Master Series He 115 scratch build

[Flyingshark]

What tutorials did you use to design planes? I'm hoping to make something in PlaneMaker over the winter, so I'm in the "gathering knowledge" stage.
Sorry for taking the thread off topic.

 

[The Hangar]

You should make some videos on how to design in Fusion. I have Fusion but the learning curve is pretty large and I want some direction.

Yeah I totally agree. I would love to design in fusion, but it’s a large learning curve. A couple videos on how to do it would be amazing!

 

[Flyingshark]

Yeah I totally agree. I would love to design in fusion, but it’s a large learning curve. A couple videos on how to do it would be amazing!

You've probably seen this already, but:
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/master-series-design-help-thread.65470/#post-611226

I guess it's mostly helpful for knowing what to do, not how to do it. Tutorials would be great!

 

[Whit Armstrong]

Yeah I totally agree. I would love to design in fusion, but it’s a large learning curve. A couple videos on how to do it would be amazing!

I'll make a tutorial as soon as I start exporting skins and get all that figured out... a lot could go wrong, and I'm still learning Fusion, and haven't tried MeshMixer yet, but I'll get to it within the next week. (hopefully) If I don't, then overwhelm this thread asking me for one until I do.

Fusion isn't that hard if you cut out all the stuff that isn't needed to make planes. When I started, I watched this video:

it's a little old, but it still works. Make sure to follow every step exactly. In one part, i think an update caused an error for me, but a quick google search of the error message will probably have the solution (I think there actually was one in the comments section of the video)

Here's the tutorial I watched When I started Blender, for those who are interested:

 

[Whit Armstrong]

What tutorials did you use to design planes? I'm hoping to make something in PlaneMaker over the winter, so I'm in the "gathering knowledge" stage.
Sorry for taking the thread off topic.

I watched this:

(be warned that I never actually made a functioning plane in it. i just wanted to see what it was.)
Blender has this really cool XPlane addon where it can export 3d models directly into the plane, all from Blender. I'd try it out if you are looking to make a more detailed plane.

 

[Flyingshark]

I watched this: (be warned that I never actually made a functioning plane in it. i just wanted to see what it was.)
Blender has this really cool XPlane addon where it can export 3d models directly into the plane, all from Blender. I'd try it out if you are looking to make a more detailed plane.

Yeah, I've heard about that. I think it's called Blender2XPlane or something. There's one for Sketchup too. Making textures is probably gonna be tricky though.

 

[Whit Armstrong]

Yeah, I've heard about that. I think it's called Blender2XPlane or something. There's one for Sketchup too. Making textures is probably gonna be tricky though.

Textures are tough. I'd UV unwrap the model in Blender, and draw the wings on in Gimp. Then import the texture into blender and use that. Make sure to adjust the roughness and other values to get it exactly how you want it.

 

[Whit Armstrong]

I watched this:

(be warned that I never actually made a functioning plane in it. i just wanted to see what it was.)
Blender has this really cool XPlane addon where it can export 3d models directly into the plane, all from Blender. I'd try it out if you are looking to make a more detailed plane.

I forgot to put the video in it!

 

[Whit Armstrong]

I started in the nacelles. I'm not using the regular power pod because it's some weird width (something like 5.43 in) so it won't be swappable.

 

[Flyingshark]

I started in the nacelles. I'm not using the regular power pod because it's some weird width (something like 5.43 in) so it won't be swappable.
View attachment 183147

I'm confused. So, that's not the swappable firewall, it just looks a lot like one?

 

[Whit Armstrong]

I'm confused. So, that's not the swappable firewall, it just looks a lot like one?

It's the same firewall, you just can't take it you off the plane. There's just not enough room to do a swappable design.

 

[Flyingshark]

It's the same firewall, you just can't take it you off the plane. There's just not enough room to do a swappable design.

Oh, cool! For strength, that's definitely better than a swappable-power-pod-type arrangement.

 

[Whit Armstrong]

Oh, cool! For strength, that's definitely better than a swappable-power-pod-type arrangement.

yeah, this way I can directly glue the power pod to the wing, and also run lots of BBQ skewers through the wing and the pod. It'll be a lot better for structural strength. I never liked how when I crashed my simple cub the swappable design made it relatively weak.

 

[Whit Armstrong]

I made the cutouts in the nacelles...

Golly! You'd think it'd be easier. For each part, I had to perform a separate boolean operation on (which means 20+ times) to get the cutouts.

(a boolean operation is where you take away the area that one object shares with another)

 

[Whit Armstrong]

Made the cutouts in the skins.

 

[Whit Armstrong]

Nacelles are done.

For the front of the cowlings, they will be either pink foam or 3d printed.

 

[OliverW]

Nacelles are done.
View attachment 183248

For the front of the cowlings, they will be either pink foam or 3d printed.

You could also use a couple skin pieces and some lightweight drywall filler to get your preferred shape

 

[Whit Armstrong]

You could also use a couple skin pieces and some lightweight drywall filler to get your preferred shape

That would be a good idea, though i'd probably botch it. I think that I'm going to use pink foam.

 

[Whit Armstrong]

It's starting to look like a plane now.

 

[Whit Armstrong]

Cockpit is done. I won't be confusing that little dip on the nose for the cockpit anymore! (and I'll finally get a sense of scale for those engines.