ethan829

I'd just like to say that I haven't abandoned this project. Haven't made much progress as I've been busy with school and work, but CopSub recently released some preliminary BPM-100 images that inspired me to try some more modeling. Still lots of work to be done, of course, but it's something.

Another fan of EJ, eh?

Trying to get the wing shape right for a U-2 replica. I find that outlining in girders helps a lot. EDIT: Wow it does not fly well at all. Any deviation from prograde and it pitches wildly.

A small update: I remade my tank model in a much more optimized way, and I think I finally unwrapped it properly.

That's a really awesome replica! How does it perform?

Yep, Lazarus has just been sitting on some news, waiting for you to ask. If there is an update, it'll be posted.

Did some work on the ballute, although I'm not sure if I'm going about it the right way. Anyone know if you're supposed to model the "string" as a solid object or just a 2D line?

SPICA-1 will be an Ethanol/LOX rocket. The BPM-100 engine will be similar to the BPM-5, but larger. Here's some video of the BPM-5 in action: If you know of any good unwrapping/texturing/mapping tutorials, I'd love a bit of guidance! I've been trying to put it off as long as possible, but I think the time is rapidly approaching where I'll have to learn. I also did some more work on the engine:

Work has slowed substantially since I started a Summer job, and I'll be gone the entire month of July, but don't worry, the project isn't dead. I got a (very) rough approximation of the BPM-100 engine modelled and loaded up, although it's non-functional for now. Hopefully that's a result of not using Unity yet...

Let me start by saying I'm not trying to start a big argument over this. You're definitely right about the fact that all official documentation so far has shown a painted tank, and there are no official sources stating otherwise (unless you count L2 as an official source). I tried to clarify this by saying it was "all but confirmed," but I can see the room for confusion there. I think it's a bit presumptuous to claim that no one speculating about this knows that many previous rockets were painted to provide visual confirmation of orientation. It's also sort of silly to make the claim that the shuttle didn't need painting because it was asymmetric, but to then post images of the symmetrical, unpainted, Atlas V. Modern rockets don't need to rely on painted stripes or patterns to provide ground controllers with the necessary flight data. There are countless examples of this. There is also a precedent here set by Ares V, the Delta IV series, the H-IIA, and many other LH2/LOX rockets, just about all of which had (or were planned to have, in the case of Ares V) unpainted, insulated tanks. An unpainted SLS definitely wouldn't look like the Atlas V, because the liquid hydrogen tanks require insulation, just like you see on the Delta IV, et al. All that being said, I love the work you're doing here and I'm sure this mod will turn out great whether the core tank is white, orange, or leopard-print. I apologize if I've come across as antagonistic; that's not my intention at all. Keep up the great work!

Yep, it's been all but confirmed for quite a while now that the core will be orange. They learned their lesson about unnecessary paint from the shuttle ET.

Added fins to the booster. They're nonfunctional for the time being. Now all that's left is the ballute, parachute, and BPM-100 engine. Oh, and UV mapping/texturing (ugh). I'm also starting to feel the effects of how unoptimized these parts are. Been getting some really low framerates ever since adding the nosecone.

Made an ugly nosecone

Also got the capsule blocked out, although I don't yet know how to make the fins create drag. I made a rough approximation of the other components out of stock parts, and took the whole thing for a little test flight. Everything seemed to work well!

After fighting with some rotation and scaling issues, I finally got a rough outline of the instrument unit done. I've also decided to forego the cable and fuel lines on the main fuel tank and instead just model the welded seams between sections, as seen in the newer renders from CS.

Looks really good! I love the thermometers as jet vanes.

The latest issue: Modelling the cable tunnels seems to have shifted the center of the model a small amount, causing the attachment nodes to be slightly off-center. Interesting... But I managed to get that sorted and added some more detail to the tank Now I just need to figure out how the hell UV mapping works...

Thus far I have learned that I need more practice

Although I have no experience with Blender, GIMP, or Unity, I'd like to try making a replica mod pack of the Copenhagen Suborbitals SPICA-1 rocket and capsule. Here's the hacked together reference material I'll be working from. I've been playing around with Blender for the past day or so trying to get the basics down, and so far I've made a fair amount of progress on the main fuel tank with the cable and fuel tunnels: Depending on how things go I might make some other CS rockets in the future as well. Any feedback or recommendations are appreciated.

That's great news! Thanks for making an awesome mod.

Is there a way to integrate the protractor icon into the stock toolbar?

Also the Shuttle's SRBs provided over 70% of the thrust at liftoff. It looks like some extra thrust on that side would help balance you out.

Very clever use of RCS ports, I like it.

Don't use them?

This is just insane. Incredible work.