Create a Wing, V-stab or H-stab........

pplace

Well-known member
DH mentioned he was having troubles shaping his A-26 V-Stab. I described the process I personally use (I'm not saying this is the correct or the best method) but it has been good to me.....so in the following posts I will describe the best I can what each attachment is showing.

I will try and break each post into a certain task (so not all posts will contain the max 5 attachments)

I will be creating half of a main wing in the following example. The same process applies for creating H-Stabs......and usually V-Stabs as well.

1. I did some research and found out the particular aircraft I'm modeling had a root airfoil NACA 23016. Some 3-views have the outlined airfoil on them already. This set did not, so I searched and found the correct airfoil and imported and placed it correctly in my 3-views.

I started with a cube and roughly sized it to the correct width and height of the airfoil.

2. I then started adding verts to the cube and lining them up around the airfoil. The only one I truly care about the position is the trailing edge (center it up nicely on the edge) The others I just add as many I feel necessary to give me a nice flowing edge around the airfoil. (They do not have to correspond top to bottom).....place WHEREEVER you feel they are needed.

I admit to probably using more verts than really needed......but I'd prefer to waste some polys so I can have a nice smooth wing when finished. There is nothing worse than a squared off wing airfoil

3. Same as 2 except I hid the 23016 airfoil image and also switch to "vert" mode so you can see my placement of each vert in order to achieve the correct shape.

Continued in next post.........
 

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1. I am now looking from the bottom straight up. I now cut my cube in half, in order to find the exact center line of the aircraft. (more on this later)

If you look closely you can see the selected blue edge on the outer edge of the wing. This is where I placed my 23016 airfoil image. I did this because of the "fillet" that begins to enlarge and transition into the fuse. I personally like to start in a "clean" area of the wing with no curves or transitions in the leading or trailing edges. (I will eventually come back and shape from that point inwards towards the fuse....and get the correct "fillet" shape)

2. With the end surface selected "extrude" the wing out towards the tip. I prefer to stop short of the end. This way I can get the majority of the wing shaped, then later come in and refine the tip. Here you can see I also made use of the aileron edge. Eventually I will use that partial edge to outline and "cut" my ailerons free.

3. I now scaled the wing width (only on Z axis) and matched to 3-views.

Continued in next post.........
 

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1. I have now switched to looking straight from the front. You can see how the wing currently has no dihedral or taper.

2. I scaled the tip (on Y axis only) and also moved it up to match the 3-views.

Continued in next post.........
 

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1. Once again I have switch to the bottom view. I have now added a row of verts (on X axis)

2. Now scaled to the proper width (again ONLY on the Z axis for now, later switch to front view and scale on Y axis)

Take note I once again took advantage of the opposite aileron edge. This will also be used when I outline and cut the aileron out eventually.

Repeat until you have achieved desired outline of wing from top / bottom.

3. I have jumped ahead and added more rows of "X axis" verts. Scaled properly to the Z and Y axis. In addition to that I rotated each row to the angle of the dihedral (not a necessary step....but I like to maintain the correct angles throughout) This will come in handy later when you cut your ailerons and flaps out, the edges will be at the correct angle in relationship to the wing.

Continued in next post.........
 

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1. Jumping back out to the tip of the wing now. Now extrude the wing out to the tip of the 3-views.

2. Scale it on the Z axis only. I like to scale it really small....so I don't have flat spots on the end of my wings.

3. Repeat steps 1-3 from previous post...to finish shaping wing tip.

Continued in next post.........
 

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1. Again repeat same process. Scale on Y axis only and rotate to match dihedral angle.

Continued in next post.........
 

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1. Now refer back to post #2 description 1. I stated how I split the cube in half to find the exact center of the aircraft. The one half is now unneeded. Select the appropriate "half"

2. And Delete!

3. Finished wing is selected in "blue" (remaining portion for the "fillet" will be shaped in the same process)

4. When finished with half the wing, select the "root" surface.

5. And "Mirror" for a 100% identical and matching wing half!!
(Note my wing is not finished, I would then go back and delete one half the wing, do more shaping, outline and cut the ailerons, flaps etc, etc, etc....then mirror again. You only have to model half the aircraft, the rest can just be "mirrored"

Continued in next post.........???

If anyone is interested I could continue this with my process to outline, and cut the control surfaces. (Time permitting on my part....as that is left till the end of the modeling process for me)
 

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Creating a wing tutorial is currently finished. If interest is shown I can continue the process of control surfaces?
 
pplace said:
Creating a wing tutorial is currently finished. If interest is shown I can continue the process of control surfaces?
I think completing the control surfaces would be a good idea as well. Where there are some great tutorials on Modeling, they just don't show the "how to's" of this type of stuff. This thread should be a sticky and very helpful to new modellers. Wish it would have been around when I first started :p
 
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Thanks pplace! That's similar to what I do but with a lot of refinements that I never thought of. I particularly like the way you shape the wingtip, looks much simpler and faster than the way I have been doing it. Also I like the way you incorporate the cuts for the control surfaces while extruding the wing.

Here are some links to airfoils that may be useful to someone looking for a particular one.

This site has a .zip file at the top of the page containing 344 airfoils in .dwg:format:

http://www.davincitechnologies.com/AirfoilOptimizerStdAirfoils.htm


This site has a large list of airfoils, most with a .gif image:

http://www.ae.uiuc.edu/m-selig/ads/coord_database.html


This site has a generator that will let you generate any 4-digit NACA airfoil:

http://www.pagendarm.de/trapp/programming/java/profiles/NACA4.html

It would be nice if you could save the image but you can't do it :( What you can do though is take a screenshot then cut the airfoil out of it and save it.

You can also zoom in for a closer view, and scroll the image left/right or up/down. With a little effort you can get a nice large .jpg by zooming in on the front half, take a screenshot and save it, then scroll to the back half, save a screenshot, and finally cut out and composite the 2 halves in your favorite paint program. If you do this, it is helpful to bump up the "Point Size" slider in the generator app, this will draw small circles at each data point which is helpful in getting the different sections aligned correctly.

DH
 
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