HW2 Models...

[Amglco]

Wow! Thanx alot Savaven! I think your post of the swarmer might only be the second or third one on this entire thread, good job! Looking at it now, I probably should have released a higher rez version, and I will, once I put it together myself to make some instructions for those less familiar with the ships. Nice job on the fuelpod as well. Hopefully one of us on these forums will register the program and might be able to release the layouts for the pepakura viewer. Maybe when I'm rich, how much is it? $50?

Edit:
changed "post" to "thread"
and found out pepakura designer is $38
Also, how hard was it to put together? (The swarmer)
#200 Post!

[Mobius]

Okay, Kushan Carrier is done, printed (in b&w ), and being assembled. Will post pic and layout later if successful.

[Koloth]

It is good that you guys got Pepakura working correctly, itis a lot easier to use than my program, and has a superior algorithm for unfolding it.

Gearz: have you done any more work on any of your model stuff

[Zilor]

I tried making paper models of some damned boat once... *begins to cry* It was terribley boring and the thing was weak as hell, perhaps i just suck... But I'll take plastic models over paper or cardboard.

I'd love to make a hiigaran battlecruiser, oh the fun that could be had.

[TyrealMathias]

Zilor, did u use card stock or regular printer paper? cardstock models tend to hold up quite well if u use the right glue....

i personally use the long rtransparent 'glue pens' .. dries decently fast, and holds together well...

Gearz, some of the textures on the Research station are off... many of them are reversed... but it is still nice

im currently assembling the swarmer... urgh... its a bit small for me, heh...

anyone seen building Cata models will be shot on sight.... -_-

[Amglco]

Supplies... I need cardstock among other things, yet my little 'ol town got rid of their store that sold such things. What are these places named anyway, I forget and have been trying to find online sources, maybe even a way to search where the nearest supplier of cardstock ect... may be.

[Arioch]

The only problem I have with Amglco's version is that the solid fold lines kind of ruin the look of the ship.

[Amglco]

I know I know, it was meant to be a syle test, not a finished product. It will be later though, those cross lines will be gone, and hopefully I can make instructions well enough so that I can get rid of some of those annoying fold lines as well.

[Mobius]

Well, my Kushan Carrier is done...zip file can be downloaded here. I built one successfully but can't get a pic, and anyway it's on printer paper, and is black and white so it doesn't look that impressive. If anyone manages to make a good one, please post img here for us to see...

...unfortunately it has fold lines...

[Gearz]

Good to see plenty of soles getting into the card efforts. Thanks Amglco for the key to the texture barrier, Amazingly Amazing!. Solved a boat load of problems for me. Mobius are you using LiF-Edit to alter the team colours? or is there an easier way to do it? Also, blue with white strip has my vote.

Yeh..The Research station's textures are pretty sloppy....they were hand drawn onto the bitmap of the model. It was a first for me, I created it without any of the software mentioned on this thread. I'd like to go back and remake it with the correct textures, but there's tooo many other HM ships I want to concentrate on..

Progress on my Taiidan BG will be a lot slower than most. I'm working with a different end in mind. I've started, with the "folding" as opposed to the textures. So I've got eight or more frigates and parts there of, laying around. Won't move on to the textures, until I'm satisfied the models can be assembled by just about anyone. A bit frustrating for those waiting, but worth the extra effort.

This is a bit of a rant, food for thought, though.

Now the textures problem is resolved, consider carefully how you split the model up for construction. There'll will be plenty of first timers with glue up to the elbows, trying to assemble the ships. Even on this forum there's a lot of "how" questions, even from people that know what their looking at. So if the models migrate beyond here (which they deserve to do) the assembly instructions, will be bigger than the model If a logical sequences isn't considered. = Special note: this model requires six fingers on your left hand to assemble??.

This suggestion is a lot extra work, though it will pay off, when really complex ships come along = HW2.

Make a plain test model, just with a .dxf, to see if it has logical assembly sequences. Ask yourself "can I make it easier?" "would someone, that isn't familiar with HM ships, be able to put it together?" If it needs to be broken into parts. It can be done as an additional step to Amglco's method, In (Metasequoia) you can cut and slice the model in to modules. Add faces if you need to close a section, it will take the texture with the section, regardless of the shape, i.e. my Taiidan frigate's one ship two noses, also the Taiidan Ionfrigate's "Rails" where easier to assemble as individual modules, needed to be modified as well. The bitz transported into Pepakura with textures "Doing all the right things, in all the right places." Antennae / turrets /bulkheads.... there are lotz of bitz that would need this step.

Since most of the help is in Japanese. This is how I split the models up In (Metasequoia). It was trial and error, There's probably another way to do it, but this works and will be a starting guide if you want to experiment.

Most will be able to follow their nose with the cut / paste, just be careful when pasting, so there's not multiple parts in exactly the same co-ordinates. To avoid it, I use [MOVE] in the [COMMAND] Palette, instead of the cursor.

To create a new face / close off a section / make a bulkhead etc,

1. [COMMAND] Palette, select [CREATE] in the pop up menu, select [FRONT] and [FACE] .

"3 points makes one triangle/face". Work your way along the gap/sections coordinates in "zig zag" until the gap is filled/closed with triangle/faces.

2. On the [EDIT] Palette, select [UNSEL ALL] = just as a precaution, during intensive editing.

3. [COMMAND] Palette, select [SELECT] on the pop up menu, select [JOINED FACE]. With your cursor, select any line from your new section/face. All of the edited parts should change colour as a joined face. If it only selects triangles, you've missed one or started at the wrong co-ordinate. Can't suggest a easier way here, trial and error for me. Perhaps some of the wizards out there, could help with this one.

4. With your new section/face selected. Go to the menu bar at top, click [Selected] then [Invert] = not sure of this step, it just seemed to "join" the new section the main model? Important, so Pepakura doesn't force cut edges on the model.

With this additional step, the .mpo file will load as normal with all textures intact and faces closed off as blank surfaces. Do some experimenting, It will be a handy skill down the line.

Think big! these models are a first. We can flood the other Game forums {gesture deleted} with REAL sf ships, that can be assembled by anyone..

For what its worth, I use 200 gsm copy board, a steel ruler, one of those disposable.. ? box cutters/ trimming knifes, tooth pick and white PVA glue. The 200 gsm board, is a little thicker than standard card, aside from the extra strength, it makes cutting and scribing lines a little easier/safer..especially if you want a BIG model. Using a knife "with care" the tabs/flaps can be scribed into hinges, avoiding a lot of problems halfway through construction. A steel ruler is really handy while making valley folds.

keep up the good work, looking forward to making your models.

[Savaven]

If you don't want to register Pepakura, do what I did,

Construct, print and then rescan. Of course, this needs a scanner.....

Anyhow, mobius, great carrier! At least it has 0 fiddly bits (Unlike the damn fuelpod). Did you use perpakura as well?

[Gearz]

ooops..forgot to mention. Koloth, tried the filled card/ foam thing...It generated quite a bit of heat, turned into a football, then Exploded!...Haven't seen the dog for few days. There must be a product, that isn't as vicious as the hardware stuff. Maybe I'll scope out some model forums for a better product. Still think its a good idea, just have to find the right foam.

[Mobius]

to Gearz: No, I used some program called Lif2Psd (aka HWToolz), which converts them to layered photoshop format...then all I have to do is change the hue of the layers and save them as bmp. (Actually that's still pretty complicated.)

Savaven, yep, I used pepakura. There is a "copy as bitmap" function, that copies the template to the clipboard as a bitmap, but it's limited to 1024 (I think?) in any one direction, max, and that was too small. So I just took screenshots of the individual pages.

About the "fiddly bits" - If you just push the "Create Development" button, you're going to end up with a jumbled mess and several fiddly bits. So you should use the split edge and join edge tools to reorganize everything into more logical divisions - that's what I tried to do, hopefully it makes sense.

So...has anyone successfully built a carrier?

[Koloth]

Gearz:
I think that foam will work if you put less in so that it will expand to fit the space and leave a fairly large hole for excess foam to escape through. Remember, some of that foam can have an expansion ratio of anywhere from 1:4 to 1:2000. For our experiments you definatly want the foam on the lower end.

[Savaven]

Ermmm......... I did do a lot of chopping, Mobius. A LOT of cut edges etc. etc. I managed to reduce the number of bits, but not eliminate them totally. If you notice the fuel pod, there's a tiny triangle that i simply failed to identify (and thus eliminate) despite my best efforts.

[Gearz]

Koloth.. uuuuuuhhhhhhh...1:2000.. no wonder it failed. It was just Hardware stuff, so it was probably at the high end.....Just writing some assembly instructions for the Taiidan frigates, I've redesigned the modules on a larger version of the Ion frigate, to strengthen them..bulkheads etc.. going to try it again when I get some better foam. ?? Did you have in mind using a textured version of a model. Or going the distance and painting etc. think you mentioned coating and sanding? for a smooth model. I used some polyurethane on card once, to strengthen it, thought I could try it on this. But that would wreck the textures. Painting the detail sounds pretty scary.......

[Mobius]

Originally posted by Savaven
Ermmm......... I did do a lot of chopping, Mobius. A LOT of cut edges etc. etc. I managed to reduce the number of bits, but not eliminate them totally. If you notice the fuel pod, there's a tiny triangle that i simply failed to identify (and thus eliminate) despite my best efforts.

There's a button that highlights both the face in the cut view and the corresponding uncut face in the model. (Pass your mouse over all the buttons and read the tooltips. I figured out a lot that way.)

Gearz, NICE JOB on the carrier! Did you do it @ original size? I know the bridge gave me a bit of trouble when I did it...

If Arioch would like to put it on HWS, I'd have no problem with that (hint hint)...my file host is a little unreliable anyway and it has a bandwidth limit.

[Koloth]

1:2000 is for high grade industrial processes, so I doubt if your expansion ratio is over 1:20. It is probably much closer to 1:10 or 1:8. I should say somewhere on the can. The can I have advertises proudly its 1:16 expansion ratio. You just have to be careful.

I basically lept from what is a card model to failing to build a card model to writing software to designe card models, so I've had to make a great number of things up as I've gone along. Overall, though, it has been worth it. When I heald my first model and felt that "hey cool!" feeling I was hooked.

Nice carrier as well.

[Enterprise-E]

Finally i did my project:

I think you can easily recognise her...


Does someone want the print-outs for it?

I have to rearrange them, so not so many paper sheets will be consumed to print. (i used 8-9 sheets i think)
It was quite hard to assemble her...

[Amglco]

I have a new appreciation for anyone who can put these together.
For the past 3 days i've been trying to get my own swarmer model together, and found out I don't have much patience or skill. I've gotten to the head of my model, and well, I really really hate small parts that go every which way. I only have the tail and the top parts left, but already I see lots of problems i must correct to make it easier to build. Tab locations alone would've helped immensely.

Working right now on possiblility of an internal structure to help in the building process as well as increase overall strength. Also trying to figure out an alternative to tabs, something like slots for the harder to get areas.

Edit:
Whoops, forgot to compliment Enterprise-E on a job well done
Where does that model come from, I think I kinda recognise it, not sure though.

[Arioch]

It's the Taiidan-Necron carrier!

If Arioch would like to put it on HWS, I'd have no problem with that (hint hint)...my file host is a little unreliable anyway and it has a bandwidth limit.

Sure, send it to me. All you guys, if you have models that you want posted, make instructions as best you can, take pictures if you can, zip 'em and send them to me.

[Mobius]

The link for the zip again is http://www.sharemation.com/cmde/kushan%20carrier.zip

Go ahead and use Gearz's shot from above (assuming he doesn't mind...tell me if you do, Gearz).

Enterprise, is that a scratch-made model? It looks a lot like the Tai carrier but it's...different...

[Savaven]

Thanks a lot mobius, tried the trick just now, works like a charm now..

Anyway, new model is up. This time it's the Kadeshi Multibeam Frigate (gotta love those gas-cloud worshipping maniacs).
http://www.geocities.com/nanotech_de...am-Frigate.jpg

BTW, I was wondering if anyone wants to help make instructions for these fellows and send em over to Arioch. I'm lousy at giving instructions, so if anyone can help, please do .

For the Greater Good of Homeworld.
:flamer:

P.S If anyone has had success/horrible disasters with the fuelpod or this guy, please let me know and try to post pics, or send them to me, I can post em as well.

[Enterprise-E]

Arioch, i like that ship cause it looks like a Borg ship. :Pike:

I have reorganized the parts, so it fits to 4 pages only...

I'll try to make some instructions for it, and send the entire stuff to HWS..

[TyrealMathias]

hmmm.... the others aer correct... it clearly IS the Tai Car.... but...... its.... different.... odd......

[JAL-18]

It's the Tai Carrier from this piece of Concept Art.

[Enterprise-E]

I've made Mobius' Imperator carrier.

Looks cool with my Taiidan concept Carrier, and they're in scale...

[Gearz]

Well done Enterprise-E, Want to try your Carrier next.

[JAL-18]

Destroyer please..gotta start small.

Excellent work!

[Mobius]

er, yeah...Arioch, do you prefer that I e-mail it to you?

[TyrealMathias]

destroyers next...


damn swarmer... got the tail, top body, and face attatched to each other, and the other 2 parts connected to each other.. but cant get them together correctly...

suggestions for making module-built things... i like how Gearz made

[F'Lar]

hc next plz. i really want a hc

[Arioch]

Originally posted by Mobius
er, yeah...Arioch, do you prefer that I e-mail it to you?

I got it, just haven't got around to posting it up yet. I'll get on it.

[Mobius]

Originally posted by F'Lar
hc next plz. i really want a hc

shall I make that my next project then? Tai i'm assuming?

I'm not gonna try to do a fixed scale, though, so...too bad.

[F'Lar]

damn, its ok though. and yes a tai hc

[Enterprise-E]

Have done a Tai Skaal-Fa MD :missile:
colors were special request of my girlfriend

[F'Lar]

cooooooool

[Montial]

Mmmmmm, relic forums, the home of fuzzy screenshots...

[Arioch]

But the table in the background is nicely in focus.

[TyrealMathias]

dont you see? he made a card model table!

pweetty colors.....

[Savaven]

Has anyone gotten a full version of Pepakura yet?

[Enterprise-E]

I have made the Taiidan Qwaar-Jet class Heavy Cruiser.

sry for fuzzy screenshot of Missile Destroyer, im not an expert photographer. This time i made it better.

[Montial]

That is some sweet work.

Any chance of the files for these models being cleaned up and posted? (I mean like the SN research station, though that looked like a couple hours work.)

[Teancum]

Wow. VERY nice work. /me wants
Is that a pile of confetti in the background?

[Mobius]

agreed..yes...get the files up!!

[slimpinto]

What kind of printer are you using and what app do you use to print the model on?

[Enterprise-E]

to all who want my files:

The Missile Destroyer is ready, but i cant make picture instructions for it, only text.

The Qwaar-Jet heavy cruiser is more difficult: i have the unregistered version of Pepakura, so i cant save any of my projects. I can only export them in BMP format, but there's the 1024 pixel limit. The Heavy Cruiser is a 4 page large model, and so the 1024 pixels aren't enough. I can try to post it, but i think it will be very pixelated when you print it. This makes no prob on the ship textures, cause the orig. textures have low resolution anyway, but the fold lines are terrible.

slimpinto: im using a regular ink-jet printer, on regular printer paper.

[Gearz]

My Taii Frigate/s are done. Same style as the SN Research Station with step by step graphic assembly instructions / optional parts etc. You'll be able to get them from HWS when Arioch has the op to post them. These two aren't real easy to make but the AI's will help just about everyone make a nice model/z.

[Mobius]

to enterprise-e...I used unregistered pepakura too, and I don't know if this will help but instead of copying as bitmaps, I zoomed in on each page as much as i could and took screenshots.

[ToastedLightly]

Arioch post those models!