"WIP (Design) Sci Fi IFV" Topic

Hey all. A long time ago I posted here with a WIP of a Hover IFV thing I was working on. Taking the criticism in mind from that first venture I finally restarted the idea and came up with this. Besides the obvious fact I suck at Sketchup and there are no wheels, tell me what you think.

I did try wheels, I've been trying for the last two hours but I suck at making convincing wheels. Anywho here's a long distance shot, not sure why I screencapped this zoomed out.

[URL=http://s1077.photobucket.com/user/ethankakashi/media/Miniatures%20Design%20Work/IFVWIPdistanceshot.jpg.html]

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A closer view here. I tried to put different colors on it to differentiate the parts, it isn't meant to be a real color scheme. Red = Lights/Signals. Blue = Windows Raised Green = Armor Plates. What's that called? Reactive Armor I think. I still have to go through and make it all blocky like what you see on US vehicles now a days. The Black Circle is where the turret will sit, which is still in design mode. The idea is to have multiple turrets with the same "plug size" so they can be swapped at will.

[URL=http://s1077.photobucket.com/user/ethankakashi/media/Miniatures%20Design%20Work/IFVWIPcloseup.jpg.html]

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A closer view with the pop up hatch on the side of the main windshield and the two hatches above the windshield.

[URL=http://s1077.photobucket.com/user/ethankakashi/media/Miniatures%20Design%20Work/IFVWIPhatchandwindow.jpg.html]

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Last pic showing the venting (top) and the ramp door. I was suprised when looking at modern IFVS with ramps because they are either extremely busy (covered with indiscernible crap)or just a plain metal door. For the moment, I went plain to make my life easier.

[URL=http://s1077.photobucket.com/user/ethankakashi/media/Miniatures%20Design%20Work/IFVWIPRampandVent.jpg.html]

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Without the wheels it is 28mm tall. The wheels will be 10mm bringing it to 38mm tall and 80mm long. I suppose it could be scaled to anything since it's just a design. I just used 28mm measurements so I wouldnt have to zoon so much on sketchup. Anyway, thanks for looking let me know what you think. And yes, I know my sketchup skills suck, bear with me.

I like it, but have a couple of comments. First off, that's a pretty big front window. Secondly, if that's an engine grille over the rear deck, the troops will have to disembark through the engine space; maybe the grille should be further forward, or two smaller ones on either side of the deck. Thanks for showing us your work in progress; keep us posted.

Ron

I like it! It reminds me of the APC from Buck Rogers:

It's not bad, but I'm not finding it great, either. We'll see how the turret comes along.

Hello again folks. Thanks for the C+C. Taking it in mind,I made some changes.

I moved the engine grill to the front of the vehicle. I added some viewing slits/ports to the passenger section, fixed the top hatches, added some circular rear lights, and did some work on the undercarriage to make the wheel area more realistic.I also finally added wheels and reduced the size of the front window.

[URL=http://s1077.photobucket.com/user/ethankakashi/media/IFVRevised1.jpg.html]

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[URL=http://s1077.photobucket.com/user/ethankakashi/media/IFVRevised2.jpg.html]

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I realize the wheels are rather plain but I'm having a hard time putting details in them. Still learning to use Sketchup effectively. With these changes the vehicle is now 80mm long and just about 39mm tall. I'm having a fun time doing this, and learning more about sketchup as I go. If anyone is interested you can get sketchup basic for free here:

link

Anyway, once again thank you for your time and comments/criticisms. Once I feel satisfied with the body/wheels I will begin working on the turrets. I am open to suggestions on turrets.

I feel I should do a quick blurb since this is coming along. The concept of the vehicle is a multi-role light afv. It has a crew of 3 and carries a 4 man squad in the rear.

Earth's resources are stretched thin and the military is trying to focus on flexible fast strike capability. So enters the "Honey Badger IFV" which will hopefully soon have turrets for anti infantry, vehicle, and aircraft duties. Anywho, thanks again!

So I finished the first turret. The first Turret is an infantry support weapon, much like a bmp or a bradley. It's an autocannon meant for engaging infantry and light armor, or infantry in cover.

This first pic shows the turret from a slight angle. The gun is obviously on the left, with a forward laser sight and the breach where spent casings are ejected in red for visibility. Once again the windshield is blue. The rectangle on top of the gun is supposed to be an ammo belt/tube, fed from the box on the other side of the turret, which would be where the rounds are stored. I wanted to add more details to the gun (like venting and barrel holes) but am coming up short on my attempts.

[URL=http://s1077.photobucket.com/user/ethankakashi/media/HoneyBadgerwith30mm2.jpg.html]

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The second pic shows the turret from a different angle, with a better view of the ammo bin on the left side. I zoomed this one out a little to get a sense of scale with the vehicle.

[URL=http://s1077.photobucket.com/user/ethankakashi/media/HoneyBadgerwith30mm.jpg.html]

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Hey, give yourself some credit! You're making a great start!

If you want some tips on how to make tires, drop me a line at javelin98 AT lycos DOT com and I'll share with you how I've learned to make them. It's an involved process, but once you get it down, it can be easy as pie.

Here are a couple examples of ones I've made:

Thats awesome man. I just realized today what my problem was with pounding out fine details in sketchup. Im designing the thing using what its real model size would be, which makes it so I cant make certain shapes/details because theyre "too small" for the program.

An idea to toy with. Love your stuff man, thanks for the inspiration.

Hey, Ethan! Here's a tutorial on doing tires in Sketchup:

link

Let me know if you have any questions!