Source material

Most of this is pretty obvious, but that won't stop me mentioning it. The real thing: First and foremost, try to view some real aircraft. If you have a museum nearby, or have access to an airfield then half the battle is won. First hand viewing along with a camera or sketchbook can reveal lots of detail that you don't often see in magazine shots, such as undercarriage detail mentioned earlier. Just bear in mind that museums might require permission to use a camera - no point upsetting them, you may want to go back.

Try and get along to some airshows. Obviously, this is a fair weather sport, so if you are reading this in the depths of Winter, forget it. If this all seems a bit much just to make a model of an aircraft, then the following paragraph is probably more for you.

Magazines:

Another mainstay of mine is the large collection of aviation magazines and scale model magazines. The latter is especially useful of course, because they often have very detailed 3-view drawings complete with fuselage & wing profiles. All you need to do is scan them in & use as background images in modeler.

Give some current Titles / addresses here.

http://www.samnet.co.uk/

Your local library:

Aircraft reference books are usually pretty popular. Don't be afraid to steal your childs ticket so you can visit the childrens section either. All's fair in love & war. Large format aircraft books are often lurking in the bargain basement bookshops, especially if they are slightly out of date. Don't worry about that though, since the chances are that you will be modelling something that was out of date before you were out of short trousers. Even the most modern aircraft take a number of years to develop, so even an old reference may still be useful.

The internet:

An internet connection is an invaluable asset, and since you are reading this, you must know that. There are thousands of reference photos and reams of text about most popular aircraft subjects, although I must say that US Military fighters seem to be the best supported.

Here are some current web addresses to get you started.

http://www.suurland.com Has some general Max tutorials & 3-view drawings (including the f-86)

http://www.arance.net/index.htm Some great artwork & a few tips on modelling & surfacing.

http://www.57rescue.org/logo.html

http://www.b24bestweb.com/b24bestweb-Guns.htm

http://www3.sympatico.ca/scott.knox/home.htm

http://www.enygmag.freeserve.co.uk/photos.htm

http://gac.future.easyspace.com/gacaircraft.htm

http://aeroflt.users.netlink.co.uk/mus/newkmus.htm

http://home.box.nl/~stirling/hotlink.htm

http://amber.aae.uiuc.edu/~m-selig/ads/aircraft.html : Aerofoil usage, for the more exacting modeller.

http://home.box.nl/~stirling/home.htm

http://www.totavia.com/imagearchive/

http://www.wellingtonaviation.org/

Model kits:

This is not something I have done for a number of years, but modern plastic kits are often very detailed & having a 3d dimensional model to examine can only help things along, plus there is the added fun factor of making the thing in the first place. I know that some people saw their kits up to get profiles, but I'm not sure I want to saw up something that just cost £20

Whatever your choice, take a little time to read this useful tutorial by Chris O'Reilly.

http://www.lightwaveworld.com/Tutorials/Chris/intro.htm

http://www.chris3d.com/learn.htm (Updated version of above under construction)