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my DC-8 Project

Would you like me too...

  • Release the DC8 series in sequence with no VC, only wing views; then the VC comes as an update.

    Votes: 10 47.6%

  • Keep working until the VCs are complete, this may take a very long time!!

    Votes: 11 52.4%
  • Total voters
    21
n4gix said:
The only thing I've located from a search is an illustrated manual for the DC-8-60 series "landing gear." At $100 it's not only expensive, but somewhat risky since I assume no refunds in case it's not what you really need... :(

http://www.eflightmanuals.com/detail/itemList.asp?page=3&cID=4748
Click to expand...

PERFECT!!

I didn't even know this existed!! n4gix thanks bud, that will help a lot. I'll have to wait till next week to start purchasing some of those goodies, I don't mind the wait.

I'll continue work on the wheel wells and doors as these I have enough at hand.

I'll just have to risk it on this one.

Oh no ...

Thvgjp From Ukraine, joined Mar 2002, 158 posts, RR: 0
Posted Wed Sep 22 2004 03:47:05 your local time (7 years 2 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 872 times:
In August I ordered 2 flight manuals from the website eflightmanuals.com. I put both on my credit card and got a confirmation. Later the person who runs the site a Jim Burnham sends me an email documenting the order and requests a check be sent to his address. My credit card co had no record of the transaction so I mailed off the check. This person endorsed and cashed the check it cleared, no manuals yet after about a month or so. I e mailed this place twice asking whats the problem, no response. A website called thecomplaintstation.com has a bout 10 seperate complaints about this guy recently. Has anyone ever dealt with this Jim Burnham or his website, is he legit? Or is he just a moron who has crappy buisiness skills, if he does have crappy buisiness skills this should be a encouragement to anybody wanting to come to America and open there own business, If a jackass like this can make it anybody can. This guy has 10 days to get me my things or the postal authorities will be notified and charges pressed.
Click to expand...

I knew it was too good to be true...
 
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Thanks for the great help guys, thanks to you all I now have all I need, I believe to model the landing gears. I will only model what is immediately visible to the eye, there is no way I'm modeling in all those pipes, there are almost a zillion of those things inside the assembly, lol!
 
JPetroSS said:
Wow, this is going so well and so faster than I had expexted ;)
Can't wait to fly this beauty!
Click to expand...

Yes, thanks to all the great support I get here! :)

I see the polls are 50/50 again! I think we already know how this is going to end, we have a very divited group of indivuals, some aren't in a hurry to get a VC others want to see it get done first if they don't get to fly the DC8.

Anyway, time for an update...progress with the landing gears has been some what slow, it is usually like this when a major change/addition is progressing followed by a stream of refinements to improve on it.

2u8ld1l.png


Remember that none of this is final and it is constantly changing as I model the parts. Here you set a set of 4 tires, the start of the main landing gear wheelwell, the main landing gear doors [not completed] currently animated to the deployed position in order to see inside, etc.

Next to follow, creating the cut out under the wing to continue adding detail around this area. The main gear struts and other parts will slowly follow after that.

I'm taking a break now, keep tuned for updates later.
 
Another update...

4kwo6c.png


The wing camber at the top had to be adjust just slightly to accomodate the size of the main gear strut which is not completed and is just a plain cylinder at the moment, it's been a while since I've used a cylinder!

The wing root bottom area will also need to be slightly enlarged because the tires protude slightly out of the main gear doors in the stowed position. I've run into problems like this before with some of my fantansy aircraft, the issues will be worked out enventually.

Well, I'm talking a break, watching Aliens right now :)
 
you're the master ;)

one question, are you using editable mesh or editable poly??

nice work :cool:
 
JCRL said:
you're the master ;)

one question, are you using editable mesh or editable poly??

nice work :cool:
Click to expand...

I never work DIRECTLY with triangles [Editable Mesh] I usually convert completed spline cages to [Editable Poly] you see triangles in the wing root because I am controling the smoothing that way to obtain good results but it is an [Editable Poly]

Developers can convert their completed projects to [Editable Mesh] if they wish to BUT this is a waste of time; MakeMDL optimizes and triangulizes the mesh ... [Edit Poly] does have triangles, you just can't see them unless you mess around with a setting called 'Edit Triangulation'

Edit Mesh does have its advantages such as being able to 'Extrude' edges but I've NEVER used this feature in any of my modeling work. I have always worked with either 'Spline' cages/frame and Editable Poly.

The wingroot was a 'Spline' cage/frame which was skinned using 'Planes' but before the start of skinning, I convert the plane to [Editable Poly] to access the available 'Vertices' in that mesh geometry.

I also DID NOT use booleans to cut out the landing gear doors. I simply created new vertices using Divide and then used cut to create new lines. Hence, sometimes I may choose to create some triangles to control the smoothing and give the geometry a nicer look.

I am not supposed to be talking about techniques here anyway but glad I could share with you.
 
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Last update for the night, got a tremendous amount of work completed.

- Adjusted wing root to accomodate landing gear doors.
- Modified wing root mesh.
- Completed main landing gear wheelwell [may still need work]
- Completed main gear strut housing under wing area.
- Main landing gear struts almost completed.
- Objects linked; landing gear door panels, etc.

Some pictures...

34gohzr.png

Nothing is final and may continue to be refined.

o6wd2g.png

I am loving those inlet ports.

Work on the landing gears is still not completed. I still have to add in the rest of the support struts, some hydraulic stuff. The assembly that connects to the tires, etc.

Landing gear system work may continue for the next two weeks, before I'm completely satisfied with the way it works and looks.

Later folks. Getting my mind off 3D modeling and playing some games for a change. Have fun!
 
So happy!

I'm so happy to see that someone has finaly decided to make high quality DC-8!
It looks perfect so far and I hope you'll finish not only this fantastic bird but other series of DC-8!
So far so PERFECT! :O
 
rasha01 said:
I'm so happy to see that someone has finaly decided to make high quality DC-8!
It looks perfect so far and I hope you'll finish not only this fantastic bird but other series of DC-8!
So far so PERFECT! :O
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the great feedback! :-]

Update for tonight...

sxg9yb.png


Really slow progress with this stuff because the parts are so small but I'm pulling through slowly.

Still much work to do, as you can see, I'm keeping the polygon count very low around this area while still maintaining a good appearance. I think everyone will agree, 3d modeling is really tedious when you get into details with small parts assembly like these. :speanut:

One trouble some fact about animating landing gears is the animation can be tedious, easy to do but not so fun when MakeMDL tells you, hey...you've got a scale applied at blah blah, you reset only to ruin the animation pivots, so before animation a tip to those learning ... lock your landing gear in the deployed position and reset all of the transforms, export, if all is fine, then ANIMATE or you'll be pulling your hairs.

Later folks.
 
Last update for the week, I won't have another till next week. Work will continue with the landing gears until all work is completed in those areas, then I'll post some pictures when completed, so don't be alarmed if you do not see any activity/updates here for the next two weeks or so.

6qhbty.png


I got distracted a couple of hours ago and actually did work on the engines. Fixed the reverse thruster sliders thanks to several pictures provided by some here! Work is not finished with the engines yet but they are close to being finsihed, however my focus is not on them for the next two weeks!

I will be busy with the landing gears, take care everyone, as usual if I need any help, I may pop in for a visit.

See you in the next two weeks!
 
You better get that to extend/retract correctly! Don't make like some planes I saw where the whole gear is rigid and the parts simply go through the tires and the fuselage. It's really annoying... :eek:
 
Just wanted to update everyone that at HJG we spotted a flaw in our design of the DC8 wing root. Just hang on tight as I begin the re-design work around the wing root and wing to implement our new findings, all this in the effort to achieve an accurate looking DC8.

As of this time, further work on the landing gear system has been halted due to the upcoming modifications.

I also came to the conclusion that the wing thickness at the wing root was also incorrect after fully implementing the landing gears, parts where going through the top of the wing by very small amounts, after comparison with some blue prints the flaw was found.

Thanks for tuning in guys, when I am done with all this madness, I'll have some pictures but not any time soon.
 
Well, it's been a while but not much has been completed, just mostly corrections to the overall model. I am still working on the landing gears and just finished a proto-type to implement into my DC8.

a4cb4.png


I am happy with this new linkage system as there is a bit more detail and enthusiasm by me put into it. The previous one just didn't feel right to me and look too crappy.

This system has to be implemented in the "deployed" position and then animated very carefully.

By the way a little secret. MOst of you have talked about the inability to mirror multiple animations or have had to go through tedious tasks to do it. It's really simple actually. Just group the entire linkage of animated parts together and then clone a copy, rotate this copy 180 degrees in its present location, then apply a mirror modifier to the Group stack itself, all off the animations are now "inverted" and the components now mirrored properly with out any errors, you also changed all of the internal component pivots this way, so you did all the work "at once". Position your new system in its proper location and ungroup, no retarded animations, I can guarantee you that ... this is my technique, all well kept secret of mine but probably not something of a big deal, just wanted to share it with you guys. You can use this with entire landing gear assemblies with probably very 'minimal' adjustments, if any.

Got a good weekend coming and I should have much work completed to show soon.

See you guys later, updates will now resume on occassion.

UPDATE ::

I have now implemented the system into the DC8, last time I meant to say "deployed" now "stowed". Very minimal adjustments to part sizes where made and I have achieved the results I was looking for. A linkage system that closely resembles that of the real DC8 with very minimal polygons.

117ejqq.png


The next step now is to implement the animation into the linkage. I am happy of this great progress, you get better results when you don't rush into things.

The animation for the landing ear linkage will be posted on my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/faostube if you haven't already visited, pop in for a visit and stay tuned for the link that will demonstrate the animation of this system which, should be pretty neat. This will also be followed by another scene of the DC8 in the flight simulator testing out the animation in FlightSim, all should be fun to watch.

Again, thanks for reading and being with me as I create this DC8, it has been very challening but I've managed to pull through thanks to the great help you guys offer here and a great special thanks to HJG on my behalf, they have helped much too in so little time, I would not be this far if it were not for you guys. I see the thread is almost reaching 10,000+ views ... I'm not sure what to make of that but its enough to motivate me to post updates as I know 'thousands' are visiting to see progress on this great bird, thanks guys!
 
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