Inspiration for this drone was this pic: TFWiki Image Link I made a version of the drone to be printed on Shapeways. Thanks to their backlog of Frosted Ultra Detail, it took a hell of a long time to get here, but i finally got my model nonetheless. Hopefully that means D/L will get his soon as well. I must say, i really like the FUD material. It's ridiculously expensive, but the material is really good for small details, and requires very little cleaning (i just did the recommended warm water bath, let it soak for a few minutes to remove any excess material). Also, it's really clear, which is nice. If only it weren't so pricey... Anyways, here's the model, printed in FUD: I deliberately rotated pretty much everything in the last pic, to demonstrate that the drone (printed in 5 parts: body,head, 2x wings, stand) does have articulation built in. The head can rotate 360 degrees, and so can the wings. I have to say, i really love how the camera captures the FUD material. With a lighter background, the FUD almost disappears. Makes the stand much less noticeable. Hope you guys like the Scanner Drone, it's available on my Shapeways shop, TA1 Scanner Drone by Treadshot A1 on Shapeways
Love it! I always like pieces like this sticking in peoples displays. The problem I have with shapeways is that the end result is not smooth enough. The rough surface takes a lot away from the joy of printing custom parts. iDD
He came out looking great! As far as the "roughness" issue, your mileage will vary depending on your personal level of OCD, but it always looks MUCH worse in the pics than it does in person, especially the detail materials. D/L
Thanks! As for the smoothness, i really like the first picture of it unpainted. You can clearly see one wing (the closer one) looks 'rough' while the other looks smooth as silk. Really good example of how being too close to the camera makes the material look a lot worse than it really is. Thanks bro. I agree, the materials do look much better in person, even WSF isn't that rough, plus you're likely going to be painting most things, which only makes it more smooth. Thanks guys. I like to think it'd fit into most displays.
I noticed on your cad file the pieces are arranged suspended in mid air. It could be helpful to lay them out as close to the floor as possible, as flat as possible. This reduces print time and makes the print quality more consistent, as SW will be recommended to print them flat. It will help remove those print lines on the side panels too so they'll be smoother.
This is not a criticism, just a question. Have you ever tried sanding the printed parts after you get them? I was interested to know if a printed part could be sanded then molded using RTV to get a mold of a more perfect part for resin.
FUD is very, very sandable. Maybe even to the level of mirror polish. Not so sure how the RTV silicone will react to it though.
Thanks bro. I'm working on other Drones. Hmm, never knew that. I always model with my parts suspended in mid air, since it makes it easier to see how the parts will come together. I didn't know it would affect the printing, though. I'm thinking the wings would be the only bit that might suffer, I can certainly see with the print lines on mine that the wings were printed on an angle, just like in the cad file. Not really at all noticeable, especially since the wings are painted anyways, but I might go back and change it later. Thanks for sharing your knowledge bro. Need I state it again, Thugger is awesome. Any material from Shapeways in the plastics section can be sanded in my experience, and I've tried FUD, TD, BD, Strong and Flexible and Alumide. I would think that any of them would be good enough for making a mold with, but no doubt FUD would be the most suitable. It's very smooth even on opening, my scanner has a mirror smooth finish on 90% of it. Maybe some fine grit wet-sanding, but little more than that would be necessary. As for making the mold, I have no idea if RTV would work. Hell, I don't even know what it stands for. Certainly mine I would describe as 'Mirror' smooth (though obviously you don't see you face in it), but then again, I'm not sure that would work for silicone moulding. Thanks for the help Fakebusker.