Adventures in tiny printable ships

[DeltaE27]

I spent the last two days working on an Oberth-Class destroyer design for 3D printing, shown below. 
 

 

 

now, I’m pretty happy with it. You may be thinking though, that it’s honestly pretty rough. Details are lacking, shapes seem to be slightly thicker than they really should be, that sort of thing. Why would I do that?

 

 

Because a 200-meter long Oberth at 1/2000 scale is a centimeter long. So I’m trying to get what details I can in there without things breaking 😄

(And I basically gave up on the radar, as much as I like it. Too spindly)

1cm will put it in scale with the ARII zentradi capital ships and SDF-1 that I recently started acquiring. If it goes well I might try to design an ARMD (perhaps even a version I can swap in as docked to the Macross, after all I have a few…), a Zentradi picket ship, or if I’m crazy enough a simplified Quel-Quallie. I’ll document any of that here. But for now, time to start trying to print this Oberth. 

Edited September 6 by DeltaE27

[DeltaE27]

You would think I would either try printing something, or designing something simpler and larger next. You would be wrong.

 

1/20000 Quel-Quallie:

 

 

this will be very small, around 2/3rds of a cm, so the landing legs will be very thin. I’ve got that block in between them in one version of the design to add a bit of strength. We’ll see how that turns out

[DeltaE27]

Still finding it a lot easier to be motivated to design vs printing right now, so here’s an ARMD.
 

I think before I try printing anything I need to include a stand or space for a stand. I’ll probably work on that next, then the Picket ship, and that should be everything I want to design at this scale. 
 

Oh! This reminds me I wanted to add a mounting point compatible with the 1/20000 SDF-1 to the ARMD. I’ll tackle that next. 

[DeltaE27]

Well, after adding some stands to the design, I actually have real world results! Printed and primed:

 

 

I printed some with and some without stands, but the ARMD are the only ones that really are large enough that I don’t worry I’ll lose them without stands. Also note the two ARMD in the rear with connectors for the 1/20000 Macross, and the part on the far left that’s the lower hull of the Zentradi flagship (whose name starts with N but I cannot ever spell without looking it up) at the same scale. Really shows the difference compared to an ARMD or even a poor Oberth class. 
 

 

close ups of the Oberth and Quel-Quallie. I’m happy so many details are even slightly visible at this size. 
 

Now how in the world do I even try to paint these…

[Bolt]

Cool. Those are quite tiny. But i see you're scaling everything for consistency. The stands seem a bit beefy though. 

[DeltaE27]

Honestly the stand size is intentional and almost necessary. 
 

those stands are about an inch or two tall, I’d guesstimate. Not really that big, just in comparison with what they’re holding, they are. I wanted something I could easily grab without risking damage to the ship, something that would be easily visible, and most importantly something that wouldn’t risk snapping when I printed it, something I could anchor the support points to as well so I don’t have much scarring on the ship itself. 
 

are these models too small to really be practical, to the point I need to compensate with a large stand? Yes. But I’m having fun with them anyway

[DeltaE27]

One final design for this adventure, and it printed successfully. Now I wait for it to cure, then I’ll start painting everything. I’ve also been working on the official zentradi ARII kits that inspired these, but that seems like a separate project given it’s nature. 
 

presenting the Zentradi picket:

 

 

[Thom]

Nice looking rendition. How'd it print?