Progress report on soft top jeep

hubbabubba

hubbabubba

Charter Member
Hi guys!:wavey:

This is a very preliminary work on a soft top jeep;
View attachment 13072

It was done more than a month ago and I hope that, by publicly showing where I am, it will give me the proverbial kick in the a$$ I need to restart the "flow of creativity".:icon_lol:

My efforts were stopped by a stupid accident that could have killed me, but (unfortunately some will say...:kilroy:) didn't. Ask Ivan for details.

The wound is mostly healed and only lazyness keeps me from getting back on the saddle.
 
Hi H; I am using your jeeps in cfs2, they put the stock jeep to shame! A rag top would be nice. Thanks for the great model.:salute:
 
I take it you will have some provision for putting textures on the canvas top? Will it be doing anything that isn't obvious?

Looks Good!
- Ivan.

BTW, That sure was a fancy way of stabbing yourself in the back!
 
Since the windshield can no longer fold, I'm thinking of having the window lift upward. But apart from that possible "movement", nothing special.

The jeep was, after all, designed first with the idea of creating a "follow-me" vehicle, so the top was always in the back of my mind. The .50 cal model was a "en passant" construction.

And, yes, the top will be painted...:mixedsmi:
 
it's coming along rather very nicely...

now, quit :sheep:

and get 'er done... :a1089:

all joking aside,
the jeep is a fantastic piece of work. :salute:
well done!!!
I am also very pleased to see
that it has been noticed
and used over at CFS2.
 
Today, I worked for about three hours on the project, but nothing worth showing.:redf:

The folding windshield it took me days, weeks, to build and tweak is gone. The headache for the removal is not as strong as the one for building it, but it is there :crybaby:!

Now that I'm back on the saddle, let's hope the horse won't buck!

Tonight, we're going to see the last Harry Potter movie. I just hope I won't be thinking of my next move while watching Hermione, Ron and Harry chasing the hoxcruxes.
 
Hey Hubbabubba,

Over the last few days, I have spent many hours working on drawings and templates and such and not created more than about 4 polygons for a project. Plenty of work, but not much to show yet....

I know the feeling.
- Ivan.
 
Yesterday evening, I made polygons to "extend" the top on the sides. Although it will be textured-over, it must give the impression of cloth stretching near the supporting arches poles and sagging in-between. Well... let's just say that it needs to be redone.

But this is part of the "fun"; experimentation -> failure -> re-experimentation -> re-failure -> headaches -> re-re-experimentation -> re-re-failure -> bigger headaches (put as many iterations as you want HERE) -> solution -> elation.

The "elation" is the fun part btw...:kilroy:
 
:salute:Hello!

Sides are done to my satisfaction. The stretching-draping effect along the poles is looking okay. The stretching between the center and aft main pole is pretty straight but, after examining all the pictures I could find, thats the way it is. Sagging was only evident between the windshield and middle pole. Texturing should, I hope, do the rest.

View attachment 25221 The idea here is to give the basic polygons a "textile look" as much as possible before applying the painted texture. No so easy with triangles...
 
Hi Hubbabubba,

The top looks pretty good. Texturing this thing I am sure will be fun. If you were doing this in AF99, I would ask how, but with SCASM, there probably aren't the same silly issues.

- Ivan.
 
Ivan said:
Hi Hubbabubba,

The top looks pretty good. Texturing this thing I am sure will be fun. If you were doing this in AF99, I would ask how, but with SCASM, there probably aren't the same silly issues.

- Ivan.
Click to expand...

Hi Ivan,

I had to think really way back to remember how painful AF99 texturing was... yeah:isadizzy:!

Not that texturing in SCASM is a "walk in the park" but, if you look at my textures for the jeep as an example, you are not limited at up/down - front/aft - right/left for one element. The same "component" (I use the term loosely as it makes little sense in SCASMing) can be textured in many different ways. I don't only mean the direction of the texture projection, but also the rendering (smooth/hard), the color (FS or CFS style), even the transparencies or luminosity.

Yeah... AF99 was very restrictive and was not taking advantage of the improvements made between FS5 and CFS1 texture-wise.
 
I don't know that I find AF99 texturing particularly difficult. It is tedious, but not really all that difficult. The 256 x 128 pixel limitation is a pain but you have the same even within SCASM. Yes, there are more limitations such as the constant scale which you don't have in SCASM.....

- Ivan.
 
Something worth showing;
View attachment 32887 The folded poles are gone. The rear of the canvas is in place. The new extended poles are in the making. I had to research a bit before going further; there are four or five different ways summer top were made. I've chosen a "classical" style; top and rear are sewed together permanently. Contrary to what Ivan has accustomed us to, the exterior is one color only. The reason is simple; different colors are useful to find bleeds - which was done before - but stands in the way of judging if light reflections are OK. As I will be using transparencies, shaded polys have to be restricted (transparency doesn't work on them), so simple polys "well draped" must do their best to look like fabric.

Another important step was made;
View attachment 32888 In previous pictures, the top was a one big component showing last. Now it is a series of smaller components attached from front to rear as shown by the yellow lines. The red line shows the "frontier" between the main jeep and the top, where the "glue-like" command changes showing order. They're still a few bleeds, but nothing I can't get rid of.

I also have to think how I will implement the windshield movement.
 
Hi Hubbabubba,

I see you have the top in the "Canopy / High Wing" section of AF99.
:173go1:

Just kidding.
It does look pretty good. Now since you mentioned the windshield movement, what will THAT do?

For folks who don't do this kind of work, I can tell you that in AF99, adjusting shapes, flipping the craft around in the sim and going back to adjust some more is a serious amount of labour to really get things right. I would imagine that doing this in SCASM is much MORE work!
:salute:
- Ivan.
 
I see you have the top in the "Canopy / High Wing" section of AF99.
Click to expand...
You had me with that one Ivan, for an instant, I thought "He's he gone mad???".:mixedsmi:

Now since you mentioned the windshield movement, what will THAT do?
Click to expand...
When the top was on, the only way to fold the windshield was up. But you won't find many picture of that;

View attachment 33042The reasons why are quite obvious. In a summer top configuration, you had plenty of air coming from the sides. In a winter configuration with side panels, you could "roll" the doors' panels. If, like in this picture, you just opened slightly the inner frame, the two "slider-like" fixations were acting like steel daggers pointing to your face or the face of the front seat passenger. So, why not take the five minutes to remove the top and fold the entire windshield on the hood?

In "my" jeep, I will have the inner frame go all the way up in a one shot motion using the spoiler key... or not at all.

Anyone's takes on that will be appreciated while I'm working on that :a1451:windshield...
 
I love it

Hubba, I will take it now, no need to finish it!

Looks great, but what else would you expect from the " Barbarian"

Gunna have to get our " Wizard" to make you some scrape sounds as that sucker bottoms out going over a hill at 65 mph.

Great Work

Dave www.thefreeflightsite.com
 
Now, the top and rear parts are done, poles included;

View attachment 33048You will notice some red from the inner section. I did that to verify for bleeds. What is less obvious is the work on the joint between top and rear panel;

View attachment 33049There was a dent at the internal junction and a slight bleed of the front sides panels through the lower rear. So I added parts to the junction to "stretch" it over the back pole and added a back panel associated with top section. But there is still one place that needs work;

View attachment 33050The internal back and sides are bleeding through the windshield and wipers. Here comes the decision; moving or not moving windshield?
 
hubbabubba said:
You had me with that one Ivan, for an instant, I thought "He's he gone mad???".:mixedsmi:


When the top was on, the only way to fold the windshield was up. But you won't find many picture of that;

View attachment 33042The reasons why are quite obvious. In a summer top configuration, you had plenty of air coming from the sides. In a winter configuration with side panels, you could "roll" the doors' panels. If, like in this picture, you just opened slightly the inner frame, the two "slider-like" fixations were acting like steel daggers pointing to your face or the face of the front seat passenger. So, why not take the five minutes to remove the top and fold the entire windshield on the hood?

In "my" jeep, I will have the inner frame go all the way up in a one shot motion using the spoiler key... or not at all.

Anyone's takes on that will be appreciated while I'm working on that :a1451:windshield...
Click to expand...

here's my "takes";
as usual, you workmanship is incredible
and your attention to detail is superb. :salute:

please do not be offended,
but i have to say,
that you and Ivan take
anal retentive to a whole new level.
far be it for me to say,
that the minute details that you
both tear your hair out over,
would, most likely, not be noticed
by most of us.

the point is,
you spend your time fretting over and redoing minuscule discrepancies
that are unnoticeable, except when you point them out.
i completely understand the whys and wherefore's,
and that this is your hobby.
if you could only see the tedious switch parts
i am building from scratch,
you would see that i do understand.
but jeez, from a purely selfish point of view,
how long have i been waiting for a decent A-20?
heck, i even tried to build one myself,
to no avail.
patience may be a virtue,
but i will probably be dead
before i see one,
let alone, fly the damn thing.

there you have it,
that's my takes.

she is fantastic,
i commend you for a job well done.
or should i say,
almost done.
 
Hey Smilo,
The A-20 is a VERY easy aircraft compared to the Dornier 17Z I am also working on. I haven't given up on the Dornier, but it is one seriously TEDIOUS plane to work on. That is why I take so many breaks from it.

I won't try to speak for Hubbabubba, but here is what generally drives me:

This is a hobby for me. I have never made any money from it and I doubt I ever will. I do this for enjoyment and to work on moderately challenging tasks as a change of pace from what I do for a living. When working on one problem becomes too draining, I switch topics. I don't work very efficiently because the only times I have to work are those left over when everything else is done. Generally it is between 11:00 PM and 3:00 AM. I don't do this for recognition or to see my work distributed widely. If I were concerned about that, I would probably release a lot more stuff and upload my projects to many different sites but this is the only place I have ever uploaded anything.

At one point, I was very interested in releasing my designs for everyone to play with. I don't consider that very important any more because of the many times I have seen stuff I have built end up pirated and uploaded as part of someone else's package. That can be really discouraging.

I still build stuff, but I work on whatever I feel like and if something gets completed to the point where I don't see any significant problems, I will release a new airplane. Hubbabubba once asked me as a joke what my motto was. I told him it was, "As Real as I can make it." and this is what really determines when something is finished. I don't release anything unless I am satisfied. Because of this, even though YOU can't see that little bump or dent in the contours, *I* know it is there and have to make an effort to remove it. If I don't, then I can't say I have done my best work.

I also work on CFS planes as a learning experience. There are a lot of times I will read through old NACA reports so that I can understand how things work. For someone who is aware of what I am working on or is interested in the results of a project, this can be aggravating. (Isn't that right, Smilo?) Basically, I am generally working on whatever interests me the most at the time.

Pardon me for being so long winded.
- Ivan.
 
I could almost say ditto.

Like Ivan, I'm not building for others. This is, in fact, a very selfish enterprise. Some like flying and killing each others, virtually I mean, with the game. I like building for it.

But you know, smilo, that, unlike Ivan, I decided to join the "on-line" community and took the Joint-Ops course and then went to AAC, and then... you know pretty much the rest.

The reason was, again, very selfish; I wanted to know what people flying the game actually were looking for. But as I was almost forced to get back to the AAC as it was in danger of sinking, I found myself in the company of gentlemen I came to be attached to; Minuteman and you, OB!

You were, and still are, one of the best guy I ever met. Your no-nonsense approach to the game gave me a fresh perspective and, because of it, I started doing things for the multiplayer community. I don't complain as, as I see it, the future of CFS1, if there is one, is in MP games.

But, probably without knowing it, you are one of the main reason that kept me away from aircraft-making! The time I spent creating land and sea "targets" was time away from a/c, so was AAC Ripe.

So, I will make you a promise, smilo; keep in good health and you will fly a British Boston III over the Low-Countries before long.

But patience, my old friend, patience.
 
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