Continuing my work on the MH-6J Little Bird main rotor. Today, I tested a new AI model for 3D generation.
The pitch housing consists of several parts that connect to the main rotor head. It was difficult to figure out the assembly from general photos alone, but eBay listings were a huge help. Some sellers even included screenshots from the technical manuals.
Currently, I’m working in the blocking stage.
It’s worth noting that the Bearing Housing on the MH-6J likely differs slightly from the photos mentioned above. If you look closely at photos of the 5-blade rotor, you can see that the Bearing Housing has a reinforced design.
A great reference from the Precision Wings channel provides a clear understanding of the internal mechanics.
The movement of these specific parts (I haven’t found the official name yet) is well-demonstrated in this video. Both the upper and lower sections have travel limiters, but they are located on opposite sides.
A demo for a new AI model for Image-to-3D generation, Sparc3D/Hitem3d, was released the other day. It yields better results than Hunyuan 2.5, but since it’s currently just a demo restricted to single-image generation, it isn’t quite enough for a high-quality final result. I tried generating the swashplate using two different photos as a test.
I considered using the AI-generated mesh as a base to model over, but the geometry was slightly warped and asymmetrical, making it impractical. Instead, I created the base mesh the ‘classic’ way—modeling directly over a photo reference in the viewport. The photo mentioned above is an excellent reference, which I used for the base mesh. I’ll likely need to tweak this model once I start assembling the full rotor; that’s exactly why I’m working with a base mesh/blockout for now.
What impressed me about Sparc3D is that it even generates threading, ‘imagines’ bolts and nuts, and reconstructs the internal parts of an object that aren’t visible in the photo. Below is my attempt at generating the MD 500 Mast Assembly.
To be continued…
The completed high-poly main rotor model is now available in the 3D models store.
The completed game low-poly main rotor model is now available in the 3D models store.
