Hi folks!

I wanted to share some images of only my 3rd ever attempt at surfacing. Yes, maybe my post is a little self indulgent, or on the other hand it might inspire users that haven't ventured into surfacing yet to have a crack. Afterall, if I can do it, I'm sure you can.

I don't pretend that my effort is perfect by any stretch, but I have impressed myself with the outcome.

My first attempt at surfacing was the typical 'corvette' that has been doing the rounds for years! Whilst I completed that to a certain degree, I had made so many mistakes that culminated in a end product that was not worth trying to fix. So then I decided to try a project where I would have to create it without a pdf tutorial to follow and also a project that I have not seen done before. The truck was born!

When I first started the truck (2nd attempt at surfacing), I proceeded along my merry way but it came to light that I was going to be relying too much on fillets between bodies to attain all the curvature that was needed. This became a compounded problem because not all surfaces can be knitted together and therefore fillets were not going to work in certain areas at the end anyhow! So..... I scrapped attempt two, no point flogging a dead horse!

Attempt 3 is what you see in all of the images here. There is not a single fillet in the whole finished shell (model). I realised that I needed to think ahead a lot more and although I have done that, inexperience still meant that I had to re-work or modify many areas still. With this 3rd attempt I found that I had far fewer gap issues (very minor amount actually) which I'm guessing means I going along the right path. The finished shell consists of approx. 400 sketches but I'm sure that it could be done with far less if I had used more forethought and took my little additions to each individual surface and incorporated them in the initial projected curves for that surface. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

So anyhoo.......

Long story short, I have learnt quite a bit and surprised myself with the outcome. There is no denying that I still have so much more to learn in this field but for getting to the stage I have I wanted to thank Christian Chu, Kevin Pymm and Paul Salvador for their patience and wisdom!

I have the utmost respect for those of you that have mastered this art!

My plan now is to fit-out the interior of the cab and then eventually add the chassis, drive train and rear tray, wheels etc.

Sorry if I've bored you with my post, but I was just so chuffed that I just had to share!

Dave.