[WIP] Aerobee Rockets

[hemeac]

@Clamp-o-Tron was lamenting about some early career rockets recently and that gave me a bit of inspiration to open up Blender for the first time in a while.  Still could end up as vaporware as I don't have experience with Unity .

At the moment, I am thinking of modelling the Aerobee 150A (Pictured without the solid rocket booster), Aerobee 300A, and Aerobee 350.  That should  provide some early game rockets.  I think I will avoid modelling the 3-fin variants: 150 and 300, but will look at the 100.  I will try and allow some modularity in the parts as well.

Right now, my plan is to scale the 150A to around 0.2344m in diameter with the 350 at 0.3125m (Size00 bulkhead) to correspond to BDB's scaling.  

Here's a couple of detailed shots of the WIP engine modelling of the AJ11-6 engine:

 

 

[Minmus Taster]

First!

[linuxgurugamer]

1 hour ago, Minmus Taster said:

First!

Why does it matter?

Edited December 5, 2020 by linuxgurugamer

[Minmus Taster]

55 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Why does it matter?

Dunno, seen other people do it.

[Stone Blue]

3 hours ago, hemeac said:

 Still could end up as vaporware as I don't have experience with Unity .

Just use Taniwha's Blender Tool plugin, and there will be no need to include Unity or KSP Part Tools in your wor flow at ALL.

[hemeac]

@linuxgurugamer, think the rule is that whoever writes "first" on posts volunteers to do part testing :-)

The big modelling of the 150A is now done:

 

8 hours ago, Stone Blue said:

Just use Taniwha's Blender Tool plugin, and there will be no need to include Unity or KSP Part Tools in your wor flow at ALL.

@Stone Blue, thanks for the tip! I didn't realize that you could do a whole workflow in Blender with Taniwha's plugin, thought one could just do some editing and re-export.  I did end up getting a part imported correctly through Part Tools.  Will explore a bit to see how things go, especially when it comes to a parachute.  I've yet to attempt animations in Blender ever, so will see.

Despite choosing a grey as a base color for the "white", the textures look pretty white in the VAB and most angles during the day.  The parts also seem to turn a crispy black when re-entering the atmosphere.  A bit more fiddling around is obviously necessary, but happy that I was able to get these to work otherwise in the game without too much trouble.  These parts are in real world scale which really highlight how small the Aerobee is compared to even the Mite Solid Rocket Booster. 

 

[hemeac]

I won't post a photo for every time I create/alter a part, but I solved the issue of the "charred" fins.  Turned out that Unity was modifying the normal map when exporting and making it pink, which I suspect is stripping out height information, but not an expert.  Using the normal maps that I have used in Blender seems to have fixed this issue.  Will need to do more testing when I convert these to DDS.  I've also simplified the texture and think it is starting to look more stockalike.  I have been digging around and looking at textures from CobaltWolf, Well and Beale for some inspiration.  I cannot emulate their style or quality, but hoping to get something that matches relatively close.

[hemeac]

While I said in my previous post I wouldn't post everything, but the SRB is functionally complete, complete with a glowing red nozzle and plume.  Just showing a pre-plume version to show some detail on the model.  Also pictured is Jeb and Valentina volunteering to show scale.  This is still full real-world scale.

 

[Vals_Aerospace]

I like the direction you're going with this. Are you planning to do other sounding rockets like the Black Brant line?

[hemeac]

@Vals_Aerospace, thanks!  At the moment, just thinking about the Aerobees to keep the scope small enough to make sure I can finish.  I really do like the Black Brant's colors though, they feel very Kerbal.  If I am still looking for more parts to model after this, may take a look at creating a new separate mod for the Black Brant.  For the Aerobee's, I am adding some color variants for the parts, currently have the SRB and wings setup with stock white and dark themes and am working on a red theme.  I may look to add a yellow as well so one can emulate the black brant style to a degree even if it is ahistorical.

Edited December 7, 2020 by hemeac

[Beetlecat]

I had to look up the Black Brant -- and immediately recognized the form-factor as the USI Sounding Rockets pack.

[hemeac]

The Aerobee project will be shelved for now.  I think sounding rockets are in much safer hands with @Vals_Aerospace.  Will keep this open if I see any scope to differentiate the mod, but think it may be good for me to find another niche.  Open to suggestions.