Buck Rogers Starfighters

gmd3d · January 9th, 2012, 02:26 PM

I have recently finish my Enterprise and to get the design out of my system I revisited my models of Buck Rogers star fighters.

Star-fighter (What we see each episode)

gmd3d · January 9th, 2012, 02:28 PM

Quad-Fighter (Family Size)

This was a great update of the design used in the show.

gmd3d · January 9th, 2012, 02:33 PM

Thunder-Fighter (Seen in "Happy Birthday Buck).

I know the generic name for the Buck Rogers Star-fighters is the Thunderfighter. but I like the simpler and cooler name of Starfighter over Thunderfighter I don´t know why.

David Kerin · January 9th, 2012, 05:37 PM

Love these models. I've been getting more into Blender (especially since the 2.5 UI upgrade), and would love to do a conversion of these at some point. Blender takes in Lightwave fairly well. Just to find the time.

Punisher454 · January 9th, 2012, 09:17 PM

I actually came to prefer the 4 seat model when watching the show. and unlike most small fighter craft the 4 seat variant didn't add any external size to the ship, and I doubt that it would have made the ship much heavier either. Truly one of the most original and unique of all Sci-fi fighter ships.

martok2112 · January 10th, 2012, 01:10 AM

Very, very nice, Ger.

Ah yes, as I recall, the ship that was originally designed to be the Colonial Viper.

Did you do any Draconian Fighters, Ger?

gmd3d · January 10th, 2012, 02:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Kerin

Love these models. I've been getting more into Blender (especially since the 2.5 UI upgrade), and would love to do a conversion of these at some point. Blender takes in Lightwave fairly well. Just to find the time.

Feel free.

it gave me some trouble with Non-Planer surfaces so I had to triangulate many surfaces.

The cockpits are all modelled too.

gmd3d · January 10th, 2012, 02:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Punisher454

I actually came to prefer the 4 seat model when watching the show. and unlike most small fighter craft the 4 seat variant didn't add any external size to the ship, and I doubt that it would have made the ship much heavier either. Truly one of the most original and unique of all Sci-fi fighter ships.

The quad fighter is a good design. it gave me its own troubles but I remember on episode where Buck is working with Major Marla Landers's " Vegas in Space "

where she passed the flight control over to Buck, something I forgot when I was building the model.

Juanin Clay who played Marla was in line to play Wilma Deering
I think she would have been just as wonderful in the part.
Saddly she passed away in 1995.

gmd3d · January 10th, 2012, 02:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by martok2112

Very, very nice, Ger.

Ah yes, as I recall, the ship that was originally designed to be the Colonial Viper.

Did you do any Draconian Fighters, Ger?

No Steve..... another model grabbed my attention and my Buck Rogers modelling came to a stop..

I was building the Searcher, and other where asking if I would build the Draconia.

perhaps in the future

Titon · January 10th, 2012, 03:45 AM

Nice work Taranis.....

Quick idea about rendering...

If you do a radiosity render try using an occlusion shader node applied through the node editor. It will give your fighter a more realistic look. Just to give it some depth in your renders.

Otherwise nice work!

gmd3d · January 10th, 2012, 04:07 AM

Thanks Titon.

its been a year since I used the layout to render.

I never used the node editor...... I will have a look at that now

gmd3d · January 10th, 2012, 04:23 AM

The problem I had with this model was the non - planer surfaces really a pain. had to triangulate surface more than I normally like too

TwoBrainedCylon · January 10th, 2012, 10:30 AM

Taranis,

Check your PMs.

All my best,

Russell

gmd3d · January 11th, 2012, 02:59 AM

There is my new images after trying out the "occlusion shader node applied through the node editor" as suggested by Titon.

looks better to me..... but what do you think

martok2112 · January 11th, 2012, 04:43 AM

As always, Ger, simply BEAUTIFUL!

gmd3d · January 11th, 2012, 05:20 AM

Thanks Steve.

I have started to work on this model again.... see if I can improve on it

I need a break from another project

Punisher454 · January 11th, 2012, 08:02 AM

The rendering change is a big improvement. IIRC having seen this model sometime back, its very good already.

borjis · January 12th, 2012, 09:56 AM

Beautiful work.

gmd3d · January 12th, 2012, 10:14 AM

Thanks Borjis

peter noble · January 12th, 2012, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Punisher454

The rendering change is a big improvement.

Seconded.

Excellent job!

borjis · January 13th, 2012, 03:41 PM

thought you might be interested in this (earth directorate logo looks a bit different)

scroll down, there's a photo of Gil in the 1:1 filming model.

http://space1970.blogspot.com/

gmd3d · January 14th, 2012, 03:08 AM

I know the site...... has cool stuff.

The Icon is a temporary one something I will look at in the future

Rhaven Blaack · January 3rd, 2014, 01:13 AM

Taranis: You did a GREAT JOB on the rendering of all three versions of the Thunder Fighter. They look FANTASTIC!!!
Not trying to necropost (it is more of a resurrection, hopefully), but I just wanted to compliment on the fine work that Taranis did on the renderings and to share a link to some paper models of this fine fighter (some of which are fan based designed).
Here is the link to the site: http://www.paperaviation.de/
Here is the link to the models: http://www.paperaviation.de/Thunderf...erfighter.html

ENJOY!!!

gmd3d · January 4th, 2014, 03:26 PM

Thanks. It was a good while ago since I modelled the Buck Rogers fighters.