Starting with Lego cars because they are relatively low part count. And a lot of fun to make.
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Here’s a partially exploded view of the parts of the police car.
Will post an update when I do the decals.
Have to relearn my way around photoshop…
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Sneak Peek! Sports car should be done by Tuesday.
I’m a little embarrassed to say, but figuring out how to model this roof piece has taken me 4 hours over two days. On the plus side I learned a lot about Follow-Me tool and how to use groups/explode with boolean groups. Also - doing this made me realize I did the roof to the police car a full plate-height too short. So I’m going to redo that tomorrow.
Also - I don’t own either the police or the sports car sets, so I haven’t been able to eyeball the real lego, which has frustrated me…so I just bought the Speed Champions Mclaren set (219 tiny pieces!!). I plan Sketch that Up next weekend.
=]
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It’s taken me all day to figure out this little grey 2-stud curved-slope-shape-thing. Which, once placed in the model, you can’t really see.
Some evidence of my exploits screencapped. I’ve been keeping a group of finished parts in the model…I’ve now created a little graveyard of frustration for attempts that didn’t pan out.
.<
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I ended up manually stitching together rotated/angled curves. But I got it pretty clean.
Here’s the hidden geometry:
(which gives away the fact that I cheated on the underside and made the interior cavity “slope” flat angles instead. I really didn’t want to do the knitting again after spending so long on this.)
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Not yet - i’m determined to figure out as much as i can on my own for now. I learn best by making mistakes and puzzling things out, so I made a rule for myself - Native SketchUp only for the first 100 days.
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I’m calling the Sports Car set done. I don’t have some of the pieces, so the spoiler and the arms that hold it up are not 100% accurate, but I’m content with them for now.
I decided the screenshot needed a little more character though - so i knocked out a street baseplate.
=]
I am going to try to do a minifig next. Then tackle the McLaren.
I appreciate all the views and likes! Thanks all!
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Here’s a quick, dirty, and random exploded view i made.
For some reason the stats tab is zeroed out in all of my models. Not sure why.
I’ll have to look it up.
Enjoy!
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That’s statistics information is for a selected component. You haven’t got a component selected in the Components panel before going to the Stats. If you want to see the model statistics, go to Window>Model Info>Statistics.
Nice looking models and I admire your decision to get familiar with what the native tools can do before adding extensions.
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Ah ha! Lots left to learn about SketchUp.
And thanks!
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Got the minifig done - that is, i’ve given up on getting the arms exact. I have another graveyard of attempts on that. But it is a good learning experience. After HOURS of trying to make something work with follow me, then shaving shapes with solid tools, i finally figured out a fairly simple cylinder solution where I rotated and scaled a few defined loops. I don’t 100% love it, but they look so much better than my first 10 attempts.
EDIT: I couldn’t leave it alone. I added the cut-holes and pegs for arms and legs.
But I’m probably going to stitch together new arms tomorrow anyway…
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Ahh Harold the Helicopter, fond memories
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I started half-heartedly fooling around with SketchUp years ago when I would get bored or could think of nothing to paint or draw. I did not really start working in SU regularly until about five or six years ago. Since I could not afford some of the extensions I really would have liked, I decided I would create what I could with only the native tools. I raked thru lots of vids on YouTube to help me learn.
Today, with the exception of two extensions, I still use just the native tools - you can do a lot with the native tools. I have downloaded about eight different extensions. One or two, I just flat didn’t like, didn’t understand, or maybe was just too impatient to give them a chance. Another couple extensions I never bothered with after intially checking them out. One extension I used occasionally, but have not reinstalled it since getting a new computer. The two extensions that I use regularly - Smustards Weld and Eneroth’s Texture Positioning.
Your Lego looks cool… 
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Experimented with meshes for racing helmet and visor last night. I’m sure there’s a better way, but I landed on a lot of planned push-pull, edge scaling, and rotation. and then Follow me for the visor, with was assembled in two different solids i then stitched together because I just could not get the end result I wanted from one face extrusion.
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My progress on the McLaren Senna, Speed Champions set 75892.
I spent a lot of time obsessively adding a ton of underside detail that will never be seen…but I figure it’s still good practice and problem solving.
The next part (step 16 in the instructions) is an unique fender piece i’ve never seen before. But I think i know how to extrude it with Follow Me and weld it with Solid Tools. Although i’ve certainly said that a few times before losing hours and hours redoing things over and over again…
I should have an update by Tuesday.
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I’ve spent 8 hours on this one part.
o.0
Sometimes FollowMe is magic. Sometimes it’s a horror show. I tried knitting it together, which resulted in a pretty good part…but it didn’t line up just right. Neither did lathing a straight face and tilting the resulting shape.
However, when i lathed/FM’d a face that I drew at a slight angle, then tilted the resulting shape at an angle, i ended up with the right dimensions.
Not sure the juice is worth the squeeze though.
But it’s done. Putting it to component bed.
Here’s the graveyard for this piece. Deceptively small because i worked and reworked a LOT of those groups. And reloaded past saves a couple of times.
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