Raptor 3D Project - Edits 05

The wing is looking good...

This is one of the most unique wing shapes I've ever created, and it wasn't easy. The wing has anhedral, added to by an unusual curvature, along with aerodynamic twist (washout) and of course, the unusual fit with the tailerons. Everything affects everything else, which is what made it tricky. The wing leading edge meets the forward fuselage at the rather obvious "chine" area, and the trailing edges meet at the center of the zeroed-out tailerons. That was tricky to maintain, with all the other angles going on, but thanks to the old Revell model cross sections, I was able to figure it out.

With these next few steps, the wing is in position and looking pretty good. I'll keep refining it (and everything else) as I go, but it's in good enough shape to take care of a few details. First, the wing had to be smoothed out and corrected a bit, after merging the test part with the Revell-scanned "ribs".

Boolean cutters in place, (RED) to cut the wing tip angle and (root end) flap inboard angle

Viewed from below, just after those cuts, double-checking the fit with the tailerons

(The wing-to-fuselage joint and fairing will be done later.)

The wingtip edges will be refined as we move on.

In the front view, the wing shape now matches the Lockheed-Martin drawings.

Prepping to join the wing to the fuselage, and cut the control surfaces out...

Thought you might enjoy a larger image here, to see some details. Although I'm not making the cuts described below right now, it's important to think ahead about the wing-joining and control surface cutouts. So, here, the newly-created wing is in position, with a variety of boolean cutters in place. The cutter in RED creates the scale wing/fuselage seam. The WHITE cutter will be used to separate the leading edge flap, and the BLUE cutters will remove the flaps and ailerons. (This image includes the tail parts, which I created next.)

Coming right along...

Click the "Edits 06" link below, to continue.