Kolywopter

[cjwalas]

Ooooh, submarines! I'm a huge steampunk fan and I love your artistic style so I'll be waiting with bated breath for these! Don't give up the ship...especially when it's a Kolywopter or submarine!
Chris

[B-Manic]

Try looking here for inspiration.

http://64.34.169.161/cgi-bin/ifolio/...icopter_Panels

being steampunk I would expect the controls to be few, simple, large and fairly decorative in a Victorian manner of course.

[outersketcher]

Well now... I've been working on teaching myself Sketchup so that I could get a better handle on some of the more difficult kolywopter parts when unfolded. I think I'm doing okay...

In fact, I've managed to make a successful... well.... "thingie".

You'll notice that excepting for the sphere, every surface is coplanar, which would enable the thingie to be unfolded flat without too much trouble. An important concept to keep in mind when designing in 3-D I've discovered.

Anyhoo.. I now feel ready to attempt a build of the Kolywopter cabin interior.

Ha! We'll see how that works out this weekend!

David

[outersketcher]

Have been working hard on the kolywopter. Here's an WIP shot of the kolywopter as built in sketchup. I actually have the doors built too in sketchup. Any way, my approach to the sketchup model is if I'm having trouble figuring out a part in my wee little head, I go to the sketchup file and build the part. Unfold it, then export it back into Adobe Illustrator to complete the parts sheet.

As you can see, I'm now working on completing the cockpit interior. SketchUp has been a big help here.

David

[cjwalas]

Very cool. Great to see this one progressing. I really appreciate seeing original designs in paper modeling!
Chris

[B-Manic]

Very NICE. Are those the colours you plan on using? The orange exterior is very striking.

[outersketcher]

Thank you for your comments cjwalas and B-manic. Yes, the exterior cabin sheetmetal and the tail section will be a deep, orange. The cabin enterior will be the green. And the engine nacelle will be a mustard yellow over a grey superstructure.

I promise, it looks good. : )


I have been diligently plugging away at the kolywopter steadily. I've made some serious headway into completing the cabin interior. Seats are completed, the center consule and the overhead consule are also done. I'm going to redesign the floor plate so that there will be a step-down to the edge of the doors. The support structure for the instrument cluster console is complete as well.

You can see the enterior light and the air vents in the overhead console... I want my pilots to be comfortable! : )

The unfolding process from sketchup is a bit ungainly. Meaning that I have to do it by hand.... face by face, than save as a 2-D graphic, than import that into Adobe Illustrator and trace over the sketchup template.

But it DOES work. And it IS getting done... just slowly.. I know.

Those rivets are kinda gnarly are'nt they? Well, don't forget that you are viewing the cabin without the context of the wings and wheels and other parts. The rivets will seem less conspicious later.

[cjwalas]

"The rivets will seem less conspicious later. "-
Less conspicuous???? I was going to ask if you could make them more conspicuous!! Just kidding! It's looking great. Sorry it's such a laborious process for you, but we're behind you on this! I want to see one of these in the real world!
Chris

[willygoat]

THis is looking awesome. Keep plugging away. It seems quite worth it!

[outersketcher]

I should probably point out that the majority of what you've seen has already been unfolded and lain out in the parts sheets. So, it's actually more complete than I made it sound. : )