P-38

[mrxd]

This is my first attempt at modelling an aircraft or anything mechanical. I still have to work on the cockpit and some realistic image maps for textures. Anyone with good advice on texturing WWII planes?

[oxyg3n]

When you do the textures, make the plane look like it has seen some action. And make sure to put chips in the paint, especially along the wings where rocks and particles in the air could have damaged it.

OH, and you have to put a babe on the nose, it is an unwritten law!!

[Dave3D]

My guess for texturing it would be to break the UV map down in to wings, rudders and the big middle bits{cant remember the rightname} so that you can easyly texture it in photoshop.

I will post an example as soon as i get home.

[cathuria]

Before texturing, I would suggest cutting in the control surfaces. It's a detail that might not be noticed consciously by many viewers, but will nonetheless add greatly to the realism of the image.

[oxyg3n]

Hello cathuria,

I was wondering what you meant by: "cutting in the control surfaces." Do you mean that he should actaully model things succh as the rudders and flaps?

[Mylenium]

I would advice against chipped paint or too much dirt on a P-38. Basically there are only two options: either a bare metal look or like you chose an olive drab. Even with the latter option you would not see many signs of wear and tear. P-38 were kept rather clean, flew at relatively high altitudes (for that time) and did not suffer much damage on the ground because of their high landing gear. Also in the Pacific theater they were regularly re-painted. The only real big thing would be some pretty heavy exhaust stain.

Modeling wise I would go for separated flaps - it gives some more live to the scene.

Mylenium

[Ralph Keyser]

It depends on what you intend to do with the model. Movable control surfaces (and flaps, landing gear, etc.) are almost a must if you plan to do in-flight animations. If it's only going to sit by a hanger, then you can just pick up the surfaces in the textures. Especially with WWII planes, the lack on control surface movement is one of those things that folks pick up on almost sub-conciously.

But hey, at least your first attempt actually looks like a P-38!

[mrxd]

Cutting control surfaces sounds like agreat idea. How is it done? Do I go ahead and cut out rudders, stabilizer, etc and put some actual flaps in place? Do I somehow scribe an actual linear indentation into the wings?

As far as the texturing goes, I think I'll put in minimal paint chips and dirt. I was planning on the burned paint staining downwind from the turbosuperchargers.

[cathuria]

If you only need to "fake" control surfaces (they won't move and you're not going to feature them in a close-up), I usually just scribe in grooves. I outline the correct shape in polygons and then bevel in the groove with Bevel++ (an inexpensive and indispensible mechanical modeling tool) using a guide spline (might need some hand-tweaking on the outside corners, but the whole process is quick & easy).

If you want them to actually move or are a stickler for detail -- then you do have to create them as separate objects; although even then, any visible struts/supports can be faked with non-moving poly's.

[michael_ash]

Hi, This is one trick that might help.
Hopefully you have a good set of drawings that show panel lines and rivets,
Go ahead and make your surface names for the wings.
Now make an image map for the wing of just the panel lines and control surfaces.
Apply that to your wing and you will be able to see where to cut the controls easier.

Here are some refrence photos:

http://www.kazoku.org/xp-38n/walkaround/

http://www.flightjournal.com/articles/p-38_lightning/p-38_lightning_1.asp

http://www.aircraftwalkaround.com

Mike

[hunter]

I like it. All the lines look good to me. The details are the tough part. you should check this out, look for modeling WWII air craft:

http://www.lwg3d.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=155

And you can buy the tut on cd here:
http://www.lwg3d.org/v3/index.php

I wish the corsair had straight wings. Sure would have made the control surfaces easier. What I did was create a box in the shape of the control surface from the top view and made big enough to encompass the height of the... blah blah blah, A picture is worth etc.

[BAROBA]

I dont know if you know but Ethangar at www.lwg3d.com is making the exact same plane.
And he also has done a texturing tutorial on how to texture a plane.
And very soon he is starting to texture his plane.
Maybe you could drop by and learn a few new tricks ,he loves to hear from other guys doig ww2 planes.
Cheers

[mrxd]

Okay. I cut out the areas for some of the control surfaces but have not added them yet. Since boolean subtraction raised hell with my subpatched model, I converted the parts to be cut into polygons by using 'freeze'. This worked really well except it caused a huge increase in the number of polygons.

Is there a better way to do this?

[oxyg3n]

Hello mrxd,

What you can do before you freeze your model is adjust the subpatch level. You can do this by modeler/options/general options and adjust the patch divisions. By default it is at 6 which I find in most cases to be excessive. I like to work with it at 3.

At a level of six it turns every patch into 36 polygons while at 3 it turns every patch into only 9 polygons.

Give this a try and tell us how many polies you were able to get rid of, you will be amazed!!

[gpdesigner]

mrxd that plane is NICE...... :D
The control surfaces are coming in good as well, dude you should get a picture of a p 38 and use this for reference as well. Do the props animate, as well as the cockpit
gp

[hunter]

Looking good. :) You can always expect a jump in poly numbers when you freeze it. It's not so bad though. Even in subpatch mode, layout "freezes" your model to render it, so frozen or not in modeler, your rendering the high poly count. And if there is a better way to do control surfaces I'm all for it:p

[mrxd]

Thanks for the subpatch tip. It works well and I don't get bogged don't with all those polys when I manipulate the whole model. The detail is still good.

[mrxd]

I cut out segments in the wings for control surfaces. The surfaces should be able to animate but I need to adjust their pivot points. I also need to fix the radiator vent flaps and make some rudder flaps. So much to do but the job/wife/kids have me going at a snail's pace.

I think I might have overdone the seams between the control surfaces and the wings & stabilizer. The photos I have been using for reference don't seem to show much in the way of seams at all. What do you guys think?

[gpdesigner]

mrxd that looks awesome, so much better with the control surfaces, the seams look good that was the first thing that caught my eye, gives it a realistic look. good job dude
gp

[oxyg3n]

Hello Again,

This is really looking nice, it a big improvement from the first shot. The tail fins jump out at me now though. It looks like I can see the edges of polygons in the tips of it.

[mrxd]

I added the rudder control surfaces. It seems that they would not be able to move with the horizontal stabilizer in the way. That is how they are portrayed in all of the photos I have used for reference. I think there is a notch cut out of the rudder to allow this movement (which I haven't done).

I reworked the tips of the stabilizer to lessen the polygon look. I had not noticed it.

oxyg3n: I have seen your troll surfacing images in previous posts and they are very cool. As I am new to this stuff I'll have to refer to it and other tutorials when I start to texture this thing.