I need to find a Model making company for my designs

[Buck Rogers]

Hi all,

I need to find a low cost model making company to make plastic models of my designs for a sketchbook I'm writing.

Signed

Buck Rogers

 

[The Axeman]

One solution might be rapid prototyping. Get some models of your designs made in 3D and simply upload them to a 3D printing firm like www.shapeways.com and have them churned out in the material of your choice. You can paint them if you need to have them look finished as well.

3D Printing is the quickest way to get your designs from virtual to actual, and small ones make great game pieces and ornaments. Cost is usually calculated by volume, with the type of material altering the price as well. Low detail sandstone stuff is usually cheapest, high detail or metal costing the most. Your first step will be making the 3D models, or getting someone to make them for you.

 

[Saquist]

So if I asked for an 18" model of my ship I've designed for Trek...they'd do it?

 

[137th Gebirg]

I would say...Yes. And it looks...AWESOME!

 

[dubeau]

Wow. This is fantastic. I was searching for something like this...I had request from some peoples to make jewelries and stuff. Seems great.

 

[The Axeman]

I'm going to get two or three small ones done as a test, there's a couple of people wanting models of designs they proposed or liked. Since Lightwave doesn't have native support for the print format I need to convert the models, and also go through them to check for things that stop the printing process. I may just remake them in lo detail to see how it works.

 

[Buck Rogers]

I'll ask one of my friends if he could do 3d prototyping he uses all kinds of material,
I heard that Fantastic Plastic will also take 3d,and 2d sketches,and turn them into snap together models.
I'll update as soon as I'm ready for publication.

Signed

Buck Rogers

 

[Forbin]

Pop on ovdr the www.starshipmodeler.com and ask around. There are a lot of garage kit manufacturers and pattern makers over there.

 

[Q2UnME]

That Shapeways website is too cool. I wonder what the cost would be, if say someone wanted deg's Enterprise 0.5.2 or Vektor's Enterprise made at roughly 11" long, say 1/1000th. scale? I'm sure deg or Vektor could make thier meshes into say, 4 separate components (primary hull, secondary hull with neck, 2 warp engines with "struts"). Knowing next to zip about 3D modeling and what software they use, I'm wondering how hard would it be? I'd easily go $100 - $150 a ship if it could be done. Of course, I realize it would be more like building a resin model but thier ships are that good that I'd give it a shot - to take thier beautiful computer art, get it "printed", assemble and finish it, yielding a "practical" model. Wonder if deg or Vek would be up for it?

Q2

 

[dubeau]

I wonder what the cost would be, if say someone wanted deg's Enterprise 0.5.2 or Vektor's Enterprise
Q2

I put my Proctor ship there...a 30inch long model would cost around 350$. I scale it down to 7inch and it cost 23-35$. So the price is very dependant on the scale. I am refining my model because the model needs to be water tight (No holes or manifold). You need some softwares to do the conversion tho...

 

[The Axeman]

There's a script for converting my lightwave models, but the hard bit is making the model watertight. Price is based on material per cubic centimeter of volume, so a borg sphere or cube in metal is going to cost a fortune.

 

[Q2UnME]

I wonder what the cost would be, if say someone wanted deg's Enterprise 0.5.2 or Vektor's Enterprise
Q2

I put my Proctor ship there...a 30inch long model would cost around 350$. I scale it down to 7inch and it cost 23-35$. So the price is very dependant on the scale. I am refining my model because the model needs to be water tight (No holes or manifold). You need some softwares to do the conversion tho...

That's why I figured a 1/1000th. scale (approx 11" long, same size as Polar Lights offering) might be affordable. That's also assuming that deg's and Vektor's ships are roughly the same scale as the TOS Enterprise. As for the software side, I'll bow to you and others expertise. I just thought it would be really cool to build a physical model of each of these two ships - fan favorites around these parts - for a price that won't break the bank and have some pretty exacting detail. I just wonder if they'd be open to giving it a try or if it would even be possible (from a technical standpoint).

Q2UnME

 

[The Axeman]

It's perfectly possible, assuming they are willing to put in the time converting the model to the correct format with the correct specs. It cant hurt to ask.

 

[Forbin]

Mind you, it would be wise to add some locating tabs and slots so it goes together like a real model kit.

 

[FalTorPan]

There's a script for converting my lightwave models, but the hard bit is making the model watertight. Price is based on material per cubic centimeter of volume, so a borg sphere or cube in metal is going to cost a fortune.

Make them hollow, and they will cost significantly less. Instead of a cube, make it six squares, or a cube minus one face, with the sixth face as a separate piece that you can glue on later.

 

[Q2UnME]

Mind you, it would be wise to add some locating tabs and slots so it goes together like a real model kit.

True, which I think 3D CGI masters like deg or Vektor could do simply. I'm not that tech savvy when it comes to what they do and show us here. Hell, I don't have a clue as to what it would take to make the mesh "water tight" or convert it into the "printable file format". I'd also think that there would have to be some "dumbing down" of the mesh to get it into a printable form. I'd think that once the mesh is done, these guys could take orders for the models and let the company "print them" and then sell them to us, with a markup to cover their time for creating the mesh in the first place. If we had to get the models made through them, at least they could make some money too and retain control of their mesh creation.

Q2UnME

 

[dubeau]

There is also a limit of 500 000 polygons (not much). I find out that all my ship have at least 1millions and more, since there are always part with nurbs. Even the Titan has 1.4 millions and it's the most conservative. Meshlab is suppose to do the work but it takes 1 hour to do 10% of a model.

 

[Q2UnME]

^ but what if you broke your ship mesh down into 4 or 5 large parts? Each "part" could then be up to 500,000 polygons and be it's own individual file. That would allow 2 million to 2.5 million polygons for the entire creation. I'm looking at it from a "resin model" kit prospective, where there would be several pieces that would have to be glued together. If each piece was it's own file to be printed, I'd think you could get the detail you wanted in the finished project using the polygon limit per piece..

Q2UnME

 

[dubeau]

Ah. Ok, that's logical. I never done a ship that way...in the sens that it could be a kit. In this case you have to change your model I suppose, to fit together.

 

[The Axeman]

Dont worry, I wouldn't be bothering the printing company with a simple cube or sphere.

With the right material for the model, you could use it to make moulds and create your own resin models of the original.