Hello Rhino Users,
I am trying to model an airplane, which has a great significance to me. Eventually, my plan is to turn it into 3D printable parts and print them, just like commercial plastic models. This project is not for commercial purposes, though. It is purely for personal reasons.
I am an experienced designer with extensive knowledge in “solid” modeling software. I want to experiment (and eventually get good at) with surface modeling, which I believe gives more control over smooth surfaces.
I watched every tutorial I could find out there, especially @sgreenawalt tutorials were helpful.
Relatively new to surface modeling, what would be your workflow to make this project happen?
Thank you.
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Therefore, you’ll be seeking nice mesh permutations per part/print.
I used to think that means something different too. Maybe you’re referring to the parasolid kernel or something which is kind of a mystical being, but Rhino reveals the truth, and truth is what you think is ‘solid’ isn’t necessarily solid. Unless the devs exploit nurbs-volumes or maybe more voxels or somem. 
I think I’ve seen a few users do weird solid stuff in GH.
Yeah. don’t meshes have a surface though. I mean if you think about it, if you print a mesh and then sand on it with sand paper, it has a surface right? 
Nomenclature is fun.
And then you can’t really see a surface in Rhino without Rhino shading it with a render-mesh behind your back with some odd settings until you find them hiding somewhere and change them, knowing you’re actually just seeing a mesh and not a surface. 
That’s awesome. There’s tons of data these days to digest.
Very good question. Be ready to go down the rabbit hole.
If you have access to an airplane, take a bunch of photos and use photogrammetry or 3D laser scanners, or LIDAR etc.
or get some specific views and maybe subD approach.
You might even find models already done on certain websites for free or even small fee.
might be able to use AI and photogrammetry all the photos on the internet haha:
a nice side view is a good start with some subD tracing:
https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/10657282
almost a good front view:
for $3 you could download an stl mesh:
here’s an obj for $17:
Thank you so much for the reply.
I do not have an access to the airplane. I used to, but not anymore. I have tons of photos, both from the internet and my own. No quality blueprints to use for tracing, either. Just a scan of a very poorly manufactured plastic model kit.
Instead of buying the 3D model, I would like to model it myself. There is only one I could find, but it is really crude to my taste. Besides, it is my motivation to learn surfacing more.
It is MBB 223 Flamingo, which is not quite popular.
I may give the SubD a try…
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as long as you get a side view, front view, top, bottom, back, you can use:
and set them up in the workspace such that you can carefully turn the 2D images into 3D.
also, I just stumbled on this which is interesting:
I was tryna find some threads on this method of the picture/pictureframe:
I know there’s plenty of tutorials that demonstrate it.
definitely seems hard to find good images. although I’m not sure what the rules are for said project.
This is a good series of tutorials for aircraft:
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Thank you so much.
I will look into those.
Best,
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