Friday, April 12, 2013

Thankful Friday: CAD modelling

Okay, first off: I don't have a good excuse for missing yesterday's post. I was sleepy and couldn't concentrate on the screen in the morning, and was watching severe weather in the afternoon and evening. But here we are, so we won't worry too much about it.

Anyway, this time I'm thankful for something a little more frivolous than previous posts. Y'see, with as many models as I build, you get to know which ones are good sculpts, and which ones are bad sculpts. A bad sculpt is painful to try and get together. The pieces don't fit quite right, they come from the manufacturer warped, or sometimes even with a pristine kit, the parts just don't do what they're designed to do.

Space Marine Land Speeder, I'm looking at you here.

However, the kit I built yesterday while watching that severe weather (don't judge me, I needed something to take my mind off it) was a joy to work with. The new Tau XV109 Riptide suit is an absolute dream. Each segment - lower legs, upper legs, upper and lower arms - was individual and poseable. All I had to do was snip a couple of small support studs - which the instructions themselves recommended to be cut if you wanted to pose it like I did - and I got this thing to look amazing.

Now, GW has been using a computer aided design or CAD tool for the past several years to help design their new models, and I think this kit exemplifies what can be done with them. It was just amazing, and I can't wait to take this giant model out onto the field.

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