SFXB Forum

After making some minor updates to my Dai X model and adjusting all the ships to the correct scale, I figured it was finally time to start integrating Dai X's parts and X Bomber together.I spent some time Saturday carving out a spot for Mainbody, adding some techy parts to this section of X Bomber, and drawing up textures to fit.As always, all comments and constructive criticism are welcome! ...oops! I just notices a few mistakes in my design after seeing this image. I'll have it fixed shortly.

The perfectionist in me rears his ugly head. Who here can find the three changes I made to make this segment more accurate?

Oooh, spot the difference... Back plate taken off the docking area so you can see the jets, moved the rear holding struts forward, and flicked Mainbody's shoulder armour down through 90 degrees. How'd I do?!

We have a winner, folks!!  

One more update before this weekend is finished! This time I'm adding some finishing detail to the engineering section of X Bomber...

Its been a while scince I looked at brads work.....wow. Brad you have a real tallent for this and I can't wait to see how it pans out.

I finally added some more details on the engines. They're not finished, but this is a vast improvement.

There's an incredible amount of detail back there, isn't there? Between that and the detail on the Dai-X pods, even on the neck, it's really hard to reproduce it all. In terms of my own progress I have now managed to figure out how to make the textures fit better but had a curious (yet interesting) camera depth-of-field problem going on. Mind you, taking this screengrab it seems to have gone away so perhaps I fixed it last time I was playing with it... As you can see the nose looks quite good but the neck's a little washed out.

Quote (AndyThomas @ 22 June 2004,17:17)Between that and the detail on the Dai-X pods, even on the neck, it's really hard to reproduce it all.I guess that won't stop me from trying, though! It's about time I did a little work on this model. Working on the X Fighter got me motivated to do some other things with our little 3D Star Fleet. I can hardly believe that almost two years have passed since we were last discussing this. Life really is too short.Anyhow, I've taken my nice X-Bomber model... and I've trashed it. Well, almost. I didn't like how some of the parts were shaped; so, I started all over with a blank file. After I rebuilt the main body, I copied over the detailed engine block and reshaped it a bit to fit.I'm glad I did all this because it has resulted in a far more accurate depiction of the "real" ship. I'm a perfectionist with everything I do and this X-Bomber is no exception. I still have a few little pieces that need to be added, but overall I've very pleased with it.Here's a little before and after animation. Some of the differences may be subtle, but I tend to dwell on those things.One benefit to this redesign is that everything "fits" much better. The Dai-X fits into the sides at the right proportions and the bridge fits where it should. Yep, I'm also modeling an interior set of the main bridge.Cutaway shot from above:Looking in from the front window:I haven't done Hercules' console yet and it's missing the wall trimmings as well as the openings and seats for the laser turrets, but amazingly the bridge all just happens to fit as-is.Here's one more big image of the whole ship.Now, my last reason for putting together this new model: I want to share it with everyone. I gave this some thought and I've decided I want to put my completed models in the "public domain". What's the use in keeping these to myself if I don't have the time to work with them? I'll be sharing the meshes in some sort of common format without the textures because the textures for the X-Bomber alone so far account for roughly 12MB, for the Dai-X another 5MB. I'll post them on my website with a link here and will allow Andy to link to them or host a copy if interested.

Looking superb there Brad.Nigel