Q3 Modeling Project Doohiky

My 3D Modeling project for quarter 3 featured the program Sketchup and I used it to model tanks. Why tanks? Probably because I like tanks. Why is that? Well, tanks are amazing feats of engineering that hold a special place in my heart. The roaring engines, the strength, designs, and their history always amaze me. Hence I decided to model my own tank. It was inspired by real world examples of the Soviet T-72 and American M551 Sheridan, but everything was made entirely by me.

The process was a fairly long one as I had about 4 prototypes that I was never quite satisfied with. It also doesn’t help that much progress on the final copy was lost due to someone’s blunder and that I made a second variant of the final design. But there was a reason for the latter, I assure you.

Now what did I learn from this project? I learned that engineers have it really hard! The fact that all of this is modeled on a far greater quality than what I invested many hours into is incredible. Other than that I mainly learned how to model better than I did prior to this project and had much fun doing so. Turns out I really do enjoy the modeling, even if I’m not great at it.

There are quite a few things I would do differently if I were to redo this project, and it mainly consists of the turret section and scaling of the tank. While in the end I was satisfied enough, it wasn’t too practical as a realistic design due to the over-angling of the turret and while it would result in extreme protection; it’d be extremely uncomfortable for the crew members. That’s why I made a variant of the tank with a different turret but still ran into the same problem, albeit not nearly as prominent. Quite a few things would be changed, starting from the overall size of the chassis that would realistically be able to support a heavier turret. Sorry but I won’t be explaining the details of balancing out sloping of tanks as it’d make for a whole essay. Keeping it short; sloping maximizes the thickness and effective protection of the vehicle but limits room and becomes harder to operate in. This must be taken into better account next time I design another tank.

Overall I’d mark the design as a success, although close to failing. The mistakes here would result in the design never going past the prototype stage, even if it were to miraculously be accepted into the prototyping stage as far back as the 1960’s