11/04/06

Raptor 90 Models for Reflex Xtr

This page finally lists the long awaited Reflex XTR models of the Raptor 90. Note that recently the Raptor 90 SE was added for download!

Modeling, mapping, and Photoshop correction is done by Vincent Charbonneau.

Photo's, the behavior of the models (.par file) and the sound files are done by John Vugts.

The reason this project started is that Vincent was looking for a new modeling challenge after his nice work on the Raptor 30, and I was looking for a nice model to practice my flying with Reflex Xtr. The Raptor 90 did not yet exist in great detail visually, nor a version that did fly realistic for Reflex Xtr.

Somehow Vincent ran into my site, and asked me if I would like to work with him in creating this Reflex Xtr model. I immediately agreed in doing this, not knowing how much time it was going to take. Neither Vincent expected it to take this much time. The "problem" is that two perfectionists had found each other which kept pushing each other for better results. This is the only reason why we kept on going, and kept improving the model, and were actually capable of finishing this huge effort.

This is the end result:

An exact copy of my personal Raptor 90.

The main effort was in:

	Taking the pictures in proper light conditions of every detail of my heli from all directions, and selecting the right pictures. Note that Vincent did not have a model to look at besides my pictures, so we needed a lot of pictures. The total amount of pictures taken exceed 200MB of data.
	The actual modeling of the Raptor has of course been the most work, especially since we reached all the limits of the capabilities of the RMK modeling tool. We reached the maximum number of faces, the maximum number of vertices, the maximum number of cylinders and ran into trouble with the file size due to the mapping detail. The tool became very instable and crashed often, and at the end we could no longer export a model anymore. Note that most of the time when RMK crashed, the model was corrupted :-(. The author of Reflex came to help here since he was interested in the modeling job. He has written a special version of the RMK modeling tool for us to complete the project. This is also the reason why you can not change the model in RMK and export it again until Reflex released the new version of RMK. Your RMK version will crash. Still we had to remove a lot of detail since we went beyond the capabilities of Reflex XTR itself. This is very unfortunate, and has taken a lot of time trying to optimize the model (make IT simpler without loosing too much quality).
	Mapping the different pictures and schemes on the helicopter has been a lot of work also. The cropping and the preparation of the pictures for mapping, and the actual precise mapping of the pictures itself is a lot of work if you want to get the right quality.
	Recording the audio, and improving the recording and selecting an exact sample that sounds consistent is a lot of work also. Next the sample is to be fixed such that it does not produce a tick in the audio within the loop used in Reflex Xtr. Next to this the pitch of the audio has to be corrected for the gearing used in the model.
	Then we had to accurately model the behavior of my helicopter. This has taken quite some hours at the field, flying my own helicopter, and then flying the simulator, flying my own helicopter, and flying the simulator etc :-) The result is very good. I had to tweak certain values quite a bit to make it fly like my model. I have to warn you, my helicopters are very VERY agile for 3D contests. They way you will experience this model, will be the exact configuration as I will fly it again at the 3D Masters in 2005.

Here you have the Raptor 90 with original fins.

The total amount of hours spent to do the modeling of this Raptor 90 exceeds 400 hours! During the modeling the total amount of data was near to 3 GB of files, test files, mapping tests, some parts tests etc. The canopy got remodeled 2 times, the first version was not good enough. All the points had to be aligned perfectly in the canopy to get it smooth and reduce any strange reflections.

Furthermore, a way had to be found to model the "mouth of the raptor" (merged faces) which has been tried for the first time in RMK to get a real good model of the bottom of the canopy.

You can see the result here, we are very proud of our work, and feel that we created a very nice looking, flying and sounding Raptor 90.

The body modeling work, the mapping, and the Photoshop correction of the pictures is done by Vincent. The photo's are by me, the behavior of the models (.par file) is by me and the audio files are done by me.

Be aware that I have modeled the behavior of the Raptor to behave exactly like my own, and I am having a very VERY agile setup for flying 3D. This setup will be the exact setup as I will be flying at the 3D Masters again this year. You will get this setup with a standard Raptor 90 if you:

	Add a metal hub to avoid mid air boom strikes.
	Add very light and very wide but stable SAB 20 gr paddles (601).
	Add very light 710mm SAB 3D blades 168 gr.
	Add a flybar control arm (cradle) and different Bell Hiller mixing arms to allow for a different Bell to Hiller mixing ratio.
	Add Carbon Extreme dampers.
	Make the blades spin at 1850 rpm.
	Setup the aileron to 9 degrees.
	Setup the elevator to 8 degrees (still trying to avoid mid air boom strikes).
	Setup the pitch range from -10 to 10 degrees in all flight modes.
	Setup the maximum pitch for autorotation to 13 degrees.

Next to this I use:

	a 601 with 9251 servo on the tail.
	9252 servos on the cyclic
	9350 servo on the pitch
	a governor to keep the rpm constant.
	an OS 91 C-Spec PS.

Update May 15th:

I got questions on how I get the machine to fly as exact as the Reflex model does? The most important think I do in order to get it to fly very exact is the following. I glue (with loctite) every single bearing to the bushing that goes inside the bearing, and then I even glue the bolt that goes in the bushing themselves (again with loctite) to the bushing. If you do this properly, this yields a control systems with absolutely no play whatsoever. This improves the flying of the heli quite a lot. Be careful however, maintenance on the heli becomes a nightmare, since it is very difficult to get it apart for maintenance.

If you want to download this model, then we ask you for a small donation, what you think is worth it. Donations will motivate us to continue this huge effort to create a perfect Raptor 90 model (The updated version will then include detailed modeling of the head and tail).

We will also create and release Raptor 90 machines with different color schemes (e.g. the Raptor 90 SE, an Arizona heli version, and an Alan Szabo version. We may also release a Raptor 90 model that flies like an original standard Raptor 90.

Please send the donation by means of Paypal to my e-mail address which is: "john.vugts" and then concatenate: "@tiscali.nl".

You don't even need to have a Paypal account to make a donation! You don't need to get a Paypal account, you can directly donate using the button above. Thanks!

Note that it is not allowed to publish these Raptor 90 models for Reflex on any other medium or any other website without an explicit and written consent of the authors. The model is copyright by Vincent Charbonneau and John Vugts. If you download the Raptor 90 model, then you explicitly agree to this. Given the amount of time we spent on the modeling, we assume that everybody respects this, and only creates links to this site.

We wish you a lot of fun flying our Raptor 90 model.

Best Regards,

John Vugts and Vincent Charbonneau.

If you have any comments on this Raptor 90 model, or want to read the comments of others on this model, then go to this thread on my forum about this.
So if you want the Raptor 90, Get it here. Note that the name of the file that will be downloaded will start with: "www.STADTAUS.com_", and then the file name of the Raptor90_carbon_SAB.zip (so the total name will be: www.STADTAUS.com_Raptor90_carbon_SAB.zip. The file contains a Raptor90_carbon_SAB.par, a Raptor90.wav, a Raptor90_.wav and the Raptor90_carbon_SAB.mod. Just unzip all the files in the "...\Program Files\REFLEX\Heli\Thunder Tiger\" directory of Reflex Xtr, and then start up Reflex Xtr. Then you press F2 to select the model in the Thunder Tiger directory.

The Raptor 90 Model has been downloaded: 10138 times

If you want the Raptor 90 SE, Get it here. Note that the name of the file that will be downloaded will start with: "www.STADTAUS.com_", and then the file name of the Raptor_90_SE.zip (so the total name will be: www.STADTAUS.com_Raptor_90_SE.zip. The file contains a Raptor_90_SE.par, a Raptor_90_SE.wav, a Raptor_90_SE_.wav and the Raptor_90_SE.mod. Just unzip all the files in the "...\Program Files\REFLEX\Heli\Thunder Tiger\" directory of Reflex Xtr, and then start up Reflex Xtr. Then you press F2 to select the model in the Thunder Tiger directory.

The Raptor 90 SE Model has been downloaded: 3807 times

Some pictures of the model during construction

And here you see part of the frames (a lot of detail still needs to be added).

And here some more detail is added already, and some flaws have been removed.

Here we added the gyro and again some other small fixes.

And here we have the modeled SAB 20 gr. paddles.

And here the NOT YET MAPPED start of the head.

And a first mapping test. The picture for mapping were taken in the evening (too dark), so this is just a test. They will be much more carefully mapped with better pictures.

The completed frame, after hours of point reduction to make the model simple enough for Reflex. Just need to add the engine, muffler gears.

The completed frame with canopy

Here you can see a first shot of the engine in the frame.

And here the muffler is added.

Here we added the gear.

And here the landing gear is added.

Here we started to add the carbon fins.

Here we did a mapping of some Raptor SE graphics on the canopy . We will release the complete Raptor 90 SE later.

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This site was last updated 01/23/06
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