How to make a hollow version of a model

[Anonymous]

Hi again and sorry to bother.

I have a old kit-bashed model of mine that I wish to "hollow" out. Its that model:

That model was made in a program called DOGA-L3 and as I said before it works like kit-bashing (you get together parts to make several diferent models) so the final model have a lot of hidden vertices (inside the model) that I wish to get rid off.

The reason is that I wish to be able to leave the outer faces (external hull) intact so I can eventually work on a animation showing the interior of the ship.

Is there a way to do it?

[bob.bernstein]

Make a copy first.  My thought is to select all the polygons that make the outerhull using ignore backfacing.  Invert that selection and delete.  You should only have the outerhull.  If the resulting model is not manifold, as you seemed to indicate, and you use the "shell" modifier, you'll have to repeat the shell multiple times.  

You can weld the sections together and shell.  

Bob

[Anonymous]

I will try it.

In the meanwhile here is the model converted to .max file if anyone wish to play with it.