3D scale model parts for practical shooting stage design

[spqrzilla]

I thought this was an interesting idea for doing stage design mockup.

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/...stage-builder/

[Gman]

Minion not included. That's a deal breaker for me.

Interesting concept. You can build 3D models on a computer, but it's a different thing to be able to visualize them. This is something that could be addressed with software and augmented reality.

[CS1983]

TIL a simple range trip will now include sand tables.

For the full experience, one must first PMCS their vehicle, find it broke something despite not moving for the last 7 days, and then wait around to wait around.

Extra points for disgruntled E-4's complaining every 5 minutes and some E-6 researching financial impact of 4th divorce.

[spqrzilla]

TIL a simple range trip will now include sand tables.

For the full experience, one must first PMCS their vehicle, find it broke something despite not moving for the last 7 days, and then wait around to wait around.

Extra points for disgruntled E-4's complaining every 5 minutes and some E-6 researching financial impact of 4th divorce.

The E4s bought Camaros at 26% interest, right?

[Justin]

I saw this on TFB yesterday as well and thought it was a pretty neat concept. I would imagine that if you had a small table set up in your garage or workshop or wherever, it would be really easy to use a setup like this to iterate on stage design ideas; probably faster than using a 3d modeling program.

And once the stage is designed, you'd just have to snap a photo of it for inclusion on the course description.

[CS1983]

Justin what are your thoughts on the training value, at least in a 1st run through, on not being able to game it prior -- something not achieved by miniatures available to see.

[Justin]

I'm not sure I understand the question?

[CS1983]

If people can see the course of fire such that they could do in-depth study and planning prior, do you feel like that could remove value training potential for learning to react on the fly?

[Justin]

Good question.

So here's the thing. USPSA, IDPA, and 3Gun generally allow competitors to see the stage, and even do walk throughs prior to shooting the stage. This does confer an advantage, in that you can basically "game" the stage ahead of time and lay out a mental game plan.

I've known some people in the past who will avoid looking at stage layouts or walking stages ahead of time in order to try to use the match as a tactical training event. Invariably they don't place well in the standings, but they're generally willing to accept the disadvantage for the perceived benefit of shooting a stage somewhat blind.

I've also seen matches where they try to set up blind stages that don't allow any of the competitors to see the stage ahead of time. These can be fun, and certainly present a completely different challenge in practical shooting.

However, there's no way to truly set up and run blind stages. After all, people will talk, and there's also an ethical component in that if you have a blind stage set up, well, someone had to set up that stage, most likely people on the match staff. And if your staff members are shooting the match, then there's obviously no way for them to not derive some level of advantage in shooting the stage if they assisted with setup.

At the end of the day, blind stages are generally a lot of trouble to set up and administer, so they're generally pretty few and far between. At the end of the day, being able to walk stages ahead of time is part of why the practical shooting sports are sports and not training.

[Irving]

Seems like this should be done on top of a large sheet of graph paper to get repeatable results. Further, couldn't this much more easily be done in something like Google Sketch-up? You could view everything from the shooting positions to see what can and can't be seen, and once the measurements are where you want, then you can change the background for more pretty presentation.

After reading the article closer, it's probably a lot more fun to design a stage this way, but I doubt that it'd be faster than using a program once one takes the time to learn the program and builds stages often.