#131
|
||||
|
||||
Hey Edgardo, go for it!
Alan |
#132
|
||||
|
||||
Hi Alan,
Just joined this site a few days ago. I'm working on a big ol' Titanic bought at a bookstore in Strasbourg. Found this site while looking for tweaking ideas. I am fascinated and blown away by your motorcycle models! It looks as though you work with a vector program in 2D, and then build from there. How do you handle the parts that are "unseen"? By that I mean, the stuff hidden from a side view... As well, how do you handle the depth issues? Side view gives you length and height, but gives little idea about the depth and where things go. I imagine you are using other reference materials and sources? I am an Illustrator user, so I tempted to try my own hand at a scratch build. I have a very detailed, almost complete side view of a Vincent Black Shadow that would make a fun model. Let me know if you are interested in the vectors....would love the chance to collaborate on something like this. Cheers - Matt |
#133
|
||||
|
||||
Hello Matt, welcome to the madhouse.
Thank you for your kind words about my motorcycles. I don't know why I like motorcycle models - I am not, and have never been, a biker - but they seem to fit my modelling skills (and avoid my weaknesses). The Harley is the first model I have started from scratch and completed, but it arose out of an increasing tendency to rework existing designs to improve fit or add detail. The tipping point came with my previous bike, the Flying Merkel, which was based on a commercial kit but ended up around 70% redesigned. For the design work, I use a very ad hoc mixture of tools. The majority of my working career was taken up with writing solids modelling software which provides that capability in several CAD systems, but I never learned to use any of those systems! As a result, I tend to write bespoke programs to do any difficult 3D calculations, then feed the results into GIMP or more recently Inkscape to do the painting and parts layout. One of the reasons for choosing a really early bike to model was that it is very largely two-dimensional, so a great deal of the "feel" of the prototype can be obtained from just a good side-on photograph. Your Vincent certainly looks like a magnificent beast. I confess I had never heard of Vincent motorcycles until a few years ago when we were on holiday in Scotland, and the hotel car park one day filled up with lots of these machines. We spent a pleasant time in the bar chatting to the charming and friendly riders. Sadly it looks way beyond my design capability, though I would love to have a model of a machine of this vintage. Good luck with your Titanic - I hope you will show us some of your work in time. Best wishes, Alan |
#134
|
||||
|
||||
One last thing Alan, what is your rationale for chosing a scale? I read somewhere you base things on a 2" wheel. I would endevour something larger for myself for a first-time model. Thinking maybe 1/8"? This seems to be a common scale for plastic motorcycle models.
|
#135
|
||||
|
||||
By 1/8", meant of course 1/8 scale, not 1/8 of an inch.
|
Google Adsense |
#136
|
||||
|
||||
Now you don't think I do things rationally, do you? For any particular type of model I have generally just started making some, and later on begun to think about adjusting new models to match the majority of existing ones.
In the case of motorcycles, I started with a couple of the early Yamaha models at full size. They come out pretty big - it was clear that I couldn't go on like that, so I tried the next one at half size. And then the next one, and the next one... Yamaha have never to my knowledge quoted a scale for their "Realistic" series, but where I have been able to find useful dimensions of the originals for comparison they have always come out pretty close to 1:7. As a result I have sort-of standardised on 1:14 for my builds, though in practice some of the scales quoted for other models have turned out to be a bit off. It just happens that the Harley 7A wheel was 28" overall, giving me exactly 2", but that was just a coincidence. The great thing about paper models is that they are very easily rescaled to anything you want, particularly downwards. For other things I am equally arbitrary: (vintage) cars have settled on 1:48, rockets on 1:100, and buildings on 1:150, 1:300 or 1:600, depending on their size. If you are going for a motorcycle, 1:8 sounds great, especially if it is common in the plastic modelling world. I think you are right to avoid 1/8", which could be a little fiddly Alan |
#137
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
|
#138
|
||||
|
||||
motorcyclemodeler, that is one awesome beautiful machine you made. Very nice details and great colors. Thank you for sharing. wc
AlanG, thank you for a great build. I will pass this on to my brother who love his H.D. It's yellow. I'll have to ask for a photo next time he cleans it up. He hasn't been able to ride for a while due to medical problems. Thank you for sharing a great build for a fantastic bike. wc |
|
|