Pressureline, I've always valued your advice very highly, because rather than just saying 'this is stupid,' you take the time to actually analyze the model and find out exactly what's wrong with it. The reason i didn't end up 'improving' the model is because i didn't fully understand exactly what you were trying to pound in my head
For example:
you said to make things reflect their purpose: I tried to make the raven look slow but sturdy
you said that modes of propulsion shouldn't be mixed: I removed the jets
Also, after a short conversation with hoi, I realized what you meant by the whole "make it look aerodynamic" spiel, or at least, I think I did
in the next revision of my model, I tried to incorporate more of what you and others, such as hoi, maackey, and saktoth said. You be the judge of whether or not I was successful
Enough talk:
![Image](http://i39.tinypic.com/34nps1t.jpg)
the weapon will either slide+fold out Mr.D-tremor-style, or the hatch will open up on hinges (like the hood of a car). Which would you prefer?
And for anyone interested, this is how I got to this stage of the model:
After reading maackey's and pressureline's posts, (and realizing that some people actually used fps camera
![Smile :-)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
) I decided the the bottom of the model did need some spice, and tweaked it as such. I also reworked the engines, they now work via magnets, superheavy materials, and gravitrons, and are not as much propellers as they are 'gravity generators' ofc that's all just boring, useless fluff; model-wise, I added the central column and the top section of the shroud.
I also added one of Saktoth's requests: a recessed eyeslit.
the result is as follows:
I then realized that blender's renderer actually has settings (
![Exclamation :!:](./images/smilies/icon_exclaim.gif)
), and promptly began fiddling with them, producing this pic:
I then had my short conversation with hoi, and started working on the current revision. Along the way, I fiddled some more with the renderer, and discovered ambient occlusion
the final pic you saw already, so here's a bonus pic, of the bottom of the newest revision!
TL;DR: the first pic up top is the latest version, so is the bottom-most pic. the rest are wips