Snow Day B-24J Liberator in 3D

Gallery Article by Konley Kelley on Mar 15 2010

 

On February 11, 2010 more snow fell on Dallas in one day than any day since records started being kept 130 years ago. A foot of snow fell on Dallas. That may not sound like much to my friends in the Northeast, but here it made major news. Remember, we have several months of summer heat around the 100 degree mark here. You just don't see much snow in Big D.

Schools closed the next day and I was right out there with the kids making the most of the white stuff. 

Later I was pretty banged up from countless wipeouts on the sled. I decided to take it easy and start a project I had been thinking about - making a B-24 Liberator in 3D.

My inspiration came from a painting by my friend Roy Grinnell. Roy is the "Artist of the Aces" and lives out here. He painted the B-24 "Tall, Torrid and Texas" which graces the cover of one of my books. 

As with many of my 3D projects, a scale model is the best visual reference. I posed my B-24J by my Mac and looked at several of my books featuring B-24's. I also wanted to add a foe to the image so I took my ME262 off the shelf. I made a 3D model of an ME262 a few months ago so I had one ready to tangle with my Liberator.

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The real trick to making the 3D work is to get the shape right. After several tries creating ribs and "skinning" the model, I finally got it how I wanted it. 

Next I needed the nose art. I googled "Tall, Torrid and Texas" and found the nose art on the back of a jacket. I used Photoshop to copy the image and created a texture map. I imported the texture map into the 3D software and it fit nicely on the model.

I also made texture maps for other features of the model like the tailfins.

I added an image of sky/clouds to the background and rendered the 3D models in the foreground. I posed them in an action scene in the skies over Europe with the ME262 roaring between the big Liberators flying in formation.

The texture map for the fuselage was built with layers in Photoshop. This lets me pull out pieces like the nose art and replace it with other nose art. I found another cool nose art image called "Night Mission 3", made a texture map, and placed this B-24 on the starboard wing of TTT. A little research might've been smart because I discovered "Night Mission 3" served in the Pacific theatre...oops.

This was a fun project and it took just a day to build the major elements and first renderings. I've spent the days since fine-tuning the project. Next up - animation!

For more digital dioramas using scale and 3D models, check out my website at www.shortfuse3d.com

Konley Kelley

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Photos and text © by Konley Kelley