Aktos
New Member
I really like the design of the Alien Blaster in Fallout 4 compared to Fallout 3. I like the more complex feel of the new blaster and I'm compelled to bring it to life.
I'm a pretty big Bethesda fan and am pretty proficient in modding their games. In less than a day after the release of fallout 4, a talented Modder, jonwd7 released the Bethesda Archive Extractor (http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/78/?) which made everything else that follows possible. I used this tool to extract the meshes (.nif) and textures (.dds) from Fallout 4's game files.
I followed that up by opening the nif file in NifSkope and exported the mesh into an obj file, making it compatible with Photoshop's 3d capabilities. NifSkope has been around longer than 10 years and has been growing and improving continuously . I used Nifskope 2.0 alpha for this. (https://github.com/niftools/nifskope/releases)
The last step in preparing the extracted game files is converting the .dds files into something Photoshop can work with. I went with Png. Paint.net (http://www.getpaint.net/index.html)was the tool to convert the .dds files to .png files.
After using Photoshop to open the converted obj I applied the textures. This gives me a 3D model of what I'm building that can be easily manipulated it fit my needs.
To get the scale of the blaster I did some hyper complex math.
To solve x=(72x1.75)/10
x=12.6 inches
I decided to round down to an even 1 foot
Now that I have References for the Blaster its time to figure out how I'm going to build something that's primarily complex curves. On my first attempt I used a technique I learned from Harrison Krix's(Link to website) Halo 5 Needler Build that was commissioned by tested Laster year. I followed a simular process disccussed his build for the upper casting (Link to tested article(http://www.tested.com/art/makers/453787-volpin-project-part-4-lets-start-building/)
Polyester body filler will melt polystyrene so I sealed the entire piece in acrylic paint.
It was at this point, like in the middle of taking the picture, I realized that this technique wasn't going to work for what I want to accomplish. It took me a week to come up with something different. What if a 3d printer glued layers of .25 inch MDF together? 48 Layers of MDF!! I realized I could use the the depth of the MDF and the total length of the Blaster to calculate the number of layers of MDF I would need to equal the total length of the Blaster. That was the simple part, I spent longer that I'm willing to admit in photoshop figuring out a way manipulate the cross section setting into having a set number of layers between the beginning and end of the Blaster, at specific intervals. I'm attaching all the references and blueprints to this post so if anyone wants to try to build this Blaster there free to. I'm not going to include all of the step that went into the creation of these blueprints in this post but if your interested, ask. I'll gladly write up the steps in detail if there is a demand for it.
Time for some pictures!
You can't really see them in this picture but there is a dividing line in the center of every layer. I used this to mark where to drill the holes for the wooden dowels and to mark the sides of the layers so i could visually see that the layers were lining up correctly. To push the layers down the dowel I used another piece of mdf with a channel cut in it for the dowels as a push-board so even pressure could be applied.
Talk about lucky! The two halves barely cleared my drill press. I even flipped the guide for the table to get an extra couple inches of clearance.
The vents weren't coming out in a way I like so I went about it a different way.
I manipulated the 3d model until the inside of each vent was vertical, adjusting the model for each, and created the templates from that. The piece of wood at the top of the two walls keeps the correct width between them, the piece of wood at the sides does the same thing.
I used Sintra to back the vents
and apoxie sculpt to bind them together. Once the clay began to harden i used calipers to check the distance between vents.
I cut out the space between the vents I tried to cut freehand, the sides weren't deep enough. Besides that, they fit perfectly
Handle!
That's it so far! I'm working on this every chance I get and will continue to post updates as they come. If anyones interested in my techniques with cross sections in photoshop say so. I'm glad to write about it if there's interest.
I'm a pretty big Bethesda fan and am pretty proficient in modding their games. In less than a day after the release of fallout 4, a talented Modder, jonwd7 released the Bethesda Archive Extractor (http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/78/?) which made everything else that follows possible. I used this tool to extract the meshes (.nif) and textures (.dds) from Fallout 4's game files.
I followed that up by opening the nif file in NifSkope and exported the mesh into an obj file, making it compatible with Photoshop's 3d capabilities. NifSkope has been around longer than 10 years and has been growing and improving continuously . I used Nifskope 2.0 alpha for this. (https://github.com/niftools/nifskope/releases)
The last step in preparing the extracted game files is converting the .dds files into something Photoshop can work with. I went with Png. Paint.net (http://www.getpaint.net/index.html)was the tool to convert the .dds files to .png files.
After using Photoshop to open the converted obj I applied the textures. This gives me a 3D model of what I'm building that can be easily manipulated it fit my needs.
To get the scale of the blaster I did some hyper complex math.
To solve x=(72x1.75)/10
x=12.6 inches
I decided to round down to an even 1 foot
Now that I have References for the Blaster its time to figure out how I'm going to build something that's primarily complex curves. On my first attempt I used a technique I learned from Harrison Krix's(Link to website) Halo 5 Needler Build that was commissioned by tested Laster year. I followed a simular process disccussed his build for the upper casting (Link to tested article(http://www.tested.com/art/makers/453787-volpin-project-part-4-lets-start-building/)
Polyester body filler will melt polystyrene so I sealed the entire piece in acrylic paint.
It was at this point, like in the middle of taking the picture, I realized that this technique wasn't going to work for what I want to accomplish. It took me a week to come up with something different. What if a 3d printer glued layers of .25 inch MDF together? 48 Layers of MDF!! I realized I could use the the depth of the MDF and the total length of the Blaster to calculate the number of layers of MDF I would need to equal the total length of the Blaster. That was the simple part, I spent longer that I'm willing to admit in photoshop figuring out a way manipulate the cross section setting into having a set number of layers between the beginning and end of the Blaster, at specific intervals. I'm attaching all the references and blueprints to this post so if anyone wants to try to build this Blaster there free to. I'm not going to include all of the step that went into the creation of these blueprints in this post but if your interested, ask. I'll gladly write up the steps in detail if there is a demand for it.
Time for some pictures!
You can't really see them in this picture but there is a dividing line in the center of every layer. I used this to mark where to drill the holes for the wooden dowels and to mark the sides of the layers so i could visually see that the layers were lining up correctly. To push the layers down the dowel I used another piece of mdf with a channel cut in it for the dowels as a push-board so even pressure could be applied.
Talk about lucky! The two halves barely cleared my drill press. I even flipped the guide for the table to get an extra couple inches of clearance.
The vents weren't coming out in a way I like so I went about it a different way.
I manipulated the 3d model until the inside of each vent was vertical, adjusting the model for each, and created the templates from that. The piece of wood at the top of the two walls keeps the correct width between them, the piece of wood at the sides does the same thing.
I used Sintra to back the vents
and apoxie sculpt to bind them together. Once the clay began to harden i used calipers to check the distance between vents.
I cut out the space between the vents I tried to cut freehand, the sides weren't deep enough. Besides that, they fit perfectly
Handle!
That's it so far! I'm working on this every chance I get and will continue to post updates as they come. If anyones interested in my techniques with cross sections in photoshop say so. I'm glad to write about it if there's interest.
