Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Used the Tamiya semi-gloss spray recently, it turned out really well and polished quite nicely using Novus plastic polish.

If the printing worked out--you could then spray some kind of sealer over it so that the glue wouldn't damage the printed ink

They do seem hard to find. My local Hobbytown had some though, not a very good selection, most of the good ones weren't in stock (and I'd imagine they probably wouldn't be stocked any time soon)

3D Scanners are a much simpler matter, there's the NextEngine 3D scanner:

http://www.nextengine.com/

Alternately, you can build one yourself, using a camera, a laser and some software.

So if you wanted to make a master print for use in making a kit for production, would it get high enough quality? Would it manage to get smooth enough for no cleanup?

I just checked some stuff at zoomrp.com They can do polyjet prints for a very low price and have the option for next day shipping. Otherwise they can still get it to you within a week. However, it's only best used on things that you would spend $100 on. So for instance, I've got a model I'm working ...

Blender is free

When I said other places I was more talking about the places like Shapeways where you can upload your mesh and get it printed very quickly. Places like Moddler you have to email or call them and work out the project. I had tried using Moddler before, they emailed me back with a couple of questions a...

I wonder how it compares to this: http://www.makerbot.com/ It's a similar thing, so not as useful. Probably the best bet if you can't afford thousands for a high-end printer (since in the model world you really need the fine detail) is to use Shapeways. They've got a material that can print 0.3mm t...

It probably doesn't print at 0.2mm thickness, the way that thing works is by melting plastic and then layering it out like spaghetti. So the actual layer might be 0.2mm, but you would need to have several layers otherwise it wouldn't be strong enough. The cheapest thing I've seen that wasn't absolut...

It's not all that deceptive. The quality on those prints is terrible. Completely useless because of how thick it has to lay down the material. So if you were wanting to go for something like that you can easily see that it would not be a good choice.

It depends on what you're wanting to do, what would you think would be the smallest thickness you require and how detailed do you need your models?

hah, I win...

It wasn't too difficult to get the piece in there, it ended up working really well.

Got the detail casting put in. Since the bottom was cast as well I ended up just cutting out that section and then fitting the replacement in. There's a bit more cleanup to do, but once it's painted it shouldn't be noticeable.

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/6017/pic0146t.jpg

That would be awesome, thanks. Sent you a PM

It's the Anigrand SD

Regular chips on the corners are fine and easy to repair, but this part would be obvious

Here's a picture of it:

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/8466/detailpiece.jpg

It's part of a star destroyer hangar detail on the outside, I'll post a picture once I get home so you can get a better idea of what it looks like.

yeah, there's no undercut, it's just a detail on a surface that's too detailed to rebuild. What clay would be best, would sculpey work? I haven't gotten any resin yet, this is on a kit for the future so it's not something I'll be doing for a bit. What's a good resin for just a small detail part Smoo...

I've got a kit that has a detail that broke off. There are identical details on the piece so I was wondering if it might be OK to use some clay and get an impression of one of the other details and then use that to cast a replacement detail. Would it work to use clay for a temporary mold like that?

Where it connects is about 0.655mm thick, so I'm thinking that may be too thin and I should extend it to attach to the body of the pistol.

57mm long at 1/6th scale, so pretty small.

My main concern is the nubs (bolts) on the pins, is that a detail that wouldn't get stuck in the mold do you think?

Does it make it better for the gun barrel to be a separate piece as shown there or would it be just fine to be attached?

I've got a 3D model of a pistol that I'm looking to get printed and made into a 1/6th scale object for a custom figure (Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly). Most of it is straightforward, and a 3D printer can print any shape, but I'm looking to be able to make casts of it. So what I'm wondering, if any c...

I got a bunch of parts today at Scalefest. It was really cool to go there, tons of stuff at great prices. I was able to get 5 of the ships for less than half what they'd normally cost. The small parts are perfect for scratchbuilding. I later went to hobbytown and got some styrene parts as well. Than...

Saw that one, the second is out of stock though.

Yeah, I'll be getting a bunch of styrene. The small parts are really just stuff that's really hard to make on your own

I checked some of those out and it looks like a good idea. I'm going to a model show this weekend so I'll see what I can find there.

Thanks!

Here's from someone else's build: http://imageshack.us/m/219/158/img1144469280383810.jpg I can do the styrene panels, but there's lots of little pieces from kits used as details. Obviously I don't expect to get the same pieces, but I don't have any extra kits at all to get pieces from. _____________...

It's a Revell Venator Star Destroyer, so pretty small parts. I saw the Kotobukiya MSG stuff and the parts from Wave, but most of those are very simple pieces. I'm thinking stuff like pipes with details, grills, vents and stuff like that.

I've got a kit I want to add a bunch of detail to. However, I don't have a collection of kits to pull details from for the greebles. Does anyone know of a reasonable way to get small detail parts like that? The only thing I can think of is to look for some cheap kits and hope there's something usefu...