White Whirly-Birds

Just more 3D random for self amusement.

Left to right we have my gyrocopter that was meant to be a simple import into LindenLabs SecondLife, but since I still have yet to learn all the scripting necessary for it to function in sim, I've left the project in its current state as a simple SketchUp model for now.

Second from the left we have a more detailed Hughes Schweizer 300c which I've posted over in the 3Dwarehouse. Originally I had eyes crafted into each windscreen like the eyes that can be seen in my gyrocopter since I've chosen the little 300 as my Plane-Sona, however after having overhauled the model and further detailing it to appear as canon and factory precise as possible, I must make a new set of cartoon eyes and intersect them into the new bubble canopy. I still have a copy of my much less detailed 300, with eyes, but I have sort of grown fond of this more detailed version so I'm making a new set of eyes as a side project.

Third from the left we have another highly revamped model of mine, in this case a EuroCopter EC155B that now has window placement and general details more close to canon. It wasn't such an easy feat to re-tune the model to appear more canon as it does now.. I had to literally gut some of the interior which I've already fussed over endlessly to have it fit right... so now I need to revamp the interior again now that I have made a drastic restructuring of the outer skin and windows. It's for the better however. The more I practice with editing polygons, the more familiar I should be using similar techniques in my other 3D program, and I should be better able to make characters then.

And finally on the right we have my concept combat chopper, the AH72 Valkyrie. Since the canopy to Val is quite simple without complex compound curves, adding eyes, or removing them is as simple as grabbing the eraser and well... erasing them. As such I will continue to detail this model further, and I won't have to worry so much about making templates to add eyes back into the model should I remove them.. I could simply grab the pencil tool again and draw them back in any time I'd want.

Nnnnnn not so easy for complex curved shapes such as the bubble canopy to the Hughes 300 or my gyrocopter... incidentally which I made the eyes as the last element to be added to the gyro.. again that whole thing about working with curved shapes in sketchup is a chore.. I just wish sketchup had sub-surface capabilities like Blender, but I'm slowly getting more used to tinkering with blender so in the future I should be able to export elements from one program into the other and make some nifty models. But for now it's more practice, practice, practice..

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Planes = Disney

Gyro-copter is mine, so is the AH72

EC155 = EuroCopter

Hughes > Schweizer > Sikorsky 300 is as the chain of progression suggests, once Hughes Little Bird, then Schweizer's and now Sikorsky's thing.