Reference Modelling

Based on a set of drawing references from 5 different sides, I made a model of a jetpack.




I used different techniques to approach modelling different parts, then all (except the purple back joint and the pink tube attached to it) were mirrored on X axis; 
  • I created a primitive disc to make tubes holding fans and shrank them a little, then another disc and drilled a tunnel inside it
  • created a ball, deleted half of it, made a polygon at the bottom, beveled it and placed inside a tube
  • with pen I made points for single fan wing, extruded it, moved points, then copied 5 more times and rotated each, after that moved them to positions, and copied on the bottom layer
  • to make tubes move (but I won't animate it) I didn't use Boolean add/union tool, instead, I made a pole and joined both fans in one tube and merged it with the pole
  • created a box, copied it and rotated to 90 degrees and added it to the centre of a tube
  • created a disc and extruded it to form the pink part, then used magic bevel for a tube joining it with the back
  • used magic bevel for legs and sub-patched with [tab], then made boxes for other grey things making it stand and sub-patched some
  • for the back and side 'shell' I made boxes and with arrow keys divided them in equal parts, then I moved points looking first on the front-back view, and then at few views at once and in each moved so they will curve as they should. 
  • made a box, multishifted middle polygons inside, stretched it so it's wider on the upper part and then made another area of influence and moved it so it slightly bends (bend tool and other tools underneath it didn't work as I wanted so I used only move tool)
  • used pen tool to make points, then extruded, drilled tunnel and moved polygons, used knife tool, then moved more points and attached both mirrored parts to each other (the top most shell part)
  • magic beveled the disc shape to curve smoothly, then made polygons joining two mirrored parts
  • made a tube (out from a disc shape), drilled the parts touching tubes
  • made a flat box and used the same technique as with the side shells, but had to delete and make more points, as well as rotate some polygons
Each colour from the bulleted list above tells about making the respective coloured parts of a jetpack. I didn't wanted to create more meshes (for inside and front parts), because the process was tiring.