Ornithopter work in progress

A sketch of how I think I'll be progressing with the flying machine. I'm keen work on the mechanics and pistons, making them feel crafted and ornate as opposed to engineered and industrial. Lots of development to go but definitely a start.

© Ian Bunting (2014)

First item back from Shapeways

Although I've produced many models for rapid prototyping, work being work means that I've never actually been able to show a physical print out to a potential client and therefore never really been able to show fully what I do. To improve things I decided to prepare an old model of a Snowcat concept I produced for the Captain Scarlet Television series. On the cautious side I've so far only sent a small part of the model to see how their printing works out. Having now received the part back I'm quite pleased with the results and couldn't really have expected any better although I'm still very keen to see further improvements to the technology to get crisper, cleaner results. Here's some photos of the result:

The Underside photo shows how the volume was hollowed out to minimise the the amount of material used. The majority for the part was only 2mm thick but this certainly seams to be strong enough.

 This shows the area that I would most like the technology to improve in. On this subtle surface it is very clear to see the layers from the printer. I was prepared for this and in all fairness Shapeways does make it very clear that this is something that will happen. I'm hoping that for the next pieces I'll upload the model at an angle more sympathetic with the strata and possibly eliminate it from the final print.

I'm also now very keen to try out some of the other materials that they have on offer.

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Here's a repeat original concept done back in 2004 so you can get a better idea of how the piece fits in.

 © Indestructible Production Company (2004)

Thoughts of a Medieval Steampunk Ornithopter

Basic Chassis Armature

I've recently been having an idea of designing a Medieval Flying Machine for a bit of fun. I wanted to avoid the standard Airship trend and instead look towards Ornithopters. Basically flapping wing flying machines. So far I've taken a good look at the mechanics and linkages that make them work as although it is a fanciful project I'd still like it believe that it might be relatively feasible. Doing this was a great exercise in familiarising myself with the Inverse Kinematic Rhino plugin, Bongo, and here's the crude but effective animation I created.

Destroyer Spaceship

Here's a new design I've been working recently. I've included final design along with the sketch development sheets so you can see the full working process.

The Final Design.

  

© Ian Bunting  (2013)

The sketch development sheets looking into possible 

shapes, forms and colour liveries.  

© Ian Bunting  (2013)

Dragon Head Sketch

It's been a long time since I've added to this blog and I mean this to change. So I added a quick doodle of a dragons head. Part crocodile, part chameleon and part nonsense.

Model of my son

A bit more modelling practice, this time of my son. It was initially produced in Rhino as a NURBs object but I decided to continue it into Modo601 for adding the textures and hair. This resulted in a whole re-topology on the mesh. It has always surprised me why a program so good for SLA files can be so bad at exporting workable meshes to Modo /3DStudioMax. I am  aware that there are some plug-ins available but they're prohibitively expensive so for now I'll be continuing to do it manually. I will now be using these models to test hair sculpting some more and practising skin textures.

A quick Modo render

The NURBS rhino model

 

A cleaned mesh in Modo

1964 Works Mini Cooper - Work in progress

Another computer model I've been working on as a bit of practice. Again, it's all modelled in Modo. It's not finished yet as it needs a few more elements modelled and a lot of work on the textures, but I thought it good enough to upload it here. I guess I still wont consider it finished until it's finally placed into a complimenting environment.