The Ship Model Forum

Another Sub-D (Sub-patch / NURBs) comparison example.

This is the basic hull of a MK-VIII SEAL Delivery Vehicle; I threw it together last night to practice with a couple of tools I've let gather dust, and it came together remarkably fast. All of it is sub-divisional modeling and all polys are quads. There are 666 (Yikes!) of them. If this were a hard surface model, this section would have thousands of polygons.

This is a MK-VIII I built in Dec (a little further along with a detailed interior) using hard surface modeling; It has 477,000 polys! Once the technique is learned, a Sub-D model can be built faster with far less polys.

Back to the forward (Control) sphere "cockpit."

A rough layout is constructed before modeling individual panels. The center-mounted periscope dominates the shelf panel, so I built that first to aid in keeping the surrounding objects in scale as I compare the view with reference photos.

Front panel complete. The shelf panel is next.

CC

Had to jump over to a couple of different models, but found time last night to replace the Splitter Keel, (located behind the Transfer Skirt) create the opening for the remote manipulator arm forward of the Transfer Skirt, installed forward light recesses and then threw some lights at it to see how it looks. This is the result. More to follow.

CC

Lower fiberglass superstructure openings have been added to accommodate the mid-sphere forward-facing view ports, house the manipulator, forward and aft pan-and-tilt cameras. There isn't much reference material for the manip and cameras but I'll build what I can and add it in the next installment.

Once the DSRV is completed, all external parts not molded to the superstructure are segregated and oriented for 3D printing. Creating a 3D model that looks accurate when rendered is totally different than creating a 3D model that lends itself to 3D printing. Having the ability to render shots like this helps to ensure the accuracy of the model for later stages of development.

CC