The Ship Model Forum

Completed front page.

Owen,

Thanks!

I'll play with netfabb to see if it can repair my leaky STLs. It just won't do to have leaks in boat hulls!

Phil

This is the latest installment for page two. The instructions have been undergoing modifications as the in-computer assembly of the kit progresses.

Here's the base instructions. Much less time consuming that the other drawings so far.

The drawings here took over 30 hours to complete. Drawing the rigging was very frustrating and tedious.

The final drawing for the instructions is the included figure. Using cad to freehand draw is a pain in the rump, so I developed a technique that is tried and true. It's perfect for designing parts to match specific areas of a model like bow rails. I just scan the parts and trace over the scan for a perfect fit. This was done in steps 10 and 11 to get a perfect reproduction of the base plate. In this case it was a little different in that I need to draw a reproduction of a 3D figure. This is just a variation of the same technique. I photographed the figure to get a good, clear shot because scanning a 3D object results in blurry areas.



The resulting drawing was made by tracing over the scan. I drew the hands myself.

Here's the finished instruction sheets after all modifications have been made. As usual, I noticed several gaffs in the assembly as I went along. Notice I add crystal clear parts drawing to enable the modeler to quickly inventory the kit for any missing parts. The instructions took 142 hours to complete. There's no doubt in my mind that modelers who build this kit will consider it time well spent, especially in the rigging steps. As mentioned, it took some time to draw so that all the points will be clear. In addition, with such a complicated firing mechanism, the modeler will really appreciate the 3D drawings that show clearly how to assemble the Blakely Rifle "Alabama Gun".

I'll now move on to making the molds and casting parts for this very soon to be released kit.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Rusty,

They are beautiful instructions! I'm sure the kit builders will really appreciate all of the time you put into them.

I know what you mean about drawing rigging. Rigging blocks and tying knots with 3D CAD can be very frustrating! Can you imaging drawing a square-rigger in 3D CAD?

I sometimes use the "Extrude along a curve" function to create pretty good looking ropes and wires, but I build up block and tackle one section at a time.

Phil

DrPR wrote:Rusty,

They are beautiful instructions! I'm sure the kit builders will really appreciate all of the time you put into them.

I know what you mean about drawing rigging. Rigging blocks and tying knots with 3D CAD can be very frustrating! Can you imaging drawing a square-rigger in 3D CAD?

I sometimes use the "Extrude along a curve" function to create pretty good looking ropes and wires, but I build up block and tackle one section at a time.

Phil

I can't imagine actually drawing a technically correct "knot" in 3D. That would be a great exercise for CAD students. If they can draw that, they pass! To be honest, I fake my way through the knots since they are so small on the finished drawing. Any gaffs in the 3D drawing can be patched up in 2D. When it comes to rigging, I live and die by the "extrude along a curve" command.

Things like knots and crew figures would take some time to re-create in 3D. I'd be tempted to do the 'Illustrator trace-over' method and then composite my regular renderings and 2D drawings together in my DTP app.

Having said that, Blender is pretty handy at running things along paths. Due to it's "free-form" nature its relatively easy to extrude a path and bend it as you are extruding to get things like knots.

Owen

If you have nothing better to do, tie a knot with multistrand cord, say a rope made of three strands of three strand cord. Helical helices wrapped around each other! It hurts my brain to think about it!

Phil

Yeah, that would probably cause the rest of my hair to fall out.

Owen