jason.epel
New Member
TL;DR: I'm looking for direction on how to properly model a WW2 era airport and its infield to recreate a 1955 race.
So, a bit of backstory here.. I autocross at a local rural airport. The club has been autocrossing here for 50 years, plus or minus. In the terminal, they have a page of a pamphlet from 1955 blown up showing a "Sports Car Race". I'm also an architect, and have a fair amount of 3d modeling background, though very little in 3ds max or blender. I've decided to combine several hobbies and try to create a track based on the 1955 airport.
While I have access to 3ds max, I have very little experience with it, and thus far have started modeling this track three different times. With each iteration, I'm watching videos on best practices on one element or another, and realize what I have is not great, to say the least.
I'm learning tons about airport design, which is not particularly helpful in my line of work, but still very interesting. Did you know runways are not flat end to end? I had no idea.
Anyway, I've done a fair amount of reading these forums and after reading a few WIP threads, I figured I'd cut some corners, and ask people who know how they would start this project, and go from there.
My best-guess is to model the runways as planes converted to editable polys, manipulate them based on runway design principles, and go from there. I had started the taxiway portion of the track as edge modeling, then saw another video on spline modeling (which admittedly, I have not yet tried), but I'm not sure on how to combine the spline method at the taxiways with the editable poly runways.
I'm not real sure how to ask what I'm asking, I guess I'm just looking for advice on how to efficiently start this project, and then I'll build from there. I'm including some photos below, as well as a few links that might be interesting and/or helpful.
Google Maps Location
Vintage Race Photos
Race Pamphlet
Google Maps Image
Intersection 1
Intersection 2
Intersection 3
Intersection 4
This last intersection shows an abandoned runway and taxiway that I'll be modeling as if they were still in existence.
I appreciate any and all help, even if it's just pointing me someplace else that's informative!
- jason.epel
So, a bit of backstory here.. I autocross at a local rural airport. The club has been autocrossing here for 50 years, plus or minus. In the terminal, they have a page of a pamphlet from 1955 blown up showing a "Sports Car Race". I'm also an architect, and have a fair amount of 3d modeling background, though very little in 3ds max or blender. I've decided to combine several hobbies and try to create a track based on the 1955 airport.
While I have access to 3ds max, I have very little experience with it, and thus far have started modeling this track three different times. With each iteration, I'm watching videos on best practices on one element or another, and realize what I have is not great, to say the least.
I'm learning tons about airport design, which is not particularly helpful in my line of work, but still very interesting. Did you know runways are not flat end to end? I had no idea.
Anyway, I've done a fair amount of reading these forums and after reading a few WIP threads, I figured I'd cut some corners, and ask people who know how they would start this project, and go from there.
My best-guess is to model the runways as planes converted to editable polys, manipulate them based on runway design principles, and go from there. I had started the taxiway portion of the track as edge modeling, then saw another video on spline modeling (which admittedly, I have not yet tried), but I'm not sure on how to combine the spline method at the taxiways with the editable poly runways.
I'm not real sure how to ask what I'm asking, I guess I'm just looking for advice on how to efficiently start this project, and then I'll build from there. I'm including some photos below, as well as a few links that might be interesting and/or helpful.
Google Maps Location
Vintage Race Photos
Race Pamphlet
Google Maps Image
Intersection 1
Intersection 2
Intersection 3
Intersection 4
This last intersection shows an abandoned runway and taxiway that I'll be modeling as if they were still in existence.
I appreciate any and all help, even if it's just pointing me someplace else that's informative!
- jason.epel
