BetterSpace: Whitestar Tutorial

Lesson 4:
Building the Nose Weaponry

Three sections of the White Star have been created. We will now take a break from spline modelling, and use regular polygon modelling techniques to build the White Star's nose weaponry.

To make the weaponry, me must become very familiar with Modeler's Bevel tool. We will explore the bevel tool's capabilities by modelling one of the gun barrels.

Begin by choosing a fresh layer and creating a circle using the following settings:

settings for Disc requestor

Select the polygon which was just created, and Flip it so that it faces to the right. Assign this polygon a new surface with the following attributes:

Activate the Bevel tool by clicking Multiply \ (Sweep) \ Bevel or by pressing b. Bevel the polygon with an Inset of 0 and a Shift of 0.5m. You should be left with something this on your display.

starting to Bevel the disc

Without deselecting the polygon, start the Bevel tool again. Using the following table, repeat the last step with the values given.

After all these bevels have been performed, you should be left with a bun barrel which looks like this.

one completed gun barrel

In addition to the gun barrel you just created, two more objects must be created in the same way. The image below shows the barrel which you just created in the background layer, use it as a reference when creating the next two barrels.

one completed gun barrel

Save your work as WS_Nose_Weps_Polys_1.lwo

With the gun barrels made, you must build their mountings. Create a cylinder and three boxes like the ones shown here. This image shows gun barrels, which you just created, in the background layer to help you position the boxes correctly.

boxes and cylinder (with gun barrels in background layer)

Cut the left-most box out of this layer and Paste it into a fresh one. Using the Knife and Bevel tools, alter the surfaces of this box to make it look like this:

box with added detail

Cut the object out of this layer and Paste it back into the main layer. Two more minor details must be added: One bevel on the side of the flat-looking box, and a bevel on the end of the hexagonal tube. Finally, another small box must be created.

final details added to the boxes

You must now assign this object a new surface, with the following attributes:

Save your work as WS_Nose_Weps_Polys_2.lwo

All that remains is to bring the gun barrels and their mountings together. Cut the mount objects out of this layer and Paste them into the layer that contains the gun barrels. Merge all points (just to be sure) and then mirror the whole assembly across the X axis.

final details added to the boxes

the completed weaponry

Save the completed object as WS Nose Weaponry.lwo

Do you have any comments of questions regarding this lesson?