Engine Parts: Starter and Alternator

This models were produced for my book. I'm not sure what possessed me to think that 3D models of aircraft engine parts were a necessary addition to a book about flight training, but there you have it!

For those familiar with 3D development, I built these with a NURBs modeler, which made all those Boolean cuts and the welding and rounding of all those edges quite easy. Building these models (especially the alternator) using polygons wouldn't have been much fun! The program I used is no longer available, so when a job calls for NURBs modeling today, I'd use Moi 3d, which I think is a great NURBs modeler. It's easy to use, and it produces models that work nicely in Softimage XSI, which is my main 3D app. I wrote up a review of Moi for the CG Channel website.