1/60 VF-5000 3D Printing

[505thAirborne]

3 hours ago, Tage said:

Happy Sunday everyone! 

Not too much new to report. Just still going on details. Repairing the top tail fin after recessing the panel lines took the longest this week as there were just so many errors! Main exciting detail part i added was the little black circles that are on a lot of valks. 

Xigfrid - once it comes to printing SLS, the orientation of things don't really matter does it? Or will i still get a bit of stepping?

Thanks dudes. 

This keeps getting better & better! 

[derex3592]

damn, that's looking sexy! 

[Tage]

On 5/14/2017 at 10:49 PM, Xigfrid said:

the best orientation for printing.

Oh so do you mean like... for the main wings for instance... that their orientation should be vertical rather than horizontal (Like they currently are in fighter mode)?

And thanks for comments dudes :-)

[mechaninac]

If your wings are flat, then just about any orientation is fine, but keep in mind that whichever surface is facing down will have the worst finish.  However, if you've designed your wings with any curvature at all, then the best orientation would be vertical to minimize the severity of the stair-stepping typical of 3D printing; each wing standing up on its root (wing tip facing up).  Or, if that's impractical for any reason: vertical with the trailing edge(s) facing down.

[Xigfrid]

What mechamaniac said. Except that with SLS you don't have support so the bottom face is as nice/stepped as the top face. 

SLS will have stepping marks every 0.2 mm vertically approximately even if the horizontal resolution can be much higher. 

Edited May 23, 2017 by Xigfrid

[Tage]

Ah yup I get ya. Thanks for the info guys. I'll bare that in mind come print time. 

Not too much more to report this week. The gunpod is now good to go. I noticed when i originally made it, i did the little bumps on the under barrel wrong and they had tiny tiny gaps between themselves and the barrel, so i had to go back and fix those which took a bit longer than i thought. But yeah, we're getting there! Also added tiny little holes and pegs that'll help keep each part of the gunpod together and aligned when I glue it together. No screws needed on this bit! 

Thanks again, and see you next time. :-)

[Tage]

Hey guys!

Added way more detail this week. His 'personality' is really coming through now :-)

Particularly in the arms and legs. Just need to do the engine intakes and all the detail work on the body parts are done. I have done the leg fast pack too actually. Just the back fast pack needs a lot of work detail wise, as well as i have to work out where is best to split it in 2 and create a hollow. As technically it's the biggest lump of one piece plastic at the moment. 

Making the parts 'print ready' and correcting the mesh mistakes is becoming a lot quicker as i'm getting used to doing that stuff. 

But yeah... Not far to go at all now though!

[valhary]

you are a evil genius!

[Knight26]

nicd

[Tage]

Hey guys, just a small update. All the detail work is done! 

I'm now measuring the length of metal rods and screws i'll need to cut for all the joints, and also just checking a few last things. It's taking a bit longer than I thought but i'll get there.

Here's a picture for now though. Hopefully it shows the intakes and fastpacks enough. :-)

 

[Sildani]

That's excellent. Don't forget the turbine detail and to make the covers separate parts.

Is that view missing the left leg/intake?

[Tage]

Oh, that's a great idea! I was just thinking of sticking with the covered intakes to make it less fiddly, but i'll see what i can do... Just realised I still need to make the pilot haha.

And yeah that image is just half sorry. For my other pics i've copied and mirrored half of the model to show how he looks fully, I just forgot to do it late last night. 

Speaking of interchangeable parts, i'm also going to experiment with magnets for the fast packs. I think it'll work with the leg ones, but the backpack may have to be large pegs that insert into his back... I'm worried that the magnets i'm looking at won't actually be strong enough to keep the rather large top fastpack up in bot mode, as well as they'll make him extremely top heavy.... I'm sure just using 1mm metal rods will be fine – as you'll be able to take it off, but it'll still be secure enough to stay on. :-)

[Xigfrid]

Are you planning to print it via shapeways or locally?

[Tage]

Locally – and in SLS. For the prototype at least. 

[Tage]

Hey guys, 

So i've ordered all the bolts and rods (at generic lengths) I need and I've made a few cutting guide pieces that I can use to cut those bolts and rods to size!

Also i've just sent off the whole nose section and Gunpod to be printed, so should get those pieces back in the next week or so as a bit of a test and hopefully print the rest from there.

While i'm waiting for those things (especially the nuts and bolts as they're coming from China to the UK – i really should have ordered them ages ago) i'll get the detail on the body parts done, as i think i've missed just one section that gets revealed in robot mode after transforming. And then I'll also do a little model pilot, someone has to fly it after all.

So, the light is really at the end of the tunnel. Hoping the next photos I attach here are actually real photos, not just screen shots. :-)

cheers

[Xigfrid]

That's a crazy number of custom cuts! You should have used more standard lengths when possible

[latheboy]

Most likely not possible to use STD lengths, you make things fit the model a lot of the time in manufacturing.

I have a couple of jobs where I shorten a bolt by 1mm to make it fit, there is no other choice.

 

 

[Tage]

Yeah I really should try for standard lengths... I think it's part of my over obsession with wanting to keep this as clean and accurate as possible. Plus I was thinking that these cutting guides will double as holders for all the rods and bolts if I put a bit of electrical tape or something over the top of them, keeping them in place until I need them as i'll probably be cutting these all in one go. Rather than cutting them one by one, as and when I need them. 

In other news, I'm playing the waiting game. Waiting for rods and bolts to arrive, waiting for 3D print to, well, print... I have designed the red markings for the wing and nose that i'll scale to the correct size and print on some clear decal paper, then print on at home. Going to get some white decal paper too and create a circular backing for the middle part of the red marking. I sort of want to design more decals - but I haven't really put on too many stickers and things on any of my other 1/60 bots. So this one being all decaled up with things like 'no step' all across the wings would look a bit out of place. 

I've also tried designing the pilot, but i'm seriously so bad at making organic shapes in sketchup, it's embarrassing. So i've made a very blocky pilot that i'll then use a bit of Warhammer green and blue stuff on her to bulk and smooth out a few parts once printed.

Oh, also i'm down to 2 colours I want to use for the main body colour. It's either a light turquoise or just plain old turquoise from Vallejo paints, so i'll get both and test. Don't really want to be mixing things to get the right colour as that's just painful. The rest of the bot is easy being an off white and a straight yellow.

That's pretty much me for now though. Will report back once i've got some 3D prints to share. Cheers :-)

[Bolt]

So close..

[Tage]

Hey Team!

So i had a lot of stuff delivered and it looks great! Oddly they gave me a bunch of duplicates of the small things (piled in the top right of the large photo) but misplaced the shoulder stock of the gunpod. doh! 

The material is crazy strong, and i'm really surprised with just how thin it can be. Attached a few pics of what a few of the bits looked like all put together. 

I think it's great. Also I've really only technically messed up 5 fairly minor things. 1 just being i ordered what i thought were the correct size square nuts, but they were wrong size, and the only ones i can find that are the correct size are more of a hex shape – when i had already designed for square nuts to sit in the model. I've already corrected that in 3D so the new nuts can be slotted where the old square ones were going to go. Just means i've had to cut away some of the plastic on these print outs for things to work. 

2 - The gunpod sliding mechanism just isn't sturdy enough - that white small bit basically acts like a plug with a stopper on it to keep it from falling out of the black part, but it's way too loose, so i'd have a floppy gunpod, and no-one want's a floppy gunpod! I've already thought up a couple of ways to fix it so no biggie there. 

3 - Not really a mess up just something to fix for the next round of prints - are the pegs and holes. Like on the trigger of the gunpod and backpack parts - i'll just have to extend their pegs to give them enough friction to hold in place with the weight they'll be carrying. Again, not a biggie. 

4 - Sort of the most annoying one, is the heat shield that comes over the cockpit. It's just way, way too loose and keeps falling out - similar to the original model actually. I'll just have to tighten up the space it has to move and around in and then it should be good!

5 - My Cutting guides - I gave the slots a bit too much breathing room, so when i go to cut my bolts and rods, they aren't super secure, so take a little longer to cut. Again an easy fix, just annoying. Plus I thought my dremel had some good metal cutting discs and it doesn't! 

So all in all i'm pretty happy with how my first test went. And it's going to be pretty easy to put what i've learnt into the next test (and hopefully final, as long as things go to plan) print. I'm particularly happy with the hands actually, the detail really came out nice. And seeing the head really makes him real – as odd as that sounds. 

Slightly great yet annoying news – i'm going to have to put that next test print on hold. Reason is i'm currently towards the end of the process of buying a house, and not too sure me slamming down some cold hard cash on a 3D printed robot is the best thing to do right now. Especially as the place may need a full re-wire of its electrics! So i may have to hold of for a month or 2. I will keep working on it in the background with what i can in 3D to fix the above plus on the rest of the shapes. But yeah sorry, will be another while before i can hit the print button again. Enjoy the pics for now! It's so close though, it'll really really happen. 

cheers.

[Sildani]

WOW! JUST...WOW!!

[Convectuoso]

Wow!!

Please, post pics as you start assembling it

[valhary]

Indeed the render materialization can change the perspective this thing is better with every update

[Xigfrid]

That's a nice print, better than what you get from shapeways, where did you get them?

[arbit]

Looking forward to seeing it transform. You'll have to make us a video.

[Tage]

Thanks guys, glad you like the progress. 

I got these printed at the very un-inspiringly named 'https://www.3dprint-uk.co.uk/' haha. They're London based like me so postage costs were next to nothing. They do have a minimum spend of £60 though, so not ideal if you need a singular small part. 

But yeah, i really like how these have come out. They use this stuff called PA 2200 Nylon in their SLS printing that seems to be the key difference. And their polished parts come out great. The non polished parts are a little dusty, but that's to be expected. I gave every part a quick wash with some water and an old toothbrush and they're fine now. I'll do a bit of sanding and use some left over primer to see how smooth i can get a part next i think. I've forgotten what primer i have, if it's too thin, i may have to find something a little thicker to fill in the more rough parts. 

Xigfrid - Do i remember you saying you use a dremel with a light sanding strip to sand your printed parts down?

Arbit - Hah, yeah good idea actually. I'll do a review of it like Anymoon/ScorchedEarthToys' videos too haha. 

[Xigfrid]

Yep here are tools 

 

[Tage]

Sweet, thanks mate. 

[Skull One]

Great! Please, I want one!

[Tage]

Sweet as Skull One! Have added you to this list. 

I'm still doing new house stuff sadly, but he's pretty much good to go. Will let you guys know when there's another update. As i'm very keen to see him fully done myself! :-)

[Randomn]

Awesome work as always!  I really hope to get the plans from you and print one out myself!  Personally, I really wish I had the skills to design the parts.  Keep up the great work you're doing!

[danth]

This is awesome. I'd like to print one of these out as well. 

[DarkArchon3000]

Amazing rendition!  I'm also interested.

[Tage]

Hey Team, semi exciting news, promise this project isn't dead. Having moved into my house and settled in, i've just sent all the parts off to get printed. To keep the costs down with the place i've ordered it at, i've selected their 'economy' printing option. Which just means it becomes less of a priority in their queue so just takes a bit longer. From memory my last 'test' print took about 3 weeks or so. Other wise i could get it all tomorrow, but at about double the cost! 

While I wait, i'll chuck together some instructions for those keen on ordering a copy. Attached some pretty pictures for now though.

Cheers

[Xigfrid]

I really need to make an invoice and see how cheaper is this service compared to shapeways.