The B-1B Lancer

[Maj. Numbskully]

I know ! .....I know!..................when he's done

 

[mwilson914]

LOL. It will be a while yet before it's on the swaps. I can't seem to get the time I need to move at a faster pace. Those that know me well, know that I won't consider something complete until I run it into the ground, repeatedly, and then even a bit more.

I've been smart this time around, and have my collision mesh already complete, so I have no surprises waiting later. Everytime I look at my poly count, I know all remaining polys are going strictly for graphical needs.

 

[rcdude07]

+1, given your history, this will be right up there with the other models.

 

[mwilson914]

Just a quick screeny before going to bed.

Yes I had an incident with the tree as you can see in the last shot. This is going to be a major setback getting this uploaded to the swaps.

 

[mwilson914]

A couple more I guess.

 

[mwilson914]

I had an ok main gear set yesterday, but I wasn't 100% happy with it. I thought I just needed to tweak it a bit to get it to look better animated, but I thought the function was ok enough.

Sitting on things does a lot to persistant men that like to drive everything they touch into the ground, dig it up, and re-drive it into the ground a few more times and over again. So I re-configured the operation of my landing gear. I haven't 100% set myself to the hierarchy or pivots, nor have I set up the NUP values for over 50% of the new edit.

Here is the beast of a left gear for you to look at and feel sick to your stomach like me, thinking about animating it.

 

[mwilson914]

My B-1B, if not corrupted (monthly hardware diagnostics started running in the background on the physical memory) has a functional landing gear out of that huge mess in my last update. However, I get tons of red errors if I try to make the last few parts "~CS_GD2_xxx" objects with the rest of the gear being the LG, LW and GD1 objects.

I want to bring the whole landing gear into the fuselage on the GD2 objects timing, but appearantly RF doesn't like multiple GD1 objects being children of a GD2 object. I have the GD1_LG strut as a child of a GD2_STRUT_PIVOT and it works fine. I just can't get the other sections to do the same for some reason. I'll look to see if I can maybe add a delay parameter as a NUP value to the final animated pivots of the landing gear in the mean time.

Wish me luck.

 

[Keith Lowe]

Nimrod

Hello all, just to put the record straight on the RAF Nimrod, it was named after Nimrod the "Mighty Hunter" great, great grandson of Noah and reflects the role of this aircraft being a maritime patrol aircraft with detection and attack capabilities.
I can see that it has a derogatory context in the U.S. but not here in the U.K.
Keith.

No kidding. It didn't stop the RAF naming a large jet the "Nimrod". I still chuckle everytime I think of that awesome aircraft.

 

[mwilson914]

That's good history. Growing up, I just got used to hearing kids call each other names like nimrod, amoung a plethira of other names and loose terms. I had never thought back to remember any of these names to find any meaning, but now that I know this one, I wonder why it got used to belittle someone.

Oh well. Now I know.

 

[mwilson914]

THANK GOD! I am almost done with the gear mechanics. My hierarchy, pivots, NUPs, etc. are pure agonizing hell, but, I'm happy with my results. I only have one last gear segment to perform a very minor tweak on.

After setting up the main landing gears, I realize now that creating a complex transformer in Realflight is entirely possible. Serious!

 

[mwilson914]

Front landing gear. I just realized the bottom part of the gear has a rogue NUP value and is folding in on itself. LOL.

 

[mwilson914]

I have to call it a night unfortunately. I have to modify the main gear doors as they are smaller than what I have them made. No big deal, I'll be able to eliminate a tiny bit of the complexity of the retract process, eventhough I already defeated it.

I started in on the crew's entrance and I have a plan on how to create some of the required details without over-doing it on the polys.

You can see the door behind the steering gear for the crew's ladder.

 

[mwilson914]

As a sort of note to myself, I see exactly what I did wrong with the main gear door segments, besides splitting the middle and bottom segments in half. The large bottom segment should actually be attached along with the largest door which opens towards the middle. The last section of door cover attached to the leading strut, needs to be cut from the fuselage in front of the main wheel well. This allows the gear to hinge forward, without cutting/ghosting through the belly of the fuselage. LOL.

 

[maxx2504]

Hi wilson !

Your Lancer looks very good so far ! What size will it have or wingspan ?


maxx

 

[mwilson914]

Hi wilson !

Your Lancer looks very good so far ! What size will it have or wingspan ?


maxx

Currently it's approximately 10 1/2 feet, but I might make it slightly larger. It is a lot smaller in comparison to the B-58 Hustler model. I think if I base the B-1 on a real life giant scale B-1 model I found on the web, that would be ideal. I'll post links when I get back to my desk, but the model I am referring to is around 18 feet long if my memory is correct. That model utilizes four P200 Jetcats, so I can easily apply those specs to my model.

It was thanks to that guy's model that I was finally able to observe the mechanical function of the main gears yesterday, so it would be a sort of tribute to his hard work.

 

[mwilson914]

http://www.b1modelproject.com/

Found the link from my phone.

 

[helohero]

Top secret high speed testing caught at an unspecified airport taken by an anonymous onlooker with a very fast camera.

 

[maxx2504]

http://www.b1modelproject.com/

Found the link from my phone.

Interesting ! I hope this thing will be fly realistic. Otherwise i will change the physics as i always do. Much airplanes on the swaps fly unrealistic in my view.

You may also take much time for your texture. WIll be a lot of work i think. Many details on this bird...


maxx

 

[mwilson914]

Interesting ! I hope this thing will be fly realistic. Otherwise i will change the physics as i always do. Much airplanes on the swaps fly unrealistic in my view.

You may also take much time for your texture. WIll be a lot of work i think. Many details on this bird...


maxx

Maxx,

If you can get this thing to fly better with the wings in both positions, I will gladly accept your physics. Right now, I have it flying the best I can get it and fly stable. RF doesn't like the swept wing aircraft as it gets confused calculating the physics. I'll send you the EA and an AV I created of a 1/8th scale version like the model from the link I posted. I only started on the 1/8th scale AV today and haven't brought it to spec yet, so it's not finished in my hands yet.

 

[Keith Lowe]

Lancer

Hi Matt, just a line to say it looks like another masterpiece from you is shortly to appear and I'm really looking forward to it.
Keith Lowe.

Maxx,

If you can get this thing to fly better with the wings in both positions, I will gladly accept your physics. Right now, I have it flying the best I can get it and fly stable. RF doesn't like the swept wing aircraft as it gets confused calculating the physics. I'll send you the EA and an AV I created of a 1/8th scale version like the model from the link I posted. I only started on the 1/8th scale AV today and haven't brought it to spec yet, so it's not finished in my hands yet.