The Base

Description: The base will be where the turret stands and will be connected by a “sub axis” or bearing to the Axis of the turret.
Base Elements: The base will include the base itself, the four arms that will connect the base with the axis and the bearing.
Primitive used: A box.

These are some images I found using Google images which I am going to use as reference.

I am going to try to make a base similar to the one of the top left image. My idea is to place three or four of these turrets on top of a building and I think that base will suit the situation the best.

I am going to shape the base from a box so the first thing I am going to do is scale the box until I get a shape I can “sculpt”. Once I have the right size, I am going to convert it into an editable Poly and add some edges to it to convert it in a sort of “pyramid” shaped box. To this I will simply scale the correct polygons. I will then, again, add more edges around the box so I can leave it ready to extrude the polygons that come out from the sides. Before I go to the next step I will also add some edges on four of the eight new faces (the most extruded ones) to apply a frame effect.

After I have the frames, I will select the vertices of the frames (the bottom ones) and I will move them out a bit to try to give the effect of This-turret-is-attached-to-the-ground.

Right! Before I start giving the base more details I will create the connexion that will join The Axis with The Base. Instead of a single component reaching from the top of the base to the bottom of the axis I am going to make four, each spawning from each corner of the top of the base. As usual I will use the extrude tool to make this happen.

The last part will be to physically connect both components. I am going to do it using two spheres. Sphere A and Sphere B. I am going to split sphere A in half and vertically separate both halves. Then I am going to scale down a bit sphere B and will place it between the two pieces of sphere A. What I want to achieve with this is using the two pieces from sphere A as connectors and sphere B as a kind of rotating axis, or a bearing that will allow me to move the upper part of the turret in order to aim.

To split sphere A, I am going to use the Boolean tool.

Actually, to avoid creating unnecessary triangles, I am going to use the Boolean tool twice to leave only what is visible from it. I am going to group both spheres and place them between the axis and the base.

And the result:

Thinking about the final animation I gave the LINK TOOL a try. I linked the Axis and the four Missile Launchers to the bearing that joins the base and the Axis. This way, when I rotate the bearing the upper part of the turret rotates reallisticaly and "its possible for the turret to aim".