Sorry for the lack of updates.

Life kind got in the way and then I was sidetracked by other projects. But I made this thread to keep up with the things I work on so here's (some of) what sidetracked me:

Back when people argued Ditka vs Berserker I got inspired to take up work on my IDW Blitzwing design again. I had abandoned that design years ago (too much panels) but when Gewalt was ananced I got a few new ideas that I could now expand on.
Most of this is still on paper (or in my head) but I started modeling a bit too.
(The models of the MIG-31 jet and Type-90 tank was downloaded)

Then I lost interest again.  

At the moment I'm working on my Arcee because Snaku started 3D-printing Arcee parts and all the talk about Fanstoys Rouge.
No, it's not the Arcee I showed before but the IDW RiD version. Here's a sketch:

I have figured out most of the transformation and this should be able to work. I'll start modeling the robot and print it as an action figure first before making the transformation (can't believe I didn't think of that earlier).

As this Arcee doesn't have a real world car mode (just a generic sports car) this time I will try to model the car myself. I checked a few tutorials/time-lapses and it is looking good so far.

This also mean I will own all rights to the car if I felt like selling the design on Shapeways.

Finaly I will try to finish the tiny Prowl too. It would be good to go thru all the stages with a small figure before doing too much on the advanced ones.

Hopefully next update won't take too long.

 

Nice! I see you've already seen my Arcee thread. I've been playing with several 3d printed items from my buddy's 3d printer (it's a Maker Select v2) and, while the initial prints are sometimes pretty rough, they can be sanded down nice and smooth. Here's the prototype wheel swing-arm I had him print for Arcee (to move the wheel out of her butt and onto the car rear section.



I believe this was printed with a 60 micron layer height with 100% infill. You can see the print lines on the swing-arm (I didn't make much effort to smooth them) and the hinge is a bit warped (I didn't leave any tolerance which turned out to be a mistake) but the wheel sanded and buffed to the point that it looks almost like injection molded plastic (aside from some layer lines where the rim meets the tire). That was with 1000 grit sandpaper and the buffing wheel on my dremel - I could probably make it look even smoother if I used some higher grits before buffing, but for parts that will be fully painted, this would be plenty smooth enough. The silver paint I slapped on sucks and is streaky (I'll airbrush the final pieces) but the part itself is pretty damn good looking if I do say so myself. This was just a test for fitting; he's printing the adjusted version for me: wheel reshaped a little to better match Arcee's stock wheels, tolerance space addedto the hinge, better ball-socket (the test one was absolute garbage), and the swing-arm's length and angle have been adjusted so it should actually fit (it was only off by about a millimeter down and two millimeters to the front).

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with 3d printing and I'm planning on getting my own 3d printer sometime in the next few months. Obviously super detailed parts are a no-go, but that's what Shapeways is for: I ordered a sample of the head I modeled from Shapeways in swf in two sizes for testing and it should be here by this weekend. Some of my coworkers recently had tabletop minifigs made from Heroforge (seems they use Shapeways black hda) and they looked amazing so I'll probably get my final Arcee head pieces printed in hda. I could probably make a passable face from a fdm printed face part if I took my time filling, sanding, and polishing it and I might try it once I've got my own printer.

Sorry to go on so much about my project but I wanted to give my updated perspective on 3d printing. I'm eager to see how your projects go.