My first 3D print!

[The Axeman]

OK, a few weeks ago I decided to try out the 3D printing process at www.shapeways.com and make one of my 3D models into a real, physical model. I spent some time building my USS Kilimanjaro model from scratch, this time in a manor which would allow it to be converted to a .stl model format for the 3D printing machine. It's quite different to modelling for animation or images, so it took me a bit of getting used to.

Anyway I made the model, uploaded it in a variety of sizes and chose a middling size in a material they were actually phasing out. It is called 'Alumide', and is supposed to look somewhat metallic. It doesn't really, it's more like grey primer with glitter through it, but what the hell. They say 10 days for your order to arrive world-wide, but after it was printed they posted it UPS and it made its way from the Nederlands to Germany to the central belt of Scotland in around 24 hours. Most impressive. Anyway, here's the pics...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2690/4458260830_1d1b24bce3_o.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/4458260986_27ff4cbf24_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2755/4458261142_a202fbae82_o.jpg

Apologies for the quality, I had to use my webcam as my DSLR is on loan to a friend for baby pictures and my iPhone cable is at work. You'll also have to deal with my ugly face, but we're all men here, right?

Anyway, on to first imressions. Small. This stuff is relatively expensive to produce so I didn't go for a big model on the first try. What you see cost me $35, or about £22 in real money, and that's with the saucer and secondary hull hollowed out somewhat to save money. Also the alumide doesn't show the detail well, and most of the finer detail is lost in the model. For small, detailed objects you're better to use their 'white detailed' material, but that costs nearly 3 times more than Alumide or their basic 'strong, white, flexible' material. I would rather spend to make the model a good deal larger so the detail showed up in the basic material than spend the same on small with the detailed stuff.

The material I got feels like ceramic, when you put it down on a table it sounds like a china cup. It's probably too brittle for my sausage hands, so I'll be choosing the strong white flexible stuff next time to avoid any tears. I'll also be modeling a stand onto the thing tomorrow, so anyone else ordering it will have it upright without difficulty.

Will I be using the service again? Hell yes! I cant stop playing with the thing, and have plans for other stuff I want to make. I've just made a set of custom guitar volume and tone knobs which I'm ordering now, and I've more sci-fi stuff I want to play with. It's expensive, yes, but for a one-off custom model to your own design? One day I hope to have a little line up of my own designs on the top of my TV unit which I can show off.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Very nice!

 

[judexavier]

That looks like way too much fun...I'm afraid I could get seriously addicted to Shapeways...well, after I learn to 3D model.

Nice.

 

[Clawhammer]

Cool!

I'm so eager to do one myself, but I need to RESTRAIN for now!

Nice job!

 

[MadMan1701A]

Awesome. I wonder how much a 1:350 model of my constellation would cost.

 

[Masao]

Axeman: How thin can the walls be? As thin as parts on a styrene kit?

 

[judexavier]

Awesome. I wonder how much a 1:350 model of my constellation would cost.

Heck, just for budget's sake, (my meager budget anyway) you could design the model into, I don't know, 5 or 10 decent sized sub-assemblies, then buy one every month or so...then in a few months assemble a nice little model...you know what else would be cool, once assembled, you could mold it, some sort of lost-wax casting, and make a nice heavy metal piece.

 

[The Axeman]

Depends on the material and the design. They post specs on their website under the materials section listing the smallest details and minimum wall thickness for each. It goes down to fractions of a millimeter in some cases. I think sizes down to a millimeter in thickness are easily do-able, if the design will stand it and not simply snap under its own weight. When you upload a model it seems to automatically exclude materials that your model is too small or thin for.

I've seen video on Youtube of their standard 'white, strong & flexible' material and it's like a blister pack of tiny pills and the guy is twisting it all sorts of ways. I didn't go styrene thin with my model in Alumide, but now I have a much better idea of what I can get away with I wont be so conservative next time. There's a knack to making the models for this kind of printing though, I cant simply convert my existing stuff as the specs are very different and far more rigorous than simple animation models. I dont think I can do the full colour versions either with lightwave, but a large enough model would be easily paintable.

Oh, for those on a micro budget be aware that the minimum order is $25 to make it worth their while hogging a machine for ages. I was going to order a single volume knob I made for my guitar, but a couple of bucks wont cut it. I'm off to make a version of my USS Vigilant and see how big I can get it for decent money.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I was going to order a single volume knob I made for my guitar

It goes to 11, doesn't it?

Cool model.

 

[wildstar]

You should keep that as a master, sand it, smooth it where you want to etc. Then use it to make casts from and have as many ships as you want.
Yeah, they need stl's don't they? Watertight too, difficult to do depending on the model.
I had the same done of scans of my head to put on action figures. Scale was always an issue, but it worked out.

 

[The Axeman]

Yes, the volume knob goes to 11, it could be no other way.

They accept a variety of formats Wildstar, but the only one I can really convert to easily from Lightwave is the .stl format. The watertight bit is half the battle, every bit of it must be manifold and with no unmatched edges. From Lightwave I have to convert everything to triangles, make sure every point is welded and then run the export script. I then view it in the free Viscam viewer to figure out the scale and highlight where the problems are. Scale is an odd one, I've ended up with 1m in Lightwave = 1mm in .stl format. Getting the hang of it now, more models going to get printed soon...

 

[USS Jack Riley]

I know you said the pics were not high quality, so I was wondering if those were imperfections in the surface detail (it looks lottled in the pics - or my monitor - take your pick) or the flecks you said were part of the material used?

Either way, fine job.

 

[The Axeman]

Better picture here...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/4460242264_e576486107_b.jpg

Man I miss my DSLR. The surface is mottled slightly and there is some banding on the flat section of the saucer from the layering method of printing. Normally a model this size would be best made from their detail material, but I wanted to see what Alumide material was like as I thought it might look metallic at a tenth the price of real metal prints. It's not, it's grey ceramic with aluminium flakes in it, making it sparkly and grey. It's also no good for showing small details, so we live and learn. My next venture will be larger and in their 'strong white and flexible' material, which is slightly more detailed and can go larger for the same money.

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Very nice.

 

[Patrin-Zero]

Shapeways would be all to temping a resource to obtain all the various saucer sections, hulls and nacelles (and other bits) to kitbash things you want to bring into the physical world.

That said, let me crack open my piggy bank !

**Thanks for sharing Axeman !!**

 

[Kaiser]

Nice little ship you got there

 

[137th Gebirg]

Agreed! Awesome job! Since it's partially hollow, you can drill a few holes in it and you can make it a refit Kelvin salt shaker prop!

Seriously, though, I wish I had the time and money to make something like this happen on a bigger scale. I would love to get a decent-sized, maybe half-studio scale TOS Galactica. The models being built now that the reference photos have been released would make it very appealing. Alas, it always comes down to available cash...

 

[The Axeman]

I just tried a test model to see if hollowing out in certain ways helps the cost. Opinion is now divided on the subject. I tried a 30cm long stand-in version of my USS Vigilant, basically an undetailed boxy representation of it, and it came in at about $330. That's with it hollowed! I tried the same hollow model, but opened up the shuttlebay as well so the entire interior is open to air, and it came in at $400??? I need to go on their forums and do some research. I want to make the equivelant of a styrene model, a couple of mm thick and reasonably large, but it looks like I may have to make it in sections.

 

[Q2UnME]

Axeman, couldn't you break your ship mesh down into 3 or 4 sub-assemblies and then just assemble it like one would a resin kit? Might allow you to get more detail per part that way and still keep each part hollow? Might be cheaper and be able to yeild a larger overall model (when assembled).

Q2

 

[The Axeman]

Yeah, it could easily be done like that. Just build the model in one go, but keep the different parts in different layers. I'm still playing around with techniques to find the best way to get the biggest, cheapest model.