F-14B External Model Textures

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Current state of wings top and bottom...I will continue to post updates here as the project progresses.

All moving surfaces are seperate parts so this is not a traditional texture with panel lines and weathering 'emulating' parts on the real A/C instead the individual parts are textured as far as is feasible.


v4.2

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Current Status - Wings


v5.1

[Nizmo]

Starting the mappings.

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Update on current status...

Final wings top and bottom texture. Only thing missing are the rivets and panels of the bottom side slat edge and some maintenance ducts. The eyebrow doors on the topside are drawn as panels but not animated as the RL movement is almost non-noticable. The bottom side eyelid doors will be animated and fold up against the flap as you can see on the photograph below.





So the wings will look about like this when Slats and Flaps are deployed fully. Also the flap is seperated as in RL in a main and auxiliary element even though the texture is one piece.

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Update on the stabs - horizontal/vertical and ventral fins...



Ventral fins include air intakes for the engine heat exchangers on the left side of both fins respectively.

Vertical stabilizer base includes air intake for the fuel vent tank on the right side.

Both stabilizers include the hydraulic actuator housing for the rudders on the right side of both stabs respectively.

As you can see the tails will be textured as they are modelled with a slight curve around the connection points to the engine housing. Also the base elements are all modelled as well as the stab tips including the ECM antenna on the left and the ECM receiver antenna housing on the right. Both tails are tilted 5 degrees outward from the fuselage.

Enough nerdy talk. More coming soon...

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

The initial beta-F-14B will receive this late era low visiblity fleet combat paint scheme in light/dark ghost gray...



Thanks to Afterburner Decals for these very accurate paint scheme layouts.

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

WIP of engine shroud texture including the carbon-fibre like heat insulation (not sure what material it actually is)...



This is adapted from my textures for the old model and will be modified but remain as a standalone part of the texture.

Here is a picture of the real thing:



Thanks to Thorsten Anft for allowing me to use his image material for this project.

His epic work on the Tomcat in form of his Reference Work website can be found here and has earned the compliments of various high level members of the F-14 community (the real one:)).

http://www.anft.net/f-14/index.htm

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

WIP of the glovebox texture, it has been resized to measure about 2048 pixels along the vertical axis...



Fuselage underside as well as hook, weapon rails, air brake and bottomside of the glovebox around the main landing gear will be placed next to it.

[Nizmo]

I cant wait to map her.

This is gonna look good, great job Stingray!

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Some WIP shots of the front fuselage. Had to redraw the windshield, canopy and general outline 4 times to get it to look right, I now understand why most 3D models fail in this area - it is sth else to get the shape right.





Used RL canopy picture to get it to 100%, most blueprints are just inaccurate one way or the other...

Keep ya posted!

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Looks like a Tomcat, Baby.

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Front Fuselage V3.1, had to redraw the Weaponrail, canopy, bottom section and neckline countless times to get it to the right proportion. The lines you see are the same for both sides of the front fuselage, the rest is dedicated to left/right side.

The air inake and glove are larger equivalents to the engine pod/air intake and glovebox textures posted below and above so it all links together nicely :D





Drop tank is also new, for the first time with accurate shape and angle including connector. The engine pod and bottom of the fuselage side on the outside now resemble the curvy real life look extending further and further outward as you get to the engine nozzles.

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Engine Pods and lower Fuselage are coming along...



The thin stripe is the lower part of the lower fuselage side frame bottomside which wraps around the rear engine housing and is different on the F-14A and B/D models - both textures are available. Insides of engine pods pending...

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Pre-Final with some transparency over the wireframes. I finally got the right shape for the bottom part of the front fuselage, it is actually angled outward slightly. The Weapon Rails curve upward slightly and cover part of the bottom when installed. For comparison I left the left side as is without rails.



Also added sublte 'bubble effect' around the canopy and rear section frames, fully visible and editable stencils for different color schemes, MODEX numbers, canopy anti-glare is now seperate for coloring of different squadrons, high vis roundel on right, low vis on left. Almost there :)

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Front fuselage and engine pod textures forwarded to Nizmo for mapping...

[Nizmo]

Yes!!

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Right Tail Outboard base texture. Some rivets and details missing but the main elements are there.

DDS will be sent to Nizmo for mapping tomo...

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

The bottom section of the hydraulic actuator housing will undergo some further refinement to get as close as possible to the real thing. Note the sealing extends further back on the outboard side as compared to the inboard side...

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

F-14B Tomcat Front Fuselage (no weathering, no panel effects, no squadron stencils, standard markings, late-era, low-visibility, MODEX AA-103 VF-103 Jolly Rogers)



F-14B Tomcat Right Tail Outboard (no weathering, no panel effects, minimal squadron stencils, late-era, low-visiblity, including front and rear stab-tip ECM housing and hydraulic rudder actuator housing with heat shield sealing, MODEX AA-103 VF-103 Jolly Rogers)



"Fear the Bones, Baby!"

[Nizmo]

Oh my!

Stingray, man that is good work.

[Textbook]

This looks awesome! I look forward to smoking her in my su33 once Niz sorts the carrier ops for the Red side ;)

Many thanks & best regards :)

[Aragorn]

Nicely done, lads.



pr0n

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Final parts textured, bottomside missing some details and only with main panels at the moment.



The ALQ pod and some other details will go to this map as well so the main body will fit on one 4096x4096 map.

The wings have a separate model and their own .dds

Keep ya posted!

[Nizmo]

Finally got the MSI GT72.

I will be texturing the model and should be completed in about a week.

So much travel....  :(

Awesome skin set Stingray!

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Wings texture including horizontal stabs and all moving surfaces...

[Nizmo]

This is the Wings Model. I've made the .dds 4096x4096.

Going to get on the tail stabs next day or two.

[Textbook]

Hey Niz are you guys gonna be able to model the AIM54?

Awesome work BTW  ;)