33 replies to this topic

[Valcrow]

Heya Folks,

Seems there's a couple of 3D printed mechwarriors floating around here and they're lookin pretty slick. Though I haven't seen one printed from a consumer level printer yet and since I just got mine up and running a couple weeks ago, thought I'd share!

The model was originally from: http://mwomercs.com/...ing-pgis-mechs/ (thanks to all who helped in the model extraction process.) Highly modified to work with the printer, sliced into sections, added peg joints and printed in Silver PLA. (in a nutshell...)

So here's a few process + pics. There's quite a bit of refinement that needs to go on in both tuning the printer & settings as well as the model and design itself to get these things looking as good as they can. But here are the results of the first two.

The 3d Setup for print. (parts are printed like this for optimal detail and eliminates the need for support material. Pink things get removed later)


First run at parts (yes there's a K2 PPC AND a C1 Missile bay in there)


Parts that require glue with pegs inserted and assembled.


And here are the first couple of finished ones. They stand roughly 3" tall, have articulating arms, torso, bay doors and legs and stand by themselves.










The funky colours weren't so much of a stylistic choice as they were a result of being taken with my cellphone with a flashlight & desk lamp for lighting . For obvious reasons, these guys aren't for sale nor will the models be available, sorry :/ just for your viewing pleasure.


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Update 2014 01 04

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Wow, seems so long ago since I made this thing. Thread resurrection!

I got my airbrush this weekend. Have no idea how to use it so I thought hey... I got one of these guys lying around sitting so proudly untextured on my desk. Why not use it as target practice for my new toy. I gave the better printed ones to friends and family, now I only have this poor sap which has some shoddy printing issues, not quite good enough to give away. But good enough to attempt to paint and screw up if need be.



Puttied up some of the big seams. Ok, really I just wanted to test how well airbrush can cover up putty. There are still large seams all over the place.



Primed in Black. So far so good. Airbrush handling was a bit tricky but spraying a flat colour isn't too difficult...



After watching some airbrush stuff online.. apparently pre-shading needs to happen. So preshade it is. It looks all weird because I sprayed the highlights on. and it's not the same as the light source which makes this image look like a charcoal drawing because your brain is telling you that the mech is white and the lighting is producing the shadows which it is not.



Sprayed with some colour now! Unfortunately it covered up a lot more of the pre-shading than the tutorials had led me to believe. So I went back in to put some shadows and highlights back.



Switched to the fine tip for some more detaily work. Takes a while to get use to the spraying nuances... but wayyyyy faster than paint brushes and oh so nice gradients. (so long as you don't get splatters everywhere... which happened)

Gone as far as I could go.. Finish the rest with a brush.

Went for the iconic Catapult yellow scheme.










I think it turned out better than expected... In hindsight, I probably should have cleaned it up a bit more or printed a proper one and it'll have less printing artifacts... but oh well. still cool, and learned a lot about my airbrush!

Thanks for lookin!

[Agent Cooper]

So very cool.

[Sentinel373]

nice work, there is just one thing that bothers me about the catapult and when people extract it from the game.
why does everyone use the Scale.cgf files instead of putting the Torso together themselves? the scale.cgf had the wrong cockpit shape, its much too wide. anyway thats just my opinion.

the catapult came out great. i love how you added little missiles to the C1

[Bishop Steiner]

Sentinel373, on 18 May 2013 - 03:36 AM, said:

nice work, there is just one thing that bothers me about the catapult and when people extract it from the game.
why does everyone use the Scale.cgf files instead of putting the Torso together themselves? the scale.cgf had the wrong cockpit shape, its much too wide. anyway thats just my opinion.

the catapult came out great. i love how you added little missiles to the C1

I noticed that, especially in Baabaa's art thread. Good work, but that mack truck wide cockpit irks me. Tis one reason I have been pestering you, lol *still NEEDS to find a way to get some... lol). You model looks great!


Also, to the OP...... while I agree with Sentinel373 , still gotta say real nice work, ifPGI/CLG ever was willing to make stuff like that available, I would SOOOOOOOO buy them. PEW PEW PEW!!!

also// LOVE the articulation.

[Valcrow]

Thanks! I thought it was a bit beefier than normal, but I just thought that was due to being a physical object. Never realized that the CT is wider than normal.. Though It kinda looks more menacing...

The tutorial suggested the scale.cgf is most likely the file you're looking for.. which is probably why everyone's using that (including me) Plus there's not much indication that it's the wrong proportion. You kinda assume it's the right thing when it's from the game asset itself.

Good for you to notice though! Might fix it up if it's only a scaling issue. There's usually too many missiles, lasers and explosions between you an a cat to notice the proportions are off.

[Odanan]

Amazing! Looking forward for other models.

[Sentinel373]

if you want the torso files go to the directory where you have all the model files for the catapult and simply rename all the.cga files to .cgf and now you can open them all with noesis and export

[ZeProme]

Wow! Impressive!

[Source Control]

This is truly awesome. GREAT work!

[dak irakoz]

Great work! I love it when models can stand on their own.

[ReaverLord]

AWESOME business oppurtunity

[Magik0012]

Just curious, is there a reason you can't share the model for others to print? Or you simply choose not to?

Regardless, they are gorgeous/brilliant!

[Nathan Foxbane]

Magik0012, on 20 May 2013 - 08:12 AM, said:

Just curious, is there a reason you can't share the model for others to print? Or you simply choose not to?

Regardless, they are gorgeous/brilliant!

Intellectual property and copyright laws. He can make stuff for himself, but he cannot profit from the production or mass distribute something that enables others to produce the models. The reason PGI does not do this themselves it because they do not have merchandising rights if you were wondering that as well.

[Valcrow]

Thanks for the encouraging comments!

And yeah, the models were from PGI, and some other company owns the rights to Mechwarrior minis, as well as the names, etc.. just a huge sticky ball of legal confusion I wouldn't wanna step into.

Though it's cool enough that PGI would allow the use and make available their models in the first place, so I'm thankful enough for that. The only thing is game models typically are the opposite of what you want your print models to be, which makes 3D cleanup a chore.

As for the fat torso, I checked it out, and it is indeed fatter in the cockpit, but the width of the it is the same. I thought it was a quick scale thing, but I think it's more of a remodel of that section since I have it all combined and airtight already. I'll probably come back to it after making a different mech altogether. Tweaking is usually not as fun as making new stuff. But hey, at least now I know not to use the Scale model as the master.

[Sentinel373]

I just finished making the hunchback airtight and adding detail to it.. Trust if you consider doing that one it is a nightmare.

The game models centre torso is mostly flat planes which means if you were to print it it would look really bland so i had to carve out all the big details which are in the texture.. Took me 2 days

[Magik0012]

Nathan Foxbane, on 20 May 2013 - 09:30 AM, said:

Intellectual property and copyright laws. He can make stuff for himself, but he cannot profit from the production or mass distribute something that enables others to produce the models. The reason PGI does not do this themselves it because they do not have merchandising rights if you were wondering that as well.

So.. how do all the 3d modelling sights that offer downloads of sci-fi ships and vehicles not violate copyright?

Also, if Sentinel has to heavily modify the models for printing, my guess is that it would qualify for the "25%" rule.

But I'm not a lawyer.. nor do I have a 3D printer.

[Sentinel373]

Magik0012, on 21 May 2013 - 07:26 AM, said:

So.. how do all the 3d modelling sights that offer downloads of sci-fi ships and vehicles not violate copyright?

Also, if Sentinel has to heavily modify the models for printing, my guess is that it would qualify for the "25%" rule.

But I'm not a lawyer.. nor do I have a 3D printer.

not true, the modifications i made do not change the object in question. it is still the same mech. all the modifications enhance what it is trying to be. the modifications may be more than 25% model but the likeness is intact which is what is most important.

[Valcrow]

Magik0012, on 21 May 2013 - 07:26 AM, said:

So.. how do all the 3d modelling sights that offer downloads of sci-fi ships and vehicles not violate copyright?

Also, if Sentinel has to heavily modify the models for printing, my guess is that it would qualify for the "25%" rule.

It's quite possible they are in breach of copyright or trademarks (if it's like.. star wars or something) But it just might not be worth it for the big boys to file a lawsuit against them. Maybe in some cases it helps their IP to have fan generated content. I'm sure if it's damaging in a significant way to their reputation, or business model there would be a harsher response.

Even though it requires significant work to get them to work as a physical model, you still have to respect the original creators and IP. Because you never know they could be working on these things and going to market in the future. If you had distributed files, that could bold badly for everyone.

You would definitely need blessings from PGI along with some of the MW peeps to go any further than this I would think.

If anything this and sentinel's thread just goes to show the demand is there! They should make it happen!

Sentinel373, on 20 May 2013 - 12:03 PM, said:

I just finished making the hunchback airtight and adding detail to it.. Trust if you consider doing that one it is a nightmare.

The game models centre torso is mostly flat planes which means if you were to print it it would look really bland so i had to carve out all the big details which are in the texture.. Took me 2 days

Nasty! I was considering the Hunch, Dragon, or Atlas for the next one. I'm probably going for the atlas next. Probably make it like 6" tall so it can tower over the catapult. It'll double as function testing for printing out joints and stuff for my printer too. And because it'll look cool on my desk...

[Valcrow]

So this is what it would look like if an atlas had a catapult for a Leg. You know.. to Streak those ravens that try to leg it.



I only got one leg printed so far to test the joints... And I didn't have anything to prop it up nearby but a cat, which happens to be the perfect height.

[Sentinel373]

awesome work! what kind of joint are you using?
For my 1/60th scale catapult i'm using double octagon ratchet joints. like so:

Which should allow it to hold 16 positions per rotation. (obviously the leg geometry would be in the way but i think you get the idea)

This is just one solution i have come up with. i;m curious to see yours