[WIP] Tiger I

Sepha · Jun 10 2025

Havn't posted on Polycount in a long time, so forgive me if I commit any triangle related faux pas xD. I've recently started working on this Tiger I, and I wanted to spool up a thread to dump all my WIP images into.

Here is where it's at currently:

I'm trying to challenge myself to put as much of the detail into the geometry as I can. Mostly just arrays of meshes along splines or displaced highly subdivided planes, and chamfers with weighted normals.

sacboi · Jun 10 2025

Track link, kinda my thing and you've got some nice accuracy going there.

Sepha · Jun 10 2025

Thanks Sacboi! Not gonna lie those track links gave me a lot of grief and aren't finished yet

Getting some more progress in tonight:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/q8/0baixm9ljerc.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/su/p0nfuud7kwo0.png

Finding reference for the back is pretty rough ...

Ashervisalis · Jun 10 2025

Doooooooooooooope

Klunk · Jun 10 2025

why does the back of the turret appear angled in as it goes up ? it should be vertical ?

the best reference is this though a tad pricey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnWFCpiJBFI&ab_channel=PanzerPicture
https://www.themodellingnews.com/2018/07/tmn-on-tour-bovington-tank-museum-tiger.html
https://www.recomonkey.com/Land-Platforms/Tanks/Panzer-VI-Ausf-E-Tiger/Tiger-131-The-Tank-Museum/Walkaround/i-2KgFTpP/A

Sepha · Jun 10 2025

The reason for the slanted turret rear was because (and i didn't realize this until recently) - the reference diagrams I was initially working from were from CANCLED prototypes of the Tiger I:

I'm glad to see people object to the angle because now I'm forced to fix it

even though it will be a pain in the butt to do.
@Klunk Thank you so much for the reference materials, I really appreciate it.

Klunk · Jun 11 2025

"walkaround" is a good word to use when searching for reference

sacboi · Jun 12 2025

Indeed, they're great when trying to reference stuff that's either 'hidden' or difficult to gauge via just eyeballing sucky looking pics so these are routinely sources I tend to make use of, among others:

Prime Portal - Armoured Vehicles

Wikipedia - Panzerkampfwagen VI, Tiger I (H1), SdKfz. 181.

The Tank Museum Bovington - ''Tiger 131' as she is today walkaround

Sepha · Jun 14 2025

Thanks so much to you both! I really appreciate it.

I'm starting to get into some of the texturing now, but its more a big experiment in marshalling content between blender and painter, i've never really worked at this sort of a density before and even the UV mapping which would normally be very straight forward starts to get a touch annoying.

sacboi · Jun 14 2025

Nice highlights being thrown though slight zimmerit repetition on the gun mantle, perhaps adjust either UVW or re-bake some variation etc.

kosh3d · Jun 14 2025

Really cool, can't wait to see more of the textures. Awesome project!

Sepha · Jun 16 2025

Thankfully the Zimmerit is pretty non destructive, and if I shuffle the UVs a bit I should be able to break up that apparent tiling.

I'm slowly getting through taking the individual models from "mostly done" to "textureable-y done" and getting the substance painter documents and bakes setup. Here's a few marmoset renders with a default Painted Steel smart material thrown across the gun and the turret:

There's a bunch of UV errors around the place that I need to fix. Once I get each major component setup in painter, ill start going through and giving each surface an actual material that is appropriate, but for now painted steel will just have to do. And yeah looking at these images, that Zimmerit tiling is suuuuper obvious atm.

[WIP] Tiger I

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