Vehicle: F/A-18D Hornet WIP

[Misja]

Euh, can't see it...

[Marcika]

Originally posted by Misja
Euh, can't see it...

I relinked it, so it should work. Please respond if it's ok now!

Thanks
Marcika

[Dreamwave]

yes, we can see it now :thumbsup:

[Marcika]

Hi!

Here is a little update.
I've done it with Brazil 1.0.
Please send me some comments, would be appreciated.

If you can't see the picture, please let me know.

thanks in advance!

http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/015.jpg

[letitbeknown]

throw some textures on thereto make the metal panels, and itll kick much ass:p

[letitbeknown]

throw some textures on thereto make the metal panels, and itll kick much ass:p

[JasonA]

Looks great so far:thumbsup:

Are you using a model kit as reference?

[Darkmesh]

Wow, that ist great Work and it ist my Favorite Plane ;)

[Marcika]

Hi!

Yes, i'm using model kits, but mostly im working from blueprints and photos. ( i have around 450 photos of this plane... )

[Marcika]

Hi!

A newer picture.
The airplane has bottom also :)


http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/021.jpg

marcika

[Skyraider3D]

Nice going! Smooth surfaces you got there.
How do you import into MAX? As IGES or do you turn it into a mesh?

[Marcika]

Originally posted by Skyraider3D
Nice going! Smooth surfaces you got there.
How do you import into MAX? As IGES or do you turn it into a mesh?

No, IGES is not that good for importing, first I import it to Maya in obj (as the details will be added later in maya), some cleanup, and than export to obj and import to MAX...this is the easy way :)

marcika

[Bounce]

WOW ! Really nice.. This is my fav plane..i so love it..real nice to see it in 3D.

I just got back from the Australian Internation Airshow the other day..i took so many pics of the F18....dam i love that plane.

Nice work.

[Braxton]

wow, really cool man. I also model in Rhino and export to Max. I go over .3ds export. Did quite some learning progress with the advanced export settings but if ya know how they work you get pretty good results :)

keep em comming man,

cheers
Brax

[Marcika]

The base of the cap is ready in rough lines ( but i ll add much more detail ).

Braxton:
But i put the whole aircraft in maya, put the details and i ll texture under maya as well, and maya simply can't export/import 3ds.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/025.jpg

marcika

[Nibble]

Beautiful!!!!!:drool: :drool:

I wait for wings hehehehe

Nice work.

[Marcika]

Some details added. More to come (maybe some ejection seats) :p

http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/035a.jpg

marcika

[Nelis]

i realy like the details..... lots to come i think.

good work....

[Darkmesh]

Will there also be a Pilot in Your Plane ;) Great details ;)

[Marcika]

Hi!

Here's the actual state of the ejection seat. All smaller details like markings, sitting surfaces will be done with textures. I plane to make this level of detail on the whole plane.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/s006.jpg

marcika

[Lukashi]

That is looking really sweet :D

[Error404]

Yess!! Detail!! Woooho!

Keep it up dude, nothing makes a model stand out like loads of detail!

[Man]

thats great dude!!!i like the seats better than the plane (yet:D )...i don´t know how you people can model anything with nurbs.....it´s too complicated.......

[RmachucaA]

holy guacamole thats fantastic

[aenema]

that thing is looking really great, you must have some really detailed references, or one good imagination :) that seat is awesome

[mohh]

WOW!!

Great attention to detail! What reference images are you using?

[neu]

Hey you guys!

The plane is more difficul than this seat. Yes, the seat has very nice details, but imagine how hard to make a smooth surfaced F-18...it's not that easy. A Hornet has a very difficult shape, really hard to model it. Good NURBS practice :)

I hope my WIP F-16D will look same smooth.

Keep on good workin' :airguitar
neu

[Marcika]

Originally posted by mohh
WOW!!

Great attention to detail! What reference images are you using?

I'm working from books made for modelers. You can find lot's of details, blueprints, cross section, etc in it. But those aren't always accurate blueprints and crossection, so you have to find out some details. Reference photos are plus.

[RaEkWon]

hmz.. books for modelers? with reference material?

anyways the model looks great, it'll even look much kewler when the wings are visible :p

awesome job, keep it up!

[P_T]

Hi, im a Rhino user myself and been trying to make a gulfstream jet without much success... how do you get the shape for the front part of the plane? around the nose part i mean... i tried lofting and sweep 2 rails but the shape just don't look as good as yours...

[mohh]

Thanks. Could you tell me the ISBN number? I'd like to get it. A reference book specifically made for modelers sounds like a gem!

[Marcika]

P_T:
The aircraft’s forefront was done with loft to the cubicle’s end.
The matter was, that i made it by lots of cross sectoin, so that’s why the nose is very precise.
I did the cut off of the cubicle with simple splitting.

mohh:
Suddenly can’t give you ISBN number, but i put up this link where you can find many aircraft’s books scanned.


And here is a new picture. The ejection seats on place. I hope everybody like it. :)



http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/036a.jpg

[RaEkWon]

go marci, go marci :applause: :bounce: :applause:

[P_T]

how did you make the nose semi blunt like that? tell me if im wrong... u loft a bunch of circles to a point then point pull the nose so u get the blunt shape?? is that how you do it? thanks for the info earlier...

[Gremlin]

Intense detail!!

cant wait to see more of this model, and some rendered pics of it with texture!! :wip:

CRAAAZY!!!

[Darkmesh]

F18 A Double Seater?

oder will it be the F18 A/B Trainer ?

[Marcika]

P_T

I did the end of the nose with CurveNetworks. But you can make it with loft also, if you have enought cross sections.

DarkMesh

As you can see it in the thread's name it's an F/A-18D not an A. There's no two seater A, becouse the two seater A is B :) You can find more info about the hornets at Globalsecurity (http://www.globalsecurity.org)

Marcika

[EighthDecay]

Damn fine modeling Rhino brother,, hehe
love the detail.. can't wait to see it all done up.

[brianellebracht]

That looks great!! Much better than mine. :)
Brian

[Marcika]

Hi!

A little update.
Nose landing gear. :)


http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/g003.jpg

marcika

[giobianco]

splendid work.....copliments...very very very nice!!!:bounce: :applause: :bounce:

[Braxton]

damn fine updates man. makes me wanne start Rhino again and finish my ww2 fighter :)

cheers
Brax

BTW: could you provide the link with those scanned books please? :)

[karabo]

I just want to know what the specs of your computer are because that level of detail has gotta be rough on your machine unless you are running an SGI box.
Excellent work, and to think it was done in Rhino, you must be very patient.

[Braxton]

Originally posted by karabo
I just want to know what the specs of your computer are because that level of detail has gotta be rough on your machine unless you are running an SGI box.
Excellent work, and to think it was done in Rhino, you must be very patient.

why that? i have never seen a modeller with greater speed than Rhino before :) and if you get a hold on its workflow it is one mighty tool!

cheers
Brax

[Marcika]

karabo:
I'm doing it on an PIII800 with 512MB RAM and GeForce II at home, and a PIV1700 512MB GeForce III at work.

Braxton:
I cab send the links for the aviation books at weekend, becouse I'm at work on weekdays in another city.

Marcika

[mohh]

Great update. I look forward to the links. :thumbsup:

[EighthDecay]

cool landing gear, this is sure gonna be a fine model,

I agree with :Braxton, Rhino is a speedy good tool.

[Marcika]

Hi!

Here's the latest pic, and the link I've talk about. Actually I'm working on the wheel wells, and the main landing gear (after it I'll start detailing the cockpit)

the link:
Aircraft books (http://www.aviacherteg.narod.ru/avia/Monograf/PWW/PWW_USA_Menu.htm)

the pic: (1280x800 pixels sorry :) )
http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/040a.jpg

marcika

[mohh]

Thanks for the link bud, that's a great reasource! Awesome job on the update. The only crit that I have is that the great attention to detail that you have taken with this model, makes the low poly support bar behind the chair stand out.

Keep those updates coming, and thanks again. :thumbsup:

[neu]

Originally posted by mohh
Thanks for the link bud, that's a great reasource! Awesome job on the update. The only crit that I have is that the great attention to detail that you have taken with this model, makes the low poly support bar behind the chair stand out.

Keep those updates coming, and thanks again. :thumbsup:

mohh

Do you think this "strut brace" is low poly? It looks exactly like this, check your references. You can see the very smooth round holes in it, so I don't know why you think it's low poly :) It's okay, thrust me, I know that jet :)

neu

[-CCFly-]

awesome work! :buttrock:

let us see some more :)

[P_T]

this is great stuff... nice to see a good Rhino models here... i wonder why Rhino doesn't have a forum for itself... it's one of the best modeller out there and it doesn't eat up a lot of resources...

[mohh]

I was just talking out of my arse... I hadn't even looked at the reference images. It just had those sharp angles, compared to everything else. Sorry :shrug:, keep up the great work!

[Marcika]

you are right, "support bar" really looks odd, but on a real aircraft it's about the same elements :)

I worked out the wheel well either, here is a pic:

http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/043a.jpg

ps: from now, the updates ll be more rare, because i have so many things to do at the job so that's why i don't have too much time to work on.

[Skyraider3D]

That looks very impressive indeed! :)
Will it all be animatable as well? Awesome detail!!!

But wait...look... polygons! :p
The curved bar for the locking mechanism looks somewhat low-poly compared to the rest. I wonder if Mohh will pick it up! :beer:

Speaking about polys... what's the polycount so far? Must be enormous :)

By the way, now you're putting such an amout of detail in there anyway, how about modelling every panel seperately and giving them each a different smoothinggroup. I did this on one of my latest work-in-progress models, and it works rather nice (I think):
http://skyraider.allaboutwarfare.com/files/modelling/MeP1091aStufeIII_wip02_640.jpg
It will look less "segmented", and "rounder", once textured, but it will still keep the "breaks" in the highlights.

[mohh]

Hahahaha,

Yes I do see it, but I'm keeping my mouth shut from now on, unless I actually do look at some ref images! :beer:

[scott2600]

nice model so far cant wait to see it finished... hella detail

[neu]

Originally posted by mohh
Hahahaha,

Yes I do see it, but I'm keeping my mouth shut from now on, unless I actually do look at some ref images! :beer:

mooh

It seems you're hurted about my opinion :eek: Sorry, I don't want to :wip: you, just told you that your idea wasn't consequent. Please feel free to find polygons there :wavey:

Sorry if you feel I was agressive, it's becouse of my bad english :beer:

neu

[mohh]

No, not at all. You just taught me a very valuable lesson; and that is to make sure that I know what I'm talking about before making any comments. Awesome attention to detail, keep up the good work:thumbsup:

[giobianco]

.......URCKA!!!......:surprised :surprised

[Marcika]

Originally posted by Skyraider3D
That looks very impressive indeed! :)
Will it all be animatable as well? Awesome detail!!!

But wait...look... polygons! :p
The curved bar for the locking mechanism looks somewhat low-poly compared to the rest. I wonder if Mohh will pick it up! :beer:

Speaking about polys... what's the polycount so far? Must be enormous :)

By the way, now you're putting such an amout of detail in there anyway, how about modelling every panel seperately and giving them each a different smoothinggroup. I did this on one of my latest work-in-progress models, and it works rather nice (I think):
http://skyraider.allaboutwarfare.com/files/modelling/MeP1091aStufeIII_wip02_640.jpg
It will look less "segmented", and "rounder", once textured, but it will still keep the "breaks" in the highlights.

I plan to make an animation with it...in the far future :)

I think we'll make an aircraft carrier scene with launch, some flying scenes, and thinkgs like that.

Okay, you catched me :) Yes, there are polygon edges :) I'll retesselate it next time. Now it's about 200.000 Polys, and will be about 1.000.000 when it's done.

The plane looks very good. Is it the high altiude Messerschmidt experimental plane? Yes, I know that we can make cool effects with the smoothing groups, but there aren't that big panel differences on a supersonic jet. I'll make some bumy surface and panel lines with bump maps. I'll make some detailed shininess/specular maps too for the shader. I'll use very high resolution textures (about 8000x8000 or so)

..but it's so far :)

[Skyraider3D]

Using smoothing groups is exactly the reason to avoid bumpy panels. Once the texture is on there it'll look a lot smoother, but there will still be steps inthe highlights.
Sure a supersonic jet looks pretty smooth. If your PC can cope with 8000x8000 bumpmaps, then go for it :) But anything smaller and it'll look like somebody hacked into your model with a knife... Well in MAX at least... :hmm:

[lurifrax]

I love it! great work, and very detailed.. can´t wait to see it textured... excellent!! :thumbsup:

[Marcika]

I'm back, i hope you didn't forget this topic :)
I didn't improve the plane for a couple of weeks, because i had some other things to do.

But finally the main landing gear is done!
In the future i won't let so long pauses between the updates.
I hope you like the pictures.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/053a.jpg

http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/055a.jpg

Marcika

[paconavarro]

Looking great!!!!

How about some wings? ;)

[Marcika]

paconavarro:
The wings ll be the lasts. :)
Before those i have to do lots of elements on the plane.
I've done with 50% of the modelling.

[Skyraider3D]

That's one of the most stunning aircraft models I've seen so far, and it isn't even finished yet.
With this amount of detail you should really consider modelling panel lines and screws and rivets now! It'll look mighty sweet! ;) :D

[LordPhobos]

This is one awesome-looking plane. I gotta know though, what was made in Rhino and what was made in Maya? The plane body you said was made in Rhino, but were the seats? And the landing gear? I'm just curious. :)

Thanks.

[Ian Christie]

Originally posted by giobianco
.......URCKA!!!......:surprised :surprised


:eek: :eek: Very nice.

To the person who was a little surprised to see a 2 seater F-18, watch Behind Enemy Lines. Yes, movies are notorious for making things up, but it shows the use of a 2 seat F-18.

Anyway, love the plane, can't wait to see it with it's wings. :applause:

[mmiller]

WOW :thumbsup:
NICE looking model!!
The level of detail is outstanding

Can't wait to see some textures.
Mark

[twitchy]

i cant see the pics.:shrug:

[neu]

Hi

I just want to show the Sidewinder I'm building for Marcika's Hornet. It's still work in progress of course :)

http://giraf.elte.hu/~neutron/3d/sw.jpg

Greetings, neu

[Braxton]

hehe, hey marcika, need some other missiles? if ya want i could go for some amraams or some smartbombs :)

rhino user as well!

and for those updates: KICKASS!! :thumbsup:

[brianellebracht]

Neu, that looks great!
Brian

[neu]

Brian

Thanks! Maybe it seems a quite simple model, but it's not, especially the wings (becouse of the complexity of the joint). I'm still working on it with the LAU-127 launching rail too. If finished, I'll build the pylons for the Hornet with Multiple Ejector Racks with 6 Mk82 Snakaeyes each (retarded fall bomb), and maybe 2 AGM-88 HARM missiles or 2x2 AIM-120C AMRAAM's. If finished I'll start building a Carrier launch deck section...

Greetings, neu

[mohh]

You've got mad skillz and patience up the ying yang :thumbsup:

[jussing]

F*ck me, this is nuts... :surprised

....and I mean that in a good way... this model is absolutely jaw-dropping... :drool:

Keep us updated!! ;)

- jonas

[Nosalis]

Originally posted by neu
Hi

I just want to show the Sidewinder I'm building for Marcika's Hornet. It's still work in progress of course :)

http://giraf.elte.hu/~neutron/3d/sw.jpg

Greetings, neu

This is what I call a DETAIL !!! RULEZ

[brianellebracht]

can't wait till you add more updates!
B

[EighthDecay]

same here, keep them updates coming, keeps us inspired to go to such detail lengths. :drool:

[Nosalis]

Originally posted by Marcika
No, IGES is not that good for importing, first I import it to Maya in obj (as the details will be added later in maya), some cleanup, and than export to obj and import to MAX...this is the easy way :)

marcika

Is there any other method I can import model from Rhino to MAX? I haven`t got Maya. Rhino export to 3DS is sometimes good, IGES seems better, but they both aren`t the best one. Is there any other, and simple and beautiful ???

Thanx

[Pjanssen]

It looks really cool. So extremely detailed :thumbsup:
How long have you been working on this ?

[Vazza]

Originally posted by Nosalis
Is there any other method I can import model from Rhino to MAX? I haven`t got Maya. Rhino export to 3DS is sometimes good, IGES seems better, but they both aren`t the best one. Is there any other, and simple and beautiful ???

Thanx

There is a Rhino Import plugin for Max that used to be available for download on the Rhino3D site, but it appears to have disappeared. I still use it often, and according to the text that came with it, it is OK to Re-distribute as long as the Copyright notice goes with it, so if you'd like me to send it to you, PM me with an email address and I'll get it to you. It's a pretty small zipped file of around 170k.

[Marcika]

First of all, sorry for the late upadte but I have loads of work so I couldn't do anything at home.

Thanks for every comment till now, i hope there are some who is interested by this topic.
The update ll come this week for sure!

Nosalis:
Rhino can export 3ds format, so you can easily transfer your objects between MAX and Rhino.

[Undseth]

Wow! This looks so good.

I dare ask a question;

What's it like dealing with nurbs in Rhino. Do you get to "weld" the different pieces together, or do you end up with a lot of separate suraces?

Your model look so good I could (almost) cry.

[Lars]

I can't stop :drool: when I see this model !

I hope you haven't abondon this projekt ;)

Great work !

[mole]

Awesome work man, just love it, you've inspired me to give it a go too, I've got the new academy F-18C coming, references don't get much better than that.

[caulfield]

chuck some wings on the bastard.

[madsepp]

plz finish it#

it rocks :buttrock:

[Marcika]

Hello!

I'm back again, sorry for the delay guys ;) I'm working on the cockpit right now as you can see on the pic. Lot of stuffs still missing.


http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/inprog002a.jpg

[Nosalis]

Oh my god .....

I have a guestion. Why such many details? Is it for film? Or you`re just trying to make it real? :)

[Skyraider3D]

I see you've been busy :)
Strange subdivisions though...

[Nosalis]

IMO is polygons from NURBS and they look like this

[Impactor Return]

Wicked work, its great to see so much detail and care taken on such a fab plane.

I was wondering if some sort of optimise would help, as on some of the display panels etc theres seems to be a lot of polys that wouldnt be needed?

[Marcika]

Nosalis:
Simply i want to make it realistic :)

Impactor:
Those are really unnecessary polygons, but that's the export from Rhino. Otherwise this couple of thousand polygon won't count here.

[P_T]

did u leave the conversion setting in Rhino to default dude? im pretty sure u can have less dense converted mesh than that if u dick around with the setting.

wat's the total polycount for the whole jet btw?

oh and if it's not too much, i would like to see the Rhino NURBS wireframe :)

[Marcika]

P_T:
Of course I didn't used the default tesselation settings, it was set to reach the fine bevels on the buttons. The amount of polygons doesn't really count, as the whole plane is about 650.000 polys now...a few thousend polys really wont count :)

[gspinz]

very very nice model mate :)

gspinz

[P_T]

Originally posted by Marcika
P_T:
Of course I didn't used the default tesselation settings, it was set to reach the fine bevels on the buttons. The amount of polygons doesn't really count, as the whole plane is about 650.000 polys now...a few thousend polys really wont count :)

lol u're hardcore dude... then again i had a model of an assault rifle made in Rhino that got converted to around 60K poly (minimum without losing the detail/shape) so i understand... but still ain't crazy enough to do wat u're doing lol

[SwatZeR]

You have created a masterpiece. The F-18 is my favorite fighter jet and you have recreated it right down to that last dial and button in the cockpit!

Amazing work. Simply amazing. I can't say any more...oh wait...yes I can...I can't wait until it's finished to see what the completed project looks like...

Again, great job on the Hornet...you have some mad talent there!

[Marcika]

Hi there!

I'm back, and the bug is on progress too (very slowly). I there are few of you who remember that thing :) You can see the progress on the images, lots of tweaking too anyway. Wing is just a very basic one, it's going to be fully detailed. Wingfold, slat, flaps.

I hope you like it!

Greetigns, Marcika

http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/071a.jpg

http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/072a.jpg

http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/077a.jpg

http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/074b.jpg (http://members.lycos.co.uk/cghornet/pictures/074a.jpg)

[Lars]

Welcome back :D

I have been waiting for updates and they are looking real good mate !

[Skyraider3D]

Wicked! :) Good to see you're back on the job! Awesome detail!

[Arsyn]

HOLY CRAPOLA!!

Awesome work! I was planning on modeling this as soon as my f-18 book came in........I'm a little disheartened now though. I dont think I have that much patience to do what you do, and I dont want to do it if I cant come close to the amount of work you put in thus far. how about some closeup wire shots?

Did you model this off of the Academy 1/32 f-18?? It looks just like it! awesome!

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