.38 Smith & Wesson K-Frame

I decided to try modeling a revolver before I commented on someone else’s revolver so I knew what I was talking about. LOL :slight_smile:

Anyway, I’ve been working on it all day (about 8 hours now) and got it to this point. I need to make the hammer and then detail parts like screws and I think I can call the modeling done and move on to textures.

I did this with no online references, just the real thing in my hand. (Ok, on the desk so I could use my hands… :stuck_out_tongue: )

Later,
Joe

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Looking good so far (you’ve got a real one, wow).
I don’t know what specific model is, but i think the handle should have more organic shape.
As I know, S&W revolvers have nice handle shapes for all frame sizes.

Could you tell me please how comes .38 in milimeters?

Thanks. The grips don’t flow like the older ‘cowboy’ revolvers. Here’s a good pic (not mine) of the grips that are on my particular gun.
Imgur

The .38 Special cartridge was a cut down .38 long Colt cartridge, but the bullet was actually .357 in diameter. It measures 9.1MM.

Later,
Joe

Looking good so far… guess it helps a lot having the actual thing in front of you

Thanks,
Having the real thing right here definitely helps, but it is also frustrating when you try to get Blender to do something to match the real thing and it doesn’t want to cooperate… LOL

I just finished up the hammer. Any suggestions on how to get the grip texture done? I’m assuming a texture with a bump map or something?

Later,
Joe



A bump map would probably be easiest, but you could accomplish real geometry with an array if you wanted. either way you’ll make a diamond shape in blender If you go bump map then you’ll just be photo shopping the alpha channel diamonds into place on your uv layout so you have black and white, black being the recesses and white being the bumps. Z buffer render from top down will give you much better control, if you know how to use it. It’ll help alot to fill the rest of the image with a middle gray first. You’ll want to assign this texture to a square and bake to normals when it’s done for cleanest effect.

If you do array then you make the arrays, assign to lattice, bend into shape. Apply the stack and cut out the extra verts till they fit nicely inside the shape. (you could also bake your normals after this step, but if you spent that much time you might as well keep the actual geometry XD)

as of now it’s looking nice :wink:

yeah something like that in the little area thats boxed out… I’m not that good with textures yet though

Or you could take some photos from the original grips and map them on the 3d model.

Thanks for information.

Thanks for the compliments.

@QS Dragon: So if I physically model the diamond texture, would I make it a separate object/part that isn’t connected to the grip part so that I don’t have to cut the whole grip up into little pieces?

Thanks again,
Joe

Id love to see how the handle was made, any chance of a wire plz?

Sure, no problem… Here you go.

Thanks,
Joe




Next question, I’m trying to make the part that swings open with the cylinder and I’m not sure if there’s an easier way to do it.

Is there any way to separate out a section without disturbing the rest of the mesh? Or am I just going to have to beat on it until it’s correct?

Attached are pics of what I’m talking about. (This one is mine… LOL)

Later,
Joe


That would be up to you. If there seems to be a way you can do it and have it connected then it might be worth it, but most likely it’ll be near impossible to get the 3-400 edge loops that’ll be needed, and it will work perfectly fine as a separate mesh (though you could possibly sculpt it as well). Google 3d pistol grip detail, I’ve seen the full geometry method done before but cannot remember where. If memory serves, it was done as a separate mesh they moved flush against the grip and looked pretty good.

First, let’s see a wire view of that part, then I could suggest you what to do.

Ok, here’s the wires of that area:

And here is where I’m at so far in cutting it out. I got the hinge done ok, but the socket in the frame is being a bear.


Later,
Joe

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This is what I would do:
I would temporary attach the parts (select them and press ctrl+j), make some local subdivisions and then move the vertices together, in order to get the configuration I need. After that, the parts can be separated again and probably the parent relations must be remade.