47 replies to this topic

[TheGreatNoNo]

Does going metal over plastic effect the detail on the model at all?

[Zatnik]

Sweet! That's awesome. I want to do something like this, but I'm not sure about how much cleaning up is needed. *Imagining a HUGE ARMY of printed catapults... conquering the living room floor.*

[TheGreatNoNo]

Bah. Running into trouble when I try to get them to TT size. I either have them in two foot sizes and costing 1.5 grand or the size of my pinky nail and costing 2.5 dollars and when I scale them up in blender shapeways can not determine the size of the print and goes nuts.

[kiriage]

Lost One, on 20 October 2013 - 12:09 PM, said:

Bah. Running into trouble when I try to get them to TT size. I either have them in two foot sizes and costing 1.5 grand or the size of my pinky nail and costing 2.5 dollars and when I scale them up in blender shapeways can not determine the size of the print and goes nuts.

Sounds like you are using the wrong units for import when you take it into shapeways..ie mm instead of m, or whatever blenders default unit size is, for instance if your programme uses m as its base unit, and you import into shapeways in mm then your model will be tiny etc

Edited by kiriage, 20 October 2013 - 02:12 PM.

[Valcrow]

There's often unit settings in these programs, in max you need to set them to mm, AND turn on 'respect real world units'. Otherwise it's internal units will not match the numbers you're plugging in.

[TheGreatNoNo]

I`m poking around it some more, still no clue just what it is I am doing and how it will effect the print in the end. Ended up setting it 3x normal size which gave me......inch and a half wide by inch thick and nearly 2 inchs tall.

[Level1Firebolt]

There's a ruler function in Blender that you can use. Also, you can change units to metric to make it easier to measure your models. There's a ton of very good youtube Blender tutorials that you may want to look into.

Edited by THATONE, 20 October 2013 - 04:06 PM.

[Hex Pallett]

Let me know if you ever decides to sell these on eBay.

[Skye Storm]

THATONE, on 19 October 2013 - 12:14 PM, said:

Not sure if that was a burn directed towards me or not...

If not, I had zero experience modeling before reading the forum post on extracting the 3D models. After reading it, I still have very close to zero experience , but it's enough to get printable models. Again, if you're looking for moveable, posable, painted, articulated models you will definitely have to do more work. I've done the bare minimum here.

All I really wanted were some nice desk ornaments of my favorite and most used mechs, and now I have them

If what you say is true then my guys will put more effort into it. Thank you for your time.
*Edit// No burn intended.

Edited by Skye Storm, 21 October 2013 - 10:33 AM.

[XphR]

Helmstif, on 20 October 2013 - 09:55 PM, said:

Let me know if you ever decides to sell these on eBay.

The problem with re-selling these on e-bay is once you print and ship the item, turn around and pay a sellers fee and then shipping again.. the cost is way too high for anyone interested. You can let other people order from you on shapeways (the cost is still higher than many will want to pay) but then you risk a cease and desist order. Ive seen one person say something along the line 'they gave a few people the go ahead to sell printed models for a small markup', but I truly doubt that is the case as they would have to own the rights to create the physical items in the first place and that is something I do not believe they hold.

design_for_cheaper_3d_printing

Shapeways Tutorials

Lost One, on 19 October 2013 - 10:37 PM, said:

Does going metal over plastic effect the detail on the model at all?

And the very helpful materials list and tolerances, this is rules to build by and level of detail information on each of their materials.

[TheGreatNoNo]

Welp. Here is my attempt. Any paint I use on them turns..........sparkly. Also these are more or less test pieces until I sort of figure out just what the hell I am doing. Also I had to use epoxy filler on the cataphract because it "Has too many shells," or has pieces that just are not connected ect. I also have a cicada that is on its way....but its cockpit glass does not print because of the "Shell" issue, I will poke around to see what that is later. The cents left torso and CT were not attatched and had to be altered just a little so that shapeways printer would print them as one, which kind of surprises me because the phract has more pieces that are just hovering then the cent but it had no issues.
Ignore the paint jobs. I can`t paint worth anything anymore so I am thinking about just getting them printed in black one I figure it all out.

Edited by Lost One, 13 November 2013 - 09:50 PM.

[Pariah Devalis]

Looks like you need to give them a scrub with mineral oil and a toothbrush. Really scrub them. Then put down a primer coat. Should smooth off small surface imperfections, eliminate the sparklies on the finished paint job, and let the paint stick a lot better.

Otherwise? Fantastic metal models!

[Level1Firebolt]

Looking good! What material is that, aluminide? Yeah, I also printed in 'cheap' materials before I actually got the metal ones in production.

I ran into similar shell problems with my cataphract model. At least for me, the issue was 'floating parts;' parts that were not connected to the rest of the mech. I had to just move those pieces in blender so everything was connected. I don't think the problems is just that there are multiple shells- shapeways claims that they can merge many of these shells before printing.

[TheGreatNoNo]

Default "White and strong." I want to make sure I have everything correct before I hand over 50-100 dollars (depending on scale) for a mech, plus ........I want me a army of mediums......

I have the Cent fixed and now hopfully the Cicada, but the Phract is being REALLY REALLY stubborn, will probably end up taking the same route which is a pain in the ***, looks ok, but is actully pretty damned sloppy.


EDIT: Did you have any real trouble with the catapult?

Edited by Lost One, 15 November 2013 - 09:13 PM.

[Frozen Spirit Jac]

Skye Storm, on 17 October 2013 - 07:30 PM, said:

Will someone please release the files so others can 3d print I mean c'mon we need this stuff lol.

Here here, the committee agree...

[dak irakoz]

yay Centurion!

[TheGreatNoNo]

Why not. I will upload what I have. Just keep in mind the cataphract has issues with shells and will print minus two pannles right next to the head and front part of the bycep missing on both arms, and I will upload them as they clear from printing (I just fixed the Cent and I wwant to make sure it prints just fine ) As for the cicada I am still having issues.

OR I can give you the cicada as is. Meaning it will print WITHOUT a cockpit and a pannle in its back giving it a nice sized hole that you gota fill in.

Edited by Lost One, 19 November 2013 - 02:07 PM.

[Skye Storm]

What does it mean to clean up the models?

[ssm]

Skye Storm, on 19 November 2013 - 02:25 PM, said:

What does it mean to clean up the models?

Removing flash, mold lines, bubbling etc. - generally bringing model to the state you think is suitable for priming/painting.

[TheGreatNoNo]

I think he meant the models in blender. Depends on what your doing. Cleaning up for shapeways meants basicly removing things like the luggage racks/straps/latters on the mechs, making sure that every piece is attached and not simply hovering in place like the HBKs forarm lasers (pretty EVERY MECH has pieces not attached and must be attached)

However just follow this thread up to the texture stuff in order to make something printable - http://mwomercs.com/...ing-pgis-mechs/ - That thread REALLY needs a sticky.

EDIT: Okay, here is the rar with a Awesome, Cicada (Non scale, larger test piece. It is about three inches tall) CNT9A/CNT9D tester and a Cataphract. Keep in mind I have not fixed all the issues with these yet, expect maybe the Cent, and I am still waiting to see how its print goes. So if your okay with doing a test print yourself then hit it. Just upload to shapeways the OBJ files and do whatever .

Also edit, I barly have a blasted clue as to what I am doing , so do not expect anything more then what THATONE has done on his already.


EDIT:Pulled the zip because I found enough wrong with all the models that it is pointless to post them at this time.

Edited by Lost One, 25 November 2013 - 02:40 PM.