Making of: Modeling a Revolver

by Jonathan Williamson

Hello and welcome to this “walk-through” style tutorial on modeling a revolver in Blender 2.5.

This tutorial is formatted slightly different than our normal written tutorials; it is not presented as a step-by-step tutorial, rather it is meant to give you a solid glimpse into the process involved with modeling a complete, complex model such as the revolver seen here. If you are looking for an advanced, step-by-step tutorial, then I recommend you check out our Modeling an M4 Rifle Exclusive tutorial series.

The final model I will be creating can be seen above. Modeling time was approximately 4-5 hours and it was rendered in Cycles.

When modeling a hard-surface object such as a revolver, I always like to start by blocking in many of the components before getting to the detail modeling. I will begin by working with the barrel and the body of the gun. To get started I will add an open cylinder for the barrel and then also add a cube for the body, scaling it down along the Y-axis to fit the approximate width.

I can then block in the gun cylinder with another tube, extrude the body shape from the cube, and duplicate down the barrel to create the extractor rod housing.

The next step is to focus on the barrel a bit more by merging the two cylinders that make up the barrel and the extractor rod housing.

After doing this I can model the top of the barrel, where the front sight attaches by extruding up the top of the barrel.

Now that the top block is extruded, I can add a few loops along its length so as to cut a couple holes in it.

I will go ahead and leave the barrel where it is now and move my focus temporarily to the grip. I will model the grip by first extruding the grip support from the body and then adding a new mesh for the grip. The grip is very easy to create by just extruding the shape from a cube and adding a few edgeloops to smooth it out.

At this point I have all the main forms of the gun created. I can now start working on the major details. The first one I will create is the trigger guard, by extruding from the body mesh.

The next few steps are to make the piece that holds the cylinder. It acts as a hinge, letting the cylinder flip out for reloading. In order to do this I will extrude the shape from the body to wrap around the barrel and the extractor rod housing.

I can then create the actual hinge piece and the area surrounding it.

Now that the cylinder hinge is mostly finished I will go ahead and add a Subdivision Surface modifier to begin polishing the mesh as I go. As soon as I add the modifier the model will become smoothed and thus look lumpy. In order to sharpen the edges of the mesh I will go on and add multiple edgeloops around the perimeter of each component.

My current mesh looks like this:

Moving on, I will continue working on the mesh piece by piece. The first of the remaining pieces is the rear sight. This is a relatively simple part to model; it can be done by just extruding a box bit by bit and then adding the perimeter edgeloops. The sight I have modeled, including the recess in the guns body can be seen below:

Next up is the slot for the hammer.

Then the small cut-out in the front of the body.

After this inset comes the disk at the back of the cylinder.

Now comes perhaps the most difficult part of the entire model, creating the actual cylinder. The cylinder is difficult because the topology is crucial to get clean, or else the surface will not appear smooth when we’re done. My first step to create the cylinder is to replace the block mesh I added in the beginning with a new circle comprised of 48 vertices. The number of vertices is important as there must be enough to divide evenly between each of the grooves along its length while still providing enough vertices for the details.

After adding in the circle I will add another six circles, distributed evenly around the inner perimeter of the original circle.

Next I can fill in the gaps between the circles and extrude in the inner section of the end of the cylinder.

With the inset created I can then duplicate that inner surface to extrude the insert. After a little more modeling I can also create the central notched piece.

Up next, I am ready to create the grooves along the length of the cylinder. This is most easily done by creating a elongated half-circle that matches the topology of the cylinder beneath it. After creating this circle mesh I an separate it to a new mesh and then use a Shrinkwrap modifier to project it onto the surface of the cylinder. Immediately after this I will apply the Shrinkwrap modifier and rejoin the meshes.

After rejoining the meshes I can simply extrude inner surface of the groove.

That leaves the grooves complete, ready to fill in the end of the cylinder.

Next, using the same technique as the grooves, I can create the T-shaped notches in the same way as the grooves.

The final cylinder looks like this:

All the hard parts of this project are now complete. I will now finish off each of the other details quickly. The first of which is the groove in the extractor rod housing, Figure 27. Followed by adding the actual extractor rod.


Moving on I will add the release switch for the cylinder and the screw heads on the right side of the gun.

Then I will add the raised surface to the the grip and the insetted coin.

The final addition to the model is the front sight.

With that the model is complete. The finished model can be seen below:

As I mentioned in the beginning, this project took approximately 4-5 hours to model. If you are interested in seeing a similar project to this, as a video tutorial, that takes the viewer through every single process involved, step-by-step then be sure to check out my member exclusive tutorial series on modeling an M4 Assault Rifle on http://blendercookie.com. The result of this tutorial series is shown below:

Thanks for reading!

 

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Discussion

55 Responses to “Making of: Modeling a Revolver”
  1. thiago kolb
    Posts: 136

    video tutorial!!???

    :D

    #
    1
     Sep 6, 2011 at 5:27 pm
    • gavin downes
      Posts: 4

      would love to see this as a video tutorial

      #
      1.1
       Oct 22, 2011 at 9:37 am
      • Thomas Potter
        Posts: 19

        Written has the advantage of it not getting too far ahead of you, and you can pause it just by not scrolling it down.

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        1.1.1
         Feb 16, 2013 at 10:50 am
  2. Diego Herrera
    Posts: 38

    You can’t make me read

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    2
     Sep 6, 2011 at 5:42 pm
    • bob anymouse
      Posts: 40

      lol.

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      2.1
       Sep 14, 2011 at 9:57 am
      • Landon Gardner
        Posts: 2

        love the avatar lol

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        2.1.1
         Sep 25, 2011 at 6:17 pm
  3. Jeff Bessette
    Posts: 256

    Haven’t read through it yet but this will be helpful. I got a illustrated book on weapons and wanted to model some of the guns.

    My friend got me a display model of a revolver when he was on vacation so I’ll have a 3D object to observe as well. It isn’t completely realistic. Looks a tad smaller than real size and has a blade attached to it that is kind of cool, but curves up slightly in front of the barrel. We were joking maybe it shoots split bullets!

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    3
     Sep 6, 2011 at 5:44 pm
  4. Jonas Pilo
    Posts: 18

    VERY nice tutorial Jonathan, I’m all for these kinds of advanced tutorials as it is pretty tedious to watch someone repeat the same things for hours and hours :D

    Please make more ‘making-of’s like this, an occasional time-lapse would also be very helpful.

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    4
     Sep 6, 2011 at 5:47 pm
  5. thiago kolb
    Posts: 136

    file available to the citizen?!!

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    5
     Sep 6, 2011 at 5:51 pm
    • Wes Burke
      Posts: 429

      Hi Thiago, this particular overview doesn’t have a source file. We wanted to try an overview type post and all techniques are shared/covered in the M4 Series available to Citizens from Jonathan. But don’t fret still more Citizen and regular tuts are in the pipe.

      Hugs all around. ;)

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      5.1
       Sep 6, 2011 at 5:59 pm
      • Jeff Bessette
        Posts: 256

        I don’t mind this type of tutorial but maybe having a distinction between the video/text tutorials would be helpful. Even the post for this one has a button that says “Watch Tutorial.”

        #
        5.1.1
         Sep 6, 2011 at 6:13 pm
  6. Jahnu Best
    Posts: 2

    This is quite interesting, Jonathan, you make it look quite easy :) I’m pretty sure if I tried to do this, I wouldn’t make it right now, but practice makes perfect ;)

    #
    6
     Sep 6, 2011 at 6:02 pm
  7. thiago kolb
    Posts: 136

    ok, thanks Wes

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    7
     Sep 6, 2011 at 6:07 pm
  8. Bill Adams
    Posts: 4

    I like this type of tutorial now and then. It’s better for showing the workflow more than anything. One thing though: is there a part about modeling the hammer and trigger?

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    8
     Sep 6, 2011 at 6:45 pm
  9. Johnathan Hauck
    Posts: 40

    I love it when people start acting like reading is a hard thing to do.
    Great overview, I actually like a mix of video and text tutorials.
    Much faster to read and look at a few images than watch a 30-60 min video or multiple videos. Plus it’s easier to get back to where you were if you have to stop and come back to it later.

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    9
     Sep 6, 2011 at 7:53 pm
  10. Stephen Hart
    Posts: 4

    LOL

    I did this at the beginning of summer based off the M-4 tutorial. Now, you show me how to do it.

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    10
     Sep 6, 2011 at 8:07 pm
  11. Joey Baltrusch
    Posts: 86

    Nice tutorial, I think I want to study this one in detail; it looks like a good high-level walkthrough of the critical topology for each component.

    Thanks again, Jonathan!

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    11
     Sep 6, 2011 at 8:07 pm
  12. Porter Nielsen
    Posts: 33

    Wow, just read through this and I have to say I like this more than video tutorials to some degree. Don’t get me wrong, video tutorials are awesome but I could get a snap shot picture of what you were talking about, could breeze through the parts I already knew how to do; and was literally done within 5 minutes. Cutting into the mesh for the grooves on the bullet chamber was so simple yet I had never thought about doing that with a shrinkwrap modifier to help preserve topology. Brilliant.

    Good work as always Jonathan. Can’t believe you found time to do this tutorial in tangent of launching the new 3.0 site and working on the character modeling training you are doing, oh and working on concept cookie, and barely just getting married… So in short thanks. :)

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    12
     Sep 6, 2011 at 8:18 pm
    • John D Smith II
      Posts: 234

      Totally agree! That cuts right through my main beef with modelling tuts. I found this to be refreshingly succinct and in the few moments it took me to read through this I learned a few things very quickly. Agreed, Porter! The shrinkwrap technique is top-notch efficiency. So is the quick glance at the main topology features. It would have been worth it watch an hour video to pull out a few of these things, but I MUCH prefer this. I spent more time typing this comment! lol BRAVO Jonathan!! You made me eat my words and like it!

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      12.1
       Sep 7, 2011 at 11:49 am
      • Jonathan Williamson
        Posts: 2957

        That’s great to hear John! I will be sure to do more of these type of tutorials from time to time :)

        -Jonathan

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        12.1.1
         Sep 7, 2011 at 12:44 pm
  13. comeinandburn
    Posts: 62

    Thanks Jonathon!

    I really like that you added the making ofs into the mix.. like it was mentioned earlier, it makes for a quicker skim to be able to see the process broken down without watching a 40 minute vid.

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    13
     Sep 6, 2011 at 8:24 pm
  14. Jeremy Deighan
    Posts: 263

    Jonathan, wonderful tutorial! I think this will help the community in many different ways:

    1) Give beginner and even intermediate artists an idea of workflow (as mentioned above) and to try out different ideas they may not have thought of before.

    2) Give advanced users the knowledge on how to model something complex without making it boring with repetitious acts.

    3) Give everyone a chance to try and copy a modelling process while still leaving some creative freedom up to the artist (other than saying “Extrude the box 4 units on the y axis, subdivide 2 times, etc”)

    I congratulate you and the team. I think a variety of these types of tutorials along with other written tutorials, video tutorials, and tutorials outside the box (like the human figure in photoshop tutorial) will give audiences of all backgrounds a chance to find something useful on the site.

    Jeremy Deighan

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    14
     Sep 6, 2011 at 8:50 pm
  15. Richard Burns
    Posts: 36

    maybe it’s just me but the rendered gun looks too cartoony I don’t want to offend you johnathan

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    15
     Sep 7, 2011 at 1:12 am
    • Jonathan Williamson
      Posts: 2957

      Not offended at all! I was not going for realistic on the render. I just liked the way it looked :)

      -Jonathan

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      15.1
       Sep 7, 2011 at 10:59 am
      • chrisredfield777
        Posts: 15

        Jonathan PLS make a free access video tutorial on at least tips on hardsurface modeling, im very much into weapon modeling and sometimes i bump into certain parts of weapons that i cant figure out how to either model from one mesh or merge two different objects to make it look like original weapon (my main so to say pain are pistols, i can model one but when i start modeling other i get frozen at one point and sometimes 1, 3 or even 24 hour of work is flushed in toilet) so if you could like pick several different pistols and model certain parts of them or make one easy modeling tutorial that will cover all tips and tricks that can be used in making different say pistols will be awesome. Very good tips in this one, but video tutorial would be great.

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        15.1.1
         Apr 21, 2013 at 7:57 pm
    • thomas
      Posts: 16

      great display of modeling techniques by johnathan again as usual. i just wish he’d put some more focus on rendering. look at this guys.

      http://content.luxology.com/gallery/a5c8c1fbb1ddf19c6b7f360ba55adfb1.jpg

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      15.2
       Sep 8, 2011 at 1:49 am
    • thomas
      Posts: 16

      here’s another great rendering

      http://www.free3dtutorials.com/userimages/DomenicoSelvarolo/42.jpg

      i really hope you guys start focusing on making great renders similar to these samples.

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      15.3
       Sep 9, 2011 at 9:31 pm
      • Scott Wood
        Posts: 6

        Thomas I have to disagree. Rendering is just one aspect of 3D work and I appreciate tutorials that focus on smaller “blocks” of information such as modeling workflow like this one. If you were to add a rendering aspect to this tutorial, it would become a long and cumbersome tutorial.

        I’d rather them spend time teaching techniques, than spending time trying to make each model they use in a tutorial a beautiful render. There are plenty of tutorials and books for that. Rendering is certainly a topic worth it’s own tutorial.

        Thanks Johnathan for the great walk through, it’s really helpful to have these short tutorials that just show a workflow(especially written out and not a video). I don’t always have time to go through full length tutorials that explain each step to a “T”. It’s nice to just know the general workflow of certain projects regardless of what the subject is. Some of us want to learn more of how to use the proverbial compass, not just follow a well marked trail map. But certainly that doesn’t mean that’s what everyone wants! ;)

        Thanks for the all the great training Blendercookie. Happy citizen for almost a year now.

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        15.3.1
         Sep 17, 2011 at 1:47 am
  16. trondart
    Posts: 20

    ok, I will give it a try, even if I like the videotuts better.

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    16
     Sep 7, 2011 at 7:13 am
  17. James Gledhill
    Posts: 14

    Wow this was great! I tried to model a revolver a while back (when I was just starting with blender) and I would rather not talk about it ;) . I will defiantly give this a try though.

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    17
     Sep 7, 2011 at 9:45 am
  18. fj
    Posts: 8

    bummer no video ?.
    :(
    maybe your probably busy.
    but thanks anyway.

    #
    18
     Sep 7, 2011 at 4:07 pm
  19. Donald1
    Posts: 42

    Perhaps a PDF as the Source file?

    As a new modeler, I would consider this an intermediate-advanced training resource. Each step is covered but a lot is left to the modeler to know how to perform those steps. I could see variations of this type of resource for beginners (video), intermediate (like presented here but with a little more detail on how to create each piece) and advanced (high level section by section like is presented here).

    It’s good to see you guys trying new approaches to training, since not all people learn the same way.

    Excellent work!

    DJS

    #
    19
     Sep 7, 2011 at 6:09 pm
  20. thiago kolb
    Posts: 136

    PDF [2]

    #
    20
     Sep 7, 2011 at 10:04 pm
  21. William McDonald
    Posts: 255

    Great stuff. One suggestion–have enlargeable images. Some times is hard to see the fine details. Thanks again.

    #
    21
     Sep 8, 2011 at 4:30 am
  22. Caroline
    Posts: 24

    Aww, not another gun!

    Jonathan, just to keep us girls happy, can’t you do a flower or a bee or something equally nice? Or maybe a yummy muscled guy?

    No, only joking. I’d like to see a really sizzling SFX soon, video if possible.

    By the way, I love your tutorials. I don’y think I would have gotten anywhere fast without them. Please keep them coming!

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    22
     Sep 8, 2011 at 10:30 am
  23. Donald1
    Posts: 42

    I’ve watched a lot of Jonathan’s tutorials and one thing that stands out in all of them is his ability to take a complex object and break it down into bite size pieces. He starts with very rough shapes and then refines them one at a time and before you know it you’re done and wah-lah, you’ve constructed something that you never thought you could.

    Thank you Jonathan for providing such consistancy in your methodology in modeling, and your committment to helping others develop thier creativity.

    DJS

    #
    23
     Sep 8, 2011 at 2:20 pm
  24. Jokayo
    Posts: 59

    you should at less submet a referance picture , I don’t know , but I think that there is some kind of a problem in the handel , I’m not sure but something doesn’t look right to me , it will be better to see a photo reference .

    #
    24
     Sep 10, 2011 at 5:58 am
  25. Ace226
    Posts: 5

    hey John, do you think you can post a videos tutorial of how to model a fighter jet? Like the one in this link: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/fighter/f22/f22_schem_01.jpg
    or this link:
    http://media.defenseindustrydaily.com/images/AIR_F-22_10-Oc_Over_Mountains_lg.jpg
    Thanks!!!

    #
    25
     Sep 13, 2011 at 4:49 pm
  26. William Edwards
    Posts: 4

    I don’t know if it is me but personally i like the video tutorials better. i guess you can call me a visual/audio responder. Anyways good tutorial and all but i don’t think i will be finishing my model of the gun.

    #
    26
     Sep 14, 2011 at 5:15 am
  27. Pollo Guilbert Gabriel Andrew
    Posts: 203

    I realy like writted tut because we dont need to stop/play video.
    Just dont writte huge tutorial.
    Huge tut is for video

    btw really really great tut Jonathan keep the good work

    #
    27
     Sep 15, 2011 at 5:28 pm
    • Jonathan Williamson
      Posts: 2957

      Glad you like it! I will be sure to make and effort at doing more written tutorials in the near future.

      -Jonathan

      #
      27.1
       Sep 15, 2011 at 6:37 pm
  28. Jaakko Välimäki
    Posts: 13

    I liked this one for a change. Like many others said it above, fast and simple so skim through and still learn about some of the tricky bits.

    And it also made me more intrested in the gun modelling video tutorial. That said, job well done!

    #
    28
     Sep 26, 2011 at 11:17 am
  29. Jesus Martin Mata Mosqueda
    Posts: 1

    I like, thanks for this tutorial ^^ very good!

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    29
     Oct 13, 2011 at 10:45 am
  30. Renjith r r
    Posts: 2

    i have started using blender 2 weeks before and i m totally liking it and ur tutorials have been a great help to me.i did some sculpting and now i want to learn how to add skin to it. but unfortunately i couldn’t find a tutorial about it, so can u kindly help me with it…..and thank u very much, working with blender has been such fun :)

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    30
     Oct 21, 2011 at 1:37 am
  31. sabique
    Posts: 1

    good

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    31
     Mar 13, 2012 at 1:27 am
  32. brinesharks
    Posts: 1

    Can you still do dimensioned hard-surface modelling in the current release? I’m looking to output the result to a 3D but I don’t know if you can accurately dimension parts in Blender.

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    32
     Apr 18, 2012 at 11:27 pm
  33. Stanislav Petkov
    Posts: 1

    Hello, i am having a lot of troubles with the modeling of the cylinder. Somehow i don’t get how to make these grooves with the shrink-wrap. I will be glad if you help me with some basic explanation.

    #
    33
     Apr 29, 2013 at 10:28 am

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