Complex engine shape

[Letum]

I am trying to model a Wright R-1600 Cyclone.
I can usually model anything if I put enough time to it, but the top of the cylinders has got me hopelessly stuck.

I am only modeling the outside.
I am using max9 and polly editing it for sub-D
Some of my reference material is below.

Does anyone have any tips?
Both the shape of the engine below the fins and the fins them selves are proving very tough. Especially the fins that go round corners.

Just bump mapping the fins is a last resort. I would much rather polly them.

Thankyou very, very much for any advice.
http://www.b3tards.com/u/57a418c694bc7c6296b3/fbeab.jpg

[raf]

Yikes, you've got some interesting irregularities in those fins!

You said it right; if you put enough time into that you could make it all in subD, but that would leave you with insane amount of faces. My guess is that you don't collapse smoothed mesh.

Have you considered making head and fins as separate objects, geometries (intersecting each other but not connected) and blending them with "round corners" in Arch&Design material. Seems like fillets between fins and head are not big in most places.

[Letum]

Yer, I suppose having the fins as separate objects is an option. I will give it a go at anyrate.

Arch&Design is something new to me. I will look into it.

[raf]

Other option would be to model in only outer ribs (if you want to manually control the blends), and have all other fins separate. That would still eliminate having to fine tweak those deep concave parts of the mesh between fins.

That reminds me, do you know how to turn of showing back side of mesh in viewport in Max9? I remember thinking that would be useful a while back, but it's not, it's annoying.

Arch&Design mat is for MR only, it takes some time getting used to but it can produce great results. Check: http://jeffpatton.net/

[Tim27]

I may be wrong, but would the connect tool help a lot here?

[Letum]

It would be an insane amount of work to connect the fins so that the model is water tight and ready for sub-d.

[magyareagle]

I'd model the inner cavities as separate objects and then connect them using a boolean. Make a copy of the pre boolean objects and extrude the fins from them. It would still need a lot of tweaking, but that's the best option I can come up with. By the way, are you trying to model a cross section of the engine like in your first reference photo, or just the outer areas?

[Skyraider3D]

Unless you need to render this high-res, up-close I would go with bump maps. Besides saving tons of time and polygons, it might actually look better. My experience with rendering cooling fins is that they cause moiré patterns, which are rather ugly. But moreover the insane polycount (even if not subdivided) makes radial engines and absolute drag to render. So I'd suggest to give bump mapping a try. You might be surprised by the results you can achieve with this.