Roman Hunt: Week 9: Serial Slices

For this project, I opted to reuse an existing model that I had created as part of a project last semester, a ship based off the Action VI transport from the Star Wars series.

Original Model and Reference Image

After importing the model into Rhino and looking over the tutorial videos, I decided to do some tweaks in the hopes of making the slicing process simpler. The pipe running along the upper portion of the ship's midsection was removed, while the scaling was altered to make the vessel shorter and fatter. With these alterations in place, the first set of slices turned out to be fairly straightforward.

Original Model and Vertically Sliced Model

In Keyshot, I assigned the model a worn metal material to give the impression that the ship was somewhat aged and had seen wear and tear, an aesthetic that seemed appropriate given the source material.

Render 1

Render 2

Placing the core rods for the final slice layout proved to be rather tricky and took a number of tries. Ultimately, I wound up using seven rods rather than merely two, an amount that managed to cover the entire model save for a very small part of the back section that I felt was inconsequential.

Core Placement

When arranging the final slice sheet, it became apparent that the model required further simplification for a physical sliced version to be viable. The engine nozzles were removed, as were the notches along the midsection. Many of the slices had the exact same shape as others, and some of these "clone" shapes were deleted in order to fit the slices onto a single sheet. A physical version should thus possess the same basic shape of the original model, but with altered dimensions and a lack of detail.

Final Slice Sheet

Assembled Model View A

Assembled Model View B