Welcome, and I am intrigued. I used to do a lot of 3d printing, so I know the work that goes into these. Looks great!
Great news! TEST members get 10% off Star Citizen models from JRF
- Thread starter Montoya
- Start date
Hey, it's very nice to have you here! Thanks for answering our questions!
You got some very cool high detail models there, clearly not a simple process! Could you go into a bit of detail on how you make these models? Sculpted by hand/3Dprinted/molding... whats the process like?
Thanks, they are indeed incredibly high detail and thats one of the many things we are really proud of about the kits. We essentially take the same holoviewer file that you also have access to and remodel it for 3d printing. It goes through various programs (depends who is doing the modelling - JR/WestbrookDrew/Ungineer - as to which programs they prefer) but generally it is a combination of sketchup, meshmixer, fusion, 3dcoat, blender and 3DS MAX. We paintstakingly repair each invidual object within the model to make them a true solid, this gives us the freedom to amke fine adjustments to bulk out the model where neccessary for manufacture and also allows us to break the model up along natural design lines to transform it into a kit. The facets in the surface are smoothed numerous times and all panel lines/rivets etc are added back in by hand in the software suitable for the scale of the model. For instance the ladder on the Arrow is actually 3x as thick as the actual ships to make it manufacturable without us having to "balloon" the whole model, the rivets are spaced according to what looks right in that scale, for instance a line of rivets on a 1:200 model would become a single line on a 1:100 so its not as simple as x2, everything is added back in to give a detail level that looks right.
We use SLA 3d printing (formlabs form 2 are our goto printers) to give very high detail prints and some flexibility in resin types (though the resin is so much more expensive than filament for an FDM). A good example being the greycat PTV tyres which are actual rubber. Some pieces, such as the greycat screen were resin cast but that just didnt work for the Arrow canopy so we played around with finishing techniques to make the clear resin work. Injection molding has crazy high set up costs ($150k for the Arrow) and SC just doesn't have the numbers that you would need to make the start up costs for those moulds to be financially viable (in our opinion).
The whole process of redrawing and test printing takes 100+hours (dependent on the ship, the complexity and the scale) so its certainly not a quick process. A prototype is sent to CIG for approval and sign off, changes are made if required and then we crack on with getting a painted model for the front sleeve, component photos for the back sleeve, legal signoff on the whole sleeve, foam packaging specifically designed for the kit pieces, decals are created from the original game textures and sized appropriately then printed and included, certificates of authenticity ordered, then JR and I hand sign and add hologram numbers to the certificates and the corresponding box sleeves while we crack on with the production. Oh and we work out if there's anything else that needs adding to the kit such as magnets etc. There's also the printed build guide and video tutorial to do somewhere in there. Only then do we announce what the model is to the community. And somehow we do all of that in about 3 months... :D
If you want any more info, please feel free to check out our stream, Sundays 6pm UTC (http://twitch.tv/jrdf) where we chat to other makers about what they do and how they do it. This week we have AstroPub and Peter Dolkens talking about some of the tech/videos they produce but next week its JR, WestbrookDrew and Ungi talking about how they do what they do so it'll be a bit of a geek fest lol.
Hope thats what you were looking for?
Kals
PS - The day-to-day team is just me and JR with some amazing contractors who make up the team and help out where needed.
Wow, Thank you very much for sharing this in such depth! Exactly what I was looking for, much appreciated!
First of all nice to have you guys here in TEST!
I'm a modeller to and I've see a good amount of model kit, for the image of your website I can tell you put a lot of effort and care in the manufacturing of the model, just look at the box: nobody as far as I know has ever produce a boox for a kit made in custom shape foam....
I assume that will take a good amount of the porduction and time cost, but the satisfaction and the quality that trasmit to the customer are awesome.
Have you ever consider lower the box quality using normal vacum formed plastic container? It will be less "premium" but probably can lower your porduction cost a lot...
They could be triky to realize at first and mould need to be re-make form time to time, but resin is totally in-expensive, and will allow you to produce model more quickly I assume.
Also you can cast in clear resin, for the canopy and windshields or even made some clear cast part of the ship, should in the future opt for a mecanical view of the interior...
I'm a modeller to and I've see a good amount of model kit, for the image of your website I can tell you put a lot of effort and care in the manufacturing of the model, just look at the box: nobody as far as I know has ever produce a boox for a kit made in custom shape foam....
I assume that will take a good amount of the porduction and time cost, but the satisfaction and the quality that trasmit to the customer are awesome.
Have you ever consider lower the box quality using normal vacum formed plastic container? It will be less "premium" but probably can lower your porduction cost a lot...
About this part have you ever consider resin cast with silicon mould?
They could be triky to realize at first and mould need to be re-make form time to time, but resin is totally in-expensive, and will allow you to produce model more quickly I assume.
Also you can cast in clear resin, for the canopy and windshields or even made some clear cast part of the ship, should in the future opt for a mecanical view of the interior...
Hey Cugino
You clearly know your stuff and make some great points.
The vast majority of the cost comes from the design costs and we looked at many packaging options. We felt that foam not only provided excellent packaging and support during the transportation of kits but the dies for cutting the foam are 1/10th of the set up costs than for a vacuum formed plastic tray. I was able to negotiate with our supplier that they keep those dies on the shelf for us allowing us to reduce the set up costs even further and I batch order when I need more. I would not have had that luxury with vacuum formed plastic and would have had to purchase all 500 trays. We are a small firm and are trying to bring as many kits out as possible which means we need to reduce the start up costs wherever possible. The overall cost across the run was £2 different each kit but another £1000 to find before we could get the kit to market.
The other thing we have done is add (relatively low cost to us) items to increase the value and collectivity of the kits, such as appropriately sized magnets, decals, limited numbered certificates of authenticity etc...
Kals
You clearly know your stuff and make some great points.
We do in fact pride ourselves on the quality of our kits and one of my favourite things about my job is watching people's reactions to what we've made. That joy. Yeah thats priceless. Anyway I digress.
The vast majority of the cost comes from the design costs and we looked at many packaging options. We felt that foam not only provided excellent packaging and support during the transportation of kits but the dies for cutting the foam are 1/10th of the set up costs than for a vacuum formed plastic tray. I was able to negotiate with our supplier that they keep those dies on the shelf for us allowing us to reduce the set up costs even further and I batch order when I need more. I would not have had that luxury with vacuum formed plastic and would have had to purchase all 500 trays. We are a small firm and are trying to bring as many kits out as possible which means we need to reduce the start up costs wherever possible. The overall cost across the run was £2 different each kit but another £1000 to find before we could get the kit to market.
The greycat screen is clear resin cast in a silicone mould and we've looked at it again as a production method for pieces but not found anything where it fits well yet. We looked at getting the arrow canopy made in silicone mould but they actually came out at over £10 each which we felt was insane. A common problem with clear cast resin are bubbles and the contours of the Arrow canopy caused us more concerns than we had with the greycat screen (its a relatively flat screen but 40% failed Q&A because of bubbles and imperfections).
The other thing we have done is add (relatively low cost to us) items to increase the value and collectivity of the kits, such as appropriately sized magnets, decals, limited numbered certificates of authenticity etc...
Kals
I need a new addition to my house. And then that I need that huge Kraken model in the middle. Before my wife vetoes the whole idea.
AccidentProne8
Space Marshal
Oh boy, if Retaliator, Warden, Carrack are options in the future...
Oh god montoya what have you done.... Now im going to go broke.
Any plans to make an aurora crashing into the sun in Testie honor?(Make sure to get @Montoya's shiny head so the sun is blindsided.)
Yo TEST, look a Freelancer Max:
Saw this from their post on horrible wretched Spectrum:
robertsspaceindustries.com
3 moar ships on the way to be announced when ready??
Saw this from their post on horrible wretched Spectrum:
Official Licensed Kit Models - Star Citizen Spectrum
Hi peeps So, its been a looong while since we started a post but we wanted to reach out directly. We are JR Design & Fabrication, aka JRDF, you may know us as the people who brought you the...
robertsspaceindustries.com
3 moar ships on the way to be announced when ready??
Cool!Yo TEST, look a Freelancer Max:
Saw this from their post on horrible wretched Spectrum:
Official Licensed Kit Models - Star Citizen Spectrum
Hi peeps So, its been a looong while since we started a post but we wanted to reach out directly. We are JR Design & Fabrication, aka JRDF, you may know us as the people who brought you the...
3 moar ships on the way to be announced when ready??
I'll consider something from them as christmas present for myself lol They'll have even more ships out by then i hope!
(I'm also hoping for a Terrapin one day, pretty please? :D )
I'll wait until they have a Vanguard, then I'll buy ! Just hope it's at least 12" in length
These look awesome, but who is gonna put them together for me? I have the attention span of a ..... ohhhh colors!!