I am having problems shaping the fuselage, the tutorial seems too vague to how to shape the fuselage.  It says use the fence selection tool, i select this tool then don't know what to do next.  The tutorial says it allows me to select specific vertices but i don't know how to make the front of the aircraft rounded and smooth.  Any ideas?

(I use G-max)

When making my fuselages, I tend to use cross sections (if available).  If I can't find those, I start with the side view and shape it there, then go to the forward view and shape it there, then the top view.  Then I go through the views again, reshaping, and continue doing this until I get it as close as I can.  This tends to work well on most aircraft, although I have had a few issues with this on some vintage prop fighters.  If you're not already using it, I would suggest you check out the Stupid Idiot's Guide to Gmax at the top of this forum.

BTW, what aircraft are you working on?

I am working on a Hawker Hunter with Dan, TLUK.  I am doing the model and whatever else (yet to decide).
I am trying to get it really smooth.  A pic of the hunter is in my sig.  Could you give me a step by step guide of how to get the nose to look like the one in my sig or similar?  I am struggling to understand the method used in stupid idiot's G-Max Tutorial, it does not go far enough as to how to actually get a smooth curved shape.
Thanks

I have posted this pic to show a fuselage i am practicing and developing, i am just trying out new stuff.

Quote:



Have you done ANY of the basic gmax tutorials yet?

Even Inspector Poly, with his avowed preference for FSDS2 can scale, move and do other unmentionable gmax actions upon selected points.

Making the fuselage is the most basic thing  you can ever make in Aircraft Modeling.

Even I learned how to make all my models by reading the tutorials.

I suggest you put your little serious project on hold and start practicing with Gmax. Ya know, play around with it. Try seeing what you can do.

Whenever I have nothing to do, I would always go to Gmax and start playing around by making simple objects [box, cylinder, sphere] and applying modifiers to them. I would also usually convert the objects to an editable poly by right-clicking the object > going to convert to > and clicking whichever kind of poly I want it to convert to.

I would also usually play around with the Material Editor. This tool is what you need if you like to apply textures.

It took me almost a month to figure out the ALL the basics abd concepts of Gmax. And then it took me nearly 4 years to master it and push it to its limit.

In other words, I have 2 phrases to say to you:

1. You're in for a long training.

and

2. Practice, Practice, Practice.

For starters, go to www.freeflightdesign.com and check in the Tutorial section [usually called Tips and Tricks].

The website also has a Gmax section that contains a fair load of Gmax files. These files contain just aircraft. You can use these as templates to see how most modelers make their aircraft.

My signature has a list of websites for you to chose from.

Good Luck

I have worked it out now, all i needed to do was delete the face then manipulate it then smooth it.  P.S that was a practice one, hence the reason it looks so rushed.  I have been practicing a while now and found that was the only prob i had, thanks for all your help.  I think i am ready to make the Hunter