John Matthews Art

It's "Outboard Engine Pod Day!" So the engine pods begin as an extrusion of polygons from the wing. Those are then shaped, and further extrusions are made, until a very basic shape is sculpted which resembles the actual engine pod. There's a lot going on in this process, most of it very unexciting. But, the end result is this generic engine pod. The first pods I'm going to make will be C/D model engines, like for the J-57-P-19. I can save it in that state and use that as a "base" engine housing for G model J57-P-43 housings, then modify it again for the TF33-P-3 housings. The nose can be modified in the same way, since there's some difference in the shape of the nose between the D and the G models. The tail gun is going to be handled the same way. Not much difference between the D and the G, but the H had the Vulcan cannon and radar blisters since there was no longer a gunner back there. I'll work toward refining this a bit more tomorrow. Until then, have a great evening! ~John

Hello all! I was able to sit down today long enough to create one generic engine pod on my B-52... That doesn't look like much, but it's a one piece extrusion from the wing of the plane from which (after several more extrusions and sculpting) we have an entire engine pod. No detail work yet, just the basic shape. I'm very happy everything is turning out so clean, without a lot of botched-up mesh that will have to be edited later. Some more work on this one tomorrow and then it'll be time to tackle the inboard pod. Have a great evening! ~John

Thanks Steve! I've bee playing with 3D artwork since around 2002. It's only been within the past five years that I've really learned, practiced, and developed my own 3D modeling techniques. I've been fortunate to gain the attention of a couple aviation artwork collectors who have bought some of my commissioned work. I've also been selling pieces to others through my website. The best is when every once in a while someone will see something and tell me it brought back a fond memory of their military service. So, I'm getting to live out one of my life's ambitions-making people happy through artwork, which is a great feeling.

Greetings everyone! I thought I'd share these since I'm just getting a start on a new project involving the B-52... Just getting a start on the basic fuselage shape. Extruding the wings and stabilizers from the fuselage shape. Wingtips, flight deck contour, and a nose added, as well as a shape detail for the wing flap area. I haven't decided whether this will be a G or and H model. I'd like to be able to model the plane to a point where I can save it as a "base model" for three different versions. We'll see. I'll likely work on the engine pods over the weekend. Cheers! ~John

So, here's what I'm working on now... Well, actually I'm finished with it. It's rendering now. Should "only" take another 16 days to finish rendering, then I'll be uploading it to my website's F-101 gallery. In the mean time, I'm working on this... I have a friend who was a crew chief on the Stratosaurus, and I promised I'd start some B-52 focused artwork. I haven't spent too much time on this 3D model. Just put the beak on her this evening and roughed-in the area of the flight deck. Possibly engine pods tomorrow. Either that, or the tail guns. Thanks again for the warm reception, guys! More posts to follow! Have a great weekend! ~John

Thanks very much Steve! 😃

Thank you very much Gregg! Its good to be had. Wait... 😂🤣

Hello everyone! My name is John Matthews. I guess I've been modeling since I was around eight, with my first kit being Revell's 1/72 "Air Commando" F-105D. After a long hiatus I'm now back into the hobby with my 14 year old son. While we build models of the plastic variety, I also create them in digital form for original artwork. Such as this F-105D: Republic Aviation F-105D Thunderchief, S/N 60-504 I generally work on whatever I'm interested in at the moment, but I've taken commissioned work as well, such as the following... A Tu-116 Badger created for a novelist who was interested in illustrations for his work. A reverse camouflage Republic F-105D for an aviation artwork collector. I've started a thread in "Aviation Art" where I wanted to share some of my works-in-progress and finished work. If you want to take a look, it's right here. Cheers! -John

Thank you.

Staying with the Voodoo for a bit, here's a completed illustration I titled "Voodoo Patrol". It depicts three F-101Bs from the 87th FIS from what was Lockbourne AFB, near Columbus, OH.

Hello Whiskey, thanks. I appreciate it!

Greetings everyone! My name is John Matthews. I've been a model airplane hobbyist for my entire life. For a few years now I've been creating digital aviation artwork. I have an Internet gallery on my website, Matthews Aviation Art. I'd enjoy sharing some of my work with you here on this forum and hearing your comments. My process always involves creating a 3D model of the aircraft I plan on featuring in my artwork... Above you see what was, at the time, the nearly completed model I made for my McDonnell F-101B projects. After completing the 3D model the model is laid out flat in a 2D space, then its texture layers are painted in Photoshop... After this, I start creating panel lines and other details for the planes making certain everything lines-up properly and looks appropriate. Once the model has its textures, its exported into another application I use to create scenery and atmosphere, with clouds, terrain, and atmospheric effects to suit the scene. With any luck, the finished result finished comes out like this... This is a low resolution rendering of my completed scene. Sort of a "sketch" to see what everything will look like before battening down the hatches and waiting a couple weeks for the larger, higher resolution artwork to complete rendering. The whole process is quite a bit like painting, but without having to clean up brushes and worrying about running out of paint 😉. I hope to get acquainted with all of you very soon, and to contributing to this forum. Cheers! -John