Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star

In the spring of 1943, the U. S. Army Air Force (USAAF) realized that both the Germans and the British were seriously ahead developing jet-powered fighter aircraft. The USAAF gave the contract to quickly develop an American jet fighter to Lockheed’s Skunk Works (a super-secret, internal development group) in Pasadena. 150 days later the P-80 shooting Star, powered by a donated British Halford H1 engine was ready for testing. The final version of the plane was adapted to accommodate a wider Allison J33 American built engine.

The P-80 had a maximum speed of pf 933 kph (580mph), a cruising speed of 703 kph (437 mph) and a range of 1,754 km (1090 miles.) The plane was 105 m (34 ft 6 in) long with a wingspan of 11.85 m (38 ft 10 in). A couple of the prototypes saw some recognisance missions in the late months of the war in Italy. In all, 1,715 P-80s were built. In addition to the USAF and the US Navy the plane was used by several countries in South America.

This model and its livery are based on the F-80C version of the Shooting Star as it was in Korea in 1950 while assigned to the USAF 8^th Fighter-Bomber group, now displayed at the Museum of the USAF in Dayton, Ohio, USA.

#WWII #jet #fighter #plane #Lockheed #P-80 #Shooting_Star #Blender #Cycles

 

Messerschmitt Me 262A Schwalbe (Swallow)

The Luftwaffe ME 262A 1a was the first jet fighter to be used in combat in WWII. It attacked a British photo-recognisance plane over Munich in July 1944. (Both the Americans and British were also developing jet fighters, but they were only used in combat during the last months of the war.) While the plane was effective against allied bomber squadrons in the air, hundreds of them were destroyed on the ground by US Army Air Corps bombers. Of the more than 1,400 ME 262s produced, only about 300 saw combat.

The ME 262 was powered by two Junkers Jumo 004s turbojet engines with a cursing speed: 740 kph (460 mph) and an effective range of 1,046 km (650 miles.) It was armed with four 30mm MK-108 cannons and some versions carried two 500 lbs. bombs under the wings. The planes were 10.6 m (34’ 9”) long with a wingspan of 12.5 m (41’) and weighed 7,076 kg (15,600 lbs.)

This model is painted with the livery of the III./EJG (Ergänzungs-Jagdgeschwader or 3^rd Supplementary Fighter Squadron.) stationed at Munich.

#jet #fighter #plane #ME262 #Blender #Cycles

 

BRM P15

 

The BRM P15 was developed for the 1950-51 Formula 1 racing seasons. The car was powered by a unique 1.5 L, V-16, turbocharged engine. Unfortunately, the car was very unreliable; of the three races entered during the two years, it didn’t have any wins.

 Despite its record, I think it looked cool.

 #BRM #Type_15 #V-16 #Formula_1 #Blender #cycles

Pinecone

The pinecone modelling project certainly presented a challenge to my inner geometry nerd. After five weeks of researching the geometry of pinecones, I finally gave up on a purely mathematical approach and ended up using Blender’s geometry nodes in a trial-and-error methodology for my pinecone model that comes pretty close to the layout of the scales on the real egg-shaped cone. 

There are only two objects in the model: the stem and the scale. The stem is a stand-alone element in the center of the cone. The instances of the scales are distributed around the stem so that they follow Fibonacci curves, vary in size from large at the bottom of the cone to small at the top and the rotation of each scale on each of the three axes. The five variables are the number of scales, the size of the scales and the rotation of the scales in XYZ space.

Note: if anyone’s interested, the Geometry Node Setup is attached.

#pinecone #geometry #Blender #Geometry_Nodes #Cycles

The Seed

The Eden Project in Cornwall, England is an awesome experience that I’ve visited three times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden_Project

Located in the central atrium of the Core building at the Eden Project, the Seed is an egg-shaped granite sculpture by Peter Randall-Page. It is four meters tall and weighs 70 tons. Due to its size and complexity, the sculpture took four years to complete. (It took me four days to figure out how to model the bumps.)  The arrangement of the bumps on the surface of the sculpture is based on the Fibonacci spiral, a geometric form often found in nature, e.g., the seeds in the sunflower blossom. In this model there are 2,952 bumps.

#Eden_Project #Seed #Sculpture #Fibonacci spiral #phyllotaxis #Blender_4.1 #Cycles

Football Balls

 

I like to watch rugby international games and American football (when I get a chance.) As both modern games evolved from a common ancestor and the balls have different shapes, I was curious about the history of the balls themselves. It was easy to find examples of the two types of balls for the last hundred years, but there were very few, if any, clear images on the internet of earlier examples. Wikipedia, however, does have a discussion of the how the balls were made in the 19^th century for the teams at the Rugby school. With the invention of rubber bladders to replace pig bladders as the inflatable lining of the balls, it became possible to standardize a spherical shape for the balls. Films of the Eton Wall game in the early 20^th century show a round ball that I guessed was similar to the ones used a few decades earlier at Rugby.

And Then: I searched for “oldest football” and found images of the ball from Stirling Castle in Scotland dating from around 1540.

Tip-of-the-hat: CG Krab for his leather material that I used in a couple of these models - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coAn-LbAiSk

 #rugby #football #balls Blender #Cycles

 

Husky Clipper

This model represents a bit of a nostalgia trip. A couple of months ago I watched the movie The Boys in the Boat on Amazon Prime. It’s the story of the University of Washington eight-oar crew that won the Gold Medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I was attracted to it because I spent seven years at UW in the 1960’s; hence the nostalgia. Both my sister, Sherry Gillham, and my friend, Bill Anderson, told me that the book by Daniel James Brown was much better than the film, so I read the book, and they were right.

The winning boat, called the Husky Clipper after the UW husky mascot dog, was built by George Pocock in the loft of the ASUW Shell House. It weighed about 300 pounds (136 kilos) was 62 ft (18.9 M) long and the hull was two feet (0.61 M) wide. The nine-man crew (eight rowers and the coxswain) were all working class boys who, during the depression, had to work hard to stay at the University. Their coach was Al Ulbrickson, a former UW crew member himself.

Note: Hitler, who watched the Olympic race, was furious with the result and huffed out of the bleachers when the Gold Medal winner was anounced.

#The_Boys_in_the_Boat #Husky_Clipper #University_of Washington #crew #racing #Blender #Cycles

Takeuchi TB016 Digger

 

One morning back in 2018 the local water company showed up in front of our house to do some work with the TB016 digger.

The TB016 digger was 3.835 M long, 1.03 m wide and 2.295 m High. It weighed 1,800 kg. The TB016 was powered by a three-cylinder, 854 cc diesel engine.

#Takeuchi #TB016 #digger #Blender 4.1 #Cycles

 

 

Pipe Join Exercise

The other day an image of a detailed ripe joint popped into my head.Maybe it's part of a racing car suspension or something like that.

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