Models by Jorzi (AR)

[Corporal Punishment]

Doesn't really need much more detail, if you ask me. But I suggest a change to the launch-tube bearing. You said earlier that the tube would be a pre-loaded discard element. So there needs to be some sort of refit mechanism. Inspired by real-life systems, I think of a simple spring-powered discard-mechanism that would not be visible with a tube mounted and a hydraulic rearm system. Specifically, I imagine the whole turret structure tilting anticlockwise (respective to firing direction) by 90° so it reaches into the vehicle body, makes contact with a fresh tube stored in a magazine shaft inside the vehicle, locks it and tilts back into firing position. While such a reload operation will most likely never be animated in the game, it still helps to make it up, as it determines the shape o the tube bearing: This bearing would need to be open towards the launch tube and not encircle it completely, utilizing a bayonet lock to hold the tube. Unless it's a hydraulic gripper, of course. In this case it would have to completely encircle the tube, but have a visible seam on the face were the rectangular panel is on your current design. Should I make some sketches of this?

[Corporal Punishment]

On second thought, the launch tube could be ejected rearwards and the bearing could be lowered into the vehicle body on a vertical rail. Then, a fresh tube would be pushed into the bearing, which then travels up the rail again. For this, the turret base need to be remodeled to have a flat base bigger in diameter than the length of a launch tube and contain a slot through which fit the tubes and bearing. But, the same would be rue for the tilt-mechanism described above.
Or, the weapon would have to return to zero-position for recharging if the reload-shaft was animated as a rigid feature of the vehicle body. It would still be part of the Bunker-buster turret as far as the model is concerned, but it would not rotate with the rest of the weapon.

[Jorzi]

like this?

[Corporal Punishment]

Assuming the green shape indicates the turret in side-view and the grey shape the launch tube and tube bearing, the arrow in the left diagram is the ejection vector of the used tube and the arrow in the right diagram indicates the fresh tube being pushed up into the bearing (which is tilted 90° backward) you found an even smarter system than I had thought of. The tube bearing would only have to tilt, what it can do anyway, and the hatch through which the fresh tubes travel would only need to be very small. Awesome. But, the rings on the front end of your current launch tube model would have to be removed. I understand there are rings on the texture of the original model, but they should remain just that: textures. Real-life launch tubes have equal rings painted on, giving the type of the warhead in color-code, also lot-numbers, best-before (No kidding! Ammunition has expiry dates just like aliments.) and other data in a text string.

[Jorzi]

@ kuky do you really think it should be thinner when you compare it with the original?

@ corporal punishment I changed the rings on the tube a bit, but I'm not really sure about the reload mechanism... In order for it to work I'd need to remove the rear cap. I always thought of the bunker buster as a one-shot weapon anyway, which would mean after you shoot you fall back and manually eject and replace the tube. This would explain why it only has a rear cap, since the personnel would have to remove the front cap prior to inserting a new tube.
A reloading system, on the other hand, would be interesting on a heavy/rapid fire bunker buster design.

[Roux Le Corps]

i love your designs

[Corporal Punishment]

On the launch-tubes I'm familiar with, you don't remove the caps for firing, as they're rater rings than caps. And If they were caps that must be removed for firing you'd have to remove the rear cap too. Else it would hinder the engine blast of the rocket. Several modern weapons even eject a counterweight to the rear when firing to compensate recoil. Manual reload is, I believe, not what the designers of WZ weaponry would employ. After the collapse human lives are to valuable to risk them by forcing the crew to exit their tank and fit a fresh launch-tube o their weapon. Even modern armies avoid this, that's why they go to great lengths in constructing automated reload mechanisms. But the new launch-tube model goes well for both automated and manual reloading. The rear cap could be explained as a handling point for a hydraulic rearm system. The used tube is ejected with the rocket launching to act as it's counterweight. Then the empty bearing tilts up 90°. The reload mechanism inside the vehicle grabs a fresh tube by the six-sided end and pushes it upwards through a small hatch and into the weapon bearing with the capless front end facing upwards. After that, the bearing with the fresh tube tilts back into firing position. If you'd still want to go for manual reloading, a soldier could push the fresh tube into the bearing from below as good as any hydraulic without having to exit the vehicle. The only other modification the model would need now is to shape the aft part of the turret base in a such way that it doesn't conflict with the fresh launch-tube rotating from vertical into horizontal position.

[MaNGusT]

Dude, have you changed the design program?

[Jorzi]

@ Roux le Corps: Thanks dude
@ Corporal punishment: What I meant is, the tube can be fired with both caps on, but in order to push it into the launcher from the rear they must remove the protective cap.
@ Mangust: You mean blender? I use a trunk build of blender 2.5 at this computer and the screnshots have slightly more artifacts beacuse of the graphics card.

[MaNGusT]

the screnshots have slightly more artifacts beacuse of the graphics card.

That is why I asked about this.

[Jorzi]

Baked the normals and ao map (256x256 as usual). Final polycount is exactly 100
@Corporal punishment: I only added some extra bolts and a vent to the detail, your reloading mechanism idea was good in itself, but would have required changes in the proportions, deviating from the original as well as requiring quite a bit of work to make it look good.
Hopefully you're ok with this compromise.

[Square]

IM'A FIRING MA LAZOR!
Oh my fuuging god! This one is so unbelievable amazing!
It looks reeeaaly good, awesome, brilliant

How did you create the textures?

[Jorzi]

Thanks square
I model all the details on a hi-poly model, then I UV-unwrap the low-poly and use the "bake"-feature.
That means the program calculates the indirect lighting on the hi-poly and renders it onto the lowpoly as a texture.
I also get the normal map for free

[Corporal Punishment]

Man, that thing is bad-ass! And the tilt-the-whole-turret-siedways-into-the-vehicle-body rearm method would work well for it. It's absolutely fine as it is. After all, the reload-mechanism doesn't have to actually work, it's just fun and educative to think about it.
Oh, what's on the schedule next?

[Crymson]

Indeed, also, I have never converted a model into .pie and I know very little about modding, I mainly do modeling only.

Can other people use your models, or are they restricted for your own group ?