Theres some places here in the UK that have Spitfires, worth looking on the web, one is Hendon War Museum, also RAF Ducksford which has a big US thing there too if you are interested and the other place is a small town near me called East Grinstead that is now a hospital but was a Spitfire base during the war

_J

Thanks for the info Jango, I will check them out.

I know there are a couple of Spitfires here, I just need to find out where and if I can get access to them. I want more info on the cockpit internals.

I watched the Spitfire DVD I just purchased and it looks like the pilots had parachutes with them. I don't understand how a pilot could get out of the cockpit and parachute out . . . was that possible?

Cheers
Paul

Im sure they could have, and pretty darn quick if the plane was on fire!!

_J

awesome! looking forward to seeing the textured version :P nice job.

Thanks Chris,

I've made a start on texturing, so hopefully I will have something worth posting soon.

I'm not totally sure on this, but I believe they opened the canopy and the side hatch, and then banked the plane about 90 or 180 degrees, allowing them to simply fall out of the cockpit. I'll have a look in my Pilots Notes book and get back to you about it this evening, but I'm sure that's what they did.

The reason for asking the question, is I'm thinking of making the pilot too, but maybe not straight away. ;)

Cheers
Paul

My wife just saw my spitfire and commented "That's not very realistic" :D

Well, she does have a point. I cannot think of a single Spit that had the starboard half missing, and was painted completely in red and white checkers, including the canopy! :p Seriously though, it's looking great.

Are you going to pur the rearview mirror above the fixed section of the canopy?

I bought the Spitfire tute, but am just waiting for the DVDr to arrive. However, I am going to add some spice to it by doing it in Modo!

Thanks Malcolm,

I'm not sure about the rear-view mirror, Some spitfires had them and some didn't. I think the model looks better with out it.

I've probably spent around 4 or 5 hours just downloading spitfire pictures from the web for reference. If you do the same you will soon realise there was little consistency in the way they were built. I guess the good thing about that is it gives us a little more flexibility in the way we want our models to look.

Cheers
Paul

Yeah. I know about the lack of consistancy, but, if you plan on animating a dog fight, then it would probably be better with one.
Also, if you plan on using it at some point with the pilot getting in, it's an invaluable tool. The cockpit of the Spitfire is incredibly tight, and even the smallest pilots had trouble getting in. Using the mirror to lever yourself in and out made life a lot easier. It also goes to show how strong the construction of the aircraft was.

I am somewhat of a Spitfire fanatic, and have numerous books and photos of Spits, as well as its lesser known comrade during the Battle of Britain, the Hawker Hurricane (a better gun platform, but not as good a fighter).

After you've finished the Spitfire, how about doing the rest of the victorious RAF BoB aircraft (Gloster Gladiator, Boulton Paul Defiant, and the Bristol Blenheim)?

Anyway, keep up the good work. I cannot wait to see her textured.

I'm probably going to make a German Plane next . . not sure what I'll go for yet and then a 737 :D

I worked in Aerospace here in Australia for 15 years, though I'm not a Spitfire fanatic, I am into aircraft in a major way. The spitfire along with the Mustang were both great looking aircraft.

Cheers
Paul

Looking great. could be textured to look so cool.

Thanks Pony,

After two weeks, some really stupid question on my behalf and a panic post (sometimes I forget Maya actually comes with a help file) and working some really weird hours just so I could get this done . . . I'm finally at the Texturing stage!!!!!!!!

Its ready for Photoshop :D

Heheh, yeah, but even sometimes Maya's Help confuses you even more...heh...great looking model you have there, nice job :)

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