1:55 parts (3D printed or cast)

[Anasazi37]

17 minutes ago, jenius said:

This is amazingly promising for lots of projects... I'm still waiting to make the 3d printing jump but looking forward too it more and more.

Indeed. I primarily purchased the scanner so I could create a digital archive of my rare resin-cast 1/55 parts before I use them on projects. I held back on making the jump to 3D scanning and printing for many years because the accuracy of both pieces of equipment wasn't great. Now with relatively affordable desktop scanners and commercial printing services out there, both with accuracy in the 0.1mm range, I'm optimistic. It still helps to know what you're doing on the technology side, especially with point clouds and meshing, but the software is a lot more reliable and easier to use these days. Resin casting is still a fantastic option if you have the knowledge and equipment to do it right.

[mech9T8]

Wow that looks great!

[nightmareB4macross]

On 10/31/2020 at 12:19 PM, Anasazi37 said:

Indeed. I primarily purchased the scanner so I could create a digital archive of my rare resin-cast 1/55 parts before I use them on projects. I held back on making the jump to 3D scanning and printing for many years because the accuracy of both pieces of equipment wasn't great. Now with relatively affordable desktop scanners and commercial printing services out there, both with accuracy in the 0.1mm range, I'm optimistic. It still helps to know what you're doing on the technology side, especially with point clouds and meshing, but the software is a lot more reliable and easier to use these days. Resin casting is still a fantastic option if you have the knowledge and equipment to do it right.

Will you be modifying or upgrading any parts?

Swivels at the knees and double jointed elbows is all I’m saying.

[big F]

Could this be  the start of a 1/55 resurgence.

3d printing doing the things that we just couldn't do practically 10 years ago.

[pengbuzz]

15 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

Will you be modifying or upgrading any parts?

Swivels at the knees and double jointed elbows is all I’m saying.

That would be the bomb! I still need to convince my library to let me 3d print a gunpod and super armor, but they're not thrilled at the idea.

[big F]

8 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

That would be the bomb! I still need to convince my library to let me 3d print a gunpod and super armor, but they're not thrilled at the idea.

Crowd fund your own printer. That way you only have to ask yourself for permission.  It’s for heritage so would be legit. I can hook you up with configs and what works etc. I’m sure others here will also.

[Anasazi37]

18 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

Will you be modifying or upgrading any parts?

Swivels at the knees and double jointed elbows is all I’m saying.

My first goal is to get more parts to scan well. So far, so good, but I'm still running tests. Having the scans as baselines would make it a lot easier to create modified or upgraded parts to allow for more articulation and accuracy.

5 hours ago, big F said:

Could this be  the start of a 1/55 resurgence.

3d printing doing the things that we just couldn't do practically 10 years ago.

That is what I'm hoping for. Long live the Chunky Monkey! I need to get back to my big 1/55 customs project, too....

[pengbuzz]

3 hours ago, big F said:

Crowd fund your own printer. That way you only have to ask yourself for permission.  It’s for heritage so would be legit. I can hook you up with configs and what works etc. I’m sure others here will also.

My computer cannot handle a 3D printer; it's on it's last legs as it is.

[big F]

1 hour ago, Anasazi37 said:

That is what I'm hoping for. Long live the Chunky Monkey! I need to get back to my big 1/55 customs project, too....

Hell yeah

37 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

My computer cannot handle a 3D printer; it's on it's last legs as it is.

Ender 3 doesn’t need a pc just use online based CAD and use the power of the cloud to build Stl files and copy to men card done.

Edited November 3, 2020 by big F

[pengbuzz]

3 hours ago, big F said:

Hell yeah

Ender 3 doesn’t need a pc just use online based CAD and use the power of the cloud to build Stl files and copy to men card done.

Thanks for the info, but pc cannot handle the online CAD either (tried in the past and blew a RAM card in the process). I think I'll just settle for the valk i have.

[big F]

Really I have Tinkercad running on a ten year old pc. Runs just fine its all web page based.

[Anasazi37]

Quick and dirty single orientation scan of a GBP armor part. Lots of work still to do, but very encouraging.

[sqidd]

7 minutes ago, Anasazi37 said:

Quick and dirty single orientation scan of a GBP armor part. Lots of work still to do, but very encouraging.

Cool!

[big F]

3 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

Quick and dirty single orientation scan of a GBP armor part. Lots of work still to do, but very encouraging.

One pass, thats still better than some recasts

[nightmareB4macross]

7 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

Quick and dirty single orientation scan of a GBP armor part. Lots of work still to do, but very encouraging.

When you scan a part this large do you only scan the exterior and then the interior? Or is it a single 360’ scan?

[Anasazi37]

3 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

When you scan a part this large do you only scan the exterior and then the interior? Or is it a single 360’ scan?

The part is on a turntable. My scanner's turntable moves a fixed number of times to complete a full circle. Each time it stops, the laser "sweeps" across the part to create a 3D image. All of the images from the full rotation are assembled to create the model. To build a better 3D model, you scan the part a few more times, changing how the part is placed on the turntable. That way you can cover the exterior, interior, and any other nooks and crannies. Most other scanners have a fixed laser and slowly do a continuous full rotation of the turntable to scan the object. I picked mine based on reported accuracy (0.1mm) and apparent scan quality, but as I've started scanning parts, I'm not convinced my scanner is the best one out there in this price range. I might return it for a different one that gives me more control.

Edit: I just decided to return my current scanner after doing some more research on its closest competitor. I think I'm going to like this other one *a lot* more. Stay tuned for more scans. Probably towards the end of next week.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Anasazi37

[mech9T8]

I have 1 more 1/55 I want to customize. I got everything except for the heat shield. But depending on how things go here I may be up for more parts. 

[Anasazi37]

1 hour ago, mech9T8 said:

I have 1 more 1/55 I want to customize. I got everything except for the heat shield. But depending on how things go here I may be up for more parts. 

Definitely watch this space for updates. I'm now invested in trying to make this work for our community. I may hit a functional limit on what I can do without dropping some serious cash on professional-grade scanning equipment, but we'll see where we end up. Right now my wife is tolerating this new hobby, but if I buy a $5,000-10,000 scanner to get better results, she'll kill me.

[Sanity is Optional]

So which scanner are you going to pick up? I’ve been looking a bit at the options.

[Anasazi37]

1 hour ago, Sanity is Optional said:

So which scanner are you going to pick up? I’ve been looking a bit at the options.

The first one I bought was the Scan Dimension Sol 3D. I'm returning it. The software is absolutely terrible and you get no control over how the scanning and model construction is done, so it fails a lot of the time. It arbitrarily limits you to no more than five orientation scans and it decimates the resulting point clouds and meshes for some reason, so you lose a lot of detail right off the bat. The sizes of many parts I want to scan fall between the two fixed volumes it supports in its "near" and "far" scan positions, which is really frustrating. It's also really, really, really slow. I think the manufacturer was going for push-button simplicity and it just doesn't work. It's main competitor is the Matter and Form v2, which I just purchased and is hopefully arriving on Tuesday. It's a bit more expensive, but their software seems to give you a ton of control and the speed is much better. Both advertise 0.1mm scan accuracy, which is two to four times better than the entry level systems (for two to four times the price, of course). The next models up the scale are from EinScan and they cost two for four times as much for 0.1-0.05mm accuracy. After that, I think you're looking at $10,000 or more for a truly professional-grade scanner.

[sqidd]

30 minutes ago, Anasazi37 said:

The first one I bought was the Scan Dimension Sol 3D. I'm returning it. The software is absolutely terrible and you get no control over how the scanning and model construction is done, so it fails a lot of the time. It arbitrarily limits you to no more than five orientation scans and it decimates the resulting point clouds and meshes for some reason, so you lose a lot of detail right off the bat. The sizes of many parts I want to scan fall between the two fixed volumes it supports in its "near" and "far" scan positions, which is really frustrating. It's also really, really, really slow. I think the manufacturer was going for push-button simplicity and it just doesn't work. It's main competitor is the Matter and Form v2, which I just purchased and is hopefully arriving on Tuesday. It's a bit more expensive, but their software seems to give you a ton of control and the speed is much better. Both advertise 0.1mm scan accuracy, which is two to four times better than the entry level systems (for two to four times the price, of course). The next models up the scale are from EinScan and they cost two for four times as much for 0.1-0.05mm accuracy. After that, I think you're looking at $10,000 or more for a truly professional-grade scanner.

Wound you be able to scan something let's say 18x18x18" with the new one you have coming? Is it easier to deal with if you only want a 2D scan of something? For example I find myself needing to pull bolt patterns off of stuff a lot that I can't get coordinates for. I've had to put entire engines (guts removed) in the mill and manually locate all of the points. It......kinda........sucks as I'm sure you can imagine.

[Anasazi37]

28 minutes ago, sqidd said:

Wound you be able to scan something let's say 18x18x18" with the new one you have coming? Is it easier to deal with if you only want a 2D scan of something? For example I find myself needing to pull bolt patterns off of stuff a lot that I can't get coordinates for. I've had to put entire engines (guts removed) in the mill and manually locate all of the points. It......kinda........sucks as I'm sure you can imagine.

These desktop scanners are generally limited to scanning the equivalent of a cylinder that is 6-7 inches in diameter and 7-10 inches high, with a max weight of 2-3 kilos. My new one is at the upper end on all three counts. To do what you want, you'd likely need access to a nicer handheld scanner. This review includes several options, starting at #12 on the list:

https://3dsourced.com/rankings/best-3d-scanner/

The ones at the end of the list are jaw-dropping in terms of speed, accuracy, and price.

If what you really need is a 2D map of a surface with patterns on it, you might be able to use your smartphone (or a nicer camera) and some photogrammetry software. The idea is to take pictures of the surface from multiple angles to reproduce something like human stereo vision, which then lets the computer estimate the distance from your camera to the surface. You can usually create a good 2D map from that distance information. The approach is a lot cheaper and more accurate than it used to be (I've been doing this photogrammetry thing professionally for a loooooong time). This is a photogrammetry project with free software that one of my staff came across recently:

https://alicevision.org/

There are lots of non-free options like Agisoft PhotoScan that are also good.

[sqidd]

10 hours ago, Anasazi37 said:

These desktop scanners are generally limited to scanning the equivalent of a cylinder that is 6-7 inches in diameter and 7-10 inches high, with a max weight of 2-3 kilos. My new one is at the upper end on all three counts. To do what you want, you'd likely need access to a nicer handheld scanner. This review includes several options, starting at #12 on the list:

https://3dsourced.com/rankings/best-3d-scanner/

The ones at the end of the list are jaw-dropping in terms of speed, accuracy, and price.

If what you really need is a 2D map of a surface with patterns on it, you might be able to use your smartphone (or a nicer camera) and some photogrammetry software. The idea is to take pictures of the surface from multiple angles to reproduce something like human stereo vision, which then lets the computer estimate the distance from your camera to the surface. You can usually create a good 2D map from that distance information. The approach is a lot cheaper and more accurate than it used to be (I've been doing this photogrammetry thing professionally for a loooooong time). This is a photogrammetry project with free software that one of my staff came across recently:

https://alicevision.org/

There are lots of non-free options like Agisoft PhotoScan that are also good.

[Anasazi37]

I have an update on my 1/55 part scanning project. The new scanner is a bust. The first one (Sol 3D) had good hardware, but crappy software. The new one (Matter and Form v2) had good software, but crappy hardware. I can't win. I've learned a ton from observing how both of them worked, though, and unless I want to drop $8K on what I need, I think the best thing for me to do is build my own scanner. Normally that would be crazy talk, given how complicated these systems are, but luckily this lands right in the wheelhouse of my professional training. I've spent this weekend going over all of the math, imaging science, photogrammetry, and engineering involved and it's doable. It basically comes down to how much time and money I am willing to spend on this. The entry-level desktop scanners I've tried all cut corners on the hardware in a few ways that I think I can address with slightly nicer components--since I actually know what I'm doing. Right now I'm shopping around for all of the parts I'll need. It's not going to be cheap, but I think it will end up costing me roughly the same amount as the scanners I've tried.

If I get the system right, we'll be able to scan all kinds of stuff.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Anasazi37

[strikevalk]

wow, awesome work guys!  wondering if anyone is up for also printing the 1/55 1J and 1A heads as well....

[mojacko]

On 12/25/2019 at 4:14 AM, UN_MARINE said:

Anybody willing to do some test printing? 1/55 GU-11 Beta

All it's missing is the spring, and the screw. (I'll get to the missiles eventually)

Thanks! I suppose we have the option to make a "deactivated" version.

 

Thank u for doing this! Will try printing this.

[Anasazi37]

Took a break from working on the 3D scanner to modify the GU-11 gunpod so it's closer to the anime. Fun project for a Sunday morning. Will definitely print this in resin for all of my 1/55 customs instead of modifying existing gunpods (my original plan). Thinking I'll keep the front part separate for ease of printing and painting.

[Anasazi37]

Let's give this a shot....

[Anasazi37]

Test print came out pretty well. I'm not 100% happy with the handle. I think it was under-supported during the print. Will fix that this weekend and run the print job again. Light sanding takes care of the slight faceting on the barrel.

[Chronocidal]

Sheesh, every time I see those resin prints I lament that extrusion printers aren't nearly that precise.  That looks fantastic!

[Anasazi37]

6 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Sheesh, every time I see those resin prints I lament that extrusion printers aren't nearly that precise.  That looks fantastic!

It really is nice to have access to a resin printer when working on customs, but it is a lot more messy and complicated when compared to extrusion/filament/FDM printing, so I save it for when detail truly matters. Assuming this next gunpod print run works out, my next small project is scaling up and modifying the 1/72 armaments that Minivalks (Senovis) posted on Cults3D: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/vf-missile-pack. I'm focusing on the RMS-1 and UUM-7 for a Strike project. I have the parts resized to 1/55 already, but I need to rework the connector and mounting system for each part. The current connectors are too chunky for my taste (I prefer the Hasegawa style) and I want to create circular recesses on top where I can embed small magnets.

[Anasazi37]

A little extrusion-based design work in Fusion 360, then some tweaking in 3D Builder to get the proportions right before merging objects, and voila! They're looking pretty nice. The original 1/72 connectors (on the left) are just way too chonky for me.

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, the stubby pylons are actually one of my biggest issues with Bandai's DX VF-1.  It's kind of unbelievable that the 1/100 HMR weapons have physically longer pylons than their 1/48 counterparts.

If I ever get around to it, I'll probably try and make some custom pylons to use on 1/48 Hasegawa weapons to mount on my DX valks.

[Anasazi37]

I also modified the back ends of each piece so they look more like the Hasegawa versions. MUCH better.

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Yeah, the stubby pylons are actually one of my biggest issues with Bandai's DX VF-1.  It's kind of unbelievable that the 1/100 HMR weapons have physically longer pylons than their 1/48 counterparts.

If I ever get around to it, I'll probably try and make some custom pylons to use on 1/48 Hasegawa weapons to mount on my DX valks.

Agreed. I've never been very happy with the DX connectors.

[Anasazi37]

I'm continuing the print-evaluate-refine loop for the gunpod and the armaments, but they're looking pretty good now. I'm on the fence about how chunky the RMS-1 missiles are. On the one hand, I'm putting them on a chunky monkey, so it works, but on the other they do end up being a bit disproportionate compared to the UUM-7.