This is already shaping up to be a really cool and well made figure! I love that you're showing the 'ugly' sides of the prints as well, it's interesting to see how the different components all work out coming from the prints. Out of curiosity, what are your plans for smoothing/finishing the pieces? Like, is this going to be a personal piece that you complete as an individual project, or is this something you're thinking of putting up on somewhere like Shapeways when you reach a level of completion you think would be enjoyable to construct? Cause I'm looking at all the rough edges and surfaces and mentally going 'epoxy putty, epoxy putty, sand there, trim here, ohhhh acetone smoothing maybe?'. Though that's probably from me having gone head first into a couple Gunpla forums looking for articulated hand options...
First of all, thank you for your interest and kind words. I have no further plans for smoothing than the light sanding already shown in the pictures. Also note that many parts shown so far are prototypes that I can improve by print settings or orientation. In the end thou there will still be print lines as PLA can't be smoothed with acetone and sanding takes a lot of work as it is a pretty hard material. The latest pics of the torso with head is probably as good as it will ever get (ignoring the broken helmet). That is fine by me as my main goal isn't to have fantastic looking figures on my shelf but to solve the engineering challenges and make transforming versions of the designs I like the most. That said, what I printed so far look really good in my opinion and above my expectations. That is of course in large part because I made them myself and just having an action master is really cool too but IF I where to sell them, other people wouldn't likely be so forgiving on the look. Then again, production with 3d printer is slow so a low demand is probably for the best. If some people are willing to pay (a lot) for printed and assembled figures I could probable make a few. Another option is for them to print the designs for themselves but either way, the quality wouldn't be better then in the pictures. Shapeways I'd imagine would be way to expensive to be practical. Maybe I could upload the heads scaled to appropriate figures but I have to look in to that in more detail first. Ideally I would like a resin printer with a strong resin and then airbrush the parts but I have neither the ventilation nor skills for that. For now, that is more of a final (dream) version of the figures and the simplicity of FDM printing wins out while I'm mostly working on the designs themselves rather then perfecting the final look.
I am 100% with you on the engineering challenge level of things. It never fails to absolutely fascinate me when I get a new figure and I get to see how the manufacturers have broken down a standing humanoid figure into a random vehicle or other item. Out of my personal collection, I think my top favorites for engineering spectacle would have to be my Arms Micron Vehicon and my Generations Springer. Between the brain boggling addition of a split folding windscreen on the Vehicon becoming its calves and Springer's prowess at being both a rotary AND a four wheeler, the pair never fail to please that little monkey part of my brain constantly begging for puzzles. That being said, if I had the money, I would totally be down for a build kit of this figure you're making. It's amazingly well rendered, and you've put a lot of time and effort into not just the face value, but making sure that it's functional. I imagine if you sold it as a kit that buyers would complete themselves like a Gundam, you'd have a niche but steady corner to work from and eventually save up for that resin printer.
Well, it's not like I couldn't afford a resin printer. As I said before, my apartment doesn't have the necessary ventilation and I can't make a hole in the wall to blow out air. Still, even if I had proper ventilation resin is much more expensive than filament and have to be painted. In this early prototype phase filament is the best option. You may not be aware but I'm currently working on a lot of figures (see this thread) and it's only when I have several of them working that it would consider a resin printer to get the final perfect look. It may even turn out that I end up happy enough with what I get and it's just not worth the hazel of raisin and paint even if they would look amazing. As for selling them, the easiest solution is probably to sell the files. Anyone without a printer can still find someone nearby who can print for them and send the parts. It will be a lot cheaper as just shipping from Sweden to USA was $30. Or you could get your own printer, even a great one now cost less then some Masterpiece figures (but that may say more about Hasbro's pricing than the printer market).
Ooooohohohohohoho, I am going to have to dig in that thread, that all looks AWESOME. And I agree, the files would likely be much simpler to pass around for international distribution. As someone who is very VERY broke, purchasing a 3D printer is currently a far flung pipe dream I likely won't be able to touch on until I either get a new job or finally start getting hours from my current employer. 2020 is a terrible year to be a summer camp instructor...
This is not much of an update as I have had some issues. First, the new color I bought for joints was useless and jammed (twice) within about an hour of printing. (Also the printer got a blue screen right after I loaded it but that was most likely unrelated) Luckily I got my money back but having to deal with that made me a little bit discouraged/distracted and took up modeling on my old Verity model. One advantage with Blender over CAD is that I can rig and pose a model. So here is a human with the torso (now with an arm and some gray details). Just pretend that some parts are pink and it's almost done. Here is Verity by herself (no point in making a new thread) The detail isn't great (resin would be better for this) but she is only 5.5 cm (2.2 inch) The bigger problem is again ventilation. Even printing with PLA, which is “nicer” than ABS, I still get irritation in my nose and throat. Right now I'm printing with my balcony door open but as winter is coming I can't do that for much longer. I did buy an air-cleaner in hope it would help but it didn't. Next I will try and build an enclosure and lead the air out somewhere but if this doesn't work I'll have to suspend printing during winter. It may not be that much of a problem in the long run as most of the time is spent on designing the parts (which I can do year around). The main difference would be that progress posts would be concentrated around summer.
Damn, what a mess. I go through the same thing every time I have to print and clear. I have never, ever found a clear PLA that isn’t a total nightmare, I usually have to buy an extra pack of nozzles right alongside it, in anticipation of the endless number of clogs I’ll be getting through the project.
If you do build an enclosure, some drier hose and an in line fan, and you could pipe it out a window. Something that I've had to do in apartments for jewelry work.
This looks better with every update. That is a superb Arcee face & head sculpt -- if you decided to offer just a deluxe-sized head or a Titans Return faceplate of it on Shapeways or elsewhere, I'd definitely be interested in buying a couple of them.
Well my nozzle is fine so maybe a jam is more accurate. When you say clear, is it any transparent or just colorless transparent? I haven't had any problems with transparent PLA. Here is a windscreen test I made but never posted. (it's light blue) That was the idea, the problem is keeping the winter air out. I have a few ideas thou.
It’s the colorless clear. I just printed some pieces, very similar to that windshield, and I actually managed to get through the entire print before I had to replace the nozzle this time. I have varying results depending on what brand I get, so I guess I just haven’t landed on a good quality spool yet. Then again, I am not very tech-savvy so I’m pretty sure there is some way I could be adjusting my settings to make things work properly.. but I’m honestly scared to fiddle with that sort of thing too much. I can keep the thing mechanically operational, but changing its operational parameters is a little scary for me. Also, I want to echo what Kibbler said above. I loathe Shapeways, but that Arcee head is solid gold and I’d die to buy the file for even just it alone, so I could do some homebrew Arcees. It’d seriously be perfect on the TR body, or MMC Azalea, or T30 Bee, or.. lol
I assume you at least have tried different temperatures (recommended intervals is usually provided with the filament) Also, very cheep filament is probably not economical if you need to replace the nozzles. And unless you have a vary strange printer I can't imagine several decent priced filament to consistently be so bad. (and I'm the opposite, I try changing settings a lot but do not plan to mod my printer. Haven't even changed nozzle)
i’ve definitely tried adjusting temperatures in both the nozzle in the bed, as well as messing around a little with retraction. I have a CR-10s, so thankfully it’s been easy to just get piles and piles of various nozzles. I’ve had to change nozzles out quite a few times, mainly with the clear PLA but also with some really cheap black stuff that I picked up at my local RadioShack... which I was dumbfounded to discover still existed! But yeah; I definitely learned my lesson and I don’t skimp on filament anymore. I also have a resin printer that I need to really start exploring my capabilities with more. I think it would probably be a more effective printer for translucent and clear parts.
I had a warm day (and could have my balcony door open) so I printed a CHUG head. It's 20% smaller and on the edge of what filament printers can do. Sure, Verity's head is smaller but doesn't have thin details. The Arcee head got an error of “unable to print detail” from the slicer before I adjusted the layer height to finest. Anyway, here it is (on generations Springer) It can still transform but the head look very small (Springer's head is pretty small too). With shear luck it turned out that my MP head fit precisely on animated Arcee. The ball-joint that is, the head is a bit to large. They look ridiculous even thou the heads are about the size of their original heads. I tried another one and apparently generations Jazz have a slightly larger ball-joint than Springer so I couldn't close the two halfs. It look good from the front thou, and the head is the right size too. Edit: Bonus picture. I used some sticky past and attached the MP head on Springer.
You were 100% right about the lighting, because these latest shots look incredibly clean at that scale for a FDM printer!
That last pic is so good. The mp size looks great on springer and the smaller one on Jazz. It would be fun to try and adapt G1 arcee colors on that jazz mold.
