[Edit 7/27/23] I've done a pretty big overhaul on the head and torso. New design in this post. For some time now I've been working on an Nendoroid styled Arcee figure. Originally I was going to try to make it transform (most of the car mode would fold up into her head and the head would form the back of the car) but there were a few too many challenges so I decided to focus on making a good non-transforming figure and maybe someday I'll go back and take another crack at transformation. So first off, because you can't make a thread in this section without something physical to show, here's my quick and dirty test print. It's pretty rough - I didn't do any post processing at all except to make some of the joints fit together and I printed it at a sub-optimal resolution to get it done quickly. Also I realized after I'd already printed almost all the parts that I was running the printer too hot which causes the parts to fuse to the supports too strongly (which accounts for a lot of the rough edges like in the middle of her waist). Just a quick print to make sure everything works. And it doesn't: most joints are too tight while a few are too loose, the waist didn't fit together like it was supposed to, the top part of the bicep broke off (hence the exposed peg), the waist ball joints didn't work at all, it's broken in five places including one of the waist joints and both of the pauldron attachments, and it's about a centimeter taller than I'd intended (was meant to be the same size as Nendoroid figures). But that's what tests are for. I just finished revising all the problem areas and will be starting on the next test print tonight. Once I'm satisfied with how the test print comes out, I'll move on to creating alternate faces and hands (including hands with guns) and then I'll be printing her at high resolution in a nicer material. PETG or PLA+ (haven't decided yet), both of which are more flexible and should resist breakage (PETG also has the added benefit of being more heat resistant but I'm not sure how much that matters). The plan is to print in pink and white so that, if the paint gets nicked, it won't look as bad since the exposed color will be similar to the top. Going to use heavy amounts of pearl in the white and pink paints and some nice metallic in the lavender, black, and grey parts. Below are renders from the front, side, and back. The pauldron design is a holdover from when she was going to transform (I did downsize it quite a bit, though) and I may redesign it to look more like what it did in the cartoon. Let me know what you guys think. I might consider producing a limited run (very limited - like half a dozen maybe) if enough people ask for it so let me know what kind of features or add-ons you think might go well with the figure (I probably won't go too crazy with add-ons but I am considering doing a small Daniel figure with limited articulation ). But, if I do produce some for sale (and for now this is little more than a pipe dream so don't get your hopes up too much - I'm not going to decide for sure if I'll be making any to sell until I've finished the first one and have some idea how much effort will go into it), it'll be pretty expensive - there's a lot of work that goes into finishing a 3D print to make it look professionally manufactured, even when printed at high res. Also, at present there are no plans to sell or give away printed kits or stl files - just fyi.
Depends on just how nice the new printer is to me at higher resolution. If it requires minimal sanding and the supports come off cleanly, I could see it being as low as $120. More likely somewhere in the $150-200 range. That's a ridiculous price for a Nendoroid, I know, but my time is valuable to me and it's a lot of work to get something like this to come out right. I don't expect many people to be willing to shell out that much so that, plus the fact that I just don't want to commit a huge amount of my time to the project for the long term are why I would do such a small run. Once everything is perfected, I could probably finish half a dozen in two to three weeks averaging 3 hours a day. 3 hours a day for two weeks to produce 6 figures at $150 would mean only a little over $21 an hour and that's not counting materials (filament is cheap so that's not really much of a cost though) so you can see why there's the potential for them to be pretty expensive. The one saving grace is that I've segmented her into parts so that there will be very little masking - most pieces are just a solid color so spray painting will go quickly. The exceptions are part of her waist, her knees (attached to her lower legs - they were originally going to be on a separate joint but I just couldn't make it work at this scale) and her arms which will require a little more work to paint. Also, I've had to remove the ball joints in her waist (not sturdy enough in 3d printed material) and will be using pre-made ball and socket pieces (I believe the ones I'm using are intended for small Gundam kits) which will add to the material cost and the amount of time and effort to assemble her. On the other hand, I may be vastly over-estimating the time it'll take. Printing time shouldn't be too long - the better part of a day per figure probably (it's only about six hours now but that's at low resolution and without any of the alternate faces, hands, or guns) but that's time I don't have to do anything so it doesn't really cost me anything. I won't know until I've finished the first one. Though, for that matter, I won't know until I'm finished if I will be able to produce a good enough product that I'd even feel comfortable selling it. The closest thing I've done so far was the little Charlene figure I made to go with XTB Savant and that thing isn't high enough quality that I'd feel right selling it for enough to make it worth my time.
Fully assembled prototype testing out some of the changes I made. They weren't all great. Her waist is too flimsy to hold up her weight using the ball joints I installed so I'll have to go back to having them included in the model. Also I encountered several breakages because I was stupid and rushed through getting the parts printed and didn't take the time to think of the best orientation. 3d printed parts break easily at the layer lines so you want to make sure to print it with the weaker areas horizontal but I forgot to do that. Still it is nice to see her fully assembled and to give her articulation a test run. Pretty deep waist articulation using ball joints at the top and bottom of her abdomen. Can't do the full splits but she can go decently far. Hip and knee bend. The feet are on ball joints so they can tilt and pivot in any direction though not terribly far. The toes are also articulated though they can't go very far either. Still, she's more posable than any nendoroid I've handled. She can't hold her full weight yet but here's her lower body standing. And a view of her back with the pauldrons installed. They still don't stay on very well so I guess I'll be revising their joints again. Hopefully I have better luck with the next round of improvements. I also fused her kneecap to the lower leg but I don't like it - it just looks better when it's a separate piece glued in.
Hm. Anything about it in particular? I've been working on it long enough that I probably can't see the mistakes.
i think everything about her looks great. i just have 2 questions. when will she be available and how do you plan on integrating all her on board gyroscopes and balancing systems?
Depends on just how good results I can get out of my printer. I have plans to buy a resin printer sometime next year when the budget allows. I may have to do some of the more detailed parts in resin to preserve the details. And the balancing system is working pretty well but it's still in alpha phase which is just me constantly catching and rebalancing her. In seriousness, nendoroids can't really balance very well on their own (big head and tiny feet) so they rely on a stand. I need to give her a port in her back to plug one of those stands into but it hasn't really been a priority yet.
the nose, and those, overly exaggerated lips, form some angles look like she is trying a duckface, and from the very front looks like she just got stung by something, and im not saying in a way like (nice pronounce lips) maybe there are more people that like how she looks than the people who doesnt, but those overly exaggerated features are more like a bad fanart (bimbofication, thats it) than a genuine attempt at a cute style yet close to the source like nendoroid itself tends to do everything else, is PERFECT, specially the articulation proportions and detail also, maybe make a head more, proportional to the body? still "super deformed" but not GIANT HEAD deformed would be a nice option to see
Hm. My wife made the same duck face comment. I'll have to take another look at that. The lips were difficult to pull off (nendoroids don't have them but losing them and their angular lines takes away from her robotic look) and I'm not sure if I got them quite right. The nose was tricky too - trying to balance the nendoroid look with Arcee's angular robotic nose. As for the head size, I'm afraid that's a style thing - it's the same proportions as other nendoroid figures though it does end up a little bigger due to Transformers kind of having "helmets" as part of their heads. Thank you very much for the feedback!
an alternate smaller head was just an idea, i know nendoroids have huge heads, but given how well proportioned her body looks still though would trhough that idea out there
I appreciate it. And I've given some thought to stretching her body out into a figma style figure once I'm done with the nendoroid (figmas are built almost identically to nendoroids - same style of joints and everything - but with normal body and head proportions). I'm just partial to nendoroids because they're adorable. Her head is actually adapted from a normal proportioned head I designed for a custom I never finished so I wouldn't even have to start over - just use the original head on the normal proportioned figure. I don't know if I'll ever get around to it, though: I've got two MP Arcee figures which would make a similarly sized non-transforming figure a little superfluous.
but it would look super cute with the proportiosn she already have and being tiny, but with a head that isnt like 3 times the body...im jealous, i havent done 3d in a while, and every time i look, someone simply makes something awesome so quickly
Blender. I know, it's like action figure design on hard mode. Doing this kind of thing, especially all the interconnecting parts and joints, would be so much easier in a CAD style program like fusion360 (does CAD, more organic modelling like Blender, and uh... splines or something) but Blender was the first program I learned and I'm too lazy to learn another one.
I've pushed the lips in a little so it's less duck face I think. Were you thinking I should make them smaller/less full? Also, keep in mind that Blender isn't exactly following the lipstick lines correctly, especially at the corners of her mouth - it's due to the way that Blender is calculating the subdivision of polygons. What do you suggest I do with the nose? I tried to make it as Nendoroid shaped as possible while still squaring it off a bit to make it look more Transformer-ish. [Edit] Here she is with slightly smaller lips. Is that better or do you think it needs more?
that is really cool!! I am jealous...I want to be able to 3d design stuff.....wanna teach me? Just kidding (kind of), you have any tips and tricks for a lay person?
