Motorcycle Gas Tank Tutorial

Can someone provide me with a link for a tutorial on Motorcycle Gas
Tank Modeling, or any shape similar to that, that will emphasize the
surfacing techniques needed for modeling deep round shapes that are
normally accomplished by molding in either Plastic or Fibreglass.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

I used to do some custom HD type steel tanks for a manufacturer, and we
actually got some of our best geometry by simplification of the process. By
that I mean if you would make a side profile out of curves, fillets, etc,
all tangent, you get the horizon lines of the side view, kind of the comma
shape. With this you extrude a solid of enough width for the fattest part
of the tank.
Then you do the same process for the plan view, and you get the teardrop
kind of shape. With this you cut the solid that you made before. With some
experimentation, a sequence of fillets and variable fillets could make a
very nice shape out of the remaining solid. There are lots of tanks out on
the road made with this geometry.
These were traditional chopper type tanks and didn't have kneepad areas or
any other irregular areas.
Most that were tried with sweeps, etc, tended to be a lot more work and
pretty much ended up looking no better, and were prone to blowing up with
swx version changes and that sort of thing.
I can't share any of my old models, unfortunately.

Bill

 

These may help a little...

http://www.dimontegroup.com/Tutorials.htm
http://www.productdesignforums.com/index.php?showtopic=230&st=0

 

http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/content/DSG322/solidworks_surface_tutorials.htm