posted 10-08-2014 03:47 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by keymichael1855:
It is a full scale lunar hammer replica, made from 3D printed parts.

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posted 10-15-2014 09:59 PM               

Here is another project that I recently completed. It is a large scale Mercury shingle panel replica. This one is 1:1.25 scale, as a 1:1 printed part was almost twice as expensive as this one. The panel itself is about 16" square, and I produced the 3D model with the artwork slightly raised in order for me to use it as a guide to hand paint it. I'll be honest, I don't know how Cece did it, because it was a difficult part to paint and I had a "cheat sheet." It is amazing how she was able to attain the original result by "free-handing" it- very impressive and a true testament to her ability. She was very talented! Here are the pics of my replica:

posted 10-25-2014 10:39 PM            

Having read quite a bit about 3D printed parts in general, I still wasn't quite sure how easy or difficult these would be to clean up work with and paint, much less how much fine detail they'd have. First off, I got my parts under a week from when I submitted my order to Shapeways. They came in little zip lock baggies in a small padded box in perfect condition.

Detail is indeed pretty amazing, especially the LES tower legs, skirt and motors which is all one piece (the LES tube shaped body and BPC cone are the other 3 pieces). I will say you can see tiny pattern marks like the part was shaped with a mill in some spots as well as some sandy looking "grain" on the inside of the tower legs that are nearly impossible to sand off in certain areas due to fear of damaging nearby raised detail or just plain inaccessible. I didn't want to try any chemical soaking tricks to smooth or "melt" off marks or grain like I've seen on YouTube clips for fear of destroying the parts. It just wasn't that big of a deal.

I cleaned the parts by soaking them on a small glass jar of Bestine (they have a slightly oily feel out of the bag) for an hour, then scrubbed them gently with a toothbrush. At this point, as the parts dry, they go from a sort of translucent to near white color. I then cleaned the fine film left on the parts with warm dish soap and water and let them dry overnight.

I needed to gingerly cut out a rectangular slot on the BPC base for the Service Module Umbilical that sits against the back of the Command Module. Next day I gave the parts a light dusting of rattle can Tamiya Light Gray surface primer which helped obliterate some of the unwanted etch marks and gave me a surface to sand smoother (where I could) and paint my final coat of Flat White acrylic with an airbrush.

One problem I quickly ran into was that it's pretty much impossible to completely paint the four motors of the LES through the tower legs. So after airbrushing the parts Flat White and sealing them with Mr Hobby Super Clear Flat and letting them dry overnight, I *very* carefully cut the tower leg framework off at the skirt so I could easily paint with a tiny brush the four motors Gun Metal. Then I carefully super glued the tower back onto the skirt and glued the rocket body to the skirt/tower assembly and then glued the LES to the BPC.

If I could make one design change suggestion, it would be to have the LES rocket body *and* the skirt and rockets as one piece and the tower frame the other piece for all scales instead of the skirt, rockets and frame the one part.

The only minor issues aside from having to cut off and re-attach the tower to the skirt was that the BPC is a fraction to big at the base so it has a little slop and is a bit wobbly when it sits on the recessed Service Module lip. I considered lining the inside of the bottom ring of the BPC with .010x.040 strip evergreen styrene plastic to make the fit snug but just decided that giving the inside of the BPC a couple thick coats of white primer would do the job which for the most part worked.

It should be mentioned that the BPC part is remarkably *very* thin, probably about .015 at its thinnest. This means it's pretty flexible and actually warped a bit out of round at the base when I cleaned it. My solution was I found a small empty paint jar that was exactly the same diameter inside as the outside of the BPC base so I simply fit it in the top of the jar and let it sit in the warm afternoon sun before primering. After that, it went back to its round shape and retained that shape.

One nagging detail is the geometry of the hatch doesn't follow the top and bottom contour of the BPC but at this scale, it's a very minor quibble.

posted 10-28-2014 07:23 AM               

Good suggestion on separating the parts differently to make the escape motors easier to paint. I've done so already with the 1:72 scale version, but haven't incorporated that change into all scales yet. The slightly oversized BPC is there to allow for tolerances in the printed material. Parts can vary in size depending on the orientation that it is printed. Others have ordered this part and had it fit nice and snug. Better a bit too big than too small!

posted 10-29-2014 02:44 PM               

The detail on even the smaller parts is amazing. Here is the 1:200 scale BPC:

It's only .75" in diameter, but has all the detail of the larger scale versions. Anyway, hope some of this helps- thanks!

quote:

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Originally posted by Planetary:
...feel free to use my photos on your site/page.

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posted 11-11-2014 11:46 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by keymichael1855:
Also, give me a little more information on what "cones" you might need on the Saturn V kits. Are they missing from the kits, or just not accurate?

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The best way I can show you is these two links to photos of Martin Rasmussens' incredible 1/48 scale scratch built Saturn V. The two photos show the respective Thrust Structures.

The SIVB photo includes the long tube-like hydrogen feed line which I wouldn't recommend including as it's an easy part to scratch build and would only complicate the 3D printing of the part. The aft end of the visible bottom of the spherical hydrogen tank that the thrust structure attaches to on the S-IVB third stage could be included but the larger 1/96 and 1/72 Revell and Dragon kits include that part as part of those kits very inaccurate thrust structures and would simply need to be cut off the kits' part for use with a more accurate 3D printed part.

• S-II Stage
  
• S-IVB Stage

posted 11-19-2014 09:11 PM               

They have movable switches, and are held to the display bases with magnets- making them completely removable. I wanted to give him the flexibility to display them however he likes. He also wanted a "weathered" look to give them a post-flight look.

posted 11-20-2014 04:59 AM               

Second, the labels really must state that these are reproductions or models. Also I hope that some marking has been made on the units themselves to distinguish them. Otherwise they are misleading, maybe not for the current owner but for everyone else.

Third, please give proper credit for my images you are using on your photo page.

posted 02-04-2016 08:24 AM               

I used decals for the "racing stripes." I wrapped an SRB in foil and roughly traced where the stripes should go. I then unwrapped the foil and scanned it in. I used CAD to clean up the linework, then Photoshop for the final artwork. Time consuming, but once I had one half of one SRB, it was just mirroring and copying to get the rest. They were huge — it took three sheets of letter sized decal paper for the pair!

posted 02-04-2016 03:02 PM               

It took quite a bit of figuring out, but got there in the end, keeping me informed with the build, asking for my input and any suggestions that I wanted to include.