FFA series number 15 : Modular M6H gun + variations

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kaween

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Hi guys.

First a long overdue overview of the FFA stuff so far :
FFA series number 1 : Halo Reach type SMG M7
FFA series number 2 - Halo Wars/MKIV helmet
FFA series number 3 - MA37
FFA series number 4 - MA5D Modular design, Coalminer series.
FFA series number 5 - M20 Coalminer series.
FFA series number 6 - Halo DMR.
FFA series number 7- BR85HB SR - Coalminer series.
8 located in the non-halo props section : Fan rendition of the DC17 Blaster
FFA series number 9-(coalminer series)- Halo Reach MFDD
FFA series number 10 : M45 Shotgun
FFA series number 11: Scattershot -coalminer series
FFA series number 12: Railgun-Coalminer Series-Ultra Detail Edition
FFA series number 13 : Medkit - Coalminer Series
FFA series number 14: M73 LMG


Time for a new one. Well, technically 4. But who's counting. :D

I was kinda torn if I'd post this one or not. I always wanted a modular M6H series where the user could decide for him/herself they could create "whatever M6H" they wanted or needed.

While this is a great idea on paper, and making it in file format isn't that hard, I soon had to come to the conclusion that BUILDING a fully configurable M6 would not be easy, and in fact probably next to impossible to do in a usable fashion. What I mean is, sure you can print out the parts seperatly. You could probably even fit them together.

However, mechanically, it would be a nightmare. This kind of thing would be hard enough in real-world mechanics, let alone printed (or casted, same problem) parts that would be strong enough to stay together when need be, yet detachable when not. Several 3D printers who know a lot more than I do (that's like about 99.9% of them out there) simply told me "it can't be done. Not yet anyway". Not to mention stuff like paint damage occuring at the assembly/disassembly phase and what not. So off in the garbage bin with the idea.

Later it occured to me that the basic idea is still valid : it would still be nice to have just ONE set of prints which allow the user to glue/stick together whatever model they want to create. Yes you would need to print certain parts again, but so be it.

I also looked at it as a new attempt to use Blender for a more usable project. I myself have a love/hate relationship with this program : I know it's very powerful, but half of the time it seemed as if the software had a mind of its own, and no matter what I did, some really basic stuff could not be done by me in a predictable manner. So I resorted to using it _the wrong way_ using the functions that did work, giving up on those that didn't.

And here, a very big THANK YOU goes out to Trevor/Mblackwell When he saw my situation, his immideate response was "you're doing it the wrong way" and he tried to help me out with a nice document stating the steps I needed for a given operation. Problem was, I knew those steps. I had seen them over and over on YT and several Blender forums.

But they never worked for me.

And sure enough, they failed again now. But this time, I KNEW for sure they DID work for Trevor.


Long story short : if any of you guys has an Imac running Bootcamp and a Belgian AZERTY keyboard ? The Bootcamp keyboard drivers are the problem : they "eat up" several hotkey combos in Blender, and strangely enough, ONLY in Blender. The same keyboard shortcuts in other software ? No issues. The Imac with a normal Microsoft keyboard driver ? Works like a charm. With the Bootcamp keyboard driver ?

"up yours". :D

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen at Cuppertino.




Okay, So what we did was convert the existing gamerips into clean and decent looking printable files. Why not just print the ripped files, i hear you ask.

Well, a picture is worth more than a thousand words : here's a WIP picture of the M6 : at the back you see how it looks when just ripped and nothing is done with it. Of course, the software emphesizes all errors, but still, everybody can see the triangle-loaded surface of the rip compared to the result after softwareprocessing.


difference .jpg


.... so yes, you can print the one at the back. And sand, sand, bondo, sand again, bondo again ..... and still would not get the initial quality of the one in the front. Not even talking about the added details that happenend on the one in the front which weren't present on the original file.

So yeah, "what do we get" ?

You get the whole package. Knock yourselves out. Have fun with it. You'll be basically able to do a Whispering Truth (inclusive the stamping), a Gunfighter, A Tactical, a normal gun ..... or any odd combination you'd like.

This is what's in the package :

package.jpg


Inclusive the original M6H2 link/Target module thanks to Trevors' remark !



And to give an idea, here's a render of an early WIP during the project, the end result is even a lot smoother than what you see here :

render WIP.jpg


(it's still missing the stamping here, and it shows quite a lot of shadow lines which are totally removed in the packaged versions, but I was too lazy to make a new render pic, in all honesty. Also, the renderer had serious problems rendering the embossed lettering and tended to crash a lot)

Have fun with this, the next one I'll post will be a smoother redo of the Doom Preator helmet. As a Doom fan, I always wanted to make a better one than available on Thingiverse and in fact, I tried to use the same kind of tricks on that one to make a usable Doom helmet which doesn't look like something out of 8bit times.

Be sure to see that arrive in the non-halo props section this week too.

Ah, and before I forget : this is not the final stage of the package. As I will print this myself, undoubtably I'll change/add/improve certain stuff. So by all means, if you beat me to it, I'd appriciate the feedback when stuff would go wrong.

Also, I've been asked why I don't precut the models. It's simple really. While I do understand precut props are a quick start, you can only do that optimal for ONE type of machine. And I don't like cutting a model when it's not needed. It brings more mechanical issues, more work in assembly, and -especially with large parts- makes for a weaker prop on cons.

So if you need to cut it : get yourself Netfabb. It's free, it's basic, it's simple. And cut your model up yourself fitting your own machine and making the most of your specific device.
If you don't know how, it's high time you learn
If you still don't know how after trying and you need help, just let us know and we'll be there.

Here's them goodies, have fun with them :

M6H2 modular pack.zip

Till next time,

Kris out. :


PS : sneak peak : Granddaddy says "Hi".

granddaddy says hi.png
 
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Wooohooooo! well done, my friend! But unless I'm mistaken, I don't see the standard magnum laser sight thingy.

anyhow, great work! I'll print this someday! someday very soon!!!
 
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Man, i salute to you guys.

To be honest I suspected a certain someone to come up with this aheem,cough, cough,CarterBuilder12
Now give me a moveable slide and i`ll go nuts!!!
Seriously please - i have seen the M6H V5 Magnum by harican89 so i now it works.
 
Basically, ReClaimer8015 , everything we need -or most of what we need- to incorperate a working slide on these is already there.
The gun sports a rail and a spring-rod as is, even _within the model as-is_.
Everyones' free to give it a go. If nobody does, I'll do it at some point in time myself for sure later this year, together with some other small improvements I didn't have the time to incorperate at this point in time.

As for our good friend Carterbuilder12 .... I can tell you he already had his work cut out for him and he's working very hard behind the scenes to allow FFA to bring some really spectacular stuff over the period of this year.

Trust me, what is still to come will make my dabbling with M6H2 here look like childs' play. :D
 
Aaahhh, stop teasing me:p
I would like to, but there are a few still unfinished (non halo related) side projects I am stuck at.....
Again - thanks to you both.
 
@ReClaimer8015 Oh, I must be good at SOMETHING no (teasing that is).
And while I have put Carterbuilder12 in the spotlight now, we're really about 4 to 5 now working on FFA stuff - and that's on top of most people's own personal agenda. :) I can tell you it's a splendid bunch, every single one of them.
So if at any time you'd feel to enter our band of 3D misfits ? The door's always open.

TBH, In terms of time management and producing all these nifty things ... I don't know how they do it either. :)

And FFA17 just went up in case you've become thirsty.
 
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Basically, ReClaimer8015 , everything we need -or most of what we need- to incorperate a working slide on these is already there.
The gun sports a rail and a spring-rod as is, even _within the model as-is_.
Everyones' free to give it a go. If nobody does, I'll do it at some point in time myself for sure later this year, together with some other small improvements I didn't have the time to incorperate at this point in time.

As for our good friend Carterbuilder12 .... I can tell you he already had his work cut out for him and he's working very hard behind the scenes to allow FFA to bring some really spectacular stuff over the period of this year.

Trust me, what is still to come will make my dabbling with M6H2 here look like childs' play. :D
I have been working on seperating the parts on this. If I get it done before anyone else does I will get it up. But its kind of a back project currently for me as well
 
I have been working on seperating the parts on this. If I get it done before anyone else does I will get it up. But its kind of a back project currently for me as well

If you need help or assistance doing so, let me know. Although I'm kinda "out" at the moment with computer troubles, I'll try to help you with it if I can.
 
If you need help or assistance doing so, let me know. Although I'm kinda "out" at the moment with computer troubles, I'll try to help you with it if I can.
I actually went to work on this yesterday night. Took the model into meshmixer and it promptly went nope you cannot separate the shells out on this model. AS in it only detects 3 shells. <Which amused me because when I cut it into sections to print on my printer software had other things to say about it.> On either version that you have up Kaween wanted to ask if you still have the base model. The version that mendez has I can still separate apart. Course I also must admit I am not the most skilled with any of the 3d model programs. I am pretty self taught and it is a matter of me stumbling around till I figure it out.

The models are beautiful though. The Print on the sides and the fact you have the parts broke out is what made me pounce on it promptly. Its the extra detail that it needed to make it perfect. Only other thing I am trying to do is get rid of some of the open space that is going to weaken things and slow the print time down. Again a process of me stumbling around and figuring out how to do things.

But Thank you very much for the beautiful model to work with.
 
I actually went to work on this yesterday night. Took the model into meshmixer and it promptly went nope you cannot separate the shells out on this model. AS in it only detects 3 shells. <Which amused me because when I cut it into sections to print on my printer software had other things to say about it.> On either version that you have up Kaween wanted to ask if you still have the base model. The version that mendez has I can still separate apart. Course I also must admit I am not the most skilled with any of the 3d model programs. I am pretty self taught and it is a matter of me stumbling around till I figure it out.

The models are beautiful though. The Print on the sides and the fact you have the parts broke out is what made me pounce on it promptly. Its the extra detail that it needed to make it perfect. Only other thing I am trying to do is get rid of some of the open space that is going to weaken things and slow the print time down. Again a process of me stumbling around and figuring out how to do things.

But Thank you very much for the beautiful model to work with.

drop me an email, I'l set you up with everthing you need. from that, you can mod/combine/change the hell out of it.
My Imac is ..... still under repair (it is complicated) but I'm pretty sure I can get you what you need. If need be, I'll work together with you to reverse whatever needs to be done or clean up whatever the model can profit from, make it a 2 man job.

Or you can just start working on the original file (the same I started out with : it's indentical to the one Mendez posted). Do whatever you need with it without any regards to the cleanup job. Once you're happy with the mechanical parts, I'll step in and do a improved cleanup on it cause .... i was not entirely happy with the endresult on V1.0. It still misses a couple of trims and edits which I need to figure out. :)

And if it wouldn't have been for a golden tip from Trevor, I would still not know Cuppertino's horrible Bootcamp keyboard drivers were making it impossible for me to do anything remotely usable in Blender so whatever we do, we're the result of the combination of self-learning and that one golden tip now and then.
 
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Still playing with this. Actually have resized it down to get it so the barrel size more inline with a 50 call and not a .85. Also made it so the grips will actually fit in a normal person's hands. still not satisfied with it though. Once SCI Fi Valley is over I get caught up on my back log of things I have set to print once the new control board for my printer comes I am going to go back to the beginning and start over. I want to make that slide move so badly.

kaiween you should have my email address lurking in your inbox now. I havent been on for awhile do to the distraction of printer burning up and I had to have some doctors visits distract me.
 
I also kept that in my mind.....tried to slice the model into the necessary parts - fail. I`m left with my laptop because my old PC gave up a while ago. I have to reduce the poly count down to a level where it doesnt look nice anymore....
Keep at it!
 
I also kept that in my mind.....tried to slice the model into the necessary parts - fail. I`m left with my laptop because my old PC gave up a while ago. I have to reduce the poly count down to a level where it doesnt look nice anymore....
Keep at it!
It is a very high poly count model. It pushes my laptop to its limits and actually when I load it up I am in for a couple minute wait till my software figures out what to do. Many times my software says it is no longer responding I just wait and it will pop after a bit.
 
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