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back to Pilot main |
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The proof of concept, which was significantly larger. Note how paper that has already been written on has been used for it.
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Already since creating the first of the models for download on this website, I had thought about how can I come up with a pilot figure that can be built from paper plans. Others have made the attempt, but they were either too sophisticated, too polygonic or too troublesome to build (there are pilot figures with many layers, basically paper sculptures, not paper models).
Back in my youth when I first build paper aircraft (see history) my modeling pal Reimar and I also tried to come up with pilot figures. Our solution back then was a massive paper roll, basically like a rolled blanket to create a round shape. We called this Krutztyp (Krutzguy) with Krutz being an onomatopoeic creation to describe how this guy looks.
For the new version I did not roll paper (especially as that can't be scaled) but worked with simple cylinders, first building a proof-of-concept.
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| Two more shots of the proof of concept |
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The proof-of-concept was comparably big, about 20 centimeters tall and I build it directly from previously used paper. It worked well enough to go into Blender, after first creating a simplified sideview based on anatomic drawings. When creating this report I couldn't find the original Blender file any more. The first version of the Krutzguy NG (Next Generation) had comparably thin limbs, which were more anatomically correct, but actually in review they were wrong also, because that would have been skin tight clothes and what pilot wears skin tight clothes? The top of the head was still done with 8 segments, which proved troublesome to build, already at 1:30 scale.
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| The early version of the Pilot. Note the 8-segmented top of the head. |
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| I testbuilt this version in 1:30 scale as both standing and sitting and in 1:48 as sitting. After I was done with the 1:48 version, I decided to not even try the 1:60 one as that ws already challenging to build. Sure, some specialists may built it easy, but I wanted a Krutzguy that was not more difficult to build in 1:60 than a sidewinder missile or unguided rocket. Also the limbs felt really small. Another thing I noticed, that the sitting version (the 1:48 in this case) hardly fitted in the cockpit of a current testbuild.s |
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| The first version... |
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...in 1:30 and 1:48 |
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For the second version, I made the legs and arms clearly stronger, which also makes sense as pilots usually wear very wide, warm clothes. I named the new test dummies after famous actors, so "Mel" was the standing one, "Tim" the regular sitting one, and then I created a much shorter sitting version, sure to fit in small cockpit. This version was named "Tom" after the short actor who played a famous jet pilot.
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| setup in Blender with the sideview. |
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sitting and standing version |
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| standing version |
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sitting version |
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| the 1:60 "Tom" with his cousin, the finsished WW1 version. |
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This version tested well enough as after building the 1:30 ones and trying them in upscaled cockpit test builds, I succesfully built a 1:60 one and it wasn't super difficult.
The 1:30 versions fell victim to unfortunate accidents befor I could photograph them with only the 1:60 version surviving. Fronm there I went into artwork creation, first creating a WW1 and a Cold War version. Why WW1 although I myself do not offer models from that Era? Because for other designers' models of that Era, it is the most important to have a pilot figure. |
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Actually for the release I renamed the WW1 version to "1900-1930", because this was actually a general outfit back then, even for civilian pilots. The Krutzguy NG pilot was published with these two, sitting and standing.
I plan to create more versions for other Eras and also Civilian Pilots, but that depends when I have time between other project and also how papermodelers react to the pilots, how much they will be appreciated.
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The second version test builds, namely "Tim", "Mel", and "Tom"
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