Hello all,
Some of you may have heard of a game called Second Life. Its basically a world simulator, where the users create all content and you can basically do what you want to do. I myself am involved with several WW2 recreation squadrons. We do mock dogfights and escort missions and all that good stuff, and fly models of these aircraft in game.
I started building planes for in game flight about 2 years ago, and this question has repeatedly crossed my mind, but no more so than right now. See, I am building the BF 109F-4 model, and I built the 109 before, but I always thought that the fuselage height was too short. I was always including the landing gear in the down position as part of my height measurement. So for this build, I decided to try it the other way, and use the bottom of the fuselage as my measurement. While it looks more right, on paper at least, I have a major problem. The propeller hub of the 109, which is supposed to be perfectly round, is not winding up as perfectly round like it needs to be.
It doesn't wind up round with the landing gear all the way down either, but when I use the bottom tip of the propeller as my basis for the bottom of the aircraft's height measurement, it winds up being perfectly round like it needs to be, but I don't think that is correct either! In videos I've seen of the BF 109, the fuselage looks about 4 or 5 feet in height in my estimation, so it comes up to about the pilots chest if it were sitting on its belly I suppose. All of these images of the 109 look more robust and beefier than my model of it. Yet when I've built other models of aircraft and used the bottom of the landing gear as my height basis, they come out looking fine. Does it depend on the aircraft's country of origin? The problem has me going crazy.
Any help that could be given at this point would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Some of you may have heard of a game called Second Life. Its basically a world simulator, where the users create all content and you can basically do what you want to do. I myself am involved with several WW2 recreation squadrons. We do mock dogfights and escort missions and all that good stuff, and fly models of these aircraft in game.
I started building planes for in game flight about 2 years ago, and this question has repeatedly crossed my mind, but no more so than right now. See, I am building the BF 109F-4 model, and I built the 109 before, but I always thought that the fuselage height was too short. I was always including the landing gear in the down position as part of my height measurement. So for this build, I decided to try it the other way, and use the bottom of the fuselage as my measurement. While it looks more right, on paper at least, I have a major problem. The propeller hub of the 109, which is supposed to be perfectly round, is not winding up as perfectly round like it needs to be.
It doesn't wind up round with the landing gear all the way down either, but when I use the bottom tip of the propeller as my basis for the bottom of the aircraft's height measurement, it winds up being perfectly round like it needs to be, but I don't think that is correct either! In videos I've seen of the BF 109, the fuselage looks about 4 or 5 feet in height in my estimation, so it comes up to about the pilots chest if it were sitting on its belly I suppose. All of these images of the 109 look more robust and beefier than my model of it. Yet when I've built other models of aircraft and used the bottom of the landing gear as my height basis, they come out looking fine. Does it depend on the aircraft's country of origin? The problem has me going crazy.
Any help that could be given at this point would be much appreciated. Thank you.
