This is a model I made over the course of several months, during my design class. Being the only student taking grade 12 design during that semester, my teacher basically gave me a carte-blanche for my course outline. My task was to simply research a sector of design(architecture, automotive, aircraft, etc) and design a product. I chose automotive, and decided to try designing a rugged, heavy duty, off road cargo hauler vehicle, which I dubbed the Centurion.
I started by designing the wheels, along with a simple driveline system and frame. After much research, I discerned that the best suspension set up for all-terrain travel is that of the Mercedes-Benz Unimog. The Unimog uses a portal axle system, where the axle meets the wheel hub at a higher point than the wheel's center, then turns a gear which turns the wheels. This gives the vehicle a very large ride height, without endangering stability.
After that, I attempted to build the body. My first try was to give it very modern styling, but to my disappointment, I soon realized that it was far beyond my skill level. Here's a picture showing what it looked like when I gave up on modern styling.
As you can see, it began to get very messy, and I realized that it would have taken me far too long to have a presentable product. So I decided to go for something a little more outlandish. I felt like doing something vintage, yet still somewhat advanced. Basically, I smashed together a 1920's truck with a 1960's bulldozer, then threw in some elements of an armored car.
I was fairly pleased with this, but sadly, I had to stop working on it, because our teacher went on a leave of absence for the the remaining months of the semester, and a substitute tech teacher was put in place. As a result, I had to work on a different project instead, so it would be easier for the new teacher to mark. My hope is to one day finish this, or possibly even return to the original modern body style.
I just thought I'd share the presentation I recently made for a design course I took last semester. We were told to imagine that the year is 2025, and the town of Orangeville has expanded to 3 times it's current size (2013). We were told to predict how it would expand, and then design 3 different public transit systems that could be used in Orangeville. We were also told to make our systems as environmentally friendly as possible. To make all of the 3D models, I used Google Sketchup.
If you would like to view it, just click here. I'm not the kind of person to brag, but my teacher told me it was the best presentation he'd ever seen.
