You build the P-47 Thunderbolt from scratch, but use planes with “blueprint” images to guide your work. The airplane will consist of just two objects: The fuselage with its wings and other details, and the canopy that goes over the cockpit.

Set up the scene:

• On the Quick Access toolbar, click (Open File), navigate to the \scenes\modeling\p47 folder, and open p47_start.max.
  NoteIf a dialog asks whether you want to use the scene’s Gamma And LUT settings, accept the scene Gamma settings, and click OK. If a dialog asks whether to use the scene’s units, accept the scene units, and click OK.

  The scene contains three planes that show side, front, and top elevations of the airplane: a “virtual studio” as described in Pointers on Setting Up a “Virtual Studio”.

Optimize bitmap display in viewports:

1. On the main toolbar, choose Customize Preferences.
2. Go to the Viewports tab, then click Display Drivers Configure Driver.

   3ds Max opens the configuration dialog for the graphics driver you are using (Software, OpenGL, or Direct3D).

3. Depending on the driver, there are either one or two check boxes labeled Match Bitmap Size As Closely As Possible (for the OpenGL driver, the label is Match Bitmap As Close As Possible). If there is one, turn it on. If there are two, turn on both of them.

   

   Configuration dialog for the Direct3D driver

4. Click OK to close the driver configuration dialog, and OK again to close the Preferences dialog.
5. If you had to turn on Match Bitmap Size As Closely As Possible, then exit 3ds Max. Restart 3ds Max before you continue with this tutorial.

   Bitmap configuration changes do not take effect immediately: You always have to restart 3ds Max.

   If you did not have to change the Match Bitmap Size setting, you can continue without restarting 3ds Max.

Set up the viewports:

1. Click (Maximize Viewport Toggle) to display all four viewports.
2. For each of the orthographic viewports (Top, Front, and Left), turn on Smooth + Highlights (keyboard shortcut: F3), turn off grid display (keyboard shortcut: G), and click (Zoom Extents).
3. In the Left viewport, use (Region Zoom) to get a better view of the front of the airplane.

   

Create a cylinder to begin the engine cowl:

1. On the Create panel, activate (Geometry), then on the Object Type rollout, click Cylinder.
2. In the Left viewport, drag from the center of the propellor hub to create a cylinder that is about as wide as the airplane. Give it a height of about 60 (the exact value is not important). Set Height Segments to 1, Sides to 10, and turn off Smooth.

   

   NoteWith 10 sides, the top and bottom segments are flat: This will come in handy when you add some details such as the tail.
3. Change the name of the cylinder to P-47.
4. Turn on (Select And Move). In the Left viewport, move the cylinder so it is well centered on the image of the airplane. In the Top viewport, move it forward so its rear edge coincides with the rear edge of the engine cowl.

   

   NoteAs you create the model, it can help to zoom and pan a particular viewport to get a better view of the geometry and the blueprint image. In general, we mention view changes when they are particularly important or useful, but you might want to change the view more often than we indicate. This is quite all right.
5. If you need to, reduce the height of the cylinder so its front edge matches the edge where the air-intake cover meets the cowl.

   

   NoteIn this step, as in much of this tutorial, you are using the “blueprint” images as a guide, and the exact values don’t matter much. Use your eye and your judgement.
6. Go to the Modify panel, and apply an FFD 3x3x3 modifier to the cylinder.

   FFD stands for “free-form deformation.” This modifier lets you adjust the shape of the cylinder, using a 3x3x3 array of control points.

7. On the modifier stack, click (the plus-sign icon) to open the FFD 3x3x3 modifier hierachy. Click Control Points to highlight that sub-object level.

   

8. In the Left viewport, drag to select the bottom row of FFD control points (this actually selects all nine control points at the bottom of the lattice), then move them down so they coincide with the bottom of the fuselage. Scale them along the X axis so they are a bit closer together.

   

9. Drag to select the upper row and plane of control points. Scale them out a bit along the X axis, then move them up a bit along the Y axis.

   

   You now have a good cross-section of the cowl at the front of the fuselage. In the next procedure, you refine its shape along the length of the airplane.

Taper the profile of the cowl:

1. On the modifier stack, click the FFD 3x3x3 entry to exit the Control Points level. Then choose Modifier List FFD 2x2x2.

   You will use this additional free-form deformation modifier to give some taper to the nose of the airplane.

2. On the modifier stack, click (the plus-sign icon) to open the FFD 2x2x2 modifier hierachy. Click Control Points to highlight that sub-object level.

   

3. In the Front viewport, drag a selection box to select the row of control points at the lower leading edge of the cowl, then move the points to follow the taper of the image. Do the same for the lower trailing edge of the cowl.

   

4. Do a similar adjustment for the upper profile of the cowl.

   

5. In the Top viewport, drag to select the leading plane of control points, then scale them down a bit along the Y axis to taper the cowl in that dimension as well. so it matches the blueprint image.

   

   The changes you make in the Front and Top viewports also appear in the Left viewport.

   

Extend the cowl forward:

1. Right-click the P-47 cylinder, then from the Transform (lower-right) quadrant of the quad menu, choose Convert To Convert To Editable Poly.

   By converting the cylinder to an Editable Poly object, you lose the specific Cylinder and FFD modifier controls, but you gain access to the rich set of Editable Poly sub-object controls.

2. If the Graphite Modeling Tools ribbon is not displayed, then on the main toolbar, click (Graphite Modeling Tools (Open)).
3. If the ribbon is displayed but not fully expanded, click the expand/minimize icon until the full ribbon is visible.
4. On the ribbon Graphite Modeling Tools tab Polygon Modeling panel, click (Polygon) to go to the Polygon sub-object level.
5. In the Left viewport, click to select the large polygon at the front of the cowl.

   

6. Activate the Perspective viewport.
7. On the ribbon Polygons panel, click (Bevel).

   

   The Bevel tool does two things: It extrudes a selection, and then lets you scale the size of the extrusion.

8. Do this step in the Perspective viewport, but watch your work in the Front viewport: Drag upward to extrude the selected polygon as far as the front of the airplane.

   

   Release the mouse, then drag downward to scale the polygon so it tapers as the blueprint image shows.

   

   The curve of the cowl is subtler than the model we have so far, but you will fix that later on.