KJC's 3D Printing

[kjc733]

The white star was never intended to be a one off...
Lots of printing has been going on in the background, but I decided it was time to consolidate what I've done and paint a few fleets. So here are the Whitestars and Shadows.
The whitestars are particularly interesting as they are the only ship which I can do a direct comparison against Shapeways. The shapeways ships have slightly better definition and better control of the plastic while it sets. The upper petals/scales/fins behind the bridge are all bent slightly up on my prints due to my inability to get supports in there and also the uv exposure process. Also mine are covered in dimples where the supports were attached and the shapeways ones are smooth. There's just no way of supporting the model at this scale in a good way unfortunately. That said, because they are small and have a random texture, you only really pick out the problems if you look for them.
Hint - the two with the Attack Wing card on the base are from shapeways, the other four were printed on my Mars.

 

[CABAL]

I actually kind of like the Whitestars having slight variations to make them unique. Goes well with them being partially organic technology, even if it is just a manufacturing process issue.

 

[kjc733]

I have been a little lax in reporting in lately. I have been slowly but steadily downloading stuff from Thingiverse and making them printable (some people post stuff that really, really isn't suited for printing, they are just way too detailed).
Anyway, some A-Wings (which will be christmas presents), my own TIE, and a Narn fleet. I'm terrified of trying to do the dazzle paint scheme!

 

[-RJB-]

Those fleets are looking amazing.

I can see it being difficult to do the Narn pattern at those scales.

 

[Terra_Inc]

That Narn fleet looks impressive! And yeah, painting the Narn hull pattern onto those models is going to be a bit of a challenge, good luck!

 

[kjc733]

I think I'm going to have to plan the markings using pencil, use a fine brush to do the black, then find an even finer brush to do the white outlines - or possibly a piece of wire which has worked quite well in my (admittedly limited) testing.

In other news, a couple of prints from Thingiverse (again modified to make them work).
(The painted one is going to be my friends Xmas present, so SHUSHHHH!!!)

 

[-RJB-]

That is a good looking 302 3d print.

 

[kjc733]

Thanks, there wasn't much I needed to do on that one as they provided a one-piece model as well as all the components for assembly after a larger print. The only changes were that I had to replace the tails, thicken the exhausts and add the missiles. And add the stand plug of course.

The same goes for "That which shall remain nameless", it was provided in two halves and I just combined them prior to printing. Actually I fully expected it to be too heavy and that I'd have to resort to printing in two halves, but it came out fine as you can see (actually I have now printed two, turned out to be the most trouble free print I've done).

I've now printed three F-302s, next up is a puddle jumper. It was a nightmare to convert. I found two models, one was designed to be assembled and has a complete interior so not really suitable for my scale. The other came in three parts and while having less detail somehow had a much higher poly count than the one with all the interior components. Turned out they had used a stupid number of subdivisions on a cuboid (one that was largely obscured at that). Also neither puddle jumper had a centreline, which made aligning the parts troublesome. But it's done, and hopefully tonight I'll design the print supports.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
Oh dear, the Puddle Jumper seems problem, I hope you can fix that! ... or maybe you should make one? .

 

[kjc733]

Considered it, but the jumper doesn't hold much interest to me besides having one alongside the 302s.
Speaking of, here is the jumper and the 302s primed (so you can actually see the detail).

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
I think the Jumper looks quite good actually!

 

[kjc733]

I did not expect it to come out this well!

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
That certainly looks very fantastic!

 

[-RJB-]

Both the 302s and jumper look amazing.

 

[kjc733]

Just realised I never posted a pic of my complete Earth fleet.

 

[-RJB-]

The fleet looks great.

 

[Majestic]

That looks pretty awesome mate, now you just need some of RJB's original designs to make it epic.

 

[Terra_Inc]

That's awesome, KJC!

 

[Hath]

Thats a really cool earth fleet!

 

[kjc733]

Many thanks. I've packed it all up now (hoping to try them out this week) but when I get back I'll try and do a picture of the whole B5 set.

 

[kjc733]

It's warming up here in the UK which means I can restart the production line
(and yes I'm aware that I never did a picture of the full B5 set, I never unpacked it).

Anyway, one of these is not like the others.

I was actually really pleased with how painless these were. First print after six months of not being used worked perfectly, even though it was one I had never printed before. I have had two failures in this batch, one Starfury had a wing pancake for no apparent reason and the first TBolt printed minus the upper wing. I think I overdid the supports a little on the TBolt, it took forever to cut them all away ad the exhaust vanes are very delicate.

 

[Terra_Inc]

That's awesome The original Starfury is still a fantastic design.

 

[Majestic]

Yay, been getting into Babylon 5 again myself a little. Looking awesome mate. I really wish I had talent with fine painting of models. I'd have a fleet of designs by now.

 

[kjc733]

Note to self, when doing multiple large prints in a row, remember to refill the vat...

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
I think that is worth remembering for everybody with a 3d-printer.... and for those who plan to get one one day .

 

[kjc733]

Update in the printer problems...
For those that don't know how resin printers work, the resin is stored in a vat with a transparent base. This base is very thin and slightly flexible (think skin on a drum like tight) and is called a FEP. The build plate lowers until it is a fraction of a mm above the FEP, at which point an LCD screen underneath shines a pattern through the FEP causing a thin layer of resin to solidify between the FEP and the build plate. In theory as the plate retracts this layer peels away from the FEP, and then the process starts again.
This all depends on the FEP being undamaged and clear...
When printing you sometimes get failures which leave small bits of unattached solid resin floating in the vat. These can be thicker than the distance between the build and the FEP, when the plate lowers it digs in. Best case scratches, worst case punctures. Judging from the smears of solid resin on the LCD screen I'm thinking I had punctures.
Anyway, two new bats with FEP preinstalled ordered (so I can print while cleaning, it's not just that I'm lazy) so hopefully this will fix the issues.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
Good luck with the fixes!

 

[Tryptic]

These look fantastic! Resin really is better at handling minis: my FDM printer does well with larger stuff, but it can't make parts as thin.

A big part of printing is trial and error, but at least the failed prints don't cost much $$$.

 

[kjc733]

After a stupid number of failures and a lot of sanding to try and make the joints flat, I'm declaring victory and moving on with assembly.
The original plan was to build a Tachi on MCRN colours and a Roci in her final configuration. However this build has been so problematic that I'm just going to do the Tachi.
While this may look like a good build, it really isn't! The build was made in three sections (originally four but I combined two centre elements to make it easier). The engine bell looks good but the joint surface was anything but flat so needed a lot of filing and sanding. This was because I used that surface as the start where the supports connect and I stupidly printed it perpendicular to the base. It looked like the surface of the moon and just as curved.
I "learned" from that mistake when printing the other sections... they all kept failing due to suction pulling the model off the supports mid print (hence FEP puncture). So in the end I printed them direct on the build plate. I thought a raft would make life easier and it did help to get off the plate, (I spent hours trying to get one failed version off the plate) but my god the amount of time sanding and fling and trying to keep it flat (failed). In the end I just glued it together and I'll fill the gaps when its set.
The centre section would not print properly with the turrets extended, the size of the model and the suction meant that the supports for the turrets kept breaking so I had to print it without turrets. They've been printed separately and I'll glue them on later. I deliberately added a small indentation for the turrets to fit in, but the turrets expanded slightly when curing so more sanding was required.
As for the nose, one broken turret and one damaged antenna. No idea why that had issues as there should have been enough structure even without the support. I can only guess that there was a temporary floater in the vat or something.
The nose section also suffered from suction problems and you can see striations, but only on one side (why?!? it's pretty much symmetrical and printed in the centre!!!).
And of course the X-Wing large ship peg I sued doesn't quite fit and the plastic is brittle enough that when I was making the whole bigger it cracked. So I'll need to go back to the standby of wrapping it with a drinking straw.
This was supposed to be an easy proof of concept for making bigger models out of parts... yeah nope!

(Plus I just ordered a copy of Star Wars Armada which will no doubt cause some distraction - bad KJC)

 

[Hellkite]