Progress after 3 weeks work.





Including a fully rotating 9 cylinder engine!

every now and then a nice surprise....
thanks gibbo..

First flight in game, and now I'm beginning to see why Microprose never made a pusher prop model!



I've added the wings to the centre section, but the rotating engine is not rendering correctly with the outer wings in place. It's a good job I have some tricks to fix it.

Hi John

Very nice new model
I hope you can fix the RS problems!

Your dedication for this game is admirable!

Cheers

work started on a hangar for it...

All engine RS problems are fixed, so I can now continue building the rest of the model.

This has become a very complicated little model.

but one day it'll look like this m8...

When it does look like that it will be one sweet looking bird.


Wheels

Landing gear added.

I had a look at the model in game tonight.



I've still got a few problems on the right wing to sort and a pilot to finish off.

shaping up m8...

Hi Ade.

I'm glad you like the model. I hope the pilot looks about right in size? It's been a very frustrating 24 hours modeling. I've been testing the 3dz's in view aircraft mode, and they all looked fine, but when I ran the nearly finished 3dz's in game proper, I was getting CTD's!

I've suspected for a long time, that there is a difference in the way the game displays a model in the view screen, and the game proper, and this proves it.

I narrowed it down to the F and G 3dz's, and after a lot of head scratching, I had to reduce the number of duplicated engine elements 143 0/1 to only the Prop elements, before the F model would work.

There seems to be a memory limit on the number of animated 143 0/1 elements we can have, but no worries it now works fine. The G wing is now the only thing left stopping me finishing the model, but first I have to find the problem, which is proving to be a bit tricky at the moment.

could you set it up in the tempest slot...
big ta if poss.. it's the last slot with no
duplicates...

Hi John,

Nearly there. Next the P-40 perhaps? How's the Valentia?

Pete

Hi Peter.

Yes, the P40 next to be finished off, but then I need to do a cockpit and distance models for the DH-2.

The Valentina is still on the drawing board, but a Sopworth Triplane is now a possibility.

Because of the fully open cockpit, I was forced to model a full top half of the pilot's body. It's not fully mapped yet but you get the idea.

The pilot has moved on a bit.

Cockpit section finished.

DH2 shaping up nicely Col! sooooz i banged out this startup shadow file for it...



...i'll include it to the wwi shadowpack when i update its FTP folder at sometime - cheers

forward thinking there Alan...goodonya..
any sign of a camel on the horizon m8?

OK, I've been working on the DH-2 and here is what is done so far. It is a work in progress. And, I didn't change the Desert terrrain, I know it isn't correct but I just wanted to take a look at how the skin was coming along. I.M.







paint...paint...paint...

I am enjoying watching the build process on this plane. Thanks for the updates.


Wheels

looking very nice so far IM...

gibbo
can u create round wheels m8..
flyright managed this using a transparent
background somehow with his spads and DVII
given the amount of work that goes into these
models it's a shame the wheels let 'em down...

if a fix is poss...can then apply it to the
DR1, SE5 and the HP.....

John, you did a brilliant job on that model dude!!!

This one´s really looking fine - congrats

Hi Mike.

Many thanks for your tidy up of the skin. I love the varnished wood effect on the struts.

I'll tidy up the mapping now, and finish adding the wires to the wings. I ran out of nodes and elements building several sections of the model, which caused me a lot of headaches to overcome.

Just a note to myself. When building rotary engine, do no code the Elements 143/1/2. Just code the Nodes/Normals 1 and set the insert code 1.

Good, now I won't forget, and I might fix the Dr1 engine.

and out of curiosity Col, which 3dz section ran out of nodes???...was thinking this might be adapted to the 2 seater Vickers Gunbus or DH.1a if there were sufficient nodes left for the fuselage???

Ah, there is the problem FlyRight.

Tail section A.3dz 233 Elements 255 Nodes

Cockpit section B.3dz 184 Elements 254 Nodes

Nose section C.3dz 220 Elements 169 Nodes

Left Wing section E.3dz 171 Elements 177 Nodes

Right Wing section G.3dz 171 Elements 177 Nodes

Centre section & engine F.3dz 224 Elements 254 Nodes

Landing gear section P.3dz 94 Elements 145 Nodes

Total stats: 1297 Elements 1431 Nodes

You see there is not many Elements left to add a 3D gunner and his gun on the nose, and there are no more paste on 3dz's left, and there are still a few things I want to add.

I've given the motor a small bit of detail.






Tweak notes...
John, look at the cross section of the wings and fuselage (you can see the blue peaking through on the upper image). Then the panel under the motor and the area where the tail boom joins the upper wing.