Quote - I have pictures of an actual 88 from Aberdeen Proving grounds. Perhaps I could be persuaded to part with some.

Ranman please tell, What would it take to persuade you? Thank you for the offer. IM Sent.

"Better hurry though, as Vanishingpoint.biz will be releasing a De Espona 88 pretty soon. Ultra detail." Well would you believe it! I thought I would give it a go as I couldn't find a model anywhere, free or pay for. :huh: Not sure whether 'kill' marks were ever put on these. Maybe for tanks but not sure whether it was a practical proposition in an anti-aircraft role. An option for the armour plating sounds a good idea if I can find out how it was attached. The problem I had with this is a distinct lack of definitive photo references for a particular type. It seems to be that the surviving examples are a mishmash of different parts or parts missing completely. This is based on the model in the IWM London which in itself is incomplete. Yes I have thought about the carriage but can find no reference details to model it. Maybe something for the future. So the concensus is for it to be a figure, so I better get my head down and learn how to do it..

Barcode About package. What I mean is this. If I put it together as a smart prop, the following things will be poseable. The side legs will be raised or lowered independandly, or simultaeneously, depending on what people would like. The turret will rotate through 360 degrees. The gun/barrel bed will be able to lift from rest to upright. The gun will be able to recoil. The protractor mechanisism will not work as intended, so will not suit everyones needs if they are after realism. Plus the shock absorber mechanisime would need to be manipulated to maintain the realism. As a figure, the same would apply, but the gun bed would be raised by using the appropriate handle. The breech would open and close by using the appropriate handle. The protractor mechanism would work as intended. i.e. raising the gun bed would move the degree indicator. The shock absorber mechanism would be taken care of, hopefully, by ECM. This is assuming I can rig it in the first place of course........ What I am asking really is this. Would this item be more use to the community as a poseable prop or as a figure, where realism is the the most paramount. What would the community find most useful? I don't mind giving it away as I am still learning to model. The mesh is not the most elegant or efficient. If someone can make use of it, fair enough and it is freely given. The one thing I don't understand though is 'right order of levels' in the zip file. Can you explain what you mean? Thanks for your input..

Quote - Looks good.  I would definitely prefer some thing like this as a figure instead of a group of props.  It is much easier to delete a single figure from a scene than a bunch of props.

Chris Cox

As a prop there would really only be five parts. The base with moveable side legs. The Turret to rotate. The Gun bed to elevate the gun and the gun itself for recoil. As a figure, the base would be the same but on the turret, the plan is to use the respective wheels to open the breech and elevate the gun with the protractor indicator moving to show indicated degrees of elevation, the shell loader and recoil of the barrel. Essentially, it boils down to whether it will be used as a static prop for stills or animation. Maybe two versions????

Mail also sent. Thank you.

Quote - What figures would you like this line of flight suits for?

Preferably Simon but M3 would be fine as well.

Would also be interested in a Luftwaffe and RAF flight kit complete with leather/sheepskin jackets

Thanks for those. The second one definitely looks the more promising, although it may produce more detailed gear (read no. of verts)than I need to use. Definitely a keeper though.

Quote - You could model one tooth and do a 'SpinDup'  ( I think is the right one.)

Now thats a method I never thought of! For what I want to do that does sound a better option.

Thanks

Thanks all for the info. Plenty of stuff to be getting on with there. Just one thing I would like to clear up though. Does the 'Create new figure' create or place the bones automatically with the groups?

That's pretty much the way I expected to do it really. I asked because I came across a tutorial for one of the higher end applications that had a modifier that would do the job in one go. I believe it was called sub-D or somesuch although I can't remember which app it was. Just wondered if Blender had something similar as I haven't really played with its modifiers much.

What version are you using? There is an issue with 2.44 with the import/export options that is being addressed. Try using 2.43 instead which does not have these issues. Also remember that some models import on a very small scale so you may have to zoom in to find them. As stated, the learning curve is steep but extremely satisfying when you start to master it. A good start would be the Blender wiki at http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Main_Page. I seem to keep the wiki on one screen and Blender on another these days.;-)

Hi, I struggled with this for a while also. The trick,as far as blinking is concerned, is first to select the keyframes where you want the action to start, finish and return. Then open the graph editor in the animation palette and select the body part. In the top right there are 4 Buttons with graph shapes. Change the type of graph between the selected keyframes by making the graph either constant, the grey button, or the the brown button. (Can't recall the proper name at the moment). Hope that helps.

EnglishBob: Thanks for the tip, I will give the split verts idea a try. The way it's set up at the moment is the two sentry boxes are seperate props. The boom is parented to the the pivot post so that it can be raised or lowered and the sign is parented to the boom. The support post is parented to the pivot so moving the pivot will move everything together. Is there a way of limiting the movement of the boom? mrsparky: I checked out the link and it does indeed look like the above, although I used stills taken from the film Battle of Britain for reference. Would like to do an Allied type as well but have been unable to get any clear references with regard to WWII. Didn't realise Action Man had a fan base !!! Thanks for the feedback.