Continuing from my previous post, I performed an OBJECT>FREEZE operation on the low poly objects to get this:
Looks nice! But unless I'm doing a 1:1 scale model, it would be foolish to go straight to Pepakura.
Hence the next steps would be to simplify the model.
I start with the fuselage. Using the knife tool, I erase edges while taking great care to maintain the gentle curves of the fuselage.
Once done, I proceed to apply the same treatment to the wings:
Before I proceed with the other shapes, I do a BOOLEAN operation by subtracting the fuselage from the wing (WING minus FUSELAGE):
I apply the same simplification + boolean operation with the other objects. Here's an exploded view of the parts that would eventually comprise the model:
And here's how it looks like when brought together:
At this point, the model is now ready to be unwrapped in Pepakura.
I'll cover unwrapping and texture mapping in my next post.