Kyushu J7W Shinden

[gray]

The Kyushu J7W Shinden (“Magnificent Lightning”) was a pusher prop fighter with canard wings developed at the end of the war to defend the Japanese homeland against B29 raids. Only two prototypes were built and flew on the two days that the atomic bombs were dropped. It was also designed to take a jet engine when that technology was developed. Hot on it’s tail is a Bearcat which is one of the allied planes it would have come up against.

[Egg Bramhill]

Gray, your renderings are awesome. Fantastic image.

[gwpriester]

Yeah, beautiful rendering. Really weird looking aircraft!

[gray]

Thanks Egg, Gary. It was an interesting design that would have been easily fitted with a jet engine at a later date.

[Boy]

Beautiful (not the plane itself, though) rendering. Are the clouds and the land below vector and/or raster?

[wizard509]

The Kyushu J7W Shinden (“Magnificent Lightning”) was a pusher prop fighter with canard wings developed at the end of the war to defend the Japanese homeland against B29 raids. Only two prototypes were built and flew on the two days that the atomic bombs were dropped. It was also designed to take a jet engine when that technology was developed. Hot on it’s tail is a Bearcat which is one of the allied planes it would have come up against.

Interesting design before I read your explanation I studied this image to understand what I was really seeing great work Gray..

[gray]

Thanks for having a look, guys.
Canard wing designs always look a little backasswards, Larry.
Boy, I lay the cloud and ground work out in vector first, then I go at it with a digital brush. The planes are 100% vector though.

[wizard509]

Canard wing designs always look a little backasswards, Larry.

Sure do!

[Boy]

I lay the cloud and ground work out in vector first, then I go at it with a digital brush. The planes are 100% vector though.

I know your planes are always vector but I seem to remember that you sometimes use images, or parts thereof, for some of the background. So in this piece, the only raster is the digital brush you use. Stunning!

[gray]

Thanks for asking, Boy. My backgrounds are always a mix of vector and raster. I never use photo's in my drawings, that can be the kiss of death in digital work. I will use photo's as a reference to get ideas from for backgrounds but never the photo. I learned many years ago that for digital work it needs to be as original as you can make it. That way you can be far more creative and not get accused of copying. For many of the drawings I do there are few or no photo's anyway. The Shinden illustration above is a perfect example of that.