First Attempt at 3D Modeling for printing

[Charles.Darney]

I'm looking at getting into 3D printing, and I figured the most fun way would be to start with Traveller starships. And what better starships to try than the ugly, boxy, structurally simple Judges Guild unstreamlined ships?

I have no idea how it will print - probably poorly, but then again, it's my first attempt at 3D modeling in years, and the first time I've used FreeCad. And I've never done 3D printing before.

I still have to add some greebles, including the airlocks, but I'm happy I made it this far.

It's designed to be at 1:1000 scale, to match the starships I picked up from Foreven Shipyards and DSL Ironworks on Shapeways.

As a complete aside, the Judges Guild "Starships and Spacecraft" supplement was one of the first supplements I picked up for Traveller - probably at about the same time I picked up Adventure 1 and Supplement 3, and helped make Traveller awesome in my High School Freshman brain. So, even though these ships are ugly, I will always have a fondness for them.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I'll have to check out FreeCAD.

 

[Supplement Four]

It's not as random or as clumsy as a blaster. A weapon for a more elegant time.:coffeesip:

 

[Charles.Darney]

I'll have to check out FreeCAD.

I gave Blender a shot, tried Tinkercad and a few others, but I like FreeCAD and OpenSCAD the best. Both appeal to the side of my brain that got me into engineering and computer science.

My next challenge will be the security robot from Research Station Gamma in 28mm scale. And figuring out how to buy the 3D printer without my wife knowing

 

[Charles.Darney]

I uploaded my Type M prototype to Shapeways. The nose dish and fins are too thin for the cheap material; the nose dish is too thin even for the premium plastic. So, before I add greebles and other detailing, I'm going to have to revisit those.

Since I don't have an agreement with Marc, and the designs are based on his IP, I won't open them up for sale; I was just curious as to the "printability" of my designs.

 

[Charles.Darney]

And here's the bot

And here is my Research Station Gamma security robot. I don't know why FreeCad colored the upper body black, but it did.

 

[Lycanorukke]

My next challenge will be the security robot from Research Station Gamma in 28mm scale. And figuring out how to buy the 3D printer without my wife knowing

Unfortunately here is the downside - you wont get great fine details on a 28mm mini with a bog standard printer. And printers capable of doing it cost $$$.

A way to test could be to use the (free) Cura software, import your model and see what it looks like under the preview screen with various settings (mainly nozzle size and layer thickness).

Another way if bits are too fine to print is to chop it up into parts - eg: Print to body and dish/fins of the ship separately. If the dish is still too small, attach cutaways like with the old aeroplane kits. Print it and then cut off the cutaways.

 

[Charles.Darney]

I'm starting to think that, given the number of models I will print, a home printer may not be worth it. I uploaded the robot to Shapeways; printing in the cheapest material is $2.75. I don't need many, and don't need high detail, so I ordered a few.

And with starships, I'm not going to need many prints of each ship. So, I may just use Shapeways.

Now, if I really get into this, that will be a different story.

 

[Charles.Darney]

Updated Type M

Updated the model; fixed the issues Shapeways reported, added airlocks, and since there's no reason to put a starship mini on a board unless it's going to fight, I added turrets. Started to add trim/greebles, but that started to cause errors with my model, so I'm calling this one done.

Next up, the Yacht. Then the Merc Cruiser, as those are also just rectangles. The toughest part of those will be the small craft, which aren't simply just "parts" I can slap together.

After that, the Type A and the Type R.

 

[Charles.Darney]

Unfortunately here is the downside - you wont get great fine details on a 28mm mini with a bog standard printer. And printers capable of doing it cost $$$.

A way to test could be to use the (free) Cura software, import your model and see what it looks like under the preview screen with various settings (mainly nozzle size and layer thickness).

Another way if bits are too fine to print is to chop it up into parts - eg: Print to body and dish/fins of the ship separately. If the dish is still too small, attach cutaways like with the old aeroplane kits. Print it and then cut off the cutaways.

One of the players in my group has an AnyCubic Photon resin printer. If the Internet is to be believed, it prints pretty well at 28mm. If I remember, I'm going to chat with him at our next session to see if I can pay him to print these. Will still probably have to add supports, but it would be an interesting test.

 

[Lycanorukke]

The UV resin printers (photolithographic) can manage minatures and details a lot better than the FDM (filament) printers due to the way they work.

You are going to paint them afterwards and show us of course?

 

[Charles.Darney]

Absolutely! I have the robots coming from Shapeways soonish (they are in production now). I'm not sure when I will order/print the Type M - I want to try to get the Yacht and possibly the Cruiser done first.

But, I've never been known for my restraint

 

[Charles.Darney]

Wow. Just wow.

I started looking at the Judges Guild Yacht - trying to correlate the deck plans with the profile silhouette and the angle drawing.

None of it makes sense. So, I'm going to take "creative liberties".

 

[Charles.Darney]

And here are my creative liberties

Well, here are my "creative liberties"

I narrowed the engine pod because I liked the look, and it matched the deckplan better; but this didn't give me enough room for the air lock aft, so I moved it to the fore end of the engine pod.

The nose radar looks too big, but that's because I'm using shared parts - one of the "Selling Points" of the Judges Guild ships was, per their document, the modular nature of the ships - so I'm assuming they'd have one standard dish that they'd use wherever possible.

The cutout in the access tunnel is for a 3mmx1mm magnet, so the Ship's Boat can mount. What you can't see from this shot is a 1mm extended cylinder below, to give the flight stand a better ability to hold on.

I haven't uploaded this one to Shapeways yet; they rejected my robot, so I had to make revisions, and will upload this with the robot.

Next up is the cruiser, then I'll have to try my hand at the Judges Guild small craft.