online.de/images/5.jpg) for some fun

The usual Brazil renders will follow tomorrow

cheers
Brax

[Zanith]

OH!!!! A semi-transparent fighter! Now there is an awesome idea!

She is a beauty, Braxy.

[thomas7g]

much nicer cockpit :D

[Zanith]

Yes, indeed, very much.

[braxton]

bah now all beware, i got myself the plastic model kit for 25 european bucks! i was running out of reference :)

expect updates on the model shortly

cheers Brax

[Zanith]

You could have gotten a good model cheaper through me! I work at a hobby store and I get a 40% discount! Well . . . But it would take longer to get to you considering I am in the western US.

[braxton]

hehe damn, couldnt you hav said that earlier? :D But hey i will come back to that when i start to model the Zero :D

well anyways, update time, new wings:
http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wipshot9n.jpg

cheers
Brax

[braxton]

gear is finished :)

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/wipshot10n.jpg

[kingfish]

Hi,
The landing gear is VERY good and also very accurate.:thumbsup:

[braxton]

thank you very much! its cool that you say so, cause i only built it by sticking together primitives :) since i want to do more inflight scenes with her than beauty shots

cheers
Brax

[braxton]

updates:

- guns are done
- started to work on the engine

http://home.t-online.de/home/mightymicha/images/wipshot15.jpg

cheers
Brax

[braxton]

engines finished, slight touchup on the wings :)

http://home.t-online.de/home/mightymicha/images/wipshot16.jpg

http://home.t-online.de/home/mightymicha/images/wipshot17n.jpg

[braxton]

couldnt resist :)

another render, this time with a better visible engine and some hand made depth of field effect in photoshop :)

http://home.t-online.de/home/mightymicha/images/wipshot18n.jpg

[thomas7g]

Looks really awesome so far!

but I was wondering if the front cowling should be so flush with the main body

http://www.acepilots.com/planes/lulubelle3.jpg

There seems to be a difference in some pictures I have seen.

[braxton]

lol, thomas i havent even begun the cowling yet ;) i had one on the first version but since i crapped that fuselage i couldnt reuse the cowling, i will make a new one that will look like the image you got there. :) btw, could you make me some more screenshots of a blacksheep episode? specially when they have bombs attached if possible? but all aircraft images from the show will do.

thx in advance
cheers
Brax

[thomas7g]

I'll look for it. I'm not sure its still on.

btw here is something that may help
http://www.squadron.com/old/f4u1atam/f4u1atamreview.htm

btw I found plans that looked really good on a russian site...but all the russian pages on corsairs I go to have viruses and my antivirus keeps locking them out! :D

btw if you find a model made by tamiya or hasegawa they are known to be insanely accurately detailed. I gave an M113 bradley model to an ex army friend who drove these things for real. He was shocked at the accuracy of the detail down to the nuts bolts and handles. :D

[michaelfaries]

From a family friend who used to fly an F4U-1 Corsair during World War II:

"It's uncanny what he's done. Boyington's Corsair always got the most attention years later because of the kills he got. I'd like to see what this model looks like when it's done, whether it's a Marines version or Navy version. I hope he details it with rust, oil, dirt and scrapnel scars we used to get on ours. Ours were never that clean."

Thought you'd like to know. He flew his Corsair from carriers. ;)

Michael

[braxton]

@ thomas, hehe yeah i got those bluerints from the russian site already, i believe i nearly got every image on the net on this plane after 2 months building it now :) and still i needed the plastic model kit which gave me some great insight on how some stuff looked :)

@michael - sorry what does uncanny mean? :) my english leaves me there :) it will get all dirtied up believe me, with oil rust some bullet holes even :) i dont know yet which version to do, but it will get its tail hook for sure. i might even do bith a navy and a marines version :)


cheers Brax

[kingfish]

Hi,
Phenomenal work. The cowling isn't supposed to be flush with the fuselage.

Paul:thumbsup:

PS:Boyington would be proud

[michaelfaries]

"uncanny" = Peculiarly unsettling, as if of supernatural origin or nature.

He meant that in a good way. ;)

Michael

[braxton]

wow cool :) tell him i feel honored! and maybe if i ever finish her, yuo tell me his rank and name and you will get a personalized edition for him michael, so you can do some shots if you want? :)

@king - thx :) as said above cowling is still a subject to model :)

cheers
Brax

[Zanith]

WOW!! She looks hot! Damn! UM UM UM UM!!! Whew. She is a screamer.

[General Phoenix]

Now there's a man who really likes his airplanes...

[Zanith]

I can hear her tearing at the sound barrier now . . . .

She was the first single-engine aircraft to break that, by the way. GOD I would love to have seen that.

[braxton]

thx all :)


next update - aft gear finished:

http://mightymicha.bei.t-online.de/images/wipshot19n.jpg

cheers
Brax

[kingfish]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Zanith]

"Tower this is November Bravo Two Kilo Three Delta Gamma, requesting taxi clearance VFR."

She is lookin' grrrrrrrrrreat!

[Zanith]

NOOOOO!! I KILLED THE THREAD!" :: Screams in a Homer Simpson voice ::

[Sean Kennedy]

Sweet work Braxton!

My favorite planes of that era were the P51- Mustang and the P-38 Lightning.

Sean

[Zanith]

Nothing better than a good Zero, Corsair, Mustang, and Warhawk.

[thomas7g]

just want to let you know I'm still trying to capture the show. I tried last weekend but my vcr didn't go off.:(

[braxton]

he, no problems man, take your time. right now i cant work on it cause i am buried with work for next thursday :(

but i hope that i get the final detailing done after that day :)

cheers
Brax

[Zanith]

I will try to keep the thread alive!

[thomas7g]

http://www.suurland.com/blueprint_x.php?image=http://www.suurland.com/blueprints/fighters_propeller/chance-vought-f4u-1-corsair.gif

[EBOLII]

A EXCELLENT bird indeed...please update us on this?......please

[Zanith]

Come on Brax . . . . We are waiting. I am in my Zero ready to knock you outta da sky! HI!

[thomas7g]

We are poooor little lambs...who haven't had an updaaaateee...innnnnn ....sooooo...loooooonnggg:(

[Zanith]

Yeah . . .

BAH'AH'AH'AH'AH'AH'AH'AH'AH'AH!

[braxton]

@ thomas - LOL, that is the Blueprint that started it all :))))

I fear i cannot provide you with "real" new updates right now, cause i am somewhere beneath a 2 m high tower of work which has to vanish (or to be done i fear) before i find the time again. But i will cntinue my babe thats for sure.

BUT i can provide you woth something, since i needed a new desktop wallpare adn made this here;

http://home.t-online.de/home/mightymicha/images/largeshot3c.jpg

bear with me...

cheers
BRax

[Zanith]

Woah! I like it.

[braxton]

thx :)

[Zanith]

Not a problem. The colors are nice.

[braxton]

*starts drumroll*

i am working on it again. after a VERY friendly fellow sned me his scan of a complete! book covering the corsair in nearly every variant i started working again. after banging my head numerous times against the wall i finally am getting to something concerning the basic cockpit geometry.

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/corsair.jpg
http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/corsair1jpg

[braxton]

i started modelling the instruments. lots of detail comming still. everything you see is where it was supposed to be :) i have a blueprint of the cockpit layout which i used as modelling backgound for it :)

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/corsair2.jpg

cheers
Brax

[braxton]

hehehehe everybody wanted updates... now that they are there, no one says a thing anymore :(

;) Brax

[seanr]

Looks good. Not too much to comment on, though.

[mercutiojb]

First of all, it's looking great!

Second, this may sound stupid, and I know every one asks this question, but how do you get those beautiful rounded edges? Maybe i'm missing something, but I can't EVER seem to get it. Especially on the instrument 'holes'. Maybe I've just been missing the secret all these years...

[braxton]

@sean - thx, and i know, but the fact i stated again is impressive isnt it? ;)

@mercutiojb - thx as well, the rounded edges... well, in rhino it works this way:
i create an object, for example a box. then i go and select "fillet edges" which should be the same as if you go to the modifier stack in max, chose "edge select" and then "chamfer". i then enter a value which describes how much rounded they shall get (here mostly 0.01 or 02) and there you go.

i made a wireframe shot here at work since some people asked for one on ICQ, maybe its interesting for some of you as well:

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/corsairw.jpg

cheers
Brax

[EBOLII]

forgot to ask......do the wings fold?

[braxton]

yep they do, i modelled them in a way that they can fold at the right place (see the wireframe)

i just need to modell the "folding stuff which you can see when they are up :)

cheers
Brax

[braxton]

ITS NOT DEAD :)

actually i was working very long to overcome that rhino-max import/export problem. and i found a solution... i will not use max anymore :) i installed rhinoman and BMRT a freely available renderer with nearly a quality as Brazil has. Its a bit hard to learn though, so you will get some shaded wireframes for now. i tweaked the shape on some minor notes

http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/f4u/wip1.jpg
http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/f4u/wip2.jpg
http://www.quantum2k.de/temp/f4u/wip3.jpg

updates will follow the next days

cheers
Brax

[JasonA]

Thats really cool work Braxton. Excellent modelling! So what do you think of Rhino asa NURBS modeller? is it hard to learn, and how confortable is it to work in?

Well, definitely looking forward to more of this... You should experiment with some textures soon..;)

[F.A.M.]

Very slick!

[Shadowwolf]

Im a College student looking for a project for my final in Computer Aided Design. As the fact im a student i was wondering if there was a way to get Corsair Blue Prints........For two reasons.....My grandpa was in the navy during WWII and id like to draw something he has had the opertunity to see in his life time. The second is it would make a great yet complicated final and i would like to see if im good enough to get it done. I have about 10 weeks and id like to find a way to get it done before my final is due. I have already Purchased a Blueprint of the entire plane On Ebay to get some ideas. If anyone has exact measurements it would be a great help......Any help would be greatly appreciated! My email is Shadowwolf_57@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading this I hope to get this done and i will definatly have pictures if anyone would like em......Im using 3d autocad inventor Version 8 so the plane will be detailed as close as possible. thanks again!

Steven M.