Decaff's Garage

[decaff_42]

So I have the Philippines Map WIP here, but I wanted to show off some progress I've gotten in aircraft modding.
I'm mainly using blender and learning a lot by experimenting and reading the tutorials here.

Here's some pics from the F-18 Aggressor pack I'm working on. I got the A models finished up, but currently working on the B models

A Model in a 3 tank configuration:


Splicing the B cockpit into the A model to reduce painting time...


B model canopy: Expanding it to 3-d and going to add mirrors for the REO

[Bombcat]

Looks like it's coming along nicely. I really like what you've done with the B cockpit, as we've a shortage of good high quality twin seat legacy hornets. It's a rather esoteric genre, I know, but I'm quite fond of the look of those birds.

[Shiny Rice]

I recommend you to use one of the new features that this year's YS has, you can do a fuel tank with a skin only for those planes. I recommend you to do that instead of putting prop tanks in there and increasing the fuel capacity in the .dat.

[iqmal_97]

Now that's one sexy hornet you got there.
Kurosaki is also making the aggressor hornets..or was making...

Here.

Anyways, keep up the good work. It's indeed nice to see another twin-seater jet joining my YsFlight folder.

[decaff_42]

I recommend you to use one of the new features that this year's YS has, you can do a fuel tank with a skin only for those planes. I recommend you to do that instead of putting prop tanks in there and increasing the fuel capacity in the .dat.

I made the center line tank part of the model so that it wouldn't be dropped. The other ones on the wings are drop tanks from the MSJF pack (With permission) totally drop-able.

Now that's one spam hornet you got there.
Kurosaki is also making the aggressor hornets..or was making...

Here.

Anyways, keep up the good work. It's indeed nice to see another twin-seater jet joining my YsFlight folder.

Yeah that was my inspiration. Seeing as that video was made a while ago, i figured I would make my own to fly...



The only thing I really don't know how to do is make an F1 viewpoint for the REO. Gonna have to go file diving to reverse engineer that!

[waspe414]

EXCAMERA "NAME" 0.0m 0.0m 0.0m 0deg 0deg 0deg INSIDE

[decaff_42]

Many thanks Waspe!

[Flake]

*RIO?

[decaff_42]

woo just learned how to add in-game animations.
Got the canopy to rise up with the wingtips.

Just a few more things to get the pack to completion.


Also beginning to work on some Soviet anti-ship missiles. (Yay Tom Clancy novels!)

[Cobalt09]

I am literally watering at the mouth for these Aggressors!!!!!! Great job Decaff!!!!

[VNAF ONE]

That is a sexy F-18. Make sure you use an accurate .dat! It'd be amazing to fly with considering I'm in the midst of it now.

[decaff_42]

I'm using the MSJF dat with some minor edits for the fuel tanks. If you want to take a look and make some suggestions, the files are in my dropbox.

-- Sat Oct 27, 2012 1:50 am --

Here's some pics of my AS-6 Kingfish Soviet Anti-ship missiles on a Tu-22M3 Backfire C from the CEP2 pack.

Is there a way to remove the hard edges and smooth them over? I've been looking thru the blender scripts but didn't see one.

[Shiny Rice]

Try an option located at the bottom of the program, called "Set Smooth". It should do the trick.

[decaff_42]

Final revision on the Kingfisher missile. Added the Soviet Red Star on each wing, smoothed out the body, and added the band forward of the wing.
@ Rise & Shine: Thanks for the tip! I tried that before, but I think that I was in the object mode rather than edit mode when I tried it before.





F/A-18 Aggressor Pack Help Needed!

If anyone would be willing to help me out, I am stumped as to why I get this error in my Aggressor Pack.


The lst line:

Code: Select all

user/decaff_42/aircraft/FA-18_Aggressor_Pack/FA-18C_MSJF_coll.srf

That is the exact filepath in my YSF folder, so I'm stumped.

Anyway, the files are in my Modding Team dropbox folder if you would like to take a look.

[Scarecrow]

Decaff,

Your Hornets look stunning. Just some points to establish the difference between F/A-18 A/B / C/D Hornets.

The C/D Hornets have an antenna on the back spine that is slanted back. This goes for the antennas below the aircraft on the nose portion. C/D Hornets also have little "herpes" bumps right before the split of the spine where it then goes to canopy.

The A/D Hornets have the antenna straight up, this also goes for below as well. They don't have the bumps right before the canopy, either. There are some upgraded models known as F/A-18A+ 's which have that slanted antenna on the spine, but does not have the bumps prior to the canopy.

I have yet to see a good F/A-18B / D model besides the older S.C. model from years ago. Very excited about what you have here. Always wanted a good Blue Angel #7 jet that actually "matches" the rest of the fleet.

[decaff_42]

So in the photo below, you would say that the middle aircraft is an A model, and the others are C models, and the far plane is a D model?

I also noticed that the middle plane only has one bump on the side of the fuselage forward of the canopy, while the others have 2 (see the black plane for the white bumps that are easily seen)

Since it seems like the planes I painted are actually C models, and the picture shows these camos on C models, I'll have some C models in the pack. If there are no other visible changes besides the bumps and the dorsal antenna, I'll convert the C model to an A model. I don't know what I'll do with it yet.


Hornet Aggressor Pack: To do list
I need to make the decals on the tails and shrink wrap them onto the planes.
I noticed when I painted the canopies on the single seat planes, I painted the insides as well by accident. I'll have to repaint those.
Add Marines/Navy name between wing and stabilizer, below the tail on each side. Black models will be Marines, others will be Navy.

[iqmal_97]

The C/D Hornets have an antenna on the back spine that is slanted back. This goes for the antennas below the aircraft on the nose portion. C/D Hornets also have little "herpes" bumps right before the split of the spine where it then goes to canopy.

The A/D Hornets have the antenna straight up, this also goes for below as well. They don't have the bumps right before the canopy, either. There are some upgraded models known as F/A-18A+ 's which have that slanted antenna on the spine, but does not have the bumps prior to the canopy.

That's actually a pretty good way to differentiate between the C/D and A/D Hornets. Previously, I thought that the only difference between them was mostly internal. And Decaff, yes, the middle one does look like an A model when compared to the others. Hope this project would be smooth sailing for you. Best wishes.

[decaff_42]

Spent a couple hours on this:


Any idea how to flip the bottom text around so that it can read from left to right?
Looks really weird the way it is now.

I inserted a circle curve and used it as the curve for the upper and lower text. The upper text works fine, but the lower text retains the upper's orientation and has to be rotated to the current position.

[Martin-Dutchie]

Is it possible to invert the curve to make the text switch orientation? Aaand you wrote school with 3 o's

[decaff_42]

Okay, It's fairly round about, but you can point the text to the center of a circle.

1.)Reset Blender
2.)Create a Circle Curve and scale it up
3.)Create a font object and type your message. Go head and set your extrude on the font.
NOTE: Extrude a significant amount. It will make step 7 much easier.
4.)Convert the font to a mesh.
5.)Add a curve modifier to the font.
6.)Type the name of the curve into the OB filed of the curve modifier.
By default you will get outside text. To get inside text switch from X to negativeX (-X) in the curve modifier conttrol panel.
7.) To get 2-D text, go to a side view and use ctrl-LMB to drag an arch over the points you want to delete. You will have to do this several times, and make sure you are using vertex mode.

I've also started to add some other details to make the plane more awesome!