Modelling ornithopter from Dune 2021 - build log

[soswow]

Day 19​

No flashy rendered for today. Yesterday was a bit busy + more importantly it's time for me to start working on legs and ramp. And that is a daunting task, to say the least. If it wasn't for this every-day-log forcing function I would prob. procrastinate and started some other project. Whole 19's day time I've spend watching two scenes in the movie where you can see front legs deploy and retract, over and over again, correlating it with all of the pictures I have of mechanical structure modeller has put in. And yes, all the moving parts, joints and sliders are modelled is to actually be able to perform those function. So, researching all of that took most of the time. I think I have better understanding now than I had before starting, which is good.
I still have something small to show, though. Used two good orthogonal views (+ everything else) I've sketched out the overall position and angles of front legs, ramp and back legs.

https://imgur.com/a/GxJTUgH

 

[soswow]

Day 20​

I've missed one or two days. Was crazy busy.
So, I am learning more and more about front legs design. So far I've started modeling actual shapes:

Base on this references:

It's pretty busy design.

But then I've stepped back and made sure I understand mechanics of how legs are actually collapsed and stored away. So I've made mechanical exploratory motion model with simplified blocks. I am still not sure about couple of things. Will figure them out tomorrow.
Here is a cool animation of legs retract =)

https://imgur.com/a/K2iF6In

 

[joberg]

I'm a sucker for landing gears and this one is a beauty...and fairly difficult with all of the cuts and details. Great job so far

 

[paulsboutique]

Great thread !! Love these copters

 

[soswow]

Day 21-23​

I still can't understand 100% intended mechanism of arms collapsing. I've spent some time investigating how it might work. Here are some ideas:

https://imgur.com/a/bgfDK4a

or

https://imgur.com/a/sYxpLOe

But since I am not planning on making movie quality asset with animation, it probably doesn't matter that much.
Meanwhile I was grinding down details on main beam of front landing legs.

 

[Searun]

Translation and rotation drafting greatly enhanced by today’s software. Fun figuring out how some tricky mechanical things move. Mock-ups will always help point the way, avoid errors and evaluate solutions if you are seriously building moving parts. Again, nice work.

 

[soswow]

Day 24​

Not much for today. Started on the foot of the front leg

 

[soswow]

Day 25​

More work on a foot.

One of the main source materials is this:

 

[soswow]

Day 26​

Worked more on main beam details on both sides and front.

Some of the sources of information:

 

[soswow]

Day 27​

Started working on the back most strut (is in white). Most of the time is spent trying to understand geometry from an only couple of blurry images. Pretty hard.

 

[soswow]

Day 28​

I might miss something and will have to revisit the front landing legs, but for now, I call it done. I've finished with a middle strut and added a heel.

I've also made another video explaining progress so far and some of the things you've seen already here:

Oh, and I finally went to the cinema to see Dune =) (I've seen it at home, but not in cinema) It was my birthday present to myself =)

 

[soswow]

Day 29​

Started on the front lights gantry. Blocking it out and cross-referencing dimensions is what took most of the time. Details come the next day.

 

[soswow]

Day 30​

Most of the details for lights gantry.

 

[soswow]

Days 31-32​

I've finished with details around the lamp gantry and moved to undercarriage details. It's a bit hard, since 1) there are massive discrepancies between the physical model they build and the model used in render shots 2) there are almost no good details, so I have to extrapolate a lot.

 

[joberg]

Great work so far and yes, sometimes artistic liberties have to come to life when no detailed pics are available

 

[soswow]

Day 33​

Was distracted with lasgun and hunter seeker modelling. Started with a ramp. A lot of time as usually when starting a new part went on making sure my dimensions are correct. I made sure it will close nicely. I've also refactored a bit the opening itself.

 

[soswow]

Day 34​

Continue with the ramp. Not that much progress. But what you see should be 1:1 to the real deal. Will start adding landing legs tomorrow.

 

[joberg]

Beauty

 

[soswow]

Day 35​

Added that back heel ground gripper part.

 

[Dimitri-Ajith]

Very cool project!