My 3D printed miniature ships arrived! (Aurora,300i,Hornet) (you can get yours now)

[Lorddarthvik]

I spent some time painting up the plastic Hornet. I'm not good at painting stuff, and I ran out of sandpaper while trying to smooth the model a bit, but it looks pretty sweet me thinks :) I've used the "old" green military scheme from the early days of SC.

Two of my most favourite things, finally together :D

As the poll is coming to an end soon, it seems like the Freelancer and Carrack are on top of the rest, and as there is a tie between the Cutlass and the Conny, I'll probably go with the Cutlass. I've seen more requests for it, and in theory at least, you can get an official Conny model already. So unless something beats them to third place, the Conny will have to wait for the next round.

Now the dirty part: making this stuff, as I'm sure you have seen if you checked the links, is an expensive hobby. I'm not making a dime on these models, as I don't think that would be fair.
But, if you think it's worthy of your support, please feel free to donate here. Ships, weapons, packs of beer, used towels, rolls of 100usd bills, anything is welcome, whatever you think it's worth :)

 

[Walex]

Super awesome! The start-up where I work just got a 3D printer and the boss said something about "you guys can print things in off hours" Fortunately for his spools of 3D printing material, I don't know much about constructing or slicing the models. I did see that there are some on thingverse, but with a lot of comments detailing mixed results when it comes to the final product. I'm glad to see you've gotten them all nailed down!

Yours are printed in the metal material? I thought that would make a difference in the final product!

UPDATE n.2.: I would like to make more types of ships in the sclae like these in the future. I've seen some requests below. I'll definitely make a Gladius, Cutlass, Freelancer, Mustang, M50, and other more "basic" ships. Larger mulitcrew ships like the Carrack will be a harder job and more down the line, unless everybody really really wants that one. I'll put up a poll to determine the order I should make them.

I think this is a key observation. It will be hard to get good resolution on the finer details of the larger ships, so I think sticking with the basic ships is the best idea for now. That being said, the Gladius is definitely my vote for the next one you work on!

Best wishes with your ship factory! May you roll forth an infinite fleet an conquer the galaxy! :D

 

[Lorddarthvik]

Super awesome! The start-up where I work just got a 3D printer and the boss said something about "you guys can print things in off hours" Fortunately for his spools of 3D printing material, I don't know much about constructing or slicing the models. I did see that there are some on thingverse, but with a lot of comments detailing mixed results when it comes to the final product. I'm glad to see you've gotten them all nailed down!

Yours are printed in the metal material? I thought that would make a difference in the final product!


I think this is a key observation. It will be hard to get good resolution on the finer details of the larger ships, so I think sticking with the basic ships is the best idea for now. That being said, the Gladius is definitely my vote for the next one you work on!

Best wishes with your ship factory! May you roll forth an infinite fleet an conquer the galaxy! :D

Thanks!
I had them printed in both stainless steel ( gold coloured pics on first page), and in nylon plastic (the white models beside the golden ones) . There's a pretty big difference :)

I've seen some models on thingiverse, they are the actual game models extracted from the files, sometimes "fixed" to be printable. Now what most of them don't understand is that it's not just about plugging a hole here and there on the in-game model to make it printable. It takes a lot of measuring, thinking and work to figure out how to get things thick enough and strong enough to make it through the printing process without breaking/bending or disappearing entirely, and still have a model that has proper scale and feel and details. It takes a lot more time and effort than just ripping the models from the game, loading them up in a 3d program and applying a "fill holes" option on them :)

Also, the above is one of the many reasons I went with a professional printing company, using state-of-the-art, high-end printers instead of the "cheap" consumer printers. They have years of practice and the know-how in how to print stuff perfectly, they have much higher precision, and much more advanced software for slicing and checking your models before printing. Also, stainless steel is bad ass, and you can"t get that with an FDM printer :D

 

[Lorddarthvik]

The poll closed so I'm off to making a Freelancer, and then a Carrack. I see the Conny won over the Cutlass, but I think I'll go for the Cutlass first as it's much less complicated and it has been requested. I will add the conny in as a fourth model.

As for the scale, I might add another 0.5-1.0 cm in overall size as these are much bigger ships, but they will not be "in scale" with the earlier models. It would make them way too large for my taste (and my pockets).

It took roughly 8-10 hours to make one model, ready for printing, and as these are larger ships with more details, it may take longer. Also printing and shipping takes up to 3 weeks, so it will be a while before you see the next batch. I might even go for a next round of votes and ships, so that it takes 3 weeks only once, instead of twice.

Sidenote, my thread about this on the RSI forums got removed for posting the links to the models, and thus promoting sales. The moderator was reasonable enough not to ban me, and I can fully understand that they had to do it, but it makes me a bit sad that others won't get to buy these models easy way. Still, they were right to remove the links as its making money from their IP for another company. So I'm fine with their decision.

 

[Krystal LeChuck]

Those look great. Could you maybe share the stl files for those for us with 3d printers?

 

[Lorddarthvik]

Those look great. Could you maybe share the stl files for those for us with 3d printers?

Sure!
I don't have any .STL files, I've done the models in Max and exported them in .DAE. If you wish I can try to export them in STL, but I'm not sure how to do that in a way that works for you!
You can grab them here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B18CLJueNwp5ZC00Wm40bkZuekU

I would love to see how they turn out, be sure to post some pictures! Btw, I might have used a bit of scaling on shapeways after uploading them to get them into the printable thickness zone, so you may need to do that as well. Around +5-10% should do to get most details into the real world, where they are at least 0.1-0.15mm thick :)

 

[Lorddarthvik]

Just wanted to let you know, if you are considering buying one of the current models, you can get 10USD off your first purchase if you Register, Follow me on the site, and then use the Promo Code: gyonv at checkout. That's basicly the shipping cost gone! This is only valid untill Friday April 15!

 

[WarrenPeace]

Just received my Aurora today, it look fantastic! You did a really great job in downscaling it and reducing the detail so it's sturdy, but it still has the iconic shape. Great stuff!

With quarter for scale:

 

[Lorddarthvik]

[/QUOTE]

Just received my Aurora today, it look fantastic! You did a really great job in downscaling it and reducing the detail so it's sturdy, but it still has the iconic shape. Great stuff!

With quarter for scale:

Thanks, I'm glad you like it! I see they did chip off the right bottom wing just like they did with mine, I guess that's where the model was held while it was infused with copper.

Freelancer and the rest of the ships are still in the works, I'll let you all know when they are done!

 

[BaconOnARock]

how the fuck did the khartu not get more votes? who doesnt want to see a 3d printed khartu!?

 

[Gearen]

I want a 350r

And my Carrack