The main fuselage is an extension of the cowl geometry.

Set up the lesson:

• Continue working from the previous lesson.

Build the forward part of the fuselage from the rear of the cowl:

1. On the ribbon Polygon Modeling panel, click (Polygon). In the Perspective viewport, click the polygon at the rear of the cowl to select it.

   

2. On the ribbon Polygons panel, click (Inset). In the Perspective viewport, drag downward to create an inset with very narrow border polygons.

   

3. On the ribbon Polygons panel, click (Bevel). In the Perspective viewport, drag upward this time to extrude the polygon toward the rear of the airplane. Watch the Front viewport while youre doing so, and extrude the polygon just beyond the area of the cowl.

   

   

   Front view

   Release the mouse, then drag upward again to scale the bevel so it is almost the same diameter as the cowl itself. Again, watch the Front viewport while you work.

   

   

   Front view

Continue modeling the fuselage:

1. Use (Bevel) again to extend the fuselage up to the leading edge of the rectangular panel in front of the cockpit, then scale it up so that in the Front view, it follows the contour of the blueprint image.

   

   

   Front view

   This looks good, but if you look at the Top viewport, you can see that the new bevel is a bit too wide.

2. Activate the Top viewport, then scale the polygon down along the Y axis to align it with the blueprint image.

   

   From here on, Extrude is the main tool for creating the fuselage. Along the way, you will use Scale and vertex adjustments to refine its shape.

3. If you need to, pan the Front viewport so you can see the cockpit.
   NoteWe won’t always mention when you need to pan the viewports, as this can vary depending on your 3ds Max window setup.
4. On the ribbon Polygons panel, click (Extrude). In the Perspective view, extrude the fuselage up to the leading edge of the cockpit. As usual, watch the Front viewport while you work.

   

   

   Front view

5. On the ribbon Polygon Modeling panel, click (Vertex).
6. In the Front viewport, drag a box to select the vertices at the lower edge of the rear of the fuselage. Then move these vertices downward along the Y axis to match the lower contour of the airplane.

   

7. On the ribbon Polygon Modeling panel, click (Polygon) to return to the Polygon sub-object level.
8. Activate the Top viewport, then scale the polygon down very slightly along the Y axis.

   

9. On the ribbon Polygons panel, click (Extrude) once more. Working in the Perspective viewport, but watching the Front viewport, extrude the fuselage as far as the seam at the rear of the cockpit.

   

   

   Front view

   TipSometimes the size of the 3ds Max window prevents you from extruding as far as you want. If this happens, extrude as far as you can, then move the polygon horizontally to the desired location.
10. In the Front viewport, move the polygon up a bit along the Y axis so the bottom is closer to the contour of the airplane.

    

11. Also in the Front viewport, scale the polygon down along the Y axis so it better matches the blueprint.

    

    NoteAt this point, the match to the airplane contour is only approximate. Also, the polygons along the length of the fuselage are too long: In later procedures, you will add edge segments to refine the mesh, and move vertices to improve the contour of the fuselage.

    At this point, you might also want to go to the (Vertex) sub-object level and move the middle and lower vertices so they better match the contours of the airplane. Remember to use region selection so you select the vertices on both sides of the fuselage.

    

    After you adjust vertices, return to the (Polygon) sub-object level.

12. In the Top viewport, scale the polygon down some more along the Y axis, to match the blueprint image.

    

Complete the cylindrical part of the fuselage:

1. On the ribbon Polygons panel, click (Extrude) once more. Then extrude the fuselage as far as the leading edge of the tail.

   

   

   Front view

2. In the Top viewport, scale the polygon down to match the contour of the airplane.

   

3. In the Front viewport, scale the polygon down to the size of the contour.

   

4. Also in the Front viewport, move the polygon to better match the blueprint image.