same here.

as much as I appreciate how much work went into the design, when I see that plastic in the pics..everything goes limp.

Ive ordered stuff from shapeways before, and as much as I hate to say it..the plastic is just not there yet. Ive tried a couple different qualities..and everytime its been a let down.

I look at that joint for the tail section that will replace the stock tail, and I immediately think it will just rip, or tear the very first time I would try to turn it, or even put it on.

When the plastic actually comes up to part with factory stuff, I will be buying shit like this all the time. Seriously..Shapeways will be my store. Until then, ive been let down everytime. its never the design..its always the plastic.

The design here is killer..I would order this in a second if I knew it would be tough. Nice job there!

 

It kinda pisses me off that with only slight retooling/alternate transformations, Quickslinger and Firefly could have had different alt modes.

 

And we could have gotten a better, spaceship like, Blast Off with little effort.

 

Shouldn't the rotor be higher? it looks like it's still hangs behind his butt like Alpha Bravo.

I don't like AB's rotors, because alot of heliformers have that classic rotor silhoutte, and AB's transformation doesnt allow that look it seems

I'll definitely get the shoulders though, I like the squared-off look better.

Are you thinking of making a new head for Vortex? I know people are satisfied with AB's head, but I'd love something more G1 accurate

 

Greetings. Excellent work. I'm new to this custom CAD plastic printing deal. I'm eyeing on having my cads printed as well. Great Job.

 

 

Nice work SteamShield

 

Will this be available in colored plastics?

 

Looks so sweet.   I'll find a way to get this for sure to help CW Vortex look more different then Bravo and Blades.

 

Once I get Vortex in hand I am ordering all of these. What's the best type of paint to use on the 3D printed material? Any specific brands to recommend?

 

No, better paint yourself to achieve consistancy.

I used Tamya AS-10 on gray primer.

 

See here's what im trying to say. I don't think the upgrade makes the rotors higher like you said it does. Looks the same, no?

 

Not by a lot I agree, only a tiny bit. The pivot point raises about 5mm and on my latest version the axis of the rotor was raised another 5mm. But you are right, 10mm does not save the mold. I have to do something else  

 

I know man, the mold just doesn't allow for that kind of design it seems...

The rotor silhoutte is classic though, don't know why AB wasn't designed with that in mind.

I'm followin this thread though cause I like vortex. Already buying the shoulders.

 

Something else you might wanna consider: moving the rotors up in bot mode is only half the problem. You will also have to devise a way to move them back to the center of the fuselage in vehicle mode so that it doesn't seem to be too far up front.

 

Thanks folks. I am still working on this guy by the way. trying a new print of the rotor that I thought people might like:

 

I have an idea on how to raise the rotors, but it's probably expensive and will probably require a lot of work. and i'm not sure, but you may have tried it already and i'm forgetful + too lazy to look it up. Also, i would like to appologize in advance for my poor description skills.

In addition to making new rotors, make a new assembly piece that fits onto the base mold part where the normal rotor goes, and then can have the rotors inserted into it. in vehicle mode, this piece locks on with... something. Then in robot mode, you can flip the regular part of the rotor assembly to a 90 degree angle with the body, which would normally cause the rotors to be at a 90 degree angle as well, but instead, we use a hinged piece on the new, shapeways assembly part to move the rotors to be parallel to the body. and because the new assembly piece is attached to the base assembly piece by the rotor hole part, we can rotate it to be on vortex's back when we do this, allowing the old piece and Vortex's back to form a 90 degree angle which will hold it in place.

I'll try to sketch some pictures later, but hopefully i did a good enough job describing it you can kind of tell what i'm talking about.

 

Are those swords? Nice! Would work amazingly well for Blades.

 

Cool!

 

so, you should still make a new cockpit, but i had an idea that would make it a tad different, instead of folding the halves of the cockpit up onto the sides of the legs as per the stock transformation, use those same ball joints as ankles and shape the cockpit in such a way that the halves actually BECOME the feet.

 

I don't really think this is a good idea. The existing robot mode legs homage the G1 toy and in my opinion, that's quite cool!