Nozzle on RCS port

[legoclone09]

How can I make a indented nozzle in a RCS port in Blender? I'm trying to do that, can you tell me what to press?

[sumghai]

 - Delete the ngon circular face of the nozzle

 - Select the circle of edges that make up the lip of the nozzle

 - Select the triangular faces making up the outside of the nozzle

 - Press Shift-D to duplicate the faces, followed by Z and 1 to (temporarily) move it up by 1 metre, then Enter

 - Invert the faces of the (duplicate) cone

 - Select the apex vertex of the (duplicate) cone, and reposition it to make a slightly-squashed cone

 - Select the faces of the (duplicate) cone, and press G, followed by Z and -1 to  move it back to the original position

 - Select all the faces making up the nozzle (inner and outer cones)

 - Press W, then select Remove Doubles to merge both meshes into the completed nozzle

 - Repeat for all RCS nozzles

[legoclone09]

9 hours ago, sumghai said:

 - Delete the ngon circular face of the nozzle

 - Select the circle of edges that make up the lip of the nozzle

 - Select the triangular faces making up the outside of the nozzle

 - Press Shift-D to duplicate the faces, followed by Z and 1 to (temporarily) move it up by 1 metre, then Enter

 - Invert the faces of the (duplicate) cone

 - Select the apex vertex of the (duplicate) cone, and reposition it to make a slightly-squashed cone

 - Select the faces of the (duplicate) cone, and press G, followed by Z and -1 to  move it back to the original position

 - Select all the faces making up the nozzle (inner and outer cones)

 - Press W, then select Remove Doubles to merge both meshes into the completed nozzle

 - Repeat for all RCS nozzles

Ok, I might be able to do all of that but I do not know what a ngon is or how to delete it, nor how to select edges. I am a total noob, this is my first model.

[artwhaley]

An N-gon is any polygon.. the N is a placeholder for the number of sides.  In your case he's referring to the polygon that's the face of your nozzle... the part where the hole should go.  Instead of deleting it, here's another option...  select that face where the hole should be, press the i key to inset a little, wiggling the mouse until the thickness of the nozzle feels right, then press the e key to extrude it back down the bell, then press the s key and scale it down to zero.  

At this point it's worth mentioning that...  it's REALLY worthwhile to watch some generic 'getting started in Blender' videos to help you get started.  They don't have to be KSP themed... just make a few things by following along, then come back to your space ship.  At a minimum, you'll want to understand how to - 

select by face, edge, or vertex. 

use inset, extrude, translate, rotate and scale...  and be able to control all of those functions with both the mouse and the numeric input.

Understand the various modes you can use for reference when rotating and scaling.  (median point, individual origins, 3D cursor, etc.)

Be able to delete selected geometry.

Be able to duplicate selected geometry.

Be able to create new faces from selected vertexes or edges.

Be able to divide geometry with the knife, subdivide, and loop cut tools.

Understand face smoothing and normal direction.

 

I may have missed a thing or two...  but if you watch an hour's worth of tutorials and get all of those functions down before you start on your KSP parts, you'll find yourself DAYS ahead in your mod making career!  Welcome and don't hesitate to ask questions when you've got them!

[NecroBones]

 

Usually what I'll do is start with a nozzle that's aligned to one of the axes (that is, before rotating it into place on the RCS block). I'll assume it's pointing up and down, so the "Z" axis is where it's firing before moving it into place.

 - Select the circular polygon that's the "open" end of the nozzle.

 - Press "e" to extrude, then "esc" so as not to move it anywhere.

 - Press "s" to scale, and then "shift-z" to constrain scaling, scaling in x+y, but not z.

 - Type a number, such as "0.9" and then "enter" (in this case making it 90% the size).

 - Hit "e" to extrude again. "esc" if it's trying to move on anything other than Z axis, in which case you would then hit "g" to move and "z" to constrain to the z-axis.

 - Move it inward to make the inside of the cone, and you're done.

 - Move and rotate into place, and duplicate to make the other nozzles (shift-d to duplicate).

 

[InsaneDruid]

You can assign a custom transform orientation based of any part of a mesh (vertex, edge, face) from the "Transform Orientations" Panel in the "n"-Menu of the 3d window.

So you dont have to rotate the mesh to be aligned with the global axis. Just select the bottom of the cone, add (and select) a new transform orientation based on this, and then work with these axis. (You need to press xyz-keys twice each time though.)

Edited January 21, 2016 by InsaneDruid