Raptor 3D Project - Edits 11

Preparation for making all the door and vent cutouts

It's not a wise idea to start making all the cutouts, unless the exterior shape is truly "finalized". The trouble would obviously be that if you edit the fuselage shape later, for example, some of those doors might not fit any more. So, although I"m preparing all the cutters, it will still be a few days more before I use them. There is more smoothing to do on the underside of the fuselage, at the wing joint, and also some shape refining to do where the horizontal stabilizers (tailerons) meet the fuselage. In the meantime, I've been busy making all the cutters.

Subtle, but important details fixed.

I've spent the last few days working hard on things you can barely see at this image size. That includes the upper and lower wing/fuselage joint, and details around the horizontal stabilizer/fuselage joint.

I've also rebuilt the intake ducts to a bit more realistic state. You'll see them later, in more cutaway images, and "assembly" animations. They're "tricky", because they have to (as on the actual aircraft) hide the engines' fan faces, and clear the internal weapons bays.

The next few images attempt to show you the results.

At the end of this project, I'll produce some scale-like texture maps for the whole aircraft. Certain items can be colored now, so I'm doing that as I move along. Here, for example, I"m starting to work on the various colors of the thrust vectoring nozzles.

I've redone the "bump" on the bottom of the fuselage where the main gear doors will be, and checked it with an animation, (below) to be sure that the gear retracts properly into that space.

I've added the vertical fin fillet on the outboard side of each vertical fin, and smoothed the rudder actuator housing a little. I've also refined the actuator housings on each side, for the horizontal stabilizers.

Starting to work on some cockpit detail. The instrument panel, instrument panel hood, and HUD have all been rebuilt, and are close, but not final.

I'll see what I can do with the ejection seat and side panels later. These things are a project themselves, so detail might be limited there. We'll see how it goes.

Here's an overall reference movie of the model as it stands today. (This animation loops.)

Final steps on the external geometry...

I'm nearly ready (and anxious) to make all the openings with the cutters, and start making this aircraft look really scale. There are just a few details to take care of first, and they include:

• A bit more smoothing at the front of the wing, where it meets the fuselage
• A bit more finesse on the tail/horizontal stabilizer joining area.
• Stealth-style beveling of the flap inboard edges and aileron edges
• The aircraft-wide "edge treatment" on all the flying surfaces, which makes them look very thin, by hiding the airfoil shapes at the tips
• Addition of the "bump" on the lower fuselage, just behind the nose gear doors. (a camera housing?)
• Addition of a (removable) "emergency arresting gear" pod at the rear of the aircraft

Of course, if any of you Air Force personnel or Lockheed-Martin employees want to point out other changes, (without violating any security issues!) please feel free!

The next update (in a day or two) will be the "doors and other openings" step, and that's when the aircraft will start to take on a much more realistic look.

Click the "Edits 12" link below, to continue.