Refine the Shape of the Bubble

The final step in modeling the P-47 is to improve the curvature of the glass bubble.

Set up the lesson:

Continue working from the previous lesson.

Refine the shape of the bubble:

Press F4 to turn Edged Faces back on.
Turn on (SwiftLoop) again, and add a loop in front of the vertical loop that is already present, midway along the bubble portion of the canopy.
Right-click to exit the SwiftLoop tool.
Go to the (Edge) sub-object level.
In the Top viewport, click and Ctrl+click to select the four edges at the top of the original bubble loop.

Perspective view
On the ribbon Edit panel, activate (Constrain To Edge), and then in the Front viewport, move the edges back, toward the tail of the airplane.
With Move still active, in the Top viewport, click and Ctrl+click to select the two edges just above the sides of the middle of the bubble.
In the Front viewport, move these edges down to the middle of the side of the bubble.
Go to the (Vertex) sub-object level.
On the ribbon Edit panel, activate (Constrain To Face).
With Move still active, in the Top viewport, click and Ctrl+click to select the two vertices where the side of the bubble meets the top, behind the vertical loops.
In the Front viewport, move these vertices down and forward so the bubble has a smoother contour.
On the ribbon Edit panel, activate (Constrain To None).

Expand the width of the bubble:

The last step in finishing the canopy, is to refine the bubble so the glass bulges a bit more, as shown in the blueprint images.

In the Front viewport, Ctrl+drag to select the vertices you just moved, as well as the vertices immediately above them on the same segment.

Look at the Top view to make sure you have selected four vertices: two on each side of the bubble.
Activate (Select And Uniform Scale), then from the Use Center flyout, choose (Use Selection Center).
In the Top viewport, scale the vertices out along the Y axis to give the rear part of the bubble more of a bulge.
In the Front viewport, region-select the four vertices that are in front of the ones you just scaled, at the sides of the bubble along the contour.
In the Top viewport, scale these vertices out along the Y axis, as you did for the rear vertices.

Observe your work:

Exit the (Vertex) sub-object level.
Turn on (NURMS) for the Canopy.
Select the fuselage, and turn on (NURMS) for it as well.
NoteUse NURMS drop-down portion Separate By Smoothing Groups should be turned on for the fuselage as well as for the canopy. You might want to verify this.
In the Perspective viewport, press F4 to turn off Edged Faces, and then zoom out so you can see the entire airplane.

Save your work:

Save the scene as p47_canopy_finished.max.
To see a finished version of the P-47 model, you can open p47_completed_no_texture.max. This version of the model includes some additional geometry adjustments that didn’t seem important enough to include in this tutorial.

You can also see a finished and textured version of the P-47 model by opening p47_completed_textured.max..

Summary

The P-47 Thunderbolt model contains only two objects, but each object has a lot of subtle detailing. Among the features and methods covered in this tutorial were:

Setting up a “virtual studio” with “blueprint images” to use as references.
Turning on See-Through (“X-Ray”) display to use the reference images more easily.
Using free-form deformation (FFD) modifiers to change the shape of a primitive object.
Turning a geometry primitive into an Editable Poly surface so you can change it into a streamlined or organic shape.
Using the Symmetry modifier to ensure that a model is symmetrical.
Using the Extrude, Inset, and Bevel tools to add polygonal faces.
Using the Align buttons to align polygon sub-objects.
Using the SwiftLoop, Connect, and Cut tools to add edges or loops of edges.
Using the Ring tool to select a ring of edges.
Using transforms, especially Move and Scale, to adjust the shape of the model by changing the position of sub-objects, especially vertices and edges.
Using the Constrain tools to limit sub-object movement.
Using the Border sub-object level to select the edge of a hole in the surface, and the Cap Poly tool to cover that hole.
Using NURMS to smooth the model and increase the detail of its geometry.
Adding edge loops to “reinforce” edges and reduce the amount of smoothing.
Assigning smoothing groups to differentiate components of the model, and to provide fairly good smoothing even when the model has a low polygon count.