Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E
In animation, I modeled a German Tiger Tank, which was developed in 1941, and used in World War II. I worked tirelessly on it, and structurally and visually, it became a very accurate representation of the real monstrosity. When I was almost finished with the entire project, a node or piece of data became corrupted, keeping the file from opening. I tried everything I could think of and read possible solutions online about recovering a corrupted .mb file, but I could not bring it back. Here's what I accomplished before I lost everything:
Hull
I started by creating the basic body of the tank out of one shape. After I had sized and angled it correctly, I attached additional plates of armor onto the hull, and left space for the tracks. After adding further details like the frontal machine gun, the driver's viewport, and utility cables, I proceeded to the tracks.
Tracks
For the tracks, I noticed from blueprints of the tiger that there were 2 different types of wheels used, one like a car rim, the other a gear to propel the tracks. I modeled the two different wheels separately, lined them up,, and got ready to create the tracks to wrap around the wheels. To make the tracks, I created a pipe, extruded the faces on it to form it into tank tracks. Then, I generated a 2D circle, and positioned it around the pipe in the same configuration. Using the wire tool, I was able to attach the tracks to the circle, which made the tracks act in the same way real ones would. I positioned them under the tank, where I had left space for them, then I decided to move on to the turret and gun.
Turret and Gun
For the main turret piece, I started with a cylinder, cut it in half, and extruded the flat face created from the cut. In order to develop gun mantle that was elevated apart from the main turret, I had to do a series of extrusions, then use the wedge tool to make bends in the mantle so it would follow the shape of the turret. I lined up multiple pipes and beveled all of the edges, and created a specific piece on the end of the barrel with parts cut out of it to replicate the muzzle. I also placed the commander's hatch and the main crew hatch on the top of the turret, which provides the crew access to the tank. There are containers attached to the back of the turret for the crew to store items in, which I just extruded off from the main turret.
Rear Details
On the back of the tank I added exhaust pipes hanging off the back of the vehicle and a shelf attached to the hull, holding a hammer, which was a common utility item used on the tank. By extruding a shape along a CV curve, I was able to make a zig-zag shape and subtracted duplicates of it from the main hull, making vent slits.
References:
Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E
