Trust me, adding another engine and recoloring the F-20 won't be enough for Ojimak. Or was that not what you meant?
Anyway, I started work on the Osprey earlier, and this one is going to be very difficult to design for me I think. The majority of the aircraft should be fine, the fuselage should be easy enough, the wings and tail, even giving the engines turning
and tilting rotors should be simple enough to accomplish (if slightly more time-consuming than some of my other models). So most of you are probably thinking:
"Yeah right, those are the hard parts" and
"Wait...what
IS the hard part then?"
The really hard part of designing a V-22 Osprey model for me will still be one of the most important parts, its just something that I'd not given much thought to before: the nose and cockpit.
Like I said before, I design all of these models in Photoshop, not as 3d meshes. Its not that I have anything against using 3d meshes (though I think they would probably slow me down when it comes to designing, believe it or not), I simply have absolutely no idea how to make a 3d mesh. I've tried, believe me, but for some reason I just can't get it from the tutorials available online, as much as I try. What I really need is for someone to sit down with me and show me the basics. After that, I'm sure I can figure out everything else, even be able to actually learn things from online tutorials.
If you take a look at the shape of the Osprey's nose and cockpit, you'll see that its nothing like any of the models I've designed so far. I have some ideas, and I'm sure they'll accurately re-create the shape pretty easily, the biggest problem will probably come when I try to make the nose and cockpit fit onto the fuselage. Like I said, I do this all in Photoshop, meaning I don't know how well the parts will fit until I've assembled them in paper, which is a huge potential drawback. Some of you who have constructed my models may have noticed that I sort of expect the modeller to improvise a little with the model (sorry about that......), like with connecting the nose and intakes of the U-2 to the rear fuselage. The parts go together, and when you squeeze down the top a little and hold it there are no gaps, but you have to figure it out because I've provided no real indication that this is the case. The nose and fuel tank tips also aren't perfect. I honestly meant to redesign those before moving on to the next model, but just haven't got around to it. As it is, you have to trim them a bit to get the right shape.
In general, I assume that the modellers would rather have the models slightly more quickly, and that they don't mind small modifications, and I always make sure to provide what I consider enough room for changes. I haven't heard any complaints yet (though if you have some to make, please do. If you all think I should spend a little more time on the models so they fit better, please let me know) so I continue to design models that way. Even so, I have to at least get the shape close enough for the modellers to be able to work with them. I made a joke once that anyone can make a model of a plane out of paper, I just make it a little easier, as opposed to some people who give very clear guidelines, and its pretty true.
The good news out of all of this is that I should get the Osprey done pretty much as quickly as the rest of my models, simply because I have so much free time for the next few days. Basically it'll take more hours total, but take about the same number of days because I won't be interrupted during design.
The big trick will be forcing myself to actually sit down and work on it...this more than the others is an intimidating aircraft to design a model of, and sometimes it scares me into watching some more episodes of "Whose Line is it Anyway" instead of working on it!
Anyway, enough ranting for now. Last order of business is what's up next on my list after I finish the V-22. Currently, I'm interested in the following:
Su-24
Su-25
IAR-93
F-101 "Voodoo" (what a dumb name for such a cool looking plane)
XF-109 (should be simple after designing the V-22!)
Anyone have any requests or preferences? Perhaps some suggestions?
;-)