Given recent events, I can see this set getting a lot of use in various ways. yea if I ever finish it :)

annoyingly I lost a major file - the 2nd rebuilt building. Fortunately I had an earlier version, though some wiring detail was lost. Not sure if I could it call a mistake or a lucky notice, but I also realised that the rebuilt building was a lot longer. Which would create problems when trying to get maximum size with the textures. So I broke the model up in extra material zones. Hence the colours on the image.

The image also shows where the small parts will be placed and what else needs to be done. The extinguisher just needs a new bracket around the outside, because that looks nice. though I'll leave the label as extinguishers do get replaced in the real world.

2 new parts, waterproof box and another hose reel, are also shown here.

I'll also be making a lectern, a mic stand and some logo boards. Though those will be simple to do, plus I'll be offering both pro and anti styles. So you can choose if you want to make your scenes about heroes or zeros. These won't be attached to the building, but separate load and dial in props, so that the model can be used in different ways.

After that it's the ground, which will be playmat style, something the buildings will sit on rather than being joined. That's because Carrra screws up the mapping/texturing when joining the parts together.

and why is it when you get so close to the end of a project, the motivation wanes at the same real world work takes over...

That said here's, what (fingers x'd) should be the final bit of complex modelling, the 2nd hosereel. Now it's time to assemble this together with some ground.

and yea I know the hose is a tadge out on the vertical axis, noticed when rendering the WIP, though fixed that now.

Looks good. :) Always good to re-use old watercanisters. hehe Oh yes :) Though credit where due, this idea was a print from Seemushk at Redbubble.

Sam, yea can't beat V3 for the 5 yard stare :) But seriously this is my go2 figure even now, especially with the Grace Lion Hair, one of the best hairs in my runtime and yea used all the time.

As for the mask, this was inspired after a really really long day helping someone move house. As the day went along, and the news was breaking about what had happened in the US, people down south in UK land started getting weirder and weirder. With quite a few saying have you seen and it was the end of the world. But of course no never explains what they've seen!

Wasn't until we got back here and turned on the TV news, there where those masks, which as well as looking like something out of a sci-fi movie, looked really cool. So I thought why not :)

Pleased to say the mask is now available for free at my freebie site ...

PoserDirect

...plus I'll be uploading it to the freestuff here as well.

Cracked it! Well I think so... Solution (well for me or for anyone to wants to create something like a plastic carrier bag) was to create a rectangle with rounded corners and a rounded top.

Load into meshmixer and use the sculpt option until it resembles something like the real thing. You might need to make 2 separate parts and join together in your modeller.

Either way you'll get a very large mesh, around 12mb. So fire up meshlab, and play around with the decimation options until happy. Then it's some jiggling around in the modeller/mapper etc with smoothing/triangulation/remove co-planer etc.

Next was to add some thickness to just the lower section to give it an edge.
Followed by adding the clear vision screen & screen frame, so that part will be flat and level.

You could also model & map the vison screen and frame as separate materials. Say to give the screen a different colour from the main hood.

For the plastic effect, you could use an app native glass material, use that shader mentioned above, or (as the image) simply tinker with the transparency settings.

To to fit it just dial it into place, you might (ok will) get pokethrough. For body pokethrough, tinkering with the axis dials will reduce that. For hair, it depends on hair length.

Also don't forget to adjust the scale dial, depending on whatever figure you use. BTW - this one will be packaged up and put up for free over the weekend.

Yea I know Sam and it's appreciated. Ghostman yep and that's why something like this happens it's so bl**dy frustrating.

Anyways tonight ... Bit of a departure here, stuck on the 2nd hose reel anyway. But one of the most striking images on TV news of what happened Thursday was the people wearing those emergency masks.

Now lets be honest here and ignore all that political fighty stuff and focus on the important thing here. How cool where those masks! Wouldn't you like one for your favourite characters ?

Just think of the scenes you could make, like Dawn in a shop making astronaut noises...so I started making one.

_It's all looking damn good. _

Thanks! Indeed 'getting it good' is why I've not updated anything for the last few nights - want to get the next hose reel just right. Which annoyingly isn't happening, but I'll figure it :)

I hope other folk are stopping by to see the work you're putting in here. At hivewire they are, but I don't know about here which is also kinda frustrating. But I guess that's my own fault if I'd done something "vital" to the future of poserdom, like a giant nipple morph the thread won't have got moved :)

...tonights...

Sometimes things don't work out and tonights WIP is one of those.

Inspired by looking at our garage hose reel, I thought give one of the hosereel insets some extra detail. Kinda like how plastic modellers include cockpit detail, while you can't see it, you know it's there.

Looks nice but it's 600k and 2 sides will be needed, so this one isn't suitable. But it won't get dumped, instead I keep a virtual spares box, which is this will go and later might be used as a car wheel, or spaceship gribble.

..oh and tonight's WIP's...

well happy new year is all I can say to that.

thanks Sam and yes very much so :(

..and tonight's...nothing fancy just more work on the extinguisher...

Pleased to say now we've got past Christmas, Covid Cops and Crutches..just the usual quiet xmas :)...slowly getting back into this. Tonight the final modelling of the extinguisher top, which - I hope - has enough detail for hero shots balanced against poly count (around 500k).

Yea dunno why but I want this one to be a nice one as well. Probably because I'm a little bit rusty on the virtual modelling side compared to the real world modelling side.
And yes the port thing is an a**e if you're waiting on Lego and cauliflower Or possibly even some four seasons merch :)

Talking of waiting, sorry no update tonight. Stezza (at the related thread over at hivewire) has kindly created a video which shows how to make curly stuff within Carrara 5. So I've been playing with the virtual Plasticine all night.

FYI - talking of playing, I gather I'm note the only idiot working on a 3d version. I knew of a VR version for furries, but it seems this location may have stirred other modellers loins into action as well. So you folks may have a choice, or as I hear, more precisely you could always pay someone at the Big T a few $1000. Though fear not, this one will remain a freebie in the spirit of silliness and Santa's.

Also starting on the few objects by the door, which will be a fire extinguisher, 3 (all different types) of hose reels, a waterproof junction box and 4 plates with bolts. The latter because they'll give some extra detail to what is 'in essence' the hero shot of this model.

Now for the crucial thing, I asked Santa if he's ready to pop this down your chimney before xmas. But he can't give me a straight answer as his sleigh is in currently stuck in Dover docks along with everyone else's pressies and Rudolph's carrots.