Symmetrical Gundam 00 Quan[T] Metal Build Mod

[Jaustin89]

Not a Macross project but there's enough miscellaneous stuff in this section already I figure it's okay.

I've never been a fan of strongly asymmetrical designs but liked the overall look of the 00 Quant otherwise; after seeing the Exia R4 and mentally overlaying it with the quant I decided to kit bash a pair of metal build Quants into a custom double quant.

Still fairly early in the process as I just got my parts quant to tear down but this is looking verry promising.

Stock backpack disassembled:

The two metal pieces are handed and will need to be mirrored, and I'll need to cut the left side of the shell to match the existing opening on the right. Beyond that this shouldn't need any modification.

I've already got the larger piece modeled and on order through Shapeways; once I get it and the second joint to assemble in place of the stock pieces I'll mirror it, join the tops to reinforce the structure (There's only ~.75mm available but with both sides screwed down it shouldn't see significant stress; it'll mostly just supplement the small protrusion the stock bracket uses for anti-rotation) and I should be all set to go.

I'll try to keep this updated as I go and if there's any interest I can make the models available once I get it working for anyone that wants to mod their own.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Nice!

[68whiskey]

Tag because I believe this might work on the Astraeas as well 

[Jaustin89]

12 hours ago, 68whiskey said:

Tag because I believe this might work on the Astraeas as well 

It won't; the Astaea has a completely different attachment method.

Some of the product photos for the High Maneuver Test Pack option parts seem to indicate that they may include a mirror of the launcher mounting arm. If it doesn't I may end up making one but I'm waiting to see if they include it first.

In the meantime the Astraea Type-F comes with a matched set of brackets (the same type the Astraea comes with to mount the shield) so you can do a symmetrical Astreae if you get 2 copies (or find a second launcher somewhere) and a Type-F as long as you don't mind the launchers sitting higher over the shoulders than they should. I'm still waiting for delivery on Astraea #2 but I'll grab a picture once I get it and attach the second launcher.

[68whiskey]

Having both the Red / White Astraeas and the Qanta it looks like they all have the same attachment point behind the backpck, upon further googling you may be right. If I wasnt so lazy I would go dig out all three. Btw are you selling off any of the parts from your parts Quanta  ... like the shield?

[Jaustin89]

11 minutes ago, 68whiskey said:

Having both the Red / White Astraeas and the Qanta it looks like they all have the same attachment point behind the backpck, upon further googling you may be right. If I wasnt so lazy I would go dig out all three. Btw are you selling off any of the parts from your parts Quanta  ... like the shield?

I'm still not sure exactly how I want it set up but the backpack assembly (the shield, the arm it's connected to, and the backpack itself), the left shoulder, and the sword are the parts I know I'm using.

Once I get the custom completed I'll see if there's any interest in what I'm not using. I may end up keeping both and having a shield-less Quant in addition to the double shield one; depends on how it looks.

[Jaustin89]

Bracket prototype #1 is a bust; doesn't fit either the shell or the first joint of the arm. It's fairly close for trying to model something that complex with nothing more than a pair of calipers though.

It looks like I've got to open up the features a lot to account for the low precision of the printing process. I'll probably leave the holes for the pins as they are and drill them out to cause the kind of tolerances they seem to get in printing just won't work for a force fit pin.

 

Now to revise the model and wait another month for shapeways to print it.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Aww damn... sorry to hear. The finish on it looks great and looks pretty close for use too!

Edit:

Looking at it closer I didn't realize you modeled up the same side. I'm guessing for testing purposes for precision and if it fits you'd flip it symmetrically. Do you have access to a 3d printer? I should've asked after your initial post, but I think I refrained because you stated you ordered the part through shapeways already.

Edited March 12, 2020 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[Jaustin89]

3 hours ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

Aww damn... sorry to hear. The finish on it looks great and looks pretty close for use too!

Edit:

Looking at it closer I didn't realize you modeled up the same side. I'm guessing for testing purposes for precision and if it fits you'd flip it symmetrically. Do you have access to a 3d printer? I should've asked after your initial post, but I think I refrained because you stated you ordered the part through shapeways already.

Yeah; I'm replicating the existing parts as test print); once I get them working I'll print the mirrored versions. I actually might end up using the printed version of the first joint depending on how cleanly I end up separating the one from the second arm. As you can see in the third picture above I tore up this one pretty badly getting it separated and while it'll still function fine it looks like crap.

I don't have access to a 3D printer; I bought a Prussa I3 kit last year and got it functioning but constantly re-leveling it made it too much of a hassle to use for the quality I got out of it and I ended up selling it. I considered getting a cheap printer or using plastic for the test prints but I figured it's better to work with the same printing process and tolerances to dial it in. Getting it printed in steel isn't really a whole lot more expensive than plastic anyway; that part was $15 in bronze-steel vs. ~$7 in plastic.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

I really should've replied to you earlier. I have an Anet A8 (Prusa clone). It's been working well for me on most prints for ABS and great pretty much anything PLA. I do plan on eventually get a better printer (Creality and an SLA of some sort). If you like I could try printing out the part with my Anet A8 and test the fit on my MB Qant. 

Yea when printing parts through Shapeways there isn't too much of a price difference, just really a wait process.

Edit:

I guess I could also pull out my MB Qant and (shy of taking it completely apart) cad it up on AD Inventor, XD.

Edited March 14, 2020 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[Jaustin89]

37 minutes ago, PsYcHoDyNaMiX said:

I really should've replied to you earlier. I have an Anet A8 (Prusa clone). It's been working well for me on most prints for ABS and great pretty much anything PLA. I do plan on eventually get a better printer (Creality and an SLA of some sort). If you like I could try printing out the part with my Anet A8 and test the fit on my MB Qant. 

Yea when printing parts through Shapeways there isn't too much of a price difference, just really a wait process.

Edit:

I guess I could also pull out my MB Qant and (shy of taking it completely apart) cad it up on AD Inventor, XD.

Thanks for the offer but I had version 2 of the bracket and version 1 of the arm joint ordered before I even made the post here; if you want to check it out anyway I've attached the .ipt file.

Quant Bracket2.ipt

It's not my best work since I'm stuck with Inventor LT at the moment (Burning through my free trials before I bite the bullet and get a personal licence; might end up going Solidworks since it's a one time payment rather than a subscription but that's a good chunk of money.) and doing an assembly of the easier to measure parts to drive the bracket off of is a non starter but it's decent for what I have to work with.

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Okay I got the file and export it as an .stl. going to give this a few prints with different settings and see how it turns out.

Edit:

First print about 18 mins (with bed heating); ABS; 0.2mm 60mm/s speed, supports; 

Now i just need to dig up the mb qant again... lol.

Edited March 15, 2020 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Doublepost (didn't realize my phone had an autosaved feature...).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX
DPost

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Okay I tried to fit the part after cleaning it up and the top part of it was a bit too tight (the inner diameter for extrusion 3).

I also measured Bandai's metal bracket for the inner and outer diameter, theirs is about 3.65mm Diameter (inner) and 5.40mm D (outter).

I believe yours was 3.6mm D (inner) and 2.356mm Radius (4.7mm outer). I adjusted it so the inner is 3.7mm and left the outer the same since the circular extrusion looked to be measured to the outside of the bracket.

Currently printing up another one with the slight modifications. I'll post a response after I attempt to test fit.

Edit:

Okie dokie the 3.7mm Diameter (inner) change seemed to work! Just a hair snug...

the unfinished surface is because my printbed was just a wee bit too high to the hot end.

Quant Bracket2.00.stlQuant Bracket2.00.ipt

Edited March 15, 2020 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[Jaustin89]

Awesome; thanks. It looks like the I.D. of that circular feature and the O.D. of the boss it fits around are tapered; I'm getting measurements from 3.55mm at the base to 3.75mm at the lip. It's probably just drafted for mold removal so I went with a straight I.D. of 3.75mm.

 

 Quant Bracket_double.ipt If you want to try that to see if everything lines up I'd appreciate it. Then I can get it ordered and find out if I have to adjust anything for the relatively low accuracy of the steel printing process.

Edited March 15, 2020 by Jaustin89

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Okay I printed up the part. The orginal side fits with no problem. 

 

Spoiler

 

The issue with the doubled side is two (maybe three) problems.

1. The distance of the doubled part modeled is too short 

 

Spoiler

 

2. There's a little nub (feature) on the outside edge that hits the blue backpiece (preventing it from sitting flush)

 

Spoiler

 

3. The little indentation (feature) that is on the original side but is missing on the doubled side? It might be needed when the backpack is fitted onto the qant.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX

[Jaustin89]

Thanks for the help. The past two days saved me ~$50 and a month and a half of iterating through shapeways; the money's relatively trivial compared to te rest of the costs on this project but the time it takes drives me insane.

The nub and missing cutout on the mirrored side are fine. The nub is coming from just chopping off the lower portion of that side rather than checking the features in the shell; since I'm going to be cutting the shell off at that point anyway it won't be an issue.

The cutout is for the indicator on the LED switch it's only present on one side; I know the original plastic inset on the other side has the same feature but it serves no purpose and is a potential failure point in printing/polishing so I deleted it.

 

The shortness is concerning though; it means the radius that drives upwards of half the geometry is off. There's so many dimensions and constraints tied to it that trying to change it blows away the rest of the geometry.

Fortunately I made a construction sketch of the drive body (Really should've thought of that earlier but I'm so used to being able to interrelate parts through the assembly environment It didn't occur to me.) and it looks like in theory everything will work with the existing radius though some areas are a bit tight. Should be close enough that I can just grind down a bit of the bracket if it doesn't fit.

Now it's just a matter of if shapeways can print it accurately enough. Their page on the steel process says that the tolerances vary wildly and are unpredictable due to cooling shrinkage but can be as much as 5% which is massive compared to some of the margins I have to work with.

Edited March 16, 2020 by Jaustin89

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

No problem! Sorry I didn't get more involved earlier.

Okay yea thats what I thought regarding the nub, if the outer shell would eventually be cut away.

Ahh okay that makes since about the additional feature near the top and the led switch.

Yea I can see the issue with the geometry now regarding the radius and the top bar/extension.

Yessh. I never ordered from shapeways as of yet, but however I am familiar with their lengthy process. I never read up on their metal printing process. Those variances will definitely be a killer.

[68whiskey]

Great work on this so far , let me know when these are for sale as Im going to want a couple 

[Jaustin89]

The 3rd bracket prototype finally showed up. I'm going to have to do another since I forgot to leave space in the interface with the first arm joint (it seats but in a raised position an wouldn't be able to move much); but I think I'll consider this good progress and proof that the idea will work.

 

Edit: photos won't upload for some reason but I got the backpack shell cut and the bracket installed and was able to mount it on the figure.

Edit2: still can't upload images here but I uploaded to Imgur to bypass the issue.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Jaustin89

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

Wooo nice! I thought i had notifications turned on for this thread and completely forgot about it lol.

[Jaustin89]

Okay; covid threw me a series of curveballs but I'm back to a situation where I can move forward with this. 2nd donor Quant arrived today and I could get everything except the armature swapped easily and do a mockup of the final results.

I'd say the twins are looking pretty good so far. Now to get access to decent CAD software in a way that won't get me fired so I can finish up the brackets. Probably going to cave and buy a personal Solid Works license but that's some serious money; better than Inventor's subscription only model that'd end up costing more after a couple years though.