[Assignment Models] Tie Interceptor: Part 1 - Cockpit & Wing

This blog post will be the first of a series of posts detailing the build process of this model along with any techniques I used along the way and any problems that I faced. This first post will be covering the Tie Interceptor model from my assignment models that I chose to tackle. I initially perceived this model to be potentially the most difficult, with lots of small detail work needed on the connections between the wings and cockpit, amongst other areas. Because of this I thought it would make the most sense to get started on this model early rather than later in case I needed help from my tutor regarding aspects of the model.

To begin, I had to set the scene up in Maya by importing images to be used as schematics in the different viewports. For this particular model I found some very detailed and accurately measured schematics but only for the front and side views. Below is a picture of the scene set up with these schematic images imported.

To begin, I created a sphere and scaled it to be the same size as the cockpit in the front view schematic. After this I made a cylinder shape to be used as the strut/arm coming from the cockpit that would eventually be used to created the wing.

Next, using the multi-cut tool I created a cut along the top of the cylinder in the correct place to allow me to extrude a face upwards to match the detail on the arm connecting to the cockpit. I quickly realised after making this extrusion that I should undo this and cut the bottom side identically and use object symmetry to create the detail for both the top and bottom part of the arm.

Next I repeated this process but for the other details connecting from the end of the arm to the wing.

After this I started work on the wing, beginning with the connector that joins both the wing and the cockpit arm together. This was a simple cylinder shape created with 6 sides to create a hexagon shape that was then scaled to the correct size to match the schematic.

Next, I started to create the actual wing itself, beginning with a very simple cube shape that was scaled to match the wing panel in the schematic. This was then followed by a slightly more complex wing panel at the top which I had to adjust in both views to match the same angles as the schematic.

 Once this top panel for the wing was created, making the bottom panel was a simple case of duplicating the top panel and adjusting it to fit the angle of the bottom panel in the schematic. This easiest way I found to achieve this was to change the scale of the panel in the Y-axis to a negative value, effectly "flipping" the wing on the Y-axis. This perfectly matched the required angle in the bottom wing panel.

Next, I created another smaller panel in the middle of the wing and made 2 cuts to prepare some faces for extrusion. These 2 faces were then extruded out to match the schematic side view as the structural supports for the angled top and bottom wing panels that would come later. While creating these wings I took care in making sure everything was created with perfect symmetry but I did find that my model deviated slightly at this point from the schematic, possibly due to the schematic not being perfectly symmetrical. I decided that this deviation would make sense in order to keep the model symmetrical.

Next I created a top panel that matched the curve and angle of the schematic to go along the top of the wing structure. Once this was created, I once again duplicated this object in order to easily create the bottom panel for the wing. Once again, I flipped the object on the Y-axis in order to maintain perfect symmetry with the rest of the model. After this, I used the align tool to perfectly align the wing panel with the wing structure I made previously.

I am happy with my progress so far with this model and will continue to make more progress as the week progresses. I found that using the align tool effectively was a struggle at first, but after some practice I am getting used to how the different nodes effect the alignment of the objects. Starting to create this model has also taught me the importance of making sure you are creating objects and cutting faces to be symmetrical from the start as adding that detail in afterwards a second time is inefficient and difficult.