3D design and printed collection of British prototypes and proposed designs

[wellsprop]

On 12/3/2018 at 3:15 PM, Marklo said:

Haven't used either TinkerCAD or Fusion 360 but I use Solidworks and have used Pro-E professionally and the whole business of 3D contouring while achievable in these packages can be horribly complex. 

 

Again I use a bit of 3D printing professionally (various vendors with SLA and FDM processes) but not for my modelling and depending on the printer you could make anything from a blank to be shaped and carved to very close to a finished part ready for painting.

 

I'm finding the same with CATIA, which I use for my day job. CATIA is incredibly powerful, especially for complex curves and surfacing - but it takes a LOT of time and effort (as well as good plans).

 

Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to so a complete CAD model of a plane yet, until I work out how to speed up the way I'm designing.

[qn30jEkPz7]

Fusion 360 is being a pain in the proverbial but I’m trying to make progress on the DH117 anyway

 

Seeking inspiration there is a great deal to be found in this 1949 Farnborough footage

 

The printer was playing up a bit yesterday so as a test piece to make sure it was all hinky-dory before I went back to visors I did the tailfin and wings of the Fairey Large

 

Those are quite tantalising, looking forward to the PPE crisis abating a bit so I can crack on with the rest of this beast

[Pete in Lincs]

Crack on indeed. Though the visor thing is a noble deed and should probably get the priority.

Some great 'if onlys' being created here. Impressive stuff. 

[qn30jEkPz7]

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Though the visor thing is a noble deed and should probably get the priority.

Absolutely, 20 odd boxed up and ready to go off to a GP practice and a fresh batch already started for some MacMillan nurses. Depressing how many places, especially care homes & other care services, are still struggling for this kind of stuff. 

Edited May 5, 2020 by LostCosmonauts

[qn30jEkPz7]

So... the DeHavilland DH117 - a bit of the F-101 voodoo about it to my eye

 

Slow going but starting to come halfway together

 

Edited May 5, 2020 by LostCosmonauts

[Space Ranger]

Wow! James McDonnell meets Gerry Anderson!

[cngaero]

I think that you're doing a fantastic service in your manufacturing of PPE for the NHS during these worrying and uncertain times.

Fairey F.155 and the de Havilland F117 models are taking shape nicely and I can't wait to see the finished works of art. 

[Space Ranger]

2 hours ago, cngaero said:

I think that you're doing a fantastic service in your manufacturing of PPE for the NHS during these worrying and uncertain times.

Fairey F.155 and the de Havilland F117 models are taking shape nicely and I can't wait to see the finished works of art. 

Amen to that. And you get that Fairey F.155 whipped into shape, I'd like to purchase a copy.

[cngaero]

6 hours ago, Space Ranger said:

Amen to that. And you get that Fairey F.155 whipped into shape, I'd like to purchase a copy.

Ditto. Once this bout of unpleasantness is over, I feel a spending spree coming on. 

Those wonderful British prototypes are just up my street. 

[qn30jEkPz7]

A late night (I accidentally drank a normal can of coke waaaayy too late in the evening and then wondered why I was awake well after 12 still pottering manically on the computer with this) and a good stint today sees me with this

 

 

I'm thinking that with the missiles and drop tanks left over from the Sea Vixen kit that this might be a goer

Edited May 6, 2020 by LostCosmonauts

[Gorby]

That's a big beautiful bird! 

 

You're getting bloody good at this CAD business.

[qn30jEkPz7]

1 hour ago, Gorby said:

You're getting bloody good at this CAD business.

It more than helps that I’m doing hypothetical planes from simple outlines. No messy details to get in the way or the real life bumps and warts that planes grow when the progress from drawing board to factory floor to complicate matters

Edited May 6, 2020 by LostCosmonauts

[Space Ranger]

Are you familiar with Blackhawk comics? I can see it in Blackhawk markings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[qn30jEkPz7]

It does look very similar indeed, are those XF-90s? I don’t know why that comic would have passed me by, I’d have thought it would be catnip to my teenage self. Roger Ramjet with better artwork!

 

Closest I think we had was Harrier Squadron which if I remember rightly was a multinational squadron fighting a rearguard campaign against some kind of generic middle Eastern baddies in Mig-23s with a kind of triangle in their markings (Maybe Libyan?)

Edited May 6, 2020 by LostCosmonauts

[Space Ranger]

6 hours ago, LostCosmonauts said:

It does look very similar indeed, are those XF-90s?

They're sorta XF-90-ish.

[flarpen]

On ‎3‎/‎24‎/‎2020 at 6:05 PM, LostCosmonauts said:

Some profiles put in Fusion 360 and a shapely snout to get started with

 

This is some great work.
Hard to beleive you haven't used Fusion 360 so much.

As a novis user myself, how did you get the section profiles to the side view?
I have a similar project  I want to do sometime in the future.

[qn30jEkPz7]

5 hours ago, flarpen said:

As a novis user myself, how did you get the section profiles to the side view?

Thank you! I don't know if this is the best way but it is how I'm doing it right now.

 

I sketched the profiles and left a vertical centre line, I then used the move command (creating a copy), drag them to the profile and then just rotate 90 degrees around that vertical centre line. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with

[flarpen]

7 hours ago, LostCosmonauts said:

Thank you! I don't know if this is the best way but it is how I'm doing it right now.

 

I sketched the profiles and left a vertical centre line, I then used the move command (creating a copy), drag them to the profile and then just rotate 90 degrees around that vertical centre line. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with

Thanks, that doesn't sound to complicated.

[qn30jEkPz7]

On 08/05/2020 at 05:04, flarpen said:

Thanks, that doesn't sound to complicated.

Let us know how it goes - interested in your progress and if there is anything I can do to help please drop me a PM

 

***********meanwhile************

 

In the absence of any physical modelling I've made a start on the Saunders Roe SR.187

 

I may have been mistaken when I called it a beast of a machine. I started putting the dimensions together and I hadn't 100% realised quite how much of a beast it is...

 

From the plans it is 83' 6" from nose to the very tip of the tail (with nose in flight position) and 51' 7" in wingspan. In new money that is almost 26m long and 16m in span working out at 1/72 as almost 36cm long model and 22cm in span ~ I'd guess at about 40% longer and wider than a Gloster Javelin. This is going to be a machine of quite some heft. It is going to look 1/48 compared to everything short of a WW2 heavy

[qn30jEkPz7]

SR.187 not quire ready to report for duty but starting to take some kind of shape (even more of a Gerry Anderson vibe about this one)

 

The basic fuselage is a bit of a sod as it starts cylindrical in cross section, becomes a squared off oval and then grows lumps and bumps around the engines.

 

Still some way to go but it is starting to look like we're getting somewhere

 

I can’t imagine the circumstances in which this’d have gotten approved and entered service. The fuel bill alone would have bankrupted the MoD

Edited May 17, 2020 by LostCosmonauts

[Space Ranger]

3 hours ago, LostCosmonauts said:

SR.187 not quire ready to report for duty but starting to take some kind of shape (even more of a Gerry Anderson vibe about this one)

 

The basic fuselage is a bit of a sod as it starts cylindrical in cross section, becomes a squared off oval and then grows lumps and bumps around the engines.

 

Still some way to go but it is starting to look like we're getting somewhere

 

I can’t imagine the circumstances in which this’d have gotten approved and entered service. The fuel bill alone would have bankrupted the MoD

It's a beast of a design, but it looks like you're succeeding in taming it.

 

I love how the 3D software adds specular highlights. It looks almost like a plastic model fuselage half lying on the drawing.

[qn30jEkPz7]

An incremental bit of progress today - I spent ages trying to figure out the drawings and cross sections to get rid of the awkward step at the front of the intakes. Finally with a lot of "creative interpretation" (or to put it another way cheating) of the 3 view drawings I managed to get rid of it and then realised that it is there on the manufacturers illustrations. Duly went back and undid my afternoon's work.

 

Intake trunking looks a bit better today and it has gained a tail fin. Getting even more Thunderbird 2-ish

 

 

[qn30jEkPz7]

A bit more work and she has her distinctive variable geometry nose

 

A: for going fast without seeing much 

 

 

and B: for landing and presumably still not seeing much over that nose unless you have a decidedly plummety approach angle

 

 

 

[Space Ranger]

4 hours ago, LostCosmonauts said:

A bit more work and she has her distinctive variable geometry nose

 

A: for going fast without seeing much 

 

and B: for landing and presumably still not seeing much over that nose unless you have a decidedly plummety approach angle

From what I have read, the visibility in landing configuration was actually quite good. However, I would not want to have been the test pilot to make the first landing. This thing adds a whole new meaning to the phrase "nose out of joint."

[qn30jEkPz7]

Printer started playing up a bit yesterday and failed entirely today so that interrupted the PPE visor production. After a bit of cleaning and servicing we were ready to roll again so as a test run I churned out another bit of the Fairey Large (pardon the colour, it is just what I had to hand)

 

Little bit of an issue with the top of the canopy framing and on the inlets but overall looks reasonable

 

 

That is till I look at it next to the drawings and twig that the canopy cross-section should taper away to nothing on top much much earlier and not have that sharp edge so far back

 

Exhibit A for the prosecution

 

That’ll need fixed before the next iteration (but I might finish this one up as is anyway to see how it all looks in situ)