US M9 ACE

[Tank]

This is something I work on in my spare time, which is getting to be less and less as we near the end of the year. It's taken a long time to get to this point, and it's probably going to take me a long time to finish it, but I'd appreciate any comments just the same.

There's not a whole lot of reference material on this thing in the way of books or models. I've managed to put together a fair collection of images and some dimensions from internet searches. The model so far is based on the Hobby Fan 1/35 resin kit and some initial attempts at accurizing based on photo reference.

I'm being kind of anal about this one, as I'd like to use the 3D model as plans to build a large-scale R/C model some day. Fort Hood is the closest place to me that has any, but they're all in Iraq right now, so I don't have an easy way to go see one and take measurements. Any help making it more accurate with photos or measurements would be greatly appreciated.

[Tank]

I realized those renders are kind of small. Here's a larger version of one of them.

[krazycolin]

great subject... never even knew this one existed... however, i would say the only thing really needed would be doing some chamfered edges.... (beveled)...

it's really quite neat....

[Tank]

No argument there. The only things I've tried to really get detailed so far are the road wheels and drive sprockets, and I think I took them a little too far (polycount is probably too high for what's needed). The rest is still at a fairly roughed in stage.

[Danoku]

Nice model, are you going to make it filthy??? please :D

[giant551]

hey really great subject !!! I agree about a little beveling would not go a miss apart from that its looking great. I can't really crit about the accuracy as i have never seen this type of vehicle before:D

[blacklion148]

biger photos plase

[Lukem]

Looking good! I'd like to see a close up of the wheels and tracks - they look great!

What package are you using and what is your polycount so far? You do need a bit more bevelling on the hull IMHO.

[Tank]

Let me try to hit everything in one here.

First, thanks for all the comments.

Don't know why I'm so interested in this particular vehicle, but it's always struck me as an interesting design.

I agree that a lot of beveling is needed. Just something I haven't gotten to yet except on the road wheels and drive sprockets, and I think I went too far on them, because the polycounts on them are huge.

The tracks links themselves are still just roughed in. I've attached a closer view of the drivetrain.

Software is LightWave v9. Current polycount is 150,385.

I'll try to knock out some larger renders tomorrow and post them.

[Danoku]

Don't know why I'm so interested in this particular vehicle, but it's always struck me as an interesting design.

cool design and its the coolest combat bulldozer ever!! whats not to love!:lol:

[Tank]

Nice model, are you going to make it filthy??? please :D

Sorry, forgot to address this one. I wish I could, but I have absolutely zero talent at painting textures.

[Tank]

Some larger renders...

[Tank]

Haven't had a lot of time to work on this, but then again, I'm not in much of a hurry.

Main things I've been trying to do is slowly correct all the inaccuracies in the resin kit I was using for measurement reference, rounding off edges, adding detail, etc.

One thing I've done is to rip out the animated track links, which was quite painful since I don't know a quick way to set everything back up. I realized the resting angle of the suspension arms was much too steep. Ah well, gives me a chance to do some more experimentation with how to set up the links best. My previous method didn't allow for animation of the angle of the arms, and I'd really like to figure out a method that allows for that.

Out of curiosity, using LightWave, I'm finding that about the best way to round off edges is to just go back and apply Rounder on a piece by piece basis. Does Max have an easy way of rounding off corners on pieces that are already made?