Dev Diary F-14D Tomcat 3D - 2019 Update and Renders

Small update of what's to come:

• model has been submitted to Radium a while back and is in his dev cue, potential ETA H2 2019

• while I'm sorting out my artwork for the old model's textures I've been converting them to 2048/4096

• panel lines, rivets and other texture details are done for the entire bird in 2048+ quality

• for the time being I'm working on the remaining hard surface modeling parts: finish gun/integration into front fuselage, refueling probe, engine nozzle geometry, nozzle and main landing gear geometry so they can rotate freely as intended

• anti collision lights all around were never really finished or modeled (on the wings)

• few details in the wings (some cleaning up, actuators, pivot point)

I'll do all of this in Blender but have successfully imported the model into MAX and this can easily be done without losing any part of the model.

Since I started this I've learned a bit about 3D modeling and how to model with subdivision. Obviously this was not the case here and doing it all over is unfeasible. That said, the frantic need to save tris when modeling this without subdivision has actually lead to a fairly detailed model that is quite light on overall geometry.

Here are a few more renders so if anyone notices anything out of the norm or where things can be optimized please let me know as this thing is loaded in Blender on my WS at all times.

In other news that cove door creates more issues:

And my object groups:

Small update before getting into modeling any new parts I started a cleanup...if I had only known the 'knife tool' a few years back .

• gun nozzle now integrated into front fuselage, to be welded in

• noticed an issue with the 'cove door', as you can see in shot #2 it rotates up as one part even if only the main flap is deployed, will have to check if in RL it is a two piece component

• materials on gunport and beaver tail antenna/fuel dump valve were badly assigned and now fixed, lots more materials to reduce/consolidate all around

• tail hook now has correctly assigned materials

• vertical tail assembly base and some other parts are not fully merged into the fuselage and throw some bad shadows all around, will have to smooth that out

So far so good, all relationships and moving parts look good and work as expected. Materials will be time consuming but straight forward. With my newly attained modeling skills I'll work on a few areas that gave me headaches back in the day especially around the wing root, wing glove box and front fuselage. Also rendering tools, scenes cams and lights are very let's say rudimentary and will be updated so I can document progress quicker and easier.

On the import into BMS, I now understand the tutorials and videos a bit more having pushed one of my models through an export from Blender, import into editor and export into game with my model for Assetto Corsa. So while I appreciate it is a very different sim and tool environment I'll still give it a try to see if I can get through to the materials, switches, DOFs stage in MAX and then to the editor.

Hooking...

Also update the materials and objects around the beavertail and hook...

Also just got my Lenovo W530 Workstation built and set up, will post separately about that. That said this render takes around 20 minutes on the i5 T430s and 3.5 mins on the i7 3840qm W530 :)

Steem on and more to come soon!