This project has been in the works for well over a year. Or at least it has been on my mind that long and I have finally cracked some of the design issues I had been struggling with creating this model in Fusion 360.
Here is a good photo of the real thing that I got off of a site called Supercars.net. I created a Blender 3D model of this car back in April of 2015 and I always thought that it would be great to create a good sized real model of it. I did not want a small model so I decided to make it 1/6th scale. As the real car is twelve feet in length the finished model will end up being two feet long. I would definitely call that a good sized model.
A key piece that I had issues with in designing a model of the Bugatti was the boat tail rear end of the car. I struggled with this portion of the car on and off over the past year or more and about a week ago I finally figured out how to get the shape modeled correctly.
Pictured above is an image from Fusion 360 of the design. I will have to 3D print this part with the tail end sticking straight up. To do this I added an additional brace to the model (shown on the left of the piece) that will be cut away once the part has been 3D printed.
The best estimate of the time to 3D print this section of the 1/6th scale body will be somewhere around 25 hours. One of my largest prints ever. I sure I will be happy when I can hold it in my hands and call it a good part.
In order to get the model to scale and have all of the parts fit up correctly I started out using templates or blueprints of the car which I found online. The top image shows the side, rear and top of the car blueprint. To start modeling the car these images along with the front image of the car are scaled to the correct size and then aligned with each other so they can be modeled correctly. I need to constantly check several different views to make sure I get every part modeled and lined up correctly.
In the bottom view you can see several of the body parts already modeled along with a couple of the wheels. This gives you a good idea of how the car will look once all the pieces have been modeled in Fusion 360 so the completed model will look like the real thing when I am done. Or at least as close as I am able to make it.
Along with the blueprints for the car I gather up a lot of reference photos so that I can get as much detail in the model as I possibly can. The fact that the model will be two foot long when it is complete will make it possible to get some nice detail in the model much easier than a smaller model. As you can see from the photos above again of the real cars there are a quite a lot of difference from one side of the car to the other side.
As of this afternoon this is where I am at with the modeling of the Bugatti in Fusion 360. I am very pleased with how it is all coming together so far. To give you an idea of the amount of work to create just what you see here take a look at the louvered section of the engine hood. This section has 23 louvers on each side of the hood.
Each louver needed to be modeled one at a time and takes about 40 commands to create in Fusion. That is over 900 commands to create just one set of louvers for the hood sides. I still will need to create even more louvers that go on the top of the hood. A slow process to be sure but again I want to get as much detail in the model as I possibly can.
I am very confident that the model will work out so I started making the tires. Again I referenced some photos of the Bugatti online and found a good tread pattern that was on a car. I worked out the pattern and started 3D printing a couple of the five tires that I will need for the model. The tires had to be split down the center of the tread so that I would have good tread and sidewalls on both sides of the tires. Once two halves of a tire are 3D printed it is a simple task to glue them together using modeling glue making sure that the tread pattern and two halves are lined up to make it all look correct. As you can see the tires are a good size coming in at 4.75 inches in diameter and just shy of .75 inches wide.
I have more research work to do on the car in order to create the model but I am happy so far with my progress. I will have to keep track of the hours that it will take to 3D print so that I can let you know how it all tallies up when I am finished putting it all together. At this point I plan on not sanding the model smooth as I think I would loose a lot of detail in the model by doing so. Some parts may need to be painted but that will not be a big issue.
So you can see by comparing the Blender 3D images and the Fusion 360 model images that I am still working on that I have a lot of work ahead of me yet to get the model ready for 3D printing. Lots of little parts to figure out how to design in Fusion 360 and 3D print. Then also how to put the actual model together once the parts are made. It will keep me busy for some time yet but so far it looks like it is all possible and should be a lot of fun to create. In the meantime I hope you enjoy seeing what I have put together so far and have plans for with this project. I'll post more as I make additional progress.
The area where most replicas 'blow it', is the top of the cowel and the top of the tail piece. from a front or back view, it is not flat. it is a slight arc, with probably about an 8 ft. radius on the original cars. The depth of the body is the same as the heigth of the tires. The length of the tail from the back of the cockpit to the end is the same as the widest part of the cockpit. All the flat panels on the sides of the car are level with the heigth of the tires. All of the dimentions are related to each other. The back of the top of the cockpit is lower than the front. If they are the same, the tail looks heavy. The top end of the tail is level with the top of the tires. the bottom of the end of the tail is level with the center of the axle. The way these aspects relate to each other is what makes the design so brillant and satisfiyng.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to share this incredible post with us. I enjoyed reading and seeing all the great details that you provided. Have a wonderful rest of your day and keep up this informative posts.
ReplyDeleteGreg Prosmushkin