FS Design
Studio
Making an Aircraft - Tutorial Part 3,
by Ron Anderson
Did you notice that the tail
wheel is a caster? The strut is fixed and the wheel is on a trailing fork
assembly. We'll tag it as rudder to make it move. Just briefly, I made the
strut from 2 tubes, the longer part that connects to the fuselage and the
caster bearing portion. The caster part has a flat bottom and houses the
bearing. The strut is also fixed. The only part that will turn is the
caster itself. So I made a tube, split it by removing some of the center
polygons at the lower end and then by selecting points I made polygons to
close the forked portion and reshaped it to look like the backdrop
picture. I added an axle, the wheel and tire to it. Then I joined the
caster, wheel and tire into one assembly and saved it. Before saving right
click on a view and select current item properties. Name it Rear Wheel
Caster Assembly, open the presets menu and select AA rudder, then set
always display. Now save the part as Rear Wheel Caster
Assembly.


Now
let's put some wings on this bird. We'll begin by making the vertical
stabilizer and rudder. Many people like to use the Wing wizard for this
but since a vertical stabilizer is symmetrical from left to right, I
prefer to make it from a tube. So Select Part, Add tube. Now select Move
mode, restrict the X axis and move the tube into position. Select Scale
mode, restrict the Y and Z axis and begin scaling it until the tube is
flattened to look like the vertical stabilizer. Select Cross Section mode,
Scale mode and begin shaping the tube to look like the backdrop. You will
have to rotate the lower Cross section to match the top of the fuselage.
To do this, select Rotate mode and drag the cursor over the side view
until it is in the right position. You can remove all the Cross
Sections in the center for now, we can add them as needed. It's easier to
shape the airfoil with the least number of cross sections and when we add
them back in, they conform to the shape. Once you have the approximate
shape of the Vertical Stabilizer in the side view, select Point Mode, Move
Mode, Restrict the X axis and begin moving points to make the curvature at
the top and the front of the Stabilizer. At this point we want to move
points to form the rudder too.

You'll
notice the Rudder is corrugated. We can duplicate this a couple of ways,
one is with textures, which we'll discuss later on. The second way would
be to add Cross Sections and form the high and low sections of the rudder.
This would involve some special handling once we Split the rudder from the
tube. I will show you what it would involve, but I suggest for your first
project that you stick to textures. Once we begin adding Cross Sections,
this part will get very busy. Before we begin Save the Vertical Stabilizer
by selecting Part Mode, Part, Save and naming it Vert Stab 1. Now one by
one add Cross sections until you have enough to make the high and low
sections of the corrugated rudder. Don't worry about Scaling just yet,
allow the Cross Sections to conform to the shape you refined
here.

Once you have enough, select
Polygon Mode, the selection Tool and select all the polygons that form the
rudder. Select Part, Split Part. Then right click name it Rudder, open the
presets menu and select AA rudder, then set always display. Now save the
part as Rudder 1. Since we split the part, you'll need to close the front
edges in like we did with the Inner fuselage by Selecting Point Mode and
using the selection tool to select the points along the front edge of the
rudder and then do the same with the angled front section of the rudder.
When we Split the rudder from the vert stabilizer, we probably selected
the top polygon that runs along the entire top of the stabilizer too. So
you'll need to cycle through the polygons and delete it. You can save
yourself some time by splitting the top of the rudder from the lower
section and removing the polygon. When you have removed it, you can rejoin
the top section to the lower section again. You'll have to close the top
of the rudder. Do this by selecting Point Mode and using the Selection
Tool select the points one section of the top at a time. This will avoid
having the top end up concave when we do a Part Check to fix all the
non-planar polygons. Now cycle through the Parts using the "N" and "P"
keys until you select the vertical stabilizer we added all the Cross
Sections to get the corrugated rudder. Delete this part, we will use the
original vertical stabilizer. Now you have your work cut out for you.
Select Point Mode and using the Selection tool, you can select the center
pairs of points on the left. Be sure you select every other pair. Once you
have selected all the points you want to move, restrict the Y and Z
axis, hold the "Shift" key
and using the "Directional" keys, nudge the points left or right, which
ever you prefer. Now do the same with every other pair of points on the
right. Once you have finished you'll have a corrugated rudder. Right click
on the window, select Current Item Properties, name it Rudder, open the
presets menu and select AA
rudder, then set always display. Then save this as Rudder.



You
will probably have to go through and tidy up all the points to make
straight lines again, but it will be worth it to have a realistic rudder.
When we get ready to texture we'll leave the Polygon Smoothing turned off
for the rudder and other corrugated control surfaces. This will allow the
corrugation to show. As one final step to finishing the vertical
stabilizer we'll add the beacon. So add a tube, set radius to.1, length to
.5, 5 sections, long axis Y and 12 sided. Scale this down to look like the
beacon and move it to the top forward part of the vertical stabilizer. I
shaped it and then split the top part to make it a red, transparent cover
and then rejoined to the base again.

Next let's add a glowing
bulb to it and tag the bulb as a beacon. To make this, load a sphere and
resize it to the approximate size of a bulb within the beacon cover. Right
click and select Current Item Properties, name it Beacon Bulb, set it as
Dots, then select presets and tag it as beacon on and set the color as
red, bright, opacity 15. Then save this part as Beacon Bulb.


Now
let's work on the main wing. From the top it will look like this
drawing.

The
wingspan will be 36' 0". If it will help you, convert the wing image to a
bitmap and use it in the top view as a backdrop. We'll begin by making a
template to produce our wing from. Select Template Mode and the Add Point
Button. Begin on the X Axis line and place 16 points, 7 on top, 7 on the
bottom and one at the front and rear of the wing. Remember this is an
airfoil so it will be rounded on top and flat on the bottom. If you make a
mistake select Template, Clear from the menu. Once you have a template you
like, save it as C-185wing.cdt by selecting Template, Save from the
menu.

Then
select Template, Wing Wizard and set the Longitudinal Arm to 5, the
Vertical Arm 5, the Root Chord to 5.8, the Tip Chord to 3.8, Semi-Length
to 18 (because it's a 36 ft wingspan), Sections 4, Wingtips and Deselect
Mirror on the right because we are going to do lots of editing of this
wing and use it to make the flaps and ailerons. Leave the angles set as 0
except the dihedral, we'll set it as 1.73 . Then click ok to produce your
wing.

Now
select Move Mode, restrict the X axis and drag the wing over the .bmp of
the wing shape in the top view. Don't worry if it appears too high, we'll
position it when we have finished editing it. Select Cross Section Mode,
select Move mode retrict the Y axis and the Z axis press "N" and "P" until
you have selected the center Cross section and drag it to the point on the
wing where it changes shape.

Now
press "N" and "P" until you select the the other 2 center Cross and move
the one towards the end out to where the edge of the aileron is and move
the inner one to where the wing intersects the fuselage . Now select Scale
Mode, Restrict the X axis and one by one resize the Cross Sections until
the wing takes on the shape of the backdrop. You'll have to move the
wingtip foreward so be sure you restrict the X and Y axis before doing
this. When you have finished, your wing will look something like this.
When you have a shape you are comfortable with save it as Wing
L.

Now
we need to move some points to outline the flaps and ailerons. To do this,
select Point Mode and use the Selection Tool to select the points we'll
move in the Z axis only so restrict the X and Y axis.

Before we select the next
points to move, let,s fix these in the Y axis. In the side view, use the
Selection Tool, select the upper points and drag them down just a little
to flatten the upper surface of the wing. Restrict the X and Z axis and
unrestrict the Y axis before you move them. An alternate would be to click
on the side view and holding the shift key press the down directional key to nudge the points down. Then
nudge the lower points up by
holding the shift key and pressing the up directional key. Now move the
remaining points rearward on the wing to outline the aileron and nudge
them up and down as needed.
When you have finished, it will look like this.

Rotate
your aircraft in the perspective view and have a close look at it before
moving on
to the next step. Save the part again as Wing L and then begin
adding cross sections until you have outlined the aileron and flap and can
form the rounded wingtip. You'll notice the wing we just made doesn't
exactly line up with the backdrop. This is not due to the way we have
constructed it but is the fault of the paralax in the picture itself.
You'll also notice the plane in the picture has droops or Vortex
Generators at the tip. These enhance short field performance
and you can easily construct these by adding enough Cross Sections
at the tip and dragging then down one at a time until you have a rounded
drooping wingtip. To make the Thickness continuous you can rotate the
Cross sections as you move them down. Once we have refined the shape of
the wing, save it again as Wing L.
Now begin adding the Cross sections to the wing to make the
corrugation on the flap and aileron like we did with the
rudder.

Select Polygon Mode and
using the Selection Tool, select all the polygons that make the flap. Then
select Part, Split Part, right click, select Current Item Properties, name
it Flap Left, open the presets
menu and select AA flap, then set always display and save it as
Flap L. Then using the Selection Tool, select all the polygons that make
the aileron , select Part, Split Part, right click, select Current Item
Properties, name it Aileron Left , open the presets menu and select AA left aileron,
then set always display and save it as Aileron L. Select Point Mode and
using the Selection Tool select all the points along the ends and front
edge of the aileron and flap and make a polygon out of them like we did
with the rudder. Now using the "N" and "P" keys select the wing , select
Point Mode and using the Selection Tool select the points where we split
the flap and aileron from the wing and make polygons to close these
surfaces. Next, we'll use Ctl "C" to copy the wing and ctl "V" to paste
it. Select translate, flip Y, Select translate, Rotate, Z 180 . Right
Click, name this part Wing R and save it. Do the same with the flap and
aileron but tag the right aileron as AA aileron right and always display.
Congratulations, You have just made the main wing! You will have to go
through and make adjustments to points that intersect the wing such as the
windscreen and fuselage. Another thing you can do is to select the
polygons on the underside of the wing where it intersects the fuselage so
the cabin ceiling looks like it should. Now save the Project files and
then using the same methods as we did for making the main wing fabricate
the horizontal stabilizer and elevators. You'll tag the elevators as AA
elevator and always display.

Here's
a picture of what the horizintal stabilizer will look like, you can
convert the picture to .bmp and use it as a backdrop to help with shaping
just as you did with the main wing.


Now all we have to do is put
some navigational lights on the Main wing tips and a strobe on the tail of
the fuselage. You can do this by selecting polygons at the tip of the
wings and then splitting the part. Make the right navlight red and the
left navlight green set it as transparency, opacity 15. This will be the
lens so it will always display. You will have to make the inside of the
navlight so I suggest you copy and paste the wing to split the lens from
it then delete the leftover wing. Once you have made the lens and the
light socket you can make a bulb as we did with the beacon and this time
use navigation lights display condition from the preset list.
Now
let's add the main wing strut by adding a tube. Make the radius.1, length
4, 1 section and 12 points per section.

Scale it until it fits the backdrop in the
sideview then restrict the Y and Z axis and flatten it out to streamline
it. Next select Translate and rotate it in the Z axis 55 degrees.Move it
into position until the bottom intersects the top of the landing gear
strut . If it needs lengthening, rotate it back to vertical(-55 degrees in
the Z axis) and scale it in the Y axis. Once you have one strut, you can
copy and paste it, then translate by flipping in the Y axis and
rotating Z 180.

Here's what it should look like with
textures applied to it.

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