Panzer 3 TIII W.I.P.

Psychotic_Mike

Hello everyone.

I've been working on my hard surface modelling skills lately, these pieces are all work in progress. Future plans include adding sculpted details with zbrush or nDo2 (not decided yet) and texturing.

Any ideas / feedback are all welcome.

So far the hardest part is finding good reference that shows details, most of the time I improvise but if any of you have any good reference I'd really appreciate sharing.

Let me know what u think works best.

Psychotic_Mike

hmm for some reason the dropbox images are not displayed - hope the link I provided works for everyone

ZombieWells

Don't just make it up if you can't find reference. This is incredibly wrong, and people will know if your doing it, so stop. If your going to do something like this, and you cant find good images then your in for a world of hurt. What your going to end up doing is finding what you can about your tank, going deep into the internet rabbit hole, scraping whatever information you can find, taking days and days if not weeks and weeks to go off and hit up every hub you can find, killing yourself to find correct information, (serial numbers to ties by happy chance..170790-859 Metzerler... still making tiers today in fact) find out which jack belongs to which tank, (different armor, different weight... different jack) what mussel break is correct, hand copying the font for the for the bosch light covers for zbrush alpha... is that a spring, or a leather strap? could be either, what year is it, has to go with the right tread... Ersatzteil-Liste Nr. 201 Kraftfahrzeug-Nachtmarschgerat photos with correct back light cover and forward assembly, good photo... took a while to find the back cover light. So that needs to be a modified MG34, not standard... ummm. I have 12 folders, (back, bottom, front, misc, newRef, OuterArmor, Ref, side, Tools, Top, Tread, and a General) Misc alone has 72 images in it. When you can't find the reference, you find the piece, then find reference for that, and you keep going until your counting bolts. You can do this, and you'll get a great education.






http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/190289-wintermud-tracks-for-pzkpfw-iiiiv-and-variants/

http://thepanzertrap.com/panzertrap_panzerIVphotos.html

(These images and links will start sending you down the rabbit hole...)

or you can find something to work on that has good clear ref, so you don't have to hunt everything down. That way, you have something that looks good and is correct. The choice is yours.

Psychotic_Mike

Hey ZombieWells, thanks for the links and reference. I can see you have done your research, which is insane!!! Also your stuff on your website is absolutely mind boggling amazing!!!!

I just want to clarify that when I say I make it up I mean I copy parts from other tanks that look the same, I'm not saying this is right but I get frustrated when I spend more time researching and finding relatively nothing than actually modelling. Finding good reference is paramount, but also painful.

I wasn't planning on going in that much depth when I first started, but I might as well do it now. The links you gave me turned out to be very helpful. I actually learned some things about tanks, their individual parts and purpose.

Very helpful stuff.
Thanks!!!

ZombieWells

Sweet! if your going for it I'll save you some time. Just remember that digging around the internet and doing good research is part of the gig. Also, if you see empty latches where tools and equipment should be, then find a traditional modeler that does panzer tanks... or whatever. They're usually super hardcore, and have all the correct tools etc. I have even seen them 3d print out custom pieces because the kit was off by some miniscule measurement. So here's what your looking for, and here's an example of a modeler

This site has really great stuff on it, so check all of it out!!!
V
http://www.primeportal.net/tanks/john_griffin/panzer_iii/index.php?Page=2

http://panzervor.blogspot.com/

Just more stuff... Also go to museum site, (I am planning of visiting this place)
http://flightmastergjwilson.com/Littlefield_Tank_Museum/Military_Tanks_of_the_World.html

cool site too
http://www.military-meshes.com/forum/


Good luck, I am sure the tank will turn out awesome!

Psychotic_Mike

Hey, thanks a million, these new links are amazing!!!!
I have spent the last couple of days reading/researching its been a blast!! really enjoying it.
I decided to get rid of everything that was not included in the reference material and have been re-modelling some parts (such as the bottom wheels).



I wish there was a museum near where I live. I was tempted to buy a scaled model from e-bay just to see the details, but I think I have good enough reference to guide me through now.

Thanks for your help!

Psychotic_Mike

Small update. Took me a while to find appropriate reference but managed to get some of the suspension pieces worked out. There are couple of bolts missing my main concern is the track piece... I dont think it looks nice, may have to redo that part as well as its not 100% accurate.

Psychotic_Mike

Another small Update of the back side

Psychotic_Mike

Yay managed to finish it... I must say it was a very challenging process.

80% of the time was spent on research and re-working parts where reference was not exact. I'm happy the way it is now. If I had more time I'd spend it moving this into Zbrush and sculpt details and texture it either in zbrush again or Mari.

I'll prob make a gif animation with all the different layers and post some wireframes later on.
Let me know what u think.

dreamer00

i dont know much about tanks.. but this look amazing.. u really done some fantastic research, and thanks for the links ..

Xoliul

Hey man, good job to actually take ZW's advice and go all outon the ref research. Lots of people just wouldn't care and leave it at that.

Psychotic_Mike

Thanks guys, yeah ZW helped me a lot with this, if it weren't for him I would def have something less accurate.

Here's a small construction breakdown.

Psychotic_Mike

Wireframe time:
Here are some breakdowns. If there is any specific details u want to see more closely or something u dont like let me know
Thanks

Psychotic_Mike

PatTl92

Damn nice detail man, thx for the breakdowns.

Melonman

Really well done man that is absolutely awesome and the breakdowns just make it even more impressive. Looking forward to seeing more.

coresplendor

Those are some very nice details. You did a great work on this one. Only problem i see, is the lack of some nice and big renders of your tank. It deserves... Anyway, congratz!

Xoliul

hardcore stuff, thanks for showing. Only remark I'd give is I wouldn't have modeled all those little bumps on the track covers. A displacement map would've worked just as well.

Psychotic_Mike

Thanks guys.

(Xoliul) yeah I thought of doing that but didnt want to use any displacement maps at the time (regreted it later though - would have saved me some time) :poly142: