Combat aircraft - Su-35 wannabe

Update, April 2011: This model gallery nows includes superb, near-realistic images rendered with raytracing in Kerkythea, using physically accurate materials and lighting. If you thought the model looked well before, you will be amazed now. Please check the Kerkythea images sub-section at the bottom of this gallery. Enjoy.

Here comes another aircraft, this one looking much more Russian than the first one. I believe it can be confused with a Su-35 on a cloudy day. I tried to be as accurate as possible, while not impeding my artistic freedom, but you be the judge of that. Let's go.

Gallery

The plane is a typical single-seat 4.5th generation multipurpose fighter with Su-27 genetics, a classic cropped delta wings with LERXes, canards, and twin tails with massive turbofans and a rearward-looking radar housed in between. Here's a sprinkling of images, from all kinds of angles.

Plane 2 right top iso

I had the fighter armed with four R-77 (AA-12 Adder) and three R-73 (AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missiles, deliberately omitting one of the pylons to create a bit of asymmetry. This time, I felt I had to make sure the missiles were realistic. My previous aircraft design featured a mixed batch of Western and Eastern weapons, none too faithful in its looks.

Plane 2 AA missiles 2

The R-77s have the rear cruciform wings missing, which is understandable, considering they are dummy rounds, painted red in the best of Russian tradition. The Archers are training rounds, missing the warhead, but they are still live (indicated by the black stripes).

Plane 2 AA missiles 3

Notice the pale-gray radar proximity fuse windows on the forward missile body on R-77s.

Plane 2 AA missiles 5

Here's a closer look on a lonely wingtip Archer.

Plane 2 Archer

The plane is dead sexy from angles, even from below. Notice the massive engines and the wide separation between them, reducing the chance of a dual engine failure in case of a missile hit. Plus, lots of goodies can be carried on the centerline pylon.

Plane 2 bottom view

Dead aggressive!

Plane 2 front bottom view

Here are a few chase plane camera views.

Plane 2 wingman view

Notice the powerful engines and the rearward-looking radar, a novelty seen only on Russian fighters.

Plane 2 rear bottom view

Finally, a couple of mid-distance shots.

Plane 2 mid distance view 1

Kerkythea images

Here's the same model, only re-created using Kerkythea, after exporting the model using SketchUp Importer for Google SketchUp and rendered with photons and ray tracing and magic and whatnot. You will like this. My dream of making near-realistic models is coming true, finally. Nirvana. Spledidski.

Iso right back 1

Iso right back bottom

Weapons

Top view

But then, I redid the plane with more realistic materials, including matte brown and ocher, sort of like desert camouflage colors, which could suit an Israeli F-15 or perhaps a Russian Su-27, although they normally go for blue-dominant tri-color schemes.

A whole bunch of dazzling sky images:

Sky shot 1

Sky shot 2

Sky shot 3

Sky shot 4

I like these two best; surreal lighting in the thunderstorm:

Thunderstorm 1

This one is pretty neat, too:

Image from below

Here's the fighter in takeoff ascent above Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar:

Air base 1

Air base 2

Air base 2, zoomed

Here it is swooping above California coastline:

Coastline image

Another top shot, like with the first plane model:

From above

Credits

Some third-party images were used for the model backgrounds. I would like to thank the creators for their beautiful and inspiring work, which made into my models.

Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar image taken from the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing site.

City from above and coastline images taken from Palos Verdes Peninsula & nasa.gov.

Have fun, people!

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