Sean Lenox - Project 1: M101 Tank Destroyer

Week 1:

Here is my current progress on my model. I'm making a World War II-type tank, based on the M10 "Wolverine" used by the United States.

(reference image)

http://riflesready.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/m10-rl.jpg

I played a lot of Company of Heroes last year, and gained an appreciation for WWII tanks - my hope is to one day have a nice little collection of tank models on a desk somewhere. I've simplified the shapes and design for this model, one as a precaution (I have no idea what kind of models the 3D printer can handle!) and two because I'm not an experienced Maya modeler by any means. I'm honestly surprised I was able to put together something vaguely tank-shaped.

I used some simple rectangles and stretched and squashed them to make the shapes, using plenty of extrusions like a good Maya modeler. The barrel is simply an extruded cylinder stuck into the top of the tank. The treads are the most complex shapes, consisting of short cylinders extruded inward and outward behind some cut, stretched rectangles.

I'm not too sure about object intersections - is it alright if an object is going inside another object, or do all the of the junctions need to be perfectly clean? The wheels are just kind of jammed up against the treads, for example.

Good luck to you all, my fellow modelers!

-Sean

Week 3: Shapeways confirmation

We're off to the printers! Just got word from Shapeways that my tank has passed review and will soon be printed. I hope everything goes well.

Week 5: Keyshot Renders

For the colors/textures on the tank I wanted to keep things pretty simple. I went with a classic army green-esque color for the body, and added some plastic color accents to give it a model or toy kind of look. I like this Keyshot background as I feel it creates the look of the sun shining in through haze, like a dusty battlefield.

Week 13:

Here are some photos of the printed tank.