3D Model Request - Missile/Ordnance for DX toys

[Mommar]

So the idea is to prime these things while still on the sprues as much as possible?

[Xigfrid]

YES @Mommar: You should prime all the surface of the model at a time, I think it is easier when mounted on alligator clips, because you spray them and keep them on the clips when drying.

BUT I have a limited amount of alligator clips (and patience to spray a lot of clips individually) so I keep the maximum of missiles together so I can spray, dry and sand them altogether. Sanding the missiles on their sprues is manageable if you torn the sprues a bit.

After the third primer pass, you will probably remove the missiles out of the sprues, sand them carefully and add the final paint layer then detailing with clear canopies and done.

[Mommar]

Why do i have to wait 24 hours for the primer to dry?  That doesn’t have anything to do with most people around here living in humid climates is it?

[Sildani]

Mostly outgassing. It'll be dry to the touch sooner, and can be handled, but always give it time to fully cure and gas out. That way, other additional layers aren’t affected. 

[Xigfrid]

Yep, I have tried to sand earlier, perhaps 12h is enough to have the primer dry when it is hot. But everytime I waited about a day, the primer was completely dry and firm, that’s really easier to sand and also better to wet sand. 

[Mommar]

I’m just asking because I live in a desert and we’re lucky if humidy gets up towards double digits.  Also, it’ll be in the 90’s by Tuesday.

[Mommar]

Boy, Shapeways sure did a crap job printing my second set of underwing pylons.  They're all bent.  Any recommendations how to straighten them?  Does the heat gun trick work or will that destroy the 3D printed plastic?

[Xigfrid]

Hi @Mommar, if the second print is far worse than the first you should send them an email about it with pictures. They will reprint it for you if the defect is obvious. 

Edited May 16, 2018 by Xigfrid

[Mommar]

23 hours ago, Xigfrid said:

Hi @Mommar, if the second print is far worse than the first you should send them an email about it with pictures. They will reprint it for you if the defect is obvious. 

The two long pylons are pretty crooked.

[Sildani]

I’m getting an RVF-171 soon and it’ll drive me nuts that I can’t mount the gunpod in fighter mode - the ventral fin will be in the way. Could someone please, please design a clip for the gunpod so it'll mount on a wing hardpoint? Thank you!

[Xigfrid]

Hi @Sildani, I know that @Sanity is Optional is working on a clip to hold the 25 gunpod, perhaps he can try if it holds the 171 gunpod once done ?

[Sildani]

That’s a thought! 

[Xigfrid]

Hey guys, guess what, I have 3 new addons for the missiles:

-"Single missile Pylon for Arcadia Hard Points"
-"Triple missiles Pylon for Arcadia Hard Points"
-"Arcadia Hard Points", that you can glue anywhere you want to attach my missiles

Because I can't imagine all the possibilities of these new products, I tried to synthesize a few things I could imagine with this graphic: (click to enlarge)

 

[rogue0113]

Hi everyone, I guess I'm the new guy here and I don't want to resurrect a old thread but are these weapons available in 1/72 ?  Or  should I be happy with 1/60. I'm getting back into Macross and I would like to add something more to the Thunderbolts I'd like to build, the hasegawa weapons set just doesn't do it for me. I'm looking forward to hearing back from everyone here. Thanks.

[Xigfrid]

Hi, I have already made 3D models of the bigger missiles. The main difference with the 1:60 ones is that the 1:72 would not be able to be removed and you would have to make your own pylon. The 1:72 use two 1mm diameter holes for the attachment and will be printed in FUD. 

Just leave me a PM with the missiles you want and I will let you know if they are good to print or not

[R0P3-F15H]

just posting from my own workshop thread, Xig's 3d models are pretty great and my prints came out very well. will post what all the finished products look like after. Thanks for your hard work my man!

[Chronocidal]

So, here's an interesting request, and I'm not sure how difficult this might be.

Would it be possible to make pylon extenders for the DX VF-1 weapons?  specifically for the missile boxes.  I've never seen such stubby pylons in my life, and while I haven't measured it to be sure yet, I think the HMR box missiles might have physically larger pylons than the DX version.  

(Left to right, that's the Hasegawa 1/48 set, Yamato, and Bandai DX.)

On 5/25/2019 at 12:38 AM, enphily said:

Honestly, every pylon in the DX VF-1 set needs a redo.  For the reaction missiles and triple clusters, new pylons would probably be pretty simple, but the box missiles don't have a removable pylon.  Would it be possible to make an extender that snaps over that stub, and gives you something more like the Hasegawa's size?  Would look better in white anyway, I think.

I might actually try this myself, since I've been meaning to get a new printer.  Just much easier to troubleshoot when you don't have to deal with Shapeways' slow and overpriced shipping.

Edited June 10, 2019 by Chronocidal

[Xigfrid]

Ho, I have given up on the Bandai DX VF-1 line for the moment and haven’t ordered the missile set. I would be out of the game on this request sorry. 

[Chronocidal]

No trouble there, I'm just kind of throwing ideas around.   I might give it a shot, I was mostly just wondering if you had actually tried making the "mount" part of the hardpoint before, the part that the wings usually have on them.

[Xigfrid]

If you mean the female side of the hardpoint, I do have a working one that I used in my VF-9 wings. It works well with the DX YF-19 missiles set. 

I can share with you the model if you want but this is a fixed position (no rotation like the VF-1 HP) much like the VF-31

[Chronocidal]

I do appreciate that, but realized it might not be helpful after all.  I recall reading that some of the weapons don't work so well on the DX VF-1 hardpoints, because they've been slightly tweaked to give them that rotation.

Not to worry, though, I'll just have to take measurements and experiment a bit.  In reality, I do only need to make a non-rotating female joint, since what I'm aiming for would be a sleeve to snap over the existing pylon stub.  

I'll probably carve myself a prototype out of styrene sheet and take the measurements from that.

[valhary]

Xigfrid work is amazing and looks much better than bandai missile

[Xigfrid]

Thanks! I like these when printed in high resolution. Btw if you can make the pylon in a semi-flex plastic, then you can insert fully the missiles into the tabs. 

Edited June 12, 2019 by Xigfrid

[Sildani]

Who prints in high resolution?

[valhary]

Do not insert fully the missile on purpose you know why;)

[Xigfrid]

14 hours ago, Sildani said:

Who prints in high resolution?

Together with @valhary , we want to sell high definition copies (resin) of these missiles. Shapeways price policy has gone insane this last year ...

[Chronocidal]

I haven't looked much into them in a while, but I've been eyeing a new enclosed printer to help deal with the temperature regulation issues I've had with my current one.

I've been half-heartedly shopping around for the best resolution and print volume I can get for around $2000, hoping I can get something that can do reasonably accurate engraved details in a print.  My old one gets close, but the design of my current printer has the print bed moving front to back, rather than up and down, and the quick shifting just tends to make the print wobble and get distorted during printing.

[Sanity is Optional]

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I haven't looked much into them in a while, but I've been eyeing a new enclosed printer to help deal with the temperature regulation issues I've had with my current one.

I've been half-heartedly shopping around for the best resolution and print volume I can get for around $2000, hoping I can get something that can do reasonably accurate engraved details in a print.  My old one gets close, but the design of my current printer has the print bed moving front to back, rather than up and down, and the quick shifting just tends to make the print wobble and get distorted during printing.

For 2k get a resin printer, one of the ones with an actual laser rather than a UV-LED screen.

Layer heights down at 0.015mm.

[Chronocidal]

3 hours ago, Sanity is Optional said:

For 2k get a resin printer, one of the ones with an actual laser rather than a UV-LED screen.

Layer heights down at 0.015mm.

See though, I don't want to deal with liquid, or the materials, despite it being higher resolution.  I'm planning to make parts to use with the toys and other plastic models, so I want to keep them at least mostly compatible with styrene, and flexible enough to wear and tear like the factory parts of my valks.

[Sanity is Optional]

That one's a tough call then, I'd try asking on the 3D printing subreddit for a good high-resolution FDM out-of-the-box printer.

You'll still need to tweak the settings, of course, and no matter what FDM will never get great resolution. (I design microscopes, so I tend to think in microns )

[Xigfrid]

FDM will never be good for toy or anything besides prototyping. Even the temperature the classic material (PLA / ABS) can support is very low. I have once tried the hardest material PETG through FDM printers, and they had a hard time making my prints. Not even mentioning the nightmare and time I spent of removing these sprues myself!

Resin printers may be hard to clean and kept clean, I don't really know well these because I usually order my High resolution prints from a professional print service. I know they use Formlab printers which use Resin in cartridges.

I have heard of an esoteric printer from French Pollen.am, I need to visit them someday to check the quality of their products

 

[Sildani]

13 hours ago, Xigfrid said:

Together with @valhary , we want to sell high definition copies (resin) of these missiles. Shapeways price policy has gone insane this last year ...

No kidding. I’d happily buy resin missiles, all I should have to do is prime and paint. 

[Chronocidal]

I actually had pretty good success with the ABS printer I have, until I realized that way the bed was mechanized was making the prints inaccurate, and the lack of an enclosure was making things cool in very odd ways.  The parts felt at least as solid as a styrene kit though, if not quite as sturdy as a toy.  If I can get anything this good consistently, I'll be thrilled.  

I think the biggest thing was just that the table on my printer moved front to back, while the head moved sideways, and up and down.  The jerking table gave me nasty distortions on some of the corners, since it tended to round things oddly.  I've been following a couple of updates to my original model that might give a lot more consistent results, since it's all enclosed with an air filter, and the table only moves vertically.

[Xigfrid]

4 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I actually had pretty good success with the ABS printer I have, until I realized that way the bed was mechanized was making the prints inaccurate, and the lack of an enclosure was making things cool in very odd ways.  The parts felt at least as solid as a styrene kit though, if not quite as sturdy as a toy.  If I can get anything this good consistently, I'll be thrilled.  

@Chronocidal I have never seen FDM prints as good as this one, I wish they were considering how cheap ABS material is.

I was told that my HMM missiles were missing on my shop. I remembered not being happy with the model and removing them from the shop. But since I totally forgot to update them. Hopefully they haven't missed too long, they are now back in my shop in a smaller form with more surface details.

The new HMM, 58mm long down from 66mm.

[Chronocidal]

4 hours ago, Xigfrid said:

@Chronocidal I have never seen FDM prints as good as this one, I wish they were considering how cheap ABS material is.

That photo is after a fair bit of sanding to smooth out the layers, but the overall shape and detail were really good to start.  That's part of why I like the ABS, it polishes really nicely with a little elbow grease.  You just have to break down the parts into a kit so you can smooth all the surfaces.

It's also a helluva lot easier to sand than whatever rock-hard material Shapeways tends to use.