'Rainmaker' - Avro Lancaster

[Bf109_g]

Nice work!

 

[Wurger]

Cool.

 

[Becco_UK]

Bf109_g, Wurger: Thanks.

A small update with a fairly basic interior added to the front of the 'Raimaker' which extends back to the astro dome glass - it's all a plain zinc primate colour yet until I sort out a UV map. I used this preview to try a different HDR image for the scene lighting.

 

[Bf109_g]

Hey Becco.

Got a question, aren't the mission markers around the wrong way? Isn't the last row of bombs supposed to be on the left hand side? I may be wrong...

 

[Becco_UK]

Bf109_g: I thought the markers looked odd but I used the 'Just Jane' layout (which may have been done like that to miss the blue lettering?). I will check other refererance material before finalising the model.

 

[gterl]

Outstanding stuff! Verrryy goood!

I'm I correct if I assume that the upper- and tail-turret are not finished yet?
Are the 'legs' not to black? Should'nt they look like aluminium a bit more?

Also: since it's fictional you may want to apply the 'gas patch' ? (I always thought it kind of funy) or a H2S dome?

sorry I guess it's still WIP and I'm already picky....my fault

rgds
gt

 

[Becco_UK]

gterl: Thank you for commenting. The upper and tail turrets have yet to be finished - only the tail turret has any sort of detail out of them. Those will get some attention when I finish the interior. I am not sure what a 'gas patch' is? I also saw quite a few reference images depicting 'silver' undercarriage legs but in the end I opted for the colours shown in images at Kiwi Aircraft Images . However I tend to agree that a more metal like finish may look better, even with the black colour retained - I will try adding adding a small percentage of 'metal' to the material used for the undercarriage.

 

[Becco_UK]

gterl: This is what I mean by adding some metal to the Maxwell Render material being used - in this example, made some time ago, it uses a 95% reflective black colour with 5% of Chrome IOR (Index Of Refraction) data added. So using a different metal with the existing undercarriage material should make things a bit more visually realistic.

 

[gterl]

Gas Patch:

lookee lookee
Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums - PA474's New Markings (Spoilers!)

can't find more reference on the internet at the moment....sorry, will check later

rgds
gt

 

[Becco_UK]

gterl: Thanks for the 'gas patch' info. Also, seeing that Lancasters' nose art reminded me to post a fictional one I started but decided not to use. This one is a woman with wolf features wearing the usual red/orange swimsuit. Didn't get used because the I thought viewers would think the woman was the 'Rainmaker' and not the aircrart itself.

 

[gterl]

Becco,

sorry sorry sorry this is purely my personal opinion....

I've seen this nose-art style on different occasions (art, sim's, etc.) and , like yours, ....they don't look right....sorry. They look too modern, they should look like Varga Pin-Ups and not like computer generated 3d models, or pictures with 'modern' style stuff on it....like tatooed ladies, etc.
Pls have a look here if you need further ideas and pls keep in mind, that the artists usually where no pro's.

432 Nose Art

ps: love the 'pistol packing mama'

rgds and sorry for my (hopefully not too much) destructive criticism

gterl

 

[Becco_UK]

gterl: Thank you for the points you made. As mentioned in my earlier post the example nose art I made didn't get past the idea stage and will not feature on the finished project.

 

[Becco_UK]

Found some time today to get the 'Rainmaker' interior a bit more detailed and almost ready for painting. Still looks a bit sparse but I'm hoping some detail can be included into the textures.

 

[rogthedodge]

That's amazing stuff. When I see 'modelling' I think airfix etc. obviously I'm the wrong century

My Grandfather built Lancs (AVRO Woodford) - can't help thinking how amazed he'd be to see this.

 

[Becco_UK]

rogthedodge: Thanks. Although 3D computer models can look nice you don't get to hold them in the hand. I use software called Cinema4D for modelling but for anyone wishing to have a go at 3D there are some good powerful and free programs about ie: Blender ( blender.org - Home ).

 

[Becco_UK]

I've got used to the front view of previous preview renders and have decided to use that for a future completed render.

The runway arrows are simple painted polygon objects positioned slightly above the runway - I chose that method because the runway uses tiled texture and normal maps.

The tree line presented problems because the original maintenance hangar image was taken some time ago and I needed to extend this across the horizon. I waited for a day when lighting conditions were similar and took a few photo's of some local trees. Then in Paint Shop Pro used those photos to paint another 3 images for use on billboards. Needs a bit of tidying up but will look better when finished.

I also kept thinking that the front pistons of the bomb bay door rams didn't look correct. The solution was simple - I hadn't applied a material! Now they are shiny chrome using Maxwells' chrome IOR data.

 

[mosquitoman]

That's amazing! Is there a possibility of seeing her taxi down the runway in a short clip? Because that would be good.

 

[Becco_UK]

mosquitoman: Thank you. I might do a small animation later down the line. I need to finish the model and get some static images done first. For the animation idea you describe I found a nice Cinema4D expression (MoXPig from MoXPig for CINEMA 4D )to use - I always had trouble calculating rotation of wheels as they travelled over ground - with this expresion applied to the wheels I only have to define a path for the object/s to travel and the expression sorts out the correct rotation per frame of travel.

A similar preview to the previous one with a few changes:

Finished the UV map and painting of the partial interior I made earlier. This took much longer than I thought and ended up using 250+ polygon selection tags which was a mind numbing excercise. Still. it's done now. The main interior colour is a very dark green which when rendered looks more realistic than my earlier green zinc primate colour.

The smoke texture I used for the upper wing surface was used for the engine smoke staining to the lower wings and engine panels - painted on a seperate layer, lightened, blured, smeared and the layer opacity lowered to around 50%. It looks sort of ok at replicating the typical greyish coloured British aircraft exhaust smoke staining (caused by the fuel composition).

Made some small adjustments to the materials, mainly lowerering their roughness values and increasing reflective properties.

The material of the landing struts now uses a low (8%) weighted layer of tungsten Index Of Refraction to try to give them a more painted metal appearance.

Next bit to do is adding some rivet lines to the bump maps and trying a few ideas for a stressed metal effect (the aircraft looks far to smooth lined at present).

 

[Bf109_g]

Hey Becco!

The picture looks amazing! Can't wait to see if there is going to be a video of it going down the runway.

 

[comiso90]

very impressive