Tiger 1 Austf E

[shockwave]

This is my first serious attempt at a 3d model as i have only been using LW for only a couple of months.Any constructive suggestions would be appreciated. Please be gentle .:D

[Global Hawk]

I think you have a very good start! Good detail thus far!
Keep us posted as it develops:)

[Rory_L]

Me too! I like what`s there so far.

You will be putting microbevels on the sharp edges, won`t you? Not to make them any less sharp, but to catch the light.

I`m jealous! This is exactly the model I wanted to build when I was a teenager and really into Tamaya tank kits. I seriously determined to scratch-build the Tiger 1 and bought plans and went on a trip to Bovington Camp Military Museum in the South of England and took about a trillion photos of the one they have there.

I was all set, then school exams showed up, life got serious, and I had to drop the dream.

Guess I could build it in LW now, but my interests have changed slightly in the last 24 years :D

I`m sure I`ve still got all that photo reference somewhere...

R

[kennethc]

What are you using for references for your Mk VI. If you have not already found it I would suggest

http://www.scalemodelindex.com/armref.htm

It has demensions and odd things that you don't usually see. Also, missing-lynx.com has the most knowlegeable people on earth in its forums. Check it out

happy modeling

Kenneth

[shockwave]

I am using a Tamiya kit for most of the scaling and profile, as well as a couple of books with german armor such as Panzer colours 1 and 2. The tough part I beleive will be the treads because I plan to make this cat roll.
Thanks for the input guys , I appreciate it.;)

[kennethc]

Yes the tracks will be a challenge. I built a Panther a years or so ago and the tracks were certainly on of the most difficult parts. I got a 4 view drawing from a gentleman on missing-lynx.com that was an enormous help. Mine isn't animated.........yet. I am still trying to figure that out. My tracks had about 1500 polys per link x 87 links per side....do the math! The poly count was insane. If you want you can take a look at some of the renders at this site...

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291097233

Good luck...

Kenneth

[shockwave]

What no Zimmermit? Just kidding ! That looks awsome! You really pulled that off nicely and I can see what you mean about the treads. Ill let you know how the tread animation works out , I have a few ideas.I have a 1\24 scale tread from an old Tamiya Jagdpanther for a reference and the links are seprate so it should help with making the links. Can you imagine the poly count if I tried doing zimmermit? It would have to be modeled just to get the shadows right.:eek:

[kennethc]

Thanks for the comments...

I thought long and hard about putting zimmerit on the cat, but I really wanted a late version so it wasn't a factor anyway. I experimented with bump maps ext, but as I was new to image mapping I couldn't figur out at the time how to make it nice and uniform. I will probably give it a go on future projects.

Keep me informed on your progress and how the animation goes, I am very interested. If you are looking for specific pictures of certain parts of the tank that you can't find. I might have one. Just let me know

Kenneth

[Rory_L]

My tracks had about 1500 polys per link x 87 links per side....do the math!
Hmmmm. I can`t really see how you got that many polys, unless each tread was a single sub-d mesh!

Bill, unless you want to have your camera inches away from the treads, I`d model them by shoving simple block shapes together, without boolean-ing where you don`t have to. Even with micro bevels you can keep that count below 500, I`d guess.

Hehe! I can talk the talk, but...?? :D

R

(By the way, I meant Porsche turret, of course!)

[shockwave]

I thought that it was a little high too but they look really good anyways. I was thinking the exact thing you suggest about my treads....great minds eh? Ill post a close up when they are finished.:cool:

[Rory_L]

Yeah! Kennethc, I`m not taking away from your treads: they look just like the real thing. Guess I`m more used to in-game poly counts :)


R

[kennethc]

Shockwave,

I just re-read your post above and realized what you were using for refs o your tracks...You realize now that the Panther and its vairants (the jagdpanther) did not use the same track as the Tiger. The tiger track was much wider and possibly laid out a little different, I would have to check that at home. If you are making a lower poly model then it may not make that much difference, but if you want I can send you a link from a Tiger model (plastic).

I have learned a great deal about building in LW since I built those tracks...While I was very pleased with the outcome, I wasn't pleased with the poly count. I actually went back and rebuilt them two or three times to get the poly count down to where it is. Really the only downside to that high a count was that I couldn't even attempt to animate them on the machine that it was built on. I couldn't even bring in the whole model into layout at one time, I had to bring it in in several parts. PAIN!!

Stick with it though and keep us updated....

[Rory_L]

Weren`t there road tracks and field tracks, the latter being about a third wider?

R

[kennethc]

There were indeed two sets of tracks. There was a transport set that was used to get on and off of trains. The outside four roadwheels were removed, fenders removed, and these narrow tracks that were the width of the drive sproket. These were only used when the battle tracks wouldn't allow for transit accross bridges and through tunnels. The battle tracks were left in place durring transit if at all possible, as you could imagine what a pain it would be to change them.

The transport tracks were not really fit to run all the time as they were far to narrow to use offroad and on road for that matter. Unless one was going to animate a Tiger in the process of loading or unloading from a train, I would stick with the battle tracks.

Hope this helps

Kenneth

[shockwave]

Kenneth if its isnt any trouble could you send me those reference pictures of those treads? I am now going to start on the wheels and treads now and I probably could use them so I can get the pattern right. Thanks
Here is the finished rear hull and top deck.:D

[shockwave]

Ready to make tracks!:D

[kennethc]

I guess you didn't get my email to your personal account.
I guess I wasn't clear before. I only have drawings of the Panther tracks. I can send you a plastic track link from on of my tiger kits. All I need is your address. Send it to my personal account. If you want I can send you the panther track drawings anyway for future refs.

Kennethc

[Rory_L]

Awwww, c`mon! Update! :D
I want to see those tracks!

R

[shockwave]

Sorry about that Rory , but I've been enjoying the fun and sun Florida for the last week, but im back on the job now. Or as soon as I recover from the shock of my returning back to the winter climate!:eek:

[Avenger]

Hey its great so far. I think all u need is to add bump maps to places and to go into photoshop or something n make a nice skin that u can stick on it. Otherwise its great :D

[Rory_L]

Sorry about that Rory
Don`t apologise! I`m just greedy:D

Take your time! Glad you had a nice hol!

Avenger: yeah, isn`t it lovely?

R

[Avenger]

Yup it is lookin luvly lol. It would b cool when its done 2 stick it in a nice 3d inviroment;) keep it up!

[J.Barr]

*compares to tamiya model on desk* yup, modeling looks pretty perfect!

JB

[Rory_L]

http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/36203tiger/tiger.htm

Scroll to the bottom of the page! The tank I went to see in Bovington all those years ago is now up and running on its own power again: they`ve restored it! I wanna gooooo!!!

I wonder if they`re selling tickets to ride? :D

R

Edit:-

http://www.tiger-tank.com/secure/journal26.htm

Ah B*****ks! The engine blew up! They are working to fix it though.

[shockwave]

Thanks guys! Especially to Rory and Kenneth for their help with finding reference material for me. I got the tread link you sent me yesterday Kenneth, thanks.And thank you Rory for finding that great site on the restoration project.:D

[Rory_L]

A pleasure to be of service, sir! :)
Keep up the outstanding work!

R

Edit:-
Wow! You`ve got the wheels done. Does this mean you have the suspension rigged too?

Edit2:-
Do you plan on taking the camera inside?

[shockwave]

I thought about making the suspension but with the overlapping wheel arrangement the way it is, it would be impossible to see so I chose not to do it. I thought about an interior but I want to focus on doing a crew next to give the tank some scale to show how big it was compared to a person.:)

[Rory_L]

A crew in animation is an exciting idea and something a CG tank can have that a real world model can`t, (I was thinking of how you could go one better than Tamiya when I mentioned taking the camera inside).

I asked not if you`d modeled the suspension, but if you`d rigged it: that`s a whole different ball park of fish! With the wheels in place I thought you might have got their Y translation sorted out in Layout already. Not sure how I`d have done it, but I might have done a `Rigged Wheel` scene and loaded that into the chassis scene sixteen times.

You did say you were new to 3D, so I hope you don`t mind my taking the liberty of pointing out the obvious: it pays to keep an eye on animation even during the modelling phase.

All the best,

R

[shockwave]

Oops ! I mistook rigging for modelling. I havent really done much rigging yet but I do keep the parts movement in mind as i model away and keep the parts that will move in seperate layers. Yup im a newb and not afraid to admit it .But hey thats what these forums are for , so we can communicate and develope our skills so dont be afraid to throw any advise my way . Its all useful and Im a good student.:D

[shockwave]

The missing link. I has just over 1300 polys to it and took about 2 hours to make.:p

[shockwave]

Ready to roll out! Just a few more minor details and then off to the paint shop.The picture at the beginning of the thread has also been updated.;)

[Rory_L]

Wow! Congratulations!
Thanks for the mail alert. I went straight here and showed this model to my wife, Yumiko. She was very impressed, as am I!

Your tracks look good and I can see how you needed so many polys: the shapes are all sculpted out booleans rather than bolted on additions. You really couldn`t do a lot of `shoving together` of simple boxes, as I`d envisaged, could you?

I don`t think it`ll be so visable when you`ve got a texture on the tracks, but if you want to get rid of the smoothing errors you can take all the polys that are roughly in the same plane and cut and paste them. That way Lightwave doesn`t try to smooth around right angles and your flat faces stay flat!

Cheers,

R

[kennethc]

why my tracks had so many polys. I had about 1500 or so in each of my links... Now multiply that by about 170 or so. I forget how many links a tiger I has on each side but its around 80-90.

Have fun animating.......

Kenneth

[shockwave]

I finally got around to giving this cat some colour and a bit of a base.I rigged the turret and gun to move but not the wheels or treads at this point. I think ill do the crew now and work on learning rendering at this time. :D

[shockwave]

The cats ***.

[Rory_L]

Zum Teufel!

Or something like that! That`s great! Can we have a view from a lower angle; a human perspective would show off the scale of the beast!

R

[shockwave]

No problemo. Added a bit of bump to it as well.;)

[Rory_L]

Now plug that baby into `Massive` and lets have a war! :D

Rory the Dove