Books about Reference Drawings and 3D Modeling

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Reference Materials
1

I have just published a new book on preparing aircraft reference drawings. It is already available in the web shops. This is the first volume of the new (fourth) edition of the “Virtual Airplane” guide:

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It contains some materials from my two threads from this forum, related to:

as well as many additional information. In this guide I am not only writing what to do, but also how to do it.

Here is the link to this project page. Below you can see a screenshot of two pages from this book:

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A longer preview, including the detailed table of contents, is available in Google Books. You can also skim the free Polish edition of this guide.

“Preparations” describes how to compile accurate reference drawings from available sources: scale plans, photos, general arrangement diagrams, and even the original factory blueprints. (In the last years documentation of some most popular aircraft became available on the Internet). It discusses typical issues, which you can encounter using these materials.

I suppose that this guide can be also useful, as a book on its own, for all those who work with reference drawings. In particular: the classic modelers and the authors of the scale plans.

2

Witold - congratulations! As soon as I get a PC capable of running Blender I’m determined to learn it, your work shows me it’s worth the effort!

Thanks for sharing and have a nice day

Paweł

3

Wonderful to see. Any plans to do more aircrafts of WW2 (Allied and Axis) as well as from different eras? (WW1, Korea War, Cold War, Current…)

4

Thank you for sharing! I would love to read it as soon as I have time

5

I would do this with great pleasure, but I made some realistic time calculations based on my measured pace of work. In the effect, I decided that I should focus on two or three aircraft. Thus, I picked the P-40 and the SBD.

6

My new book on modeling historical aircraft is already available in the web shops. This is the second volume of the new (fourth) edition of the “Virtual Airplane” guide:

Here is the link to this project page. Below you can see a screenshot of two sample pages from this book:

A longer preview, including the detailed table of contents, is available in Google Books. You can also skim the free Polish edition of this guide.

“Modeling” describes how to create accurate computer model of a historical aircraft, on the example of the Curtiss P-40B fighter. It uses for this purpose free Open Source tool: Blender 3D. It addresses various typical issues, which you can encounter during this process.

I suppose that this guide can be also useful, as a book on its own, for all those who would like to learn Blender 3D (especially its “hard-surface” modeling tools).