The horizontal stabilizers are shaped like small wings, and you use similar methods to model both these airplane parts. Because the horizontal stabilizers and the wings are symmetrical, it helps to split the model in half and use a Symmetry modifier to restore the mesh: This way, you have to model only one stabilizer and one wing; the modifier takes care of the other side of the airplane.

Set up the lesson:

1. Continue working on your scene from the previous lesson, or open \modeling\p47\p47_01.max.
2. If you opened the file, select the P-47 fuselage and go to the Modify panel.

Split the model in half and add a Symmetry modifier:

1. Press Alt+X to turn off X-Ray display.
2. If you need to, adjust the Perspective view so you can see the P-47 fuselage from the front.
3. Select the fuselage. Then on the ribbon Polygon Modeling panel, click (Edge).
4. Click to select one of the lateral edges at the very top of the fuselage.

   

5. On the ribbon Modify Selection panel, click (Ring).

   

6. On the ribbon Loops panel, Shift+click (Connect).

   3ds Max displays the Connect tool caddy. On the caddy, be sure to set Slide (the third control) to 0 so the new set of edges is perfectly centered, and then click (OK).

   

   TipYou can right-click the spinner arrows to set the Slide value to zero.

   Now you are ready to split the fuselage model.

7. On the ribbon Polygon Modeling panel, click (Polygon).
8. On the ribbon, go to the Selection tab.

   

9. Click the viewport at a distance from the fuselage, to make sure no polygons are selected.
10. On the ribbon Selection tab By Half panel, make sure that X is the chosen axis, and then click (Select).

    

    This selects the right half of the P-47 (from the airplane’s point of view).

    

11. Press Delete.

    

12. On the ribbon, return to the Graphite Modeling Tools tab, and on the Polygon Modeling panel, click (Polygon) to exit the Polygon sub-object level.

    

13. On the Modify panel Modifier List, choose Symmetry.

    

    Now the model appears complete again. But the right side is generated by the Symmetry modifier, and changes you make to the left side will be reflected on the other side.

    NoteThe symmetry must be about the X axis: This is the default for the Symmetry modifier.

Create the edges from which you will build the stabilizers:

1. Press Alt+X to turn on X-Ray display again.
2. Activate the Front viewport, and zoom in to the region where the stabilizers will be.

   

3. On the ribbon Polygon Modeling panel, click (Previous Modifier), then click (Polygon).

   Also on the ribbon Polygon Modeling panel, click to turn off (Show End Result). This makes it a bit easier to see the blueprint image.

4. On the Modify panel Subdivision Surface rollout, turn off Show Cage.

   

   The cage display can be useful when you work with smoothing, but for the time being, it just makes it harder to see the plain geometry.

5. On the ribbon Edit panel, turn on (Cut).
6. Cut edges that follow the outline of the stabilizer that appears in the blueprint image. Right-click to exit the Cut tool.
   TipThe cursor for the Cut tool has three different forms:

   • when the cursor is at a vertex
   • when the cursor is on an edge
   • when the cursor is on a face

   In this step, you create free-standing vertices to round the leading and trailing edges of the stabilizer: In general, a model should not have free-standing vertices, and in a moment you will add edges to connect these vertices to other vertices.

   

   TipIf the fuselage vertices overlap the stabilizer area, you can move them so their locations are more like those shown in this illustration.
7. Right-click to close the Cut tool.
8. Use the Cut tool again to create edges that join the free-standing vertices to the corner vertices of the neighboring faces. This ensures that the mesh still has all quadrangular faces.

   

Begin to extrude the stabilizers:

1. Click and Ctrl+click to select the faces at the base of the stabilizer.

   

2. If you aren’t already working with a four-viewport layout, click (Maximize Viewport Toggle) to display all four viewports.
3. On the ribbon Polygons rollout, Shift+click (Extrude). Use the caddys Height control to extrude the faces by a value of about 20.0. Watch your work in the Perspective and Top viewports.

   

   

   Top view

4. Click (OK).
5. On the ribbon Align panel, click (Align X).

   

   

   Top view

   As you can see, there is a discrepancy between the side and top blueprint images. This is not unusual, especially when one of the drawings is foreshortened as the side image is. In the next couple of steps, you will adjust vertices to better match the top image, which is the more accurate one.

6. Go to the (Vertex) sub-object level. Select the three vertices where the trailing edge of the stabilizer joins the fuselage, and move them forward along the X axis to better match the top blueprint drawing. In the Top viewport, move them down along Y so they follow the fuselage contour (check this in the Perspective viewport).

   

   Adjusting the trailing edge of the stabilizer

   Front view

   

   Adjusting the trailing edge of the stabilizer

   Top view

7. Do the same for the three vertices at the leading edge of the stabilizer (probably you won’t have to move them very much in the Top viewport).

   

   Adjusting the leading edge of the stabilizer

   Front view

   

   Adjusting the leading edge of the stabilizer

   Top view

8. Click (Polygon) again.
9. In the Top viewport, rotate the stabilizer faces on the Z axis to better follow the direction of the stabilizer. About 5 degrees is enough.

   

10. Activate (Select And Move), then choose Local as the transform coordinate system (after you rotate the faces, you can’t rely on View coordinates).

    

    In the Top viewport, move the faces to better match the blueprint image.

    

11. Activate (Select And Uniform Scale), choose Local as the coordinate system once more, then scale the faces up slightly in the Y axis so they match the blueprint image.

    

12. In the Front viewport, move the faces vertically in local Y axis to make them horizontal. Watch your work in the Left and Perspective viewports.

    

    

    Left view

    

    Perspective view