Airplane

Continuing on with the Autodesk tutorials, the next chapter instructs the user on modelling an Airplane.

The tutorial is split into the following sections:

1. Setting up Viewport Backgrounds
2. Creating the Wings
3. Adding the Satbilizer and Rudders
4. Creating the Sponsons
5. Creating the Gondola
6. Finishing the Plane

I'll write a brief description on how I modelled the plane.

First job was to set up the Viewport Backgrounds to contain the reference images for the plane. Once this was done, the largest objects were created - the wings.

Wings

The wing object started as a Box, and sculpted into the right shape after being converted into an Editable Poly object. After they took on an acceptable shape, a Bend modifier was applied to give the wings an accurate curvy look.

Stabilizer

Simply created from a flat Cylinder, converted to an Editable Poly, and stretched to the right size.

Rudders

Started out with another Cylinder / Edit Poly combo, this time turned on Soft Select in order to shape the tip of the rudder quickly. Once done, it was positioned correctly inside the stabilizer, and duplicated by use of a Symmetry modifier.

Sponsons

Another Cylinder, this time a Taper modifier was applied in order to create a gradually scaled down shape. The Propeller base was then added to the shorter end of the Sponson by creating a Sphere with Autogrid turned on. This allowed the sphere to be created directly on the surface of cylinder. The sphere's Hemisphere setting was changed to convert it into half a sphere.

Inevitably, the objects were attached and converted to an Editable Poly. Several carefully selected Polygons were selected along the side of the Sponson and Bevelled to create two extractors. Finally, the finished Sponson was Cloned by holding down Shift and moving it to the correct position.

Gondola

Yet another Cylinder! Immediately converted to an Editable Poly, Soft Select was applied in order for quicker creation of the planes nose when manipulating the Verts. Once the general shape of the Gondola had been formed, the Cut tool was used to create additional edges that form the window.

A Multi/Sub-Object material was finally applied to the Gondola, allowing separate materials to be applied to the Window, giving it a slight blue tint and transparency.

The propellers were taken from the Fan project I created a month or so earlier. One propeller was placed inside the hemisphere on the Sponsons, and Cloned as an Instance using the Rotate tool.

Once all the parts of the plane were created and in the right place, they were linked to each other using the Select and Link tool. This makes sure that the parts of the plane move along with the parts they're supposed to (i.e the propeller blades rotate along with the spinner object on the sponson).

Consult the below image to see the way in which the objects were linked.