New Updates for: Ju 87 Stuka, Macchi C.202 and A6M 'Zero' (new project) - July 9th, 2021
Hello everyone. It's me Antony, back with another Blog during this quarantine phase while the World makes their best to find a (possible) cure for the COVID-19 pandemic. And now that we passed half of this year - almost close to conclude, nothing like a good Blog to entertain you.
For this Blog, I'm going to show you the new adjustments of the Junkers 87 Stuka and the Macchi C.202 Folgore. Now that I'm working at the health center from where I live, my time to work on my Blender projects is reduced to my short intervals after my studies during breaks of my shift, having extra time on holidays and weekends.
Still, let me show you what I did so far.
Junkers Ju 87B-2 Stuka:
Alright. So, what I did was: I included the hatch for the gunner and the aerial attachments from the antenna to the rudder. It was a little tricky to make the bubble glass for the gunner's hatch of the Ju 87. Aside from that, some small adjustments on the fuselage.
I appended a bomb from the Messerschmitt BF 109 projects to the Stuka. Also, I made some holes on the air intake of the nose, extra metal plating around the non-retractable landing gear on the tail and a 'small piece' next to where the 500 lb / 1000 lb bomb is located. I remember the Stuka has a window below the pedals and the pilot seat for bombing sights. I plan to do that, but I need to calculate the exact position from the fuselage mesh and cut it along the mesh from the wings.
The next components are the ailerons and flaps limbs, extra components around the fuselage and the cockpit internal components, some other decals from the dive bomber squads (Sturzkampfgeschwader), a fine texture and rigging it.
Macchi C.202 Folgore:
The Folgore's main landing gear were concluded. Like the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, it won't be floating over a pair of wheels without the metal bars to sustain the plane's weight and fall to the ground if physics were applied to these planes. (lol)
Aside from the landing gears, I made the ailerons from the wings mesh, the navigation lights on the wings tip, some 'hubs' from the nose and two metal sights. I found curious some planes would come with metal sights aside from the electric sights - like those found in Spitfire, BF 109, FW 190, ME 262, P-38, P-51, Hurricane and some others). For one thing, it's looking good.
I made the landing gear fairings by extracting a portion from the wings' mesh and adjust the vertices from both objects to make it based on the blueprints I found on the Internet. The fairings in the images are duplicates. The original idea was to keep the original one in case I rig the plane and avoid some mistake by adjusting its vertices in the Edit Mode.
Weird enough, some of the images I downloaded from the Wikipedia always show the plane in flight with the exact / estimated wheel position and the plane inclination when landed - which would make harder to make the fairings, unless I download several images for reference.
The last components are the cockpit internal components, some extra components on the wings and fuselage, the decals from the Italian Stormo, a fine texture and rigging the plane.
Before I conclude this Blog, there's one more project to show you. And yeah, I'll never get tired of starting new projects in the middle of the current ones while in development - as usual. For this one, I picked up the famous Japanese air fighter from WW2: Mitsubishi A6M Type 0 - also known as 'Zero'. In 1937, Japan initiated the Second Sino-Japanese War by invading China and one of the planes they launched in that conflict were the Mitsubishi A5M - superior to the old biplanes, P-26 Peashooter and Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 used by the Chinese pilots. However, the Imperial Japanese Navy requested an eventual replacement for the A5M, challenging both Nakajima and Mitsubishi to build a new plane that could be a carrier-based plane, faster, agile, well armed and could have a great extension to patrol around the Pacific. Nakajima pulled out from the challenge as its engineers found these specifications unachievable, but Mitsubishi prevailed. Chief engineer Jiro Horikoshi developed a new plane based on the A5M - also one of his creations; and knew the plane needed to be faster and more agile. To do that, he used a new aluminum alloy - the "extra super duralumin" (ESD - 7075 aluminum alloy - AA7075), which was lighter, stronger and more ductile than other alloys like the 24S alloy used at the time, but was prone to corrosive attack. And to make it lighter as possible to achieve the specifications, no armor plating was provided to the plane nor to its vital points like the cockpit, the engine or flight actuators. Even self-sealing fuel tanks weren't provided to the plane - which was common in almost all planes from that time to have a self-sealing fuel tank, and one shot in the engine is enough to turn the plane into a fireball. The new plane became known as Mitsubishi A6M Type 0 (A for carrier-based plane, 6 for the 6th aircraft of the series, M for Mitsubishi and 0 for the last digit of the Imperial Year of 2600 (equivalent of 1940) from when the Zero entered in service), however it was known by Zero by Allied code name from their engagement reports. Aside from the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Zero became a fierce adversary to the Allies when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The main planes the United States counted were the Grumman F3F, Brewster F2A Buffalo and the P-39 Airacobra but they introduced their P-40 Warhawk and F4F Wildcat - tough, faster and well armed compared to the Zero, but they couldn't match their acrobatic skills and agility to counterattack this new Japanese air fighter. For that, the Allied nations developed new tactics to counter the A6M Zero's strong points, like Boom-and-Zoom, high bursts from their armaments and the Thach Weave maneuver - a tactic that consists two planes (F4F Wildcat for example) in which one becomes the bait and one to chase the adversary. In 1942, when American soldiers found an intact Zero in Dutch Harbor after being downed by anti-ground armaments, they started probing it for its strengths and weaknesses, until they discovered it counted with three. The first weak point is the lack of armor plating and self-sealing fuel tanks; the second: the engine suffered from the same issues as the early Rolls-Royce Merlin engines that equipped the Spitfire and Hurricane. The Sakae engines used a float carburetor, when they performed Zero-G maneuvers made the float valve to open and flood the engines. This issue was never addressed throughout the war; and the third: its ailerons were so light that they stiffened during high speed, making it less maneuverable. With these in mind and the arrival of American planes like the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, North American P-51D Mustang, Grumman F6F Hellcat and Vought F4U Corsair; and British planes like the Spitfire Mk IX, Hawker Tempest, Sea Fury and Seafire, made the A6M obsolete after 1943. With Japan being bombarded day and night and its industrial capacity being crippled, they saw no other choice but to keep the production of the A6M and relegate all airframes and available planes to kamikaze suicidal attacks by filling their planes with explosives and launching ramming attacks over enemy targets like carriers, destroyers, bases and dreadnoughts. Until 1945, over 10,000 of all variants were produced.
Let me show you the initial images of Mitsubishi A6M2 Model 21.
This is the initial images of the Japanese A6M2 Model 21. The initial components were the wings and fuselage, along the spinner and Nakajima Sakae engines. I had so difficulties to make the end of the Zero tail, but I managed to make it.
I concluded the tail elevator and rudder along the propeller blades and a small part of the canopy hatch. I used temporary colors for the main structure and engine cowling, but I plan to make the iconic green texture on the top section of the Zero like in Pearl Harbor movie.
The next components are the rest of the canopy framing, the armaments, the hook from where the Zero can attach to a carrier cable, the landing gears, the iconic Red Sun roundels on its fuselage and wings, a nice texture and rigging the plane.
Well, that's it for now my friends. I hope you enjoy this Blog. In case I have some spare time to enjoy, I'll be working on other things aside from Blender projects and my personal things. Until the time comes, you will be surprised to see them. See you next time.
My DeviantArt:
My second Youtube channel:
My other Blogspot places:
My Facebook page:
My Instagram:
Note: Don't you dare to download these images and re-share it without my permission. If you do, please, leave the original author name.
Comments
Post a Comment