Designing Cardmodels - Paragon Style

Paragon

Active Member
Yeah, thats what edi asked for too. I'll have to find a subject that will be easy...

I'm willing to take suggestions.
 

doctormax

Member
I am doing it the same way myself for this B52 I am doing. Taking a few days now but have the tail section done so far. I was looking at a model site and thought their B52 looked awful why I decided to go and do my own one in a decent colour.
 

davis4559

New Member
Paragon how about a simple version of spaceshipone? i have attached a really simple 3-view layout for SS1
 

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Paragon

Active Member
I suppose I could do that. I currently have plans to make some other models like the Beriev Be 200, but for something simple like this I suppose I could...

What is it in particular you want to learn from this walk-through? I really have already covered most of what would be involved in designing this one with the Tunnan walk-through, so I need to know what specifics to make sure to include.
 

edi

Member
I think I´ve understood your method and last weekend I´gave it a try; it was the Reggiane 2000 an Italian WW2 fighter with the opinion to do also the Re-2001 (other motor).

So far, fuselage , wings are done, cockpit, nose are also ready (not on the photos) noseparts top and bottom are to be done, spinner hmm will borrow one...
resource was:
http://richard.ferriere.free.fr/3vues/re2000_3v.jpg

The problems (okay, I´m not very experienced in doing GIMP, I´ve only done some improvements of family photos):
- I`ve separated the parts in different pages, adding them together to the
right scale was an trial and error action, no concept....
- no plan to get the colouring
- glueing line of the fuselage parts is on the side not on top or bottom, except
the rear part, but it works (know how to correct it, its some move,
we`ll see)
-have to rework the wing to fuselage section

all in all I´m satisfied, but stopped me building others :confused:
 

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Paragon

Active Member
Well it looks good so far! I don't use GIMP, so I'm not familiar with the tools available. I highly recommend a layer-based image editing program personally. So far I only know of Photoshop, but I'm sure there are others that utilize layers out there, possibly that don't cost nearly as much, or are even free. I'll do a little research into it if you like.

I always scale the reference image to the size I think I'll want it before making the parts, that way they're all the correct scale relative to each other. As for scale of the entire model...I usually don't make them to scale, but all I need to do is find the wingspan and scale all the parts at once (by locking them to each other).
 

edi

Member
Well it looks good so far! I don't use GIMP, so I'm not familiar with the tools available. I highly recommend a layer-based image editing program personally. So far I only know of Photoshop, but I'm sure there are others that utilize layers out there, possibly that don't cost nearly as much, or are even free. I'll do a little research into it if you like.

I always scale the reference image to the size I think I'll want it before making the parts, that way they're all the correct scale relative to each other. As for scale of the entire model...I usually don't make them to scale, but all I need to do is find the wingspan and scale all the parts at once (by locking them to each other).


thanks for your answer :)
GIMP is working the same way as photoshop, including the layers. So if you give some explanations it would also work in GIMP ( okay, maybe I`ve to look for the other names)
Yes, about scaleing, I`ve understood, and next time I`ll have a plan:thumb:
Colouring that`s the question the moment.....

Thx Paragon in advance

Edi
 

Paragon

Active Member
I looked at GIMP a little just now, at screenshots and the website, and it appears like it should be just as adept at designing as Photoshop.

As for coloring, remember always to use transparent backgrounds. Cut all the white out leaving only the black on a transparent background. Once you have the parts finished arrange them so none are overlapping, and merge them. Be careful to merge, not flatten, or you'll lose the transparency. Then duplicate that layer. Use the paintbucket and whatever other tools you need to color only one of those layers. Once the coloring is done, make sure the uncolored layer is on top, to reinforce the lines. You can add insignias and symbols beneath that upper layer.

Don't worry, I'll make a tutorial for that sometime...
 

edi

Member
I looked at GIMP a little just now, at screenshots and the website, and it appears like it should be just as adept at designing as Photoshop.

As for coloring, remember always to use transparent backgrounds. Cut all the white out leaving only the black on a transparent background. Once you have the parts finished arrange them so none are overlapping, and merge them. Be careful to merge, not flatten, or you'll lose the transparency. Then duplicate that layer. Use the paintbucket and whatever other tools you need to color only one of those layers. Once the coloring is done, make sure the uncolored layer is on top, to reinforce the lines. You can add insignias and symbols beneath that upper layer.

Don't worry, I'll make a tutorial for that sometime...

okay, I`ve tried the moment a little example and it works pretty fine,now I know the trick:thumb:
A great THANKS to Paragon , who rocked designing cardmodels
 

JT Fox

Member
Hi Paragon, great design style.

I'm current working on a design using Metasequoia / pepakura following a tutorial elsewhere in the forum.


Your system looks so much simpler on paper, (sorry, poor joke), I though I'd do your style in parallel and see which method give the best time taken by model quality result.

One question. When you place you top/side/bottom views together how do you work out the overlap? To much overlap and the body would be skinny, not enough and it would be fat. Is there some sort of number crunching or do you use your best judgment?

Cheers JTF
 

Paragon

Active Member
Mostly best judgement. Typically, there are details from the side view that are also in the top and bottom views, and that marks the appropriate amount of overlap, just lay those details atop each other. Its not always perfect, of course, so the best defence against that problem is testbuilding! Since my models are very simply, testbuilds don't take up much time or paper, for other models, this might not be the case.

I do also have to warn that I believe model quality drops when using this method. It is not as accurate when designing this way unless you test different parts over and over until they're perfect. I'm not sure how much more time this would take.
 

edi

Member
Well, I`ve managed to finish my first design, based on Paragons tutorial.
Okay, there are some mistakes, but all in all I`m quite happy with it.
The Reggiane is built in 1/144 as usual
 

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Paragon

Active Member
Oh, btw, mods, any chance of moving this to the Tutorial section? It looks like it belongs there.
 

Paragon

Active Member
It was part trial and error, but I also did a lot of measuring out of circles. Find the focal point on which the wing will pivot, then create a circle that will overlap the same circle on the other wing. Make sure the center is anchored around the wing's focal point, of course. Then draw a second smaller circle inside the first, but it should end where at the edge of the other wing's large circle. The large circle represents the tip of each tooth in the cog, and the smaller circle is the trough between each tooth. Draw one tooth, then duplicate as many times as necessary, and put them around the rest of the cog. Make sure, of course, to offset the opposite wing by one tooth, otherwise the wings will end up at different angles.
 
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