The Test Pilot School F-125 BUZZARD


This jet aircraft is the outcome of my striving to create the perfect minifigure size airplane.
I had a list of criteria which are all met:
1- Minifigure size
2- Rectractable landing gear
3- At least one extra function: the wing sweep mechanism
4- Nice cockpit with stick, throttle lever, HUD display, realistic looking seat
5- Pointy nose (took me long enough to get this right, basically kickstarted development of the model )
6- Good looking air intakes with splitterplates
7- Aerodynamic shaping
8- External stores (originally a military jet with even more hardpoints than seen in the 3 renderings with missiles)
9- Details: probes, lights, see 2- and 4-
10- Don't overcomplicate (parts count, a lot of optimalisation was needed because of the many, many changes throughout development)
11- Plausible but not a scale model: honestly, I bow to the expert builders who create awesome scale models of all kind!


The proces:
1- Creating the 3D model in LEGO Digital Designer
2- After many years of playing with LDD, this model prompted me to explore the possibilities to render the 3D model.
   The LDraw All In One Installer was found, installed and proved to be gold! (Also check my Marauder renderings, I love POV-Ray!)
3- Export from LDD to LDraw
4- Export via LDView to POV-Ray
5- Setting lights and camera; setting sky and clouds; rendering in POV-Ray
6- Post edit shadows to get rid of the floaty effect where the model stands on a surface, using PaintShop Pro


Software:
LEGO Digital Designer 4.3
The LDraw 'package', specifically:
LDView 4.3
POV-Ray 3.7
Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3


Credits:
Way to many to name.
Credits to all the people involved in the development of the whole LDraw package, 
the people who created the LDraw AIOI, the POV-Ray team and the LEGO Group.

Comments and suggestions are welcome
plastikman@telenet.be