Hello! I recently bought my first pieces from shapeways, some head replacements and I was looking the site over today when an idea struck me. I have been DYING for a statue or bust of Sunstreaker and Sideswipe and I was thinking maybe 3d printing is the way to go. I would love something like this this... Anyone know if this is even a doable idea? Of course I could go with a bust design like Diamond Select or something. But yeah can anyone tell me if this is just a pipe dream of if I can honestly get someone to design these for me?
A static (i.e. non articulated) bust, is certainly very doable via 3D printing. It would be VERY costly to print anything but a tiny miniature from Shapeways, however, and of course finding an artist of sufficient calibur to do the modelling work for you won't be cheap either. But yeah. It's possible, for sure.
How costly from Shapeways? I mean I don't mind shelling out 200 for a bust. And I'm sure I can find someone to do the 3D render or whatever I did go to art school lol so I know people I think.
very costly from shapeways. it actually says on the materials page how much the stuff is by the cm cubed, but for a delux-sized-ish figure in something relatively cheap you'd likely be over the $150 mark imo. Not to mention the finish isn't amazing. Ceramic is cheap but can't hold any detail. Metal is ludicrously expensive. on the other hand, there are loads of nice 3d models of transformers (usually ripped from games tbh) floating around the internet. i'm sure you can find something somebody has done already without too much effort.
Buy a cheap/Broken lambo transformer cut it up, glue/apoxie it in place, and then add details using styrene/apoxie.
Honestly, I'd recommend picking up google sketchup and learning yourself, then making your own dreams come true. The sort of work that'd be involved in rendering a statue like that Red Alert would involve a lot of man-hours, so commissioning the design alone would be expensive. The printing, well there's no avoiding the cost there but you're okay with that so cool...I'd probably recommend using WSF polished and maybe have the head/high detail areas printed separate in FUD, then the last step is painting...which probably would be relatively cheap compared to the rest, even if you commission a painter. Honestly, my best advice is pick up sketchup, make this a labour of love and spend maybe a year rendering them, then get others to help with the painting. you won't regret it, and from everything you learn doing it you'll be able to draw up anything else you could possibly want without much trouble at all. I hope you do it, because it's something I'd love to follow progress on.
I like the way you are thinking there because after some thought I think what I want is one statue with both brothers together. I'm thinking something like these... Starting with a base that is an environment both twins can be incorperated into and a pose for the twins that is a little dynamic but mainly something that shows that closeness that makes Sideswipe the only bot Sunstreaker can work with lol.
Another thing you could do is find a Hacker Space...If there are any around your area... There is one near where I work, and they have 3d printers and if you have a really good computer model, they will let you do it for the cost of the plastic.