Vickers Guns on Sopwith

mldixon

Member
May 30, 2006
66
0
16
This is going to finish as a pair of twin Vickers on a partial Sopwith Frame. The guns are overlooking the Clerget 9b 130 HP. The frame is built up out of Balsa right now , but this was for design purposes. The engine was built from a sketchup model that I unfolded, and flattened. The scale is about 1:6. This is a mock up for the finished product. I am thinking of making a set of plans and instructions in PDF format just to see how hard that process is going to be.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0059.jpg
    IMG_0059.jpg
    156.5 KB · Views: 15
  • IMG_0063.jpg
    IMG_0063.jpg
    176.7 KB · Views: 17
  • IMG_0057.jpg
    IMG_0057.jpg
    166.6 KB · Views: 8
Looks great

This looks great so far. The engine almost looks like it would run.
What did you use for unfolding the Sketchup file? I use Metasequoia and Pepakura, and I've never had any luck using a Sketchup file.

Look forward to seeing more of this build.

Steve
 
Unfolding

I use a plugin called unfold. You have to explode the model to its components, and then seperate them. I then unfold them with the plugin. It is not automatic. After the unfolding I apply them to a flat surface and then I send them to layout. In layout I am able to scale them to whatever scale I am working in. Link to sketchup scripts is

http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/em_edi_page.htm

Lots of useful stuff here but a steep learing curve. I also use adobe illustrator, adobe photoshop, and corel draw.

I am still building on this but to be honest it is a sort of seat of pants model that I started because I always liked the way the twin Vickers looked out over that engine and prop.
 
Looks great!

Little comment here - I think if you added even a couple small details to that gun barrel it would realy make it pop - Like i see the long narrow lines down the barrel, if those were even another layer of cardstock to add a bit of actual 3d texture it would be that much better! :) course I am not sure how the actual gun looks - got a nice pics of what you are trying to represent?
Thanks!
Chris
 
Great looking build. I'm curious as to what coloring you
use to make a plywood grain effect on the engine firewall.
I've been pondering on this to do the ammo boxes and
work tales on my B-17 project. Ron
 
Coloring

Ron
I used sketchup pro version 7 to make the model. I am using the paint part of this program. I used a texture that I had available on my computer that was part of a program called ChiefArchitect. The texture collection include images of Formica Chips. I am sure you can go to Formicas website and pull down any images of this that you want. I then used sketchup to scale the image to the proper scale. I use the pro version but sketchup is free for the download. If you use photoshop you can get the same effect. Hope this helps if not call me back.