my christen eagle II
 

Just looking for something to do so I decided to build a model of my Christen Eagle II. I built this plane almost 20 years ago. I spent just under 7 years working on it. I also owned a 1954 Cessna 170B.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...awaEagleII.jpg

Three view I grabbed from google images...
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...2_drawings.jpg

front 3/4 proxy start...
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_01.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_02.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_03.jpg

rear 3/4 Proxy start...
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_04.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_05.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_06.jpg

I figured I will slap a complete proxy together just to rough out the mass and form. Then I will go in and rebuild a detailed high-res version.

Hi ctbram
Nice start how long has it taken you to get to this stage I know you are fast, hope to see it flying soon.............dave

Shaping up very nicely.

Is this in Maya? Looks like, but not exactly like, Maya? Or is this Modo?

Yes, it is shaping up very nice. The plane looks like it would be very acrobatic! Looks like it will be fun!

It must be modo... Just from the view port :D
And yes keep it up watching this !

Thanks guys.

It's done in Maya. It's true I have been tinkering with modo but I still like Maya's workflow. What I have been doing lately is just exporting obj's to modo when there is a tool that I need like snap to background then send it back to Maya where I am more comfortable working. For this proxy level stuff I rarely need any of the specialized modo tools.

Dave - I'd say I spent about 40 minutes on these proxy level bits. You can see from the unsmoothed renders that and poly count is pretty low. I have been using a workflow where I build a proxy model as fast as I can. Then go back over and build on the proxy as a starting point to build a hi-res version.

The wing was just extruded from a hemisphere starting at a tip. I cut in the ailerons. Then used the upper wing with a lattice deformer to make the bottom wing.

The fuse was just a cube extruded starting at the tail and moving to the nose.

The horizontal stabs I just started with create polygon from a top view. Extruded for some thickness. Cut polygon to make the elevator, then cut in the trim tab. Finally I used a lattice to shape it a bit.

I use the same technique to make the wing struts. I probably spent more time setting up and making the renders then modeling. Not really trying to go fast just working on this when I am bored. Been in a bit of a modeling funk lately.

Alomost done with the proxy modeling.

To do:

- cabin struts
- cables and linkages
- propeller blades
- tail wheel spring and cables
- fuel cap
- cowling

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_13.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_14.jpg

Still have some proxy stuff left.

Roughed in the cowling. The shape is not correct. The cowling is a tough shape for me to model. I will go back and model the proper shape later.

Split the canopy up into the frame and the glass. This was quite fun. I created the full shape using birail 3+. Then tweaked it a bit with a lattice. Then trimmed the glass from the frame using a curve projection. Then converted from nurbs to polygon using "count". Then cleaned up the poly mesh and added thickness.

Modeled the 3-blade constant speed prop. It can be rigged.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_18.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_19.jpg

To do:

- tail wheel spring
- cabin struts
- wires and linkages
- misc surface details
- fuel cap

Most of the tail wheel asm. done. Just need to model the linkages.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_20.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_22.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x..._installed.jpg

Hi ctbram
Why was the couling hard to model, are there some shape that by there nature are hard than others to model, could you give us a close up wire frame...........looking good dave

The cowling I modeled is more like a ultimate 300 cowling. The eagle version just has some strange stuff going on around the air intakes that was throwing me off but I think I have figured out how I want to model it now. I'll work on it once I finish the last couple proxy bits.

Here are some shots of the cowling (proxy). If you look at the reference plans and the photo of my plane at the start of the post you will see the difference in the cowling. It is still just a proxy for now so I did not model in the lower center air intake. But I am just going for basic mass and form atm.

It's not a big deal I just rushed to model this version because it was easier. I'll do a more accurate version soon.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_25.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_26.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_27.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_28.jpg

These are the references I used for the prop. For the blade I just used "create polygon" to draw out a polygon that matched the siloette. Then I cut edges to clean it up. Then extruded for thickness. added a few edge loops to get the basic airfoil shape. merged it with an 8-sided cylinder for the base. Then applied a non-linear twist deformer for the blade twist. The hub was pretty straight forward extruding from a 6-sided cylinder for the hub and each of the bearing connectors.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...ropSpinner.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_DSC_0629.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...I/th_am_02.jpg

The prop model

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_29.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_30.jpg

I decided to change the prop hub. The original was a valid design but had a larger diameter so the bearing mechanism was sticking out of the spinner. I remodeled it to be closer to the compact competition design in my references.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_31.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_32.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_33.jpg

Standard 3/4 views...

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_34.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_35.jpg

Hi ctbram
I hope you are going to texture this may be on of those pic you where going to put on the Viper...........dave

Rudder linkage almost done...

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_39.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_40.jpg

Cut in all the control surfaces (ailerons, rudder, elevator, pitch trim tabs), also added cabane struts, and fuel cap...

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_41.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_42.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_43.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_44.jpg

To do:

- tailwheel linkage and linkage springs
- cables
- engine proxy
- redo the cowling to more closely match the eagle II

Starting to add details...

Here is the self centering spring and chain linkage for the tail wheel done.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_45.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_46.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_47.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_48.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_49.jpg

I should like to learn how to do this using in a more automatic way and for the chain and spring to behave properly with constraints and dynamics.

The spring is a helix and I used cv curves to extrude the loops at the ends. The chain is made from torus's split in have pulled apart a little and then combined and bridged.

To create the chain I just made a linear ep curve from the tailwheel bell crank through the middle of the spring to the attach points on the fuse. I then oriented the first link along the curve, shift-d duplicated, rotated ~90, translated along the curve to the end of the link and then repeated this until I had the entire chain. I just guessed on the link size and was lucky that is ended up almost exactly the correct length.

This was a bit tedious. I would like to figure a better way to create the chain.

I don't know much about dynamics so for now it is going to be just statically modeled.

Continuing to add details...

Compete rudder cable control linkage.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_50.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_51.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...h_eagle_52.jpg

To do:

- engine proxy
- flight wires
- cockpit (maybe)....