The latest rage (as of 10-19-2026) is AI driven 2d image to 3d model. Sites like Meshy, Trippo, and Trellis all let you upload a 2d image and get back a 3d model. The problem with these is the quality of the model. All it is is a collection of meshes that you can’t really edit or change in Blender. So I decided to see what the free levels of AI can do.
I am currently working on a game that requires ship models so I chose the stern depth charge rack of a Japanese World War II Destroyer as my goal. I gave the following prompt to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, and Grok.
Find reference images for the depth charge rack and charges on a Japanese WWII destroyer. Create a blender script to create a depth charge rack like those on the stern of a Japanese WWII destroyer. Key items are the rack that angles upward, the U shaped arm, the rails holding the depth charge cans, and the depth charges on the rain. Be as detailed as you can. The script should put all of the components in its own collection called DepthCharges.
This game is a throw-back to the 1990’s flight simulator “Aces of the Pacific”, and the models do not have to be high quality or historically accurate. In general, those AI’s that did a good job, did a very good job. Here are the results.
Perplexity
Overall pretty good. One issue is the chains, they don’t all link. But for use in a game it probably works. Second issue is that the prompt didn’t specify materials and shading. I asked for another script for that.
Microsoft CoPilot
Really pathetic. But then it is Microsoft.
Grok
Better than Microsoft, but still unusable. The lack of detail, the cans intersecting, etc.
ChatGPT
coming soon, waiting for usage credits to reset 🙁
Claude
coming soon, waiting for usage credits to reset 🙁
Paid AI Models
Since I have a couple of paid plans I am including them for comparision.
ChatGPT Plus plan
Pretty good, somewhat comparable to the free Perplexity version. This came with some basic materials and shading and also has good details.
Afterthoughts
I was very impressed with Perplexity. I gave it prompts to generate entire ship models and it did those very well. The biggest issue was that some elements would end up floating in the air, but for the game, you never are close enough to a ship to discern that.