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Considering 3d printing

kjc733

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Every time i show someone new one of my pictures they ask if I've 3d printed any of my work. I have dabbled in the past on the shapeways site and found that whilst i can upload my meshes they require some tweaking to be usable. This means time and effort on my part. For smaller scales i need to remove some detail (e.g. the groove in the phaser arrays, thicken the lips at the shuttle bay, etc) to ensure integrity of the model, whereas at larger scales I would need to consider separating the mesh into multiple parts and making it hollow.

So, my question is would there be serious interest in my doing this? If yes, what sort of size and cost would you be looking at? Obviously bigger models require more material and therefore cost more. Whereas smaller models are cheaper but are less detailed and, well, smaller. My sister is into Attack Wing so I've asked her how big some of those ships are - only really a couple of inches at most.

At the moment I'm only considering my more recent hi-poly meshes, so:
Excelsior Refit
Voyager Refit
Envoy
Seeker
KJC Connie
plus a couple that aren't yet in the public eye ;)
Any thoughts?
 

Hellkite

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Seeker


I may be a little bias ;) just a little :angel:

 

kjc733

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Bias, you? Surely not.
But what sort of size?
 

Hellkite

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Well I'd go for the smaller "Attack Wing Size " first 2 inches (5.08 cm ) long

623056_sm-Attack%20Wing%2C%20Enterprise%2C%20Repaints%2C%20Star%20Trek%2C%20Voyager.JPG


about the size of Voyager here so you can play with it with your sister
 

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kjc733

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Somehow I missed that picture.
As an idea of pricing, a 10cm Seeker would cost around $10.
It looks as though the pylons are a bit on the thin side, so I'll need to bulk them up a bit.
upload_2017-5-20_11-22-54.png

Edit
A 5cm version is looking rather difficult to attain!
upload_2017-5-20_11-28-19.png

Edit Again!
So after several hours modifying the lower hull I reuploaded it... and its still not quite thick enough!!!!!
 
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Hellkite

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Or you could try 20.32 cm that would make it the same size as the Eaglemoss star trek ships
 

Chiletrek

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Hello:
Does it really take that much effort to make a printeable version of our 3d models? If that is the case, then maybe I could try Destiny, because if the guy that stole it from me had it available in Shapeways, then that means it should be thick enough :D .
 

Beta_1701

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I try looked at printing a normady (ME) a while back from a model file I found knocking about but was crazy expensive to get it done. Who are you using? And do they ship to the uk? Because if it's $1 a cm I'd happily push out to $30 for a fill 30 cm long beast.
 

kjc733

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I'm currently working using shapeways. Cost is based on volume, which boils down to material used but also space taken in the printer. If you want big designs you are best hollowing it out to reduce material costs.
My big problem is I'm aiming for smaller prints. Each material has a minimum wall thickness, 0.7mm looks to be standard. The problem with the Seeker is that the aft hull is pretty much all pylon and therefore when the ship is only 5cm long the pylons drop below that thickness. Other problem areas are any lips in the design, so the lip at the edge of the shuttlebay and also around the impulse exhausts. I had though the phaser arrays would pose a problem but so far they haven't been highlighted. Also detail needs to be emphasised at small scales otherwise it won't stand out enough to show up (e.g. escape pods). I think their software also has promlems with spheres as its highlighting the shuttle doors for some reason.
Finally the poly count has to be good enough to ensure a smooth finish. If the model is low poly it'll be faceted when printed. I'm using .obj files and I've bumped the Seeker to over 100k polies as its a very rounded design.
I'll probably do the test print at 13cm x 5.8cm x 1.9cm (~$15 at cheapest material), but I still need to do a few mesh tweaks before I try it.
 

Hellkite

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Roger that I wish you luck on it

Are you using the high definition acrylate?
 

kjc733

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Are you using the high definition acrylate?
At the moment I'm just looking at the White Strong and Flexible Plastic, largely because its cheapest and I want to see the feasibility before committing to a larger spend. The Acrylate is 4x the price, but it only shows problems in about the same areas. If I fix it for the plastic it should work on the other materials.
 

Hellkite

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Roger that

But I would not mind trying it in brass
 
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kjc733

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Passed? After what has to be a dozen uploads it Passed!?! All it took was to redo the shuttlebay and saucer impulse engines.
So at 13cm it should print in:
  • Strong and flexible plastic
  • Metallic plastic (but not polished)
  • Frosted Ultra Detail (not Extreme detail)
  • High Definition Acrylate
Of course it may still fail the finishing after its been printed - essentially they sand it. But I'll order one in flexible plastic and see how it goes...

Wow $11.40 P&P to the UK! But its free P&P for my first order. Should arrive sometime next week.
 

Hellkite

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Congrats ! and roger that I look forward to see it :)
 

Chiletrek

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Hello:
That sounds great! good luck with the results :) .
 

kjc733

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It's arrived!!!
So firstly, it was a UPS delivery from Eindhoven in the Netherlands, so it did take a while to arrive. Then of course I had to collect it from a UPS depot because I wasn't in when it arrived and it needed to be signed for.
It's a 13cm long model, the box is 19cm x 14cm x 9cm and it came in a sealed bag surrounded by a loose wrapping of (square?!?) bubblewrap. So a good sized box but a bit stingy with the padding. However it's so light I doubt it'd get damaged in transit unless the box got crushed.
The model itself has turned out better than I expected if I'm honest. The shape of the ship is perfect. At 13cm the pylons are slightly translucent, so I can see why I kept getting failures on it at smaller scales. It has a powdered texture to it but it doesn't shed powder. The detail is very fine, so you can only just make out the sensor arrays, escape pods and phaser arrays. They are there, but if you use a thick layer of paint you'll probably lose them. Lesson learned for next time.
Sadly I'm not that good at taking photos and the camera isn't that good, but here are some pictures. I have no idea why it has a blue tint in some of them, it is definitely white!
 

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Chiletrek

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Hello:
It is amazing that you were finally able to get it!:excited:. Will you be adding more details? or will you leave it as it is now?
 

Hellkite

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Have you painted her yet KJC?
 

kjc733

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Nope. I'm terrible at painting so I probably won't do it - although I did consider just spraying it gold like a First Contact model.
 
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