Personal Modelling Project 1

 I decided to work on a military vehicle in order to learn more about the software. On top of being my area of interest, I also have previous experience working in Blender on such models, such as the model below I made last February. 

I used the M1296 APC as a base, although I did not model this vehicle directly as I do not have the skills for yet it. Nevertheless, I hope to be able to model vehicles such as this one with far better quality that seen below in the future. 

I started with a base rectangle, which I developed into a form more suited to the core of an APC. I added some sufrace details using the extrude and bevel tools. The low poly count limited me but it also allowed me to make progress on the model instead of wasting time on details.

I modelled the turret. At this point I started taking a lot of liberties and stopped looking at the reference, as I had only intended to use it up to this point anyways.

I modelled a wheel which I would later copy and insert on both sides of the vehicle. I also added little details like the bolts and the slight curvature of the wheel.

I added a simple set of coils using the provided tools to create a basic suspension for the wheels to make the model more presentable.

Finally I added all the wheels and suspension together and made a floodlight which I copied a couple of times.

Overall, this project made me more aware of my shortcomings. I struggled with bad topology, especially where I curved the surface. This ended up causing me trouble later as well, as I had to spend a lot of time on trying to bridge open edges. However, I learned a lot from this little project, and would like to work on further excersizes such as this one. I do feel like the lack of texturing is holding the model back a lot, but it is important not to rush into everything at once. I will continue to just make models using a simpler process for now.

References: 

The AK47 was created by me, here is the ArtStation link:  https://www.artstation.com/artwork/R3OR5e

The M1296 Photo is taken from http://www.military-today.com/apc/m1296_dragoon.htm