Modeling the hand wrap
Set the view to front again, and select the vertices pointed in the following image. This time we will need two extrusions.
Select the vertices in the top-left corner of the model, and move them down to align them to the image. Then, select the other three vertices shown in the following image and extrude them once:
As the extruded geometry doesn’t fit the guides of our reference image, we will have to select and move the lower vertices and place them as shown in the following image. They don’t have to be exactly in the same position, but they should be placed in such a way that the shape of the model looks like our reference image.
Remember that you can also select the vertices with the brush select tool. Press the B key twice, and then you will be able to paint the selection.
Right after you place the vertices in their new positions, make another extrusion. By the end of the extrusion, try to place the lower vertices aligned with the right side of the guidelines.
Just by looking at the image, you’ll notice that one side of the model won’t be aligned. So, select the vertices on the left or right (any one that isn’t aligned with the image) and move it until it gets aligned.
By now, the work will be a repetition of extrusions until we have our model created. Select the vertices pointed in the next images, and extrude them until you get the final shape. At this point in the project, you should be familiar with the technique.
It’s important to remember that for those operations, most of the alignment of the objects with the reference image is done by eye.
At the end of each extrusion, use the S key to set the size of the new geometry until it fits with the reference image.
If you prefer, the transform ation can be executed in face select mode to speed up the selection of the faces used in the extrusion.
Here, we’ll use the Skin Faces/Edge-Loops option again to connect the two selected faces. Sometimes, the faces created with this option will be generated with a Set Smooth option selected. This may cause the faces to look odd and have a different set of shading from the other faces. To make it look exactly the same as other faces of the model, select the created faces and click on the Set Solid button.
If you don’t know where this button is located, you will find it in the Editing panel.
After the Skin Faces/Edge-Loops option is applied, the shade of the object will look a bit strange. This is because the smooth option of Blender is being used. Use the Set Solid option to make the faces appear in flat shade mode.
A big part of the modeling is complete, but there are a few parts of the weapon missing. Our next task is to create additional parts of the gun, such as a detail for the hand wrap and the energy tank. For this project, we will create different objects for those parts to make our modeling easier.
As you can see in the following image, we have created a big part of the gun with a well-organized topology and a fairly clean mesh, which is represented by a minimum number of faces and vertices, made only by quad faces. This type of mesh can be easily edited later by using subdivisions and new extrudes, which is a good reason to keep it as clean as possible.
