The last day of the marathon! Some great updates today.

I filled out the Waffle House today and came to this design:

Then while discussing the design with my buddy Hanford Lemoore he passed along some great photo reference. So I decided to change the roof design to this:

Oh, and I filled out the sign in the second version as well.

For now I’m onto another model. I’m waiting for some reference material before I finish up the Flying Wing.

This is Jimmy Chan’s neighbor – out in the middle of nowhere…

I’ve been really busy lately, and I should have moved on from this model already. Some little things I worked on today:

• Ramp transition
• Rigging control handles for the wing flaps, the ramp and the ramp transition so I can rotate them correctly at will
• Worked on the cockpit glass pattern

Rigging control handles in view

Cockpit glass

• Finished up the pipes.
• Added a cargo ramp.
• Added the wing flaps.

I didn’t get much time to work on things today but I did get a lot done.

From the yesterday:

• Build out the connection points to the wing – DONE
• Add more bolts – ADDED A FEW MORE
• Build the front landing gear – DONE

Plus I worked on something that should be on the list:

Individualizing the zoomies so they fit with the shape of the wing (some where colliding with the curves of the wing surface)…

Tomorrow crazy lines will become cool looking pipes as they work their way out of the plane’s body work.

Been adding in the details that bring out the believability in the design of the landing gear. Almost done.

Main landing gear to do list: 

• Build out the connection points to the wing.
• Add more bolts.

To finish this phase of the wing I need to:

• Build the front landing gear
• Build out cargo ramp
• Build out flaps
• Block out basic interior cockpit and cargo space (saving the details for later)

After all that is done I can move on to other things.

I missed a day due to being on the road, in the air, and out of town. Huge bummer to have a gap in this marathon, I was doing so well. This is a compilation of a few days worth of work, since I wasn’t able to post yesterday.

It was a pain to fill out some of the details because of the odd shapes, but I think it’s looking pretty good. I haven’t been spending enough time on it, and I’m dying to finish this beast and move on.

I’m on the road and working on my portable computer. I spent some time on the landing gear.

I spent most of the morning really digging into aircraft landing gear kinematics. Oh boy what fun! No seriously, it was fun. So I finally figured out how to build the gear so it can have a forward retraction point. Most gear of this type either just moves up and down (C5) or tucks inward in to the belly (777). I needed this to tuck in forward on the wing.

What I came up with is a variant of an Avro Vulcan  main gear in combination with a little XB-70a action. 

Some changes to the mock-up I had before:

• Tucked the dual wheel sets closer together
• Moved the entire system forward and inward, because the gear trunnion didn’t set up in a believable place
• Built up the brake system for each wheel set

Okay, now I’m off to APE (Alternative Press Expo)!

Very light day today.

– Bored out intake scoop.
– Added counter rotating propellers, much like the Northrop XB-35.