Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche

Hi all!

And new model again. This time I’ll try to model (and hopefully texture) a helicopter. The Comanche RAH-66 to be specific.
I’ll model some of the panels so the texturing wouldn’t be so pain in the ass. :smiley:
Also I’m thinking of rigging the weapon/landing gear bays. We’ll see how this turns out.

Progress so far:






Hope you like it!

Fast update!

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Coming together.

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Nice work! looks like its going to be make a great scene
I love making machine myself, so look forward to this.

Thanks!

Some glass and all.

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Looking good :smiley:

Looking good so far. It’s one of my favourite helicopters. It’s a shame it wasn’t a success. Looking forward to the finished render.

Thanks!

Thank you. Yeah, it’s definetly interesting helicopter concept. I guess it was a bit too expensive project after all.

Little update with some wireframes.

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This is going to be a fun one to watch grow Icon, looking good so far.

Thanks! More renders coming soon!

Looks like a good start.

Have a look at some pics on google. You’ll notice a few things that are incorrect. If you’re going for a highly accurate model, you’re going to want to fix these things.

A few thing tings that stand out to me:

  • The big one is the cant in the fenestron tail rotor. I’m not familiar with the specifics of the Comanche, but I know the designers of the Blackhawk had to cant its tail rotor to account for an aft CG to relieve some cyclic pitch. I’ll bet it’s the same thing for the Comanche. This is going to be tricky when it comes to maintaining symmetry.
  • The overhang along the length of the tail actually has a slot underneath. This for the turbine exhaust, designed to give the helicopter a lower IR signature. The shroud around the fenestron tail rotor is also flat (Flat in the same plane as the tail rotor disk) for a bit before transitioning out the the rest of the aircraft.
  • The fairing behind the engine inlet is a bit too curved. The helicopter was designed to be as angular as possible to minimize its radar signature. This is something to keep in mind in other locations around the aircraft when you have to make decisions on how to do things. Nearly everything should be a flat plane with sharp transitions.

Like I said, you’re off to a fantastic start, but you’re going to have a very difficult time getting it perfect. The shapes of aircraft are proprietary and generally very well protected by the companies that build them. I know Sikorsky keeps things pretty close to the chest, and all the three-view drawings of their Blackhawk helicopters that I’ve seen on the internet, even the ones released by the company itself, are incorrect in a number of places. In the case of the Comanche, I’d be willing to bet the shape is classified.

I’ll be following this one. Good luck!

Thanks for the insight erikscott. I’m well aware about the tail piece being inaccurate. I’ll fix and tilt it when I get all other things for the fuselage modelled as now the fuselage is mirrored. There are some different variant of this helicopter and no good blueprints so it’s a bit challenging helicopter to model. Also good preference pics are rare but it’s coming together slowly and hopefully quite accurately.
Here’s some progress! Modeled the XM301 cannon that was solely designed for this helicopter.

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The cannon modeling came out nice, does it extend out from inside the helicopter, or is it stationary as you see above?

It’s stationary. The tip of the gun is closer (upper) to the fuselage as the gun is not in use.

Fixing, modeling and adding details.

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Yes, there is an old modellers saying “more details = better model” :slight_smile:
This one looks really good!

Indeed. Thanks!

Reminds me of the old comanche games. Very nostalgic :slight_smile: Very clean mesh from what I can see.

Yeah, I remember those! Nice simulators at the time. And thanks. I’ll try my best.