I had someone at work 3D print R2-D2 And guess who is going to paint it.

I think wings would make ideal subjects.  While I do like to do a scratch project once in awhile, carving the airfoil into a wing is a tedious job. That is the number one thing I believe I would print if I can ever get the 3D printer kit I bought up and working.  The printing area of that one will not allow full span wings for most subjects, but I think I can do either half-span or quarter-span panels that can be glued together.

I know what I would make if I had the printer and design software, and that would be the future tank and flying vehicles from the 1936 movie The Shape of Things to Come. I am not aware of any reference material other than screen captures so they would have to be scratch designs, but on the other hand, no one could quibble much over design or scale inaccuracies.

I'm also curious about how to solve the problem of making models larger than the printer can handle. It seems like a CAD program would make it possible to design a large object, then cut it down into printable sized sub components. To aid assembly perhaps tabs and slots could be designed into the components, or even better, integrate small cylindrical hollows for pinning the parts together with thin rods? Would the sub-assemblies mate  up precisely, or is there more imprecision and drift in 3D than is apparent? Don't know.

I would love to get the equipment and try it myself, but I think I would feel my giant stash of unbuilt kits glaring at me. Maybe I could justify it by making it a small home business and selling them.

I second on R2-D2. If you did B-88, I know I'll paint it. LOL!

I think there are a few printers that can actually make designs larger than the printer bar; I know of one that's in development. But to make designs larger than the printer can handle is to simply separate the design into smaller parts of just use a larger printer. With the CAD programs its pretty easy to design the part to be easily assembled with a tab/slot design or pin/hole. Really of there's any method of reliable assembly, it can be integrated and usually printed as long as the method fits within the printer's limitations. With 3D printing, just think of it like the opposite of CNC milling. You're building up the material (additive manufacturing) instead of removing it (subtractive manufacturing) while the machine is controlled by computer. Because of this you can design highly precise designs. If the design is... Designed... Correctly, then the subassemblies should meet up with very little variation between. Of course, I'm not saying that the printers are infallible. Like any manufacturing process there is margin of error. But the printed part(s) are only as precise as the design it's being printed from give or take a few fractions of a millimeter depending on the printer resolution. 

I'm sure copyright issues would abound but F-18A and B vertical tails in the three main scales would be welcomed.

So would slatted wings for the Academy / Hasegawa 1/48th scale F-86E (Canadair Sabre 2) and "6-3" F-86F-40 (12 inch wintip extension) and Canadair Sabre 6 (no 12 inch extension with ailerons going to the wintip).

I understand the slatted wings that come with the Revell F-86 Sabre Dog are almost drop in replacements for the Academy / Hasegawa wings to make an early F-86E / Sabre 2.  To create a slatted wing for a Sabre 6 / F-86F-40 would require them to be mastered then printed.

Well, I've been looking for a 1/35th geisha for some time now...

Oh you mean something not insanely complex to sculpt and print, lol... 

If you go with a SW droid HK-47 the assassi- um protocol droid from the Knights of the Old Republic games is the coolest... 

[Speaking with a Jawa who refers to 'Ghosts in the desert'] 
HK-47: Explanation: two per cent probability that the miniature organic is simply looking for trouble and needs to be blasted. That may be wishful thinking on my part, master.

murph

I'm sure copyright issues would abound but F-18A and B vertical tails in the three main scales would be welcomed.

So would slatted wings for the Academy / Hasegawa 1/48th scale F-86E (Canadair Sabre 2) and "6-3" F-86F-40 (12 inch wintip extension) and Canadair Sabre 6 (no 12 inch extension with ailerons going to the wintip).

I understand the slatted wings that come with the Revell F-86 Sabre Dog are almost drop in replacements for the Academy / Hasegawa wings to make an early F-86E / Sabre 2.  To create a slatted wing for a Sabre 6 / F-86F-40 would require them to be mastered then printed.

 

I agree, Everything is copyrighted nowadays. I'd be careful making a 3D stuff related to movies and/or kits in general.

The 3D printer I saw at the iHobby Show Saturday could build anything that fit on the 10x10x10 table and the guy said that the table could be expanded to make larger items.  Just how much larger he didn't say.  The items that he was making on the two tables were really something to see.  The one item that really had everyone oohing and ahhing was a detailed castle sitting on top of a mountain.  The detail work on the railings was out of sight.  The whole thing was 10" high and about 6" square.  He said it showed what could be built at 10" high on the table.  There were rooms in the castle that you could see into the windows.  It was amazing.  He said he plugged the flash drive with the program into it before he went to bed and it was completed 20 hours later.  At $600 it was cheaper than some of the ones I've seen advertised and looked like it did more intricate work.

Jim  

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

 

murph

 

I'm sure copyright issues would abound but F-18A and B vertical tails in the three main scales would be welcomed.

So would slatted wings for the Academy / Hasegawa 1/48th scale F-86E (Canadair Sabre 2) and "6-3" F-86F-40 (12 inch wintip extension) and Canadair Sabre 6 (no 12 inch extension with ailerons going to the wintip).

I understand the slatted wings that come with the Revell F-86 Sabre Dog are almost drop in replacements for the Academy / Hasegawa wings to make an early F-86E / Sabre 2.  To create a slatted wing for a Sabre 6 / F-86F-40 would require them to be mastered then printed

 

 

I agree, Everything is copyrighted nowadays. I'd be careful making a 3D stuff related to movies and/or kits in general.

Actually as long as it's not directly copied from the movie, TV show, etc or from the kit or set, I can do it. It can be built to fit this kit or replace this part of this kit and I don't think I should have a problem. As long as I don't directly copy said object, and it is my own intellectual or physical property that I wholly created, there should be no problem with copyright infringement. Now if I was too take a 3D scanner and scan a part, that's a different story entirely and is copyright infringement. Plus anything put out or published by the US government is part of the public domain and can not be copyrighted (that's why you should never buy declassified US government technical or field manuals from anyone as you can get them for what is essentially "free." If you buy these documents such as on those notorious websites where they get these manuals, put a watermark on it and charge you,  you are being massively ripped off... Just saying). If I'm doing a conversion set based on or designed to be used on a certain kit, that conversion is still my own property as I designed it myself using measurements from a kit to allow it to be used on that kit. The kit parts might not be my copyright property, but the set I designed to be used on that kit is. An example is this: I'm planning on making a conversion set for Dragon's M48A1 kit to convert it into a T110E4 heavy tank (known as the T110E3 tank destroyer in World of Tanks). There were no blueprints made for the actual vehicle, only parametric and basic profile drawings with no measurements on them. I believe the drawings are in the public domain. I plan to essentially visually base the design on the World of Tanks game vehicle as it's the best reference I have and eyeball almost all the dimensions. The kit I will build it on (digitally, not physically. I have no scratch building skills and I'm not sacrificing a kit for this unless I buy it for this purpose or its really cheap) is DML's M48A3 Mod B because it's what I have. I will get the base dimensions for the casemate from the M48 kit and design the proper engine deck from measurements of the kit. That's not infringing on DML's copyright of the kit as I'm not taking anything directly from the kit and incorporating it in my design and calling my own. The only thing I'm using in my design from the kit are the measurements I need and even then they'll be changed to fit the vehicle. If I'm able to get the dimensions Wargaming used them obviously that will be noted in the description. If they want to have it as something like a "Wargaming Approved" product or something of the sort than that will also be incorporated.  

What it boils down to is that if I design something that is designed to replace a kit part or a conversion set to be built on some kit that is solely of my own creation, it's my product alone and not infringing on any copyrights. If it's based on some part or design, it depends how "based" it is whether or not there are copyright issues. If it is directly taken from some company completely and is not in the public domain, then yes it is a serious issue. The F/A-18A, B tails I don't think would be much of an issue though. 

Thanks for the explanation there Mike, I wasn't sure how the copyrights applied to such material. 

And btw you know that after you go though all that work Dragon will probably announce the release of a T110E3 kit? 

Actually they'll probably release all 5 of the different versions of the T110. And no one will be able to claim they are inaccurate because all but the 5th never existed except for a few conceptual drawings. So on a way it's a win-win. They make money, and no one can say they're wrong. Just like no one can really say I'm wrong. :P

On the T110 Concept 4 topic, I've started working on it in the form if basic blueprints. I'll be drawing of all the major areas on the hull of the M48 and then drawing the casemate superstructure I'll be designing over it. This way I'll know how large to make it and what will need to mentioned in the instructions I'll eventually have to write up... 

Oh, and I started the upper hull of the M48A3... 

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised on multiple versions of the T110. I played WoT for a little over a year before I got bored with it. Amazing how they came up with some full-blown AFVs from a single sketch like the T25-2 for example. 

I hope you'll keep us updated on your progress here. You might want to take it to the armour or scratchbuilding forum though. If things come out well enough I might be interested in wanting a set of parts printed out for me too if you're selling the plans.  

Eventually I suspect a kit or two might arise of the T110 series or the T43. We've been seeing quite a few kits of experimental vehicles being produced now. One tank I'd LOVE to see kitted is the T71 light tank. I tried to model the turret but I can't get the correct shape. I hope the hull will prove easier to design. 

I'll be keeping this thread updated instead of moving it to the scratch building forum. It's not really scratch building... Just CAD designing. I also won't be selling the plans. I will be uploading the design to Shapeways where people can purchase that the set. 

Now that Dragon is doing a T54 I wouldn't be surprised about a T71.

Sorry I guess that's what I meant about you sending them to Shapeways and I assume you get a commission on each one they sell.

It is possible... I hope so. With Shapeways, what it is is that I upload the file and I have it in my shop. Theres a base price that they set (for materials, machine space, etc) and then I add a markup. The markup is what I'm paid. Shapeways then takes 3.5% out of that for processing fees. 

I've started converting my sparse paper design into 3D. Starting with the very basic outline. I still need to do work on the paper design but it's progressing... Albeit kind of slowly.

In the meantime does anyone have any other suggestions? 

I just realized I hadn't put up any photos of the designs I've done so far. Recently I've uploaded a set of 1/35 AN/VIC-3 radios and today a set of 1/35 headlight guards for Academy's and Tamiya's M3 Stuart's.

I just started on a set of 1/700 Mk. 13 (mod 10) torpedoes. I have 1 torpedo almost complete. Just need propellers and I can pattern it out. I'll also be including torpedoes with the drag ring and ring tail molded on along with a doubled set of mod 0 torpedoes without the drag rings attached. I'll only be providing as many as the mod 10s without rings.  

A 1/35 Uh-1D/H Huey, a 1/35 AH-1G Cobra......

MikeyBugs95

I just realized I hadn't put up any photos of the designs I've done so far. Recently I've uploaded a set of 1/35 AN/VIC-3 radios and today a set of 1/35 headlight guards for Academy's and Tamiya's M3 Stuart's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those do look good, seems like they'd be easier to work with than the PE version. 

midnightprowler

A 1/35 Uh-1D/H Huey, a 1/35 AH-1G Cobra......

 

No and no. I can't do them and it would be much more expensive than an expensive resin kit. If you want me to make a small part for them, sure. I might be able to. But not the entire helicopter. There already are numerous kits of the Huey and Cobra. 

Gamera

.

Those do look good, seems like they'd be easier to work with than the PE version. 

 

Well I would hope so. That's what I designed them for. :P Unfortunately I haven't ordered them yet so I don't know how good they are. They may be fragile to remove from the wafer because of the material and how thin it is. 

How about the guns from battleships - Tamiyas? Like the Scharnhorst, U.S.S. Arizona, Yamato, etc. Ships that were popular then, but now used for kitbashing, and scratchbuilding. Think how many of these were on the Star Destroyer. There's a slew of people wanting these parts for making their own version of it. The ILM guys of the first generation used Tamiya model kits for just about every single model that they produced whether it was for Star Wars, or other projects that they needed them for. Apogee is only Grant McCunes' version of ILM as most of these were ILM modelers to begin with. Imagine what it would've been like if they could've had all the multiples of the parts that they used 3-D printed then. They could've saved a lot of kits, and hours of poring over hundreds of parts looking for the right part, or mulitples of each.

~ Cobra Chris

MikeyBugs95

 

 

midnightprowler

A 1/35 Uh-1D/H Huey, a 1/35 AH-1G Cobra......

 

 

 

 

 

No and no. I can't do them and it would be much more expensive than an expensive resin kit. If you want me to make a small part for them, sure. I might be able to. But not the entire helicopter. There already are numerous kits of the Huey and Cobra. 

 

Ok. Well I just started on some 1/700 Mk 29 GMLS'  for you modern ship guys. I'm including enough detail to make it scale able to 1/350 but hopefully it's still printable in 1/700. I've also designed it so that the launcher unit can be rotated up and down into any position. There's only about .3-.5mm in between the two parts, the base and rod connecting the launch units, so it'll be a tight fit. The two launchers are connected via, basically, a tongue and groove join so that they are symmetrical. 

How about propellers?  I was looking for a set of replacement props for a Mosquito recently and there don't seem to be any.  Odd, considering Ultracasts resin line of props.

Gary

Propellers are beyond me right now. I. Can't do them. 

Here's some pictures of the products I'm working on. They are still not finished and require a few more details to be added. In the case of the torpedoes, it's actually a lot more details that need to be added. And the propellers need to be resized. (those are pretty much representative of the propellers I can do)

I finished the Mk 29 GMLS set and the instruction booklet. Pictures: 

Should I post up the booklet?