Hello, fellow Hivers and Ecencians!
After several months of no Internet access here at home, except for slow mobile data which I had to use carefully, we now have a fast fiber connection after months of waiting (long story for another blog) for our old DSL subscription to be upgraded.
Now that we have unlimited Internet access again at home, my request to be go back to work-from-home status again has been approved by my boss. So, it's time to resume some of the activities I had to stop doing, most important of all, long-form blogging.
For my first blog of this year I am sharing with you a personal project that I began in August of last year, just before we lost Internet access. So, grab a cup of coffee or your favorite drink, and strap on your seat-belts for this one.
I'm taking you for a ride into the danger zone! 😎 👍 🚀
This post is about a trio of '50s and '60s-era North Vietnamese Air Force aircraft, Russian-made jet fighters in particular, that sparked an idea in my mind for a personal project, that I felt I should write about in a future blog too. So, if you're a military aviation fanatic like me, this post is for you.
Now, the topic of that future blog is something I would like to keep under wraps until the actual posting of it. But until that day, here is a sneak peek at the first three of the seven aircraft that I am modeling in Blender for this project.
Let's start with this first one I started working on for this blog project, the MiG-19 "Farmer". And for this particular plane I chose to model the license-built Chinese variant of it, the Shenyang J-6, because I built a plastic scale model of it many years ago in my college days.
The MiG-19 "Farmer" is a supersonic fighter developed by Russian aircraft manufacturer, Mikoyan-Gurevich in 1950 and entered manufacturing in 1954. Its design was based on a modified version of its predecessor, the MiG-17 "Fresco", another aircraft that I am also modeling for my future blog project.
I will not go in depth about the history of these aircraft, but in case you want to know more about them I will give you links to their Wikipedia entries.
Here are some screenshots and test renders of the MiG-19 model:
Next up is the MiG-17 "Fresco". The Fresco was a small, subsonic, and highly-maneuverable fighter, and although already obsolete compared to the American jets it had to fight, this little fighter proved to be more than a match to the astonished Americans. They never expected such a simple and already obsolete aircraft to be capable of making their jobs difficult for them, as they were after all, flying into combat in the most advanced fighters and air combat weaponry in the American air arsenal. And in the words of renowed American fighter ace, Robin Olds, the MiG-17 was a "vicious, vicious little beast".
Some screenshots of the MiG-17 model:
And, last, we have the fast and agile MiG-21 "Fishbed", the most advanced Russian-made fighter at the time, and also in North Vietnamese Air Force service. It was also the first Russian fighter to have a top speed of Mach 2.0, as well as the first to combine the roles of fighter and interceptor in one platform. Its success in the air war over Vietnam against American fighters resulted in making it their most successful fighter export, being widely adopted by various air forces all over the world.
Finally, some screenshots of the MiG-21:
No renders yet for this magnificent warbird as work on it was stopped for the holidays.
All three aircraft models are still works-in-progress, but with the MiG-17 and MiG-19 already about 95% done. The MiG-21 is about 60% done, but it is such a simple design and the work that still needs to be done on it is easy, compared to its two predecessors.
These are the only Russian-made aircraft I will create for this project as they are the only ones involved during the war. So, after finishing the MiG-21 I will start modeling one of the four American jets.
Compared to the Russian jets which basically are just long cylinders with wings attached, the American aircraft will have more complex shapes, and thus will be more of a challenge to model.
As for the quality and level of realism of this work, my goal is not to create realistic 3D models that would be good for feature film or TV CGI work. I just want them to look just good enough for animated infographics type of projects, like those in YouTube or other social media platforms.
This project will be documented throughout its creation and provide me with lots of material for blogs in the coming months. These 3D models are also going to be used for texture painting practice, using some new software that I have been asked by my boss to learn.
So, this is it for now. Stay tuned for the next posts, as some of them will be updates about this ongoing project.
All images are mine. These aircraft 3D models were created with Blender 4.5 and 5.0 on MX Linux and Ubuntu Studio. Screenshots and renders were edited in GIMP. Support and encourage the use of free and open-source software, whenever possible.
More information about these aircraft in the links below:
MiG-17 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-17
MiG-19 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-19
MiG-21 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21