Yet another X-Bomber 3d build

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Bradster
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Yet another X-Bomber 3d build

Post by Bradster »

A couple weeks ago, I posted about this in the Forum Downtime thread, but I figured I should make its own thread so I don't needlessly clutter up others. :)

Last year I started my Nth rebuild (honestly, I've lost count at this point) of the X-Bomber in 3D. I promised myself that I'd finish the darn thing in 2021, after starting and giving up and restarting several times over the years, and I'm going to use this thread to give myself a progress report at least once a month. I don't have a ton of time to spend on this project, though I wish I did. It's mostly weekends and the occasional evening. Plus, I'm doing this all on a 10-year-old computer that can barely run the latest version of Blender, but it'll get the job done somehow! My end goal, aside from a sense of personal accomplishment, is to post the models in the public domain for anyone else to use if interested and to convert and upload a version of them to Thingiverse, Shapeways, etc. for 3D printing.

When I last posted in the other thread, I had gotten the basic shapes in place for X-Bomber herself and had been whittling away at some of the detailed parts. After just a few very minor tweaks, though, I realized I needed to pause work on the main ship and get cracking on the three Dai-X components because they need to fit into the sides and bottom of the X-Bomber, and having them ready will help figure out some of the weirder proportions of those side blocks that the Mainbody and Legtrax dock into.

Image

So, I got started on Dai-X's Mainbody! I've been building out the main shapes here too, and added a few details along the way just to give it some character. The upper chest plates with the grill fins (???) aren't quite right; I need to rebuild them and incorporate better into the main torso. Obviously the forearms and center cockpit parts need detailing too.

Image

Colors on both models are temporary placeholders. I just assigned solid colors to groups of faces so I could get a general feel of things. I'll probably do some proper texturing later.

More to come soon!
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Crash
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Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build

Post by Crash »

Hi Brad!

These look absolutely fantastic.
I'm going to need to break your work down into more than one gallery on the site (I had to spread it out into more than one category already, since there was such a volume of it).

The updated X-Bomber is really impressive but I'm very much looking forward to seeing the Dai-X finished.
Dream big and bold and daring.
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Bradster
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Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build

Post by Bradster »

Thanks! I actually still have most of my old models, and I was recently thinking about reopening them just to render a few higher-res images with consistent lighting and camera angles. Maybe before long I'll do that and post them to replace anything you might have on hand before you get too deep into reorganizing your galleries.

I confess I cringe pretty hard at some of my earlier work. I've always just been a big noob, learning a handful of modeling techniques along the way as I experimented with one thing or the other. Even now I sometimes step back and look at some wireframes and scratch my head wondering why things look weird and why I haven't figured out how to make it all work out a bit cleaner. In another life I would have gotten myself some proper training and hardware to really crank out some quality work, but c'est la vie!

If only I could find the time, I would love to go rebuild/remaster all the old things I've built over the years. I would say that rebuilding the Imperial Figher and Drone Craft are at the top of my "stretch goals" for 2021 once I finish off the X-Bomber and Dai-X. After those I would still like to revisit the various EDF fighters and the transport fleet ships.
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Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build

Post by Crash »

That would be lovely to see!

I have the distinct impression that anyone looking through the site and coming across your work from yesteryear would be very impressed.
I use the site like a kind of time capsule to keep Star Fleet content together in a more permanent way than you get with social media.

But within that, I only add content that I think really adds to the site.
I don't end up omitting much that way, I guess that says a bit about the quality of the work that you come across in general, but 3D modelling is a particularly painstaking and difficult skill as well.
Dream big and bold and daring.
Matsukami2
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Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build

Post by Matsukami2 »

https://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=21/06/0x1i.jpg
https://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=21/06/bv7m.png

Two Bombardier X reference images according to me.
I wonder about the first one. Is it consistent with the proportions? The model seems elongated to me, I do not know.
The second is a fine work of d sheratt in the continuity of your work Brad.
This topic interests me because I have a project of 3d realization of the Bombardier X from the dai x evolution toys.

On the other hand, no 3d blender, no pla or resin printer, a pencil, a cutter and styrene will do for me.
I would like to illuminate the model and represent the Bombardier’s interior cannon called the duo laser frontal in France.
I’m very interested in your thoughts.
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Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build

Post by Bradster »

I'm nearly two weeks late to my "monthly" update. I promise I didn't forget! :lol: I kept feeling like I was so close to finishing MainBody... but the days kept passing as I obsessed over some of the details. It's not quite 100%, but I'm pretty satisfied with most of it. I may rebuild some of the front/nose of the cockpit, which I'm least satisfied about, but the geometry of that area is already tricky, and I'm not sure exactly how I'd fix it.

Image

Image

Image

I took a lot of creative liberties with the greeblies in the lower torso and forearm areas. I tried to find and recreate the most visible shapes from the different on-screen models (there are at least four versions with very different details!), but then I filled the gaps with my own various pipes and blocks.

Here's the front again but with the panels open like in the battle at the end of the series. I haven't completed the hinges, and the interior frame and exterior panels don't technically align correctly. When I optimize the model for 3D printing, I'll probably just close it permanently because 3D printing functional hinges is very challenging and probably outside my skills+budget.

Image

Last but not least! :) Since I'm already so late for my self-imposed schedule, I just took even more time to render a long video so you could see the model from all angles:

Image
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgT7uNMkiVQ


Do try switching to the 1080p/HD or 2160p/4K quality setting in full-screen if one of the lower resolution versions loads by default. Gotta see all those details! :D

I'm taking a break from MainBody for a while and will start LegTrax in the next week or so. I probably won't have much to show at the start of April, but I do intend to keep posting these progress updates.

——
Matsukami2 wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 5:28 pm https://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=21/06/0x1i.jpg
https://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=21/06/bv7m.png

Two Bombardier X reference images according to me.
I wonder about the first one. Is it consistent with the proportions? The model seems elongated to me, I do not know.
The second is a fine work of d sheratt in the continuity of your work Brad.
This topic interests me because I have a project of 3d realization of the Bombardier X from the dai x evolution toys.

On the other hand, no 3d blender, no pla or resin printer, a pencil, a cutter and styrene will do for me.
I would like to illuminate the model and represent the Bombardier’s interior cannon called the duo laser frontal in France.
I’m very interested in your thoughts.

Hi Matsukami2! I've seen your physical model of the Imperial Carrier, and I'm very impressed! :shock: I suspect you will have great success as you build the X-Bomber/Bombardier X.

I've also used that line-art illustration of the X-Bomber's side for a very long time, and it is the primary source for my 3D models. I believe the original artist traced a photograph because some of its unusual proportions indicate camera lens perspective distortion, and the image used for tracing was also probably photographed at a slight angle, further complicating things. There's a similar illustration of the front that suffers similar problems.

The illustration does appear very long, but that does seem consistent with most of the on-screen images I've captured. However, there are some surprising problems elsewhere in the illustrations. Some examples: I believe the big "X" pylons that extend up and down from the rear section are not proportioned correctly in relation to the rest of the body, the cutouts in the lower pylons that make space for the engines are the wrong shape, the rear engines are angled differently and too big, the long pod that hangs under the center of the ship is too high in the illustration and has a slightly wrong shape... None of this is terrible, but it does make precision modeling difficult.

Maybe a picture comparing the illustrations would help...

Image

I aligned the front and side with equal total elevations, and I added colored lines to connect points that also should have equal elevations. The lines should be straight, but their irregularities indicate some of the problems I described above.

Overall, I do believe the illustrations are still an excellent starting resource for understanding the general shapes, sizes, and positions of things. They're just not as good as true blueprints. If you try to follow them precisely, be prepared to use some good artistic judgment to resolve the differences. ;) But that's okay! Even if we ignore the illustrations, the multiple real-world models definitely had some differences, and I have slowly accepted that there is no true "correct" version.

I'm less familiar with the specific details of Dorian Sheratt's models, but they are also very good and have some great features! I did notice that its lower pylons are missing the cutouts for the engines, and in his version they appear to connect to the rear body using some long flat boxes. I suspect those were placeholders for other details; maybe he didn't have time or enough information to complete them. The geometry of that section of the "real" ship is very irregular and difficult for me to understand because there are no good pictures or videos with proper lighting. I continue to struggle with its shapes, and I'm still not entirely happy with this part of my 3D model. My version of that area currently looks like this:

Image

Sorry about the strange angle; it's difficult to capture this area in one image... (Also, I only have some of the greeblies detail placed here.)

I have not yet attempted 3D modeling the interior cannon, but that sounds like an interesting challenge! Have you ever worked with simple electronics like LEDs? I could imagine a pair of white LEDs at the end of the cannons with a simple wired circuit to a battery and switch. Most commonly-available LEDs can be powered by a typical 1.5 Volt battery with no additional components. I built some custom circuits with lights and sounds many years ago for a Ghostbusters pack that I constructed for a Halloween costume, which I'm proud to show off, but I am definitely not an electronics expert! Everything I needed to know about the circuits I learned from rigorous internet searching and lots of failed experiments.

Image
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7iodI2OxLU
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Crash
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Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build

Post by Crash »

Wow! That Mainbody is a great shape.
Dream big and bold and daring.
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felice
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Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build

Post by felice »

Bradster wrote: Sat Mar 13, 2021 4:20 pm It's not quite 100%, but I'm pretty satisfied with most of it.
You certainly should be!
Matsukami2
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Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build

Post by Matsukami2 »

Your work is indeed progressing well, and I appreciate your approach.
It’s interesting the differences you notice on the side drawings and the front face of the x bomber.

I had made the exact same remark to myself when making an imperial cruiser on a model for the two different sides.
I had great confidence in the side representation than on the front one whose bulb shape did not suit me.

I would even say that we must first trust the first felt, the naked eye. The side representation, magnificent of this cruiser, corresponds well to that of the image of this ship. The front was interesting for the greeblies.

On this subject, I used leds and fiber optics, you see it in the thread in this part of the forum. I hadn’t thought about lighting the cannon, but it’s an idea.

I will continue to follow your models which after a period of interruption leave beautifully.

( sorry for my English, I hope reverso translation, best translate my thoughts)
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Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build

Post by Crash »

That'd be terrific if you ran some fibre optics and made the guns light up.

Put a button on the model's stand.
Dream big and bold and daring.
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