Tag Archives: 3D models

Scavenger Transport 3D Model – part 1 – The Skeleton

Now that the basic deck plans are done, I want to make a 3D model of the ship.  I’m going to be posting this as a series of small articles as I work on the model so you can see the bits and pieces as they happen.  Let’s get started.

I’m going to be trying something new for this model. Well, new for me at least.  I’m going to attempt to create the model in Blender.  I’ve used Blender a bit in the past but only to add materials and textures to an existing model that I created somewhere else.  Never to completely create the model from scratch.  In the past I’ve done all my models in another program called OpenSCAD.  It has some features that I really like (as described in this post on the Arcane Game Lore Blog).  But it also is fairly simple and I’d like to have the extra control an options available in Blender.  If you want to see some of the other things I’ve created, check out the 3D Models category here on the Expanding Frontier.  That includes several posts I’ve made on the subject.

So we’ll see how this goes.  I’ve been working through a Blender fundamentals tutorial on Pluralsight and feel comfortable with the basics that I think I’ll need to create this model.  If all else fails, I can fall back on OpenSCAD.  In truth I’ll be using both of those tools in this project since I can export objects from OpenSCAD into Blender.  So for parts and pieces that make more sense to create in OpenSCAD, I’ll be using that.

The Skeleton

For this ship, the first step was to lay out all the interior pieces in their proper size and position.  This is what I’m calling the skeleton of the ship.  Once that is done, I can build the hull around the interior structure so that it is all properly contained.

This is one of those cases where OpenSCAD is just going to be so much easier to use then Blender.  Since we’re talking about adding in basic geometric shapes in very specific, defined positions, the programming interface to OpenSCAD that allows me to specify the position and dimensions of basic shapes like cubes, cylinders, and spheres is exactly what I need.

I work on these models at 1/1000 scale.  The default units in OpenSCAD are millimeters so I just use the sizes of the rooms in meters as my values in the functions.  This naturally gives me that scale.  I can always scale it up (or down) later as needed.  For tabletop minis to be used in a tactical game, I typically create the model at 1/3000 scale so I just have to scale the final model by 1/3.  For display models, I can scale it to anything I want.

Deck 1

To begin, I just pulled up the deck plan for deck 1 (the lower deck, see this post) to use as a reference.  OpenSCAD needs an origin so I selected the center of the grid to be (0,0) in the horizontal directions and the bottom of the deck to be 0 in the vertical direction.  I could just have easily selected the lower left of the deck plan but thinking ahead, I knew I would want the origin on the center-line when I got into Blender so I chose appropriately.  I then just started adding in boxes to represent the various rooms in the ship.

The cargo bay is 6 meters tall.  The little side rooms off of it are not quite as tall ranging from 3-5 meters in height. The forward section of this deck has 3 meter tall rooms.  And the elevator shaft connecting this deck to the upper one can be extended 10 meters up to intersect the middle deck.  Here’s what things look like after adding in this first deck.

Basic structure of lower deck rendered in 3DOn the left is the OpenSCAD code.  On the right is the actual render of the code as a 3D model.  The large block sticking up high in the middle is the elevator shaft to the next level up.

Deck 2

On the first level, I added in each room individually.  On the middle level, there are a lot of rooms that are adjacent forming large blocks.  These areas I just added as single large bits as there was no need to make them all individual.  This model I’m creating is just really a sort of wire-frame and will not be part of the final model.  It’s more of a guide.  The room for the Ion Cannon machinery is 4m tall instead of the standard 3m and is so represented in the model.  Here’s the model after this deck has been added.

Render of decks 1 and 2 of the 3D modelThose little bits sticking out on the sides are the access tunnels to the engines.  Those might very well change as I start modeling but for now, I’m just reproducing what’s on the sketches I drew.  Somewhere out there will be engines.  Again the bit sticking up is the elevator shaft to the next level.

Deck 3

Finally we need to add in the upper deck.  This one has the 6m high runabout bay aft with all the other decks being 3m in height including the round bridge area.  Again this deck has a bunch of adjacent rooms that form large blocks.  In fact, it only took three shapes to model this: the large block for the runabout bay, a cylinder for the bridge, and an block connecting the two to represent the other rooms.  Here’s the model with deck 3 added.

Render of all of the interior decks of the 3D model.Nothing really exciting here.  Although now you can see how the ship sort of tapers toward the middle and the back as you go up to the higher levels.

Weapons

Finally, I wanted to add in the exterior weapons: the Ion Cannon and the Laser Battery.  So I went in and modeled those to scale and put them on the ship.  Having these exterior elements will help me to get the hull placed properly.  With the weapons added, I now have a completed model of the interior of the ship as well as some of the exterior features I need to account for.  Here’s the final model.

Final render with the weapons added.Making the weapons was kind of fun.  I may just export those out to use in Blender.  It depends on how hard it is to make the tori around the barrels.

And Done (for now)

Now that the model is done, I can create an actual 3D object and export it for use in Blender.  That’s it for this segment of the modelling process.  Next time I’ll pull this skeleton model into Blender and start shaping the actual hull around it.

Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions in the comment section below.

Some Example Content

After I posted my announcements about this site on my various social media platforms, someone asked about content samples.  The plan to post some examples was already in the works as part of launching this site so here we go.

Let’s start with this one, the image I’m using as my cover image on the Patreon campaign.

Collage of various pieces created for the Assault Scout Technical manual showing the range of items produced from sketches to deck plans to write-ups to 3D models and printed 3D objects.

This showcases a few of the bits that went into making the Assault Scout Technical Manual (link downloads the PDF) that I released back in Nov 2017.  The deck plans on the right fade from my initial sketches through different iterations to the final labeled deck plan.  Then comes the cross section created to show the relative positions of the decks in the ship.  Next comes a page from the technical manual where that cross section image is featured.  The yellow ship is the full 3D model of the ship based on the deck plans and the final image is the 6″ printed version of that model (1/333 scale) fading from unpainted to painted (with a different color scheme that the digital image).

I had posted most of the images used in this collage on-line in the process of creating them.  Here’s a few links to some of the posts with full versions of the images:

  • The unpainted model  – The image at this link is actually the 4″ one unpainted but there are pictures of all of the various sizes I printed including the 12.6″ (10mm scale) version of the model
  • A Star Frontiers logo I made (that I’m trying to get permission to make a patch out of) that used the painted digital 3D model used to make that cross section image.
  • The painted physical 3D model – This is actually the 7.6″ (6mm scale) version and is sitting here on my desk next to me as I write this.
  • The cross section image – unlabeled in this case.
  • The unlabeled deck plans

In addition to the Assault Scout Technical Manual, I also created a Sathar Destroyer Technical Manual (link is to the PDF) back in 2014 to describe that ship.

Here are a couple of other large maps I made, recreating the big poster maps that came with the original Star Frontiers boxed sets.  Unfortunately I can’t to link to the full files since I was asked by WotC not to and they own the IP

Original Port Loren map digitally recreated
This is recreation of a fan map of the Port Loren starport redone in the same style as the original map.
Space station map from the Knight Hawks box set digitally recreated.

Here’s a “family portrait” of many of the 3D ship models I’ve created (this one predates the assault scout model).  All of these models were designed to be used as tabletop minis.  Several are based on the old Star Frontiers metal miniatures and are replicas of them.

Family portrait of a number of digital models I’ve created

Finally, I’m going to link to you my collection of Two Sheet Locations on DriveThruRPG.  These are small four page write-up (the first 4 are free) that provide a map, location description, and NPC for use in your games.  The are mini versions of the types of things that I’m hoping to produce with this project.  The only reason that project stalled was that I reentered grad school for my Masters of Library Science degree and just didn’t have the time to keep producing them.

I hope that gives you a feel for some of the things I’ve created in the past and what to expect in the future.  In addition, you should check out my posts (published under my dagorym handle) on the Arcane Game Lore blog (which is now offline and the posts are archived here on this blog) to see some the “behind the scenes” materials I’ve posted in the past.