Altho I didn’t buy a lot of it, I really digged the Hero Factory figures. Since they are now gone I decided to design my own- but more robot like. So I scrambled to finish designing this by Black Friday to take advantage of Shapeways coupon. The various holes you see are supposed to be for clip on armor. These are mere prototypes, and show me what improvements and changes to be made. But overall I’m happy. Happy enough to share at least.
This was printed via Shapeways? Wow really impressed by the design and detail and that the detail printed so clean. Especially the underside of the foot.....did you have to model supports to achieve the detail and for all the other parts. I started doing some 3D printing myself, but found it limited on how much and detail I can model because the 3Dprinters to print clean depend on the angles, orientation, shapes, overhangs with supports and other factors to avoid the “spaghetti/stringing” effect and prints failing. But your parts look like great! Please do tell Thanks in advance
Yeah, Shapeways did all right. Some details printed well, others really well. Sure, I'm gonna go back and try and improve some of the details to better take advantage of their tolerances. As for 'supports'- no I did not model any. I was actually surprised that these parts were accepted. Now this is their strong and flexible- or whatever they are calling it this year- stuff, so maybe I'd have to model supports if using a different plastic / process? I really do wish I'd reached deeper into my wallet and print the head...
Interesting...never used them before. Now the possibility for me. May I ask what was the cost involved? I assumed each part (ball joint to ball joint) are a different individual STL file or all a single print? Thanks
Pretty much as you said: upper torso, waist, upper arm, lower arm, upper leg, lower leg, foot- averaging to be $5 - $8 each.
Shapeways uses a different printing technology to standard FDM. That's why they can achieve some of the detailing that they do on these designs that would be more difficult to achieve through FDM. The down side is that the sintering method used by Shapeways on these parts, produces that grainy surface that is hard to get totally smooth. So, both are useful, depending on application. Shapeways can also upgrade you on the surface finish if you're willing to pay more for the other materials/processing. You can achieve these details with FDM if you plan out your print orientation. Anyway, that said...awesome design work and looks like it was a big success.
Here’s my first 3D printed project for reference. Shoulder add-on for GCreation Optimus Prime Here’s where I found limited from the factors I mentioned in my earlier post. Shoulder Articulation Add-on Set for GCreation Ultra GDW 01 - Ultra Maxmas
They give off a Bionicle vibe. Much more faithful to the original design than that mediocre 2015 reboot.
Makes sense, since Hero Factory was the line between BIONICLE and its reboot and the parts for one line were also used for the other. I'm interested to see where you go with this, since BIONICLE/HF were a huge part of my son's childhood so I will ALWAYS have a soft spot for them.
