Building this model is certainly giving me an insight into the design and manufacture of the AK74, and it's surprising how I have used this airsoft replica in one form or another for about 6 months now and yet never looked this closely at it. I'm really getting to know my favourite AEG a lot better and how knows, this might inspire me to examine the internals of my AEG as closely once I have finished the external modelling...Maybe!

Here is my basic Milgeek, I've taken the opportunity to improve the beard - which I was never really happy with in my initial drawing. I am not sure about the skin tones, they may be a little on the yellow side, but if I remember correctly the example I based these new drawings on was my 'Commie Ranger' avatar which had a Chinese/Vietnamese theme.

I hope to produce a whole range of these avatars, for use on this site and on forums I visit. And eventually I hope to expand the avatar to be a complete character, with a body and everything!

My second example is a full avatar with background, ready to size for use in the 'Red Alliance' forum. I really find the huge Russian Army dress hats very comical, so couldn't resist an attempt at producing one for my character.

I'd like to create an avatar in this style for the whole Team AKA membership, that would be fun.

Be interesting to do a little character to match all the uniforms that I collect for my airsofting. I may end up with a little army of these fellows, all in various camouflage.

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Monday 14/07/2008

12.00 Dogfights: P-51 Mustang
16.00 Dogfights: Dogfights Of Desert Storm
17.00 Hell's Battlefield: Kursk (repeated at 23:00)

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Tuesday 15/07/2008

17.00 Hell's Battlefield: The Bulge - The First 15 Days (repeated at 23:00)

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Wednesday 16/07/2008

16.00 Dogfights: Luftwaffe's Deadliest Mission
17.00 Hell's Battlefield: D-day, Omaha Beach - Eight Hours Of Defeat

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Thursday 17/07/2008

23.00 Desert Generals: Tobruk - Triumph & Disaster

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Friday 18/07/2008

16.00 Dogfights - Death Of The Japanese Navy
17.00 Desert Generals: Victory & Controversy At El Alamein (repeated at 23:00)

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Saturday 19/07/2008

17.00 The Lost Evidence: Battle Of Britain
20.00 Battle 360: Call To Duty

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Sunday 20/07/2008

15.00 D-day: The Lost Evidence

 Next: The reciever - this should be fun! ;)

Left: Michael Hodges worthy addition to the tomes written about the 'AK': "Using testimonies of people who have experienced the gun at first-hand - including a Sudanese child soldier, a Vietcong veteran and a Yorkshire teenager - Michael Hodges provides a compelling account of how the AK47 became an icon that ranks alongside Coca-Cola as one of the most recognisable brands in the world". Amazon.co.uk link

Reading list:

> 'AK47: The Story of the People's Gun' by Michael Hodges
> 'The Gun That Changed the World' by Elena Joly & Mikhail Kalashnikov
> 'AK 47: The Weapon That Changed the Face of War' by Larry Kahaner
> 'Kalashnikov AK-47: One Small Item, One Giant Impact' by Gideon Burrows

At this rate I should have the model finished off at the weekend. Famous last words! ;)

I've used a free 3D software package called Google SketchUp before for some work projects, and although it's primarily for architectural modeling it is a fun piece of software for drawing anything. Seeing as I just wanted a very simple model of my AK to use elsewhere on the site, I thought a quick and dirty SketchUp drawing would be just the job. So here's part one of a series about the progress of my drawing.

1. Import reference diagram and size to scale

First job is to import the reference drawing that I will base my model on into SketchUp. Essentially, SketchUp allows you to 'trace' over diagrams like this, but in a 3D environment. Here I have placed my reference drawing - from the Kalash AK74m AEG manual - into the work area and scaled it to match the size of the real AK74. I can double check any depths, widths and any other measurements from my actual Kalash airsoft gun.

2. The first component - the flash hider

I am starting at the front of the gun and working to the back, and so my first component in the model is the very distinctive AK74 flash hider. I have in mind a level of simplification and am also working by eye at times, so this isn't a true dimensionally accurate model.

The AK74 flash hider is a very interesting design, and despite the fact I have chosen to ignore some of the more elegant curves and finer detail it is a really fun little object to model.

3. Front sight and barrel assembly

Moving on, the next component to model is also an iconic part of the classic Kalashnikov design - the front sight. Again, I simplified, but even so I think the final 3D drawing is close to do the overall model justice.

Notice I am thinking of each part of the assembly as a 'component'. The reason this is - aside from good drawing practise - is that the AK series is a modular design, and I could reuse many of these component groups again in other models in the Kalashnikov family.

Next time

In the next post of this series I will be putting the final touches to the barrel assembley and starting the foregrip.

The first is 'Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel'. Snappy title! The author - Michio Kaku - outlines various speculative future technologies, and tries to guide us through which is probable and which might be impossible, and why.

"He reveals the actual possibilities of perpetual motion, force fields, invisibility, ray guns, anti-gravity and anti-matter, teleportation, telepathy, psychokinesis, robots and cyborgs, faster than light travel, time travel, zero-point energy, extraterrestrial life, even clairvoyance. And he shows how few of these ideas actually violate the laws of physics."

The other book is 'Top Secret Tourism: Your Travel Guide to Germ Warfare Laboratories, Clandestine Aircraft Bases and Other Places in the United States You're Not Supposed to Know About'. What is it with these titles? However, despite the rather rambling title this book looks like an intriguing way to pass the afternoon, as who doesn't want to know about stuff we aren't supposed to know about! ;)

Smashing stuff - both on my Amazon wish list! 

(I have a sneeking suspicion he intended to do this all along! Huh?) 

For the airsofter who has everything, and presumably wants to get around the field very quickly, MilPic has created the ultimate two wheeled fast attack vehicle!

MTB MARPAT PIXEL DESERT 

Source & credit: MilPic - http://www.flickr.com/photos/milpic/