Next I had to create the immense engine ports. After using the Pen tool to sketch out their basic polygonal shape, I stenciled this into the rear of the hull, then used VertiBevel to bevel them in, creating a small rounded edge at the back of the port but none near the surface that emits the 'exhaust', because it will be glowing in the completed model.

One problem you may encounter when using VertiBevel is similar to a problem encountered when using Lightwave's standard bevel tools, namely points along an edge crossing over one another as they are inset. Hopefully, VertiBevel will implement some kind of solution for this in the future, but in the meantime users are left with using one of three standard fixes to this problem. The first involves welding together the points along the edge near the point where they cross, thus blending the two edges into a single edge further down the bevel. The second is to manually move points along one of the problem edges to maintain the bevel but keep the points from crossing. The last method, and probably the most accurate, involves selecting an entire problem edge and using the shear tool to move it into its 'proper' position along the bevel, which would usually be skewed away from the edge it crosses until they no longer cross.

For the rest of the tutorial I will focus on completing the aft section around the engines to a satisfactory level of detail.

Using several (usually rather old) photographs of the motion control model i was able to ascertain most of the detailing along this aft section. Adding these types of detail usually involves the same steps that were used for creating the engine ports... namely, creating a single profile for the particular detail, stenciling it into the existing geometry, and then beveling it out using a satisfactory bevel profile.

Another type of detail prominent in the original was detailed tubing that conforms to the surface of the ship. As any experiences Lightwave modeller knows, getting the rail extrude function in Modeler to behave well enough to do a structure like this is problematic at best. The same problem can be solved in VertiBevel by creating a contour for the surface piping in another layer and stencilling it onto the surface, then using VertiBevel to bevel the edges in in a stepped fashion until the smoothing of the polygons creates the feel of a cylinder.

The last detailing problem that VertiBevel can solve for you is bevelling around an edge. Simply select the polygons you need to bevel, turn on the "Group Bevel" option, and create and apply your bevel profile. See steps below.

Stencilling in the detail	Select the new detail polygons
Create the bevel profile	Viola!

Thus far, the finished product looks like this... at this point, there are no image map textures, just some fractal noise and Eetu Martola's Grit dirt shader.

I highly recommend VertiBevel for anyone that does any kind of considerable modelling in Lightwave. While it is very useful for mechanical things, I am not at all saying that it cannot be used for organics... anyone that models using MetaNURBs can tell you how useful it can be.

Jon Carroll is a freelance writer and animator living in Los Angeles, CA.