1/700 & 1/350 scale BH Cygnus builds

Just got my main engine delivered. Again, an experimental piece, and I managed to leave four block details out of the nozzle area. Easily fixed with some styrene but I have some changes in mind.

Wanted to see how something this large would print out, what the surface would be like etc. It's definitely not perfect, you'd sand it if you were making a pristine ship. Fortunately I'm not, so I think I may include more detail with this piece, like the three mounting trusses and the catwalk.

Since the entire ship is so heavily weathered the slight growth rings may not be a problem. I'll paint it and we'll see.

Niiiiiiiiiice! I keep being tempted to make tacky references to how much bigger yours is than mine! ;-)

I completely agree with you about the texture of the parts. I would hate it if I was making say, a Naboo cruiser, but for this, the rough finish and slight stair-stepping just add to the effect. You'd expect a little weathering from all the particles being pulled into the BH. When painted up, the pieces really look like pitted old metal.

Oh yeah, as for the uprights on the center section, I know the horizontal bar I've added is extra, but no one will be able to see it tucked in there, and I really want something to hold the uprights in alignment. Sometimes thin pieces seem to bend, and I think that would be more noticeable than the extra bar. I've also added a support piece on the connector section to hold up the cross tube. Again, it's not going to be tha noticeable, and I'd prefer the extra stability.

LOL. I came up with three different snappy responses to that, none of them printable.

I will sand the front cap; it's a circular step pyramid, hehe. For the main engine I don't think it's enough of a minus to bother, which is good since I really want to produce them integrally with their trusses if possible.

Coming to the same conclusions re the horizontal bar. I'll only need to do it on the power centre section for mine. I spotted your support piece - likely do something similar myself, maybe a truss will work at my scale.

Dave, spectacular!

The fuel module tanks are best kept separate IMO - some of them are painted red and ochre and so on, so much easier to deal with separately. How thin was your dome? I've just ordered a tower dome, I made it fairly thin too. Uh oh.

I shouldn't have challenged the gods the way I did above. My outboard module got rejected at the point of printing - parts too thin for a large part. I hoped this might just be a customer service precaution against warping - which would be fine, since it slips over a lightbox - but no, apparently the part could break in the tray and ruin an entire batch of other parts in the process.

I wasn't willing to compromise the materials any further (also, it'd be my fifth rebuild of this section, nnnnarrrgh!) so I added some beefier sacrificial framing inside the part instead and re-upped. Fingers crossed!

Whoo - anyone who might think that this method of obtaining a model is some kind of an easy shortcut...think again. This is a grind. Unless you can get a completed CG model from somewhere up front, be prepared for hundreds of hours in front of the keyboard. My butt is numb!!!

I think the dome was 1 mm thick, and they wanted 1.5. Or was it 1.5 and 2? I think the former, but I'll check tomorrow.

Good luck with the module - fifth times a charm! I know how frustrating it is when things get rejected.

It's a lot of work for sure, but exciting!

Hey guys....I can't begin to tell you how cool it is to watch this take shape. The parts you're getting are amazing! I'm assuming they are as delicate as they look? Good luck with this and I can't wait to see your final products!

Thanks P/Dave. Mine's about 1.67...I can't find a tute or table for 'clear detail' plastic giving minimum dims, so fingers crossed.

I'm very bummed right now. Just browsing the tutes again and came across one I'd missed. The minimum size given for for White Strong Flexible plastic is 0.7 mm and I'd adhered to that; my bracing parts are .85mm and my main beams are 1.1mm. (Reduced from what I had intended - 1.25mm - because of that stuffup a couple of weeks back.)

Now it seems none of this is likely to be any good. I won't hear back on my latest revisions for a week or more, but I think maybe I'd better get started on a version using 2mm longerons. I just came across this:

"Even though you could use a minimum wall thickness of 1mm when using White, Strong & Flexible we recommend that you stick to 2mm. We would also never recommend making large portions of your model this thin because this would make it excessively delicate."

- arrrrghh! Why couldn't I have found that FIRST?!??

Hoping this is older info and that 1mm isn't the real minimum. What's the cross-section on your longerons, btw?

Thank you, daverep! I still have yet to get a successful print of a fretwork part, so I can't say myself. At the rate I'm going I never will.

Nwerke said:

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Thank you, daverep! I still have yet to get a successful print of a fretwork part, so I can't say myself. At the rate I'm going I never will.

I'm sure you will! It's cool that technology has advanced so much that it allows you two to do this. I've always thought the Cygnus was an outstanding model with all of it's layers. What 3D program are you using? You may have said in this or the other thread, but it's escaping me now.

I've been using 1 mm for the major elements (lengthwise and cross beams) and .75 mm for most of the diagonals. It's way out of scale and looks very fat and clunky on the screen, but the actual parts look fine. I don't think anyone will pull out their pocket micrometer and measure the frame cross section of your model. Okay, a couple of guys here would, but most people will just be impressed regardless. ;-) I think the human eye really doesn't resolve the difference between 1.1 and 2 mm that well anyway. I've received a couple of parts where straight beams rendered as curly ribbons because they were too thin, so I'd go ahead and make the changes.

daverep, I'm using Rhino v3 and MeshLab.

Oh, daverep -- the parts are not as delicate as you'd think. Fine, unsupported sections can tend to warp a bit, but even the small observatory antennas have some resilience. I had to push against them with a drill to open the hole for the brass rod and they held up fine. I could crush most of the pieces in my hand if I tried, but the same would go for styrene at that size as well. A little care is needed, but they're not going to crumble in your hands if you're not careful.

No, not an idiot. :-) It's a learning process! I said that it was expensive on the other forum I'm posting on. One of the guys commented that as a model it was expensive, but as a independent study college course in advanced fabrication techniques it was cheap. I'm trying to keep that in mind. ;-)

Meanwhile, after having a string of parts rejected myself, I know what you're going through!

That's a really good way of looking at it, you know. I'm definitely learning a lot right now. This does wonders for your ability to think in 3d and parts fit/engineering terms.

I did get my outboard module into production eventually, and I have two power centre units coming too; in fact I have three orders in production right now, the wait is murder, I'm gagging to see these bits. Unfortunately, as is always the way, I've found some problems - there were sections I'd meant to Boolean out of existence which made it into my uploads, but worse...I've been wrestling with the height of the 'railings' on top and bottom of these modules. I've tried to convince myself they were built as drawn...but look at this pic.




They weren't, were they? Somewhere between a third and a half as tall, in reality.

Oh well, consoling myself with more fuel module bits, these tanks are up next.

Waiting for the parts to arrive is like when I was a kid waiting for Christmas! Santa's coming today -- power center modules are supposed to be here this afternoon!

Hmmm -- I trust you when you say the difference is there. If it is a difference of 2mm at your scale, it's 1mm at mine. I can see it in direct comparison between your renders, but I'm already so out of scale in my cross section dimensions I don't think it really affects me that much. I don't think I'll start over -- I think I'll just stick to the blueprint dimensions...

Yay! The power modules arrived! They look really good, even if the racks are a millimeter too high. ;-)

Also received my revised observatory dome. The first version was rejected because the walls were too thin at 1mm. I revised it to 1.5mm, and they produced it. However, I think I may need to up it to 2mm. It has some weird artifacts along one side.

I'll try and have pics tomorrow...

Awesome. Cannot wait to see! I'd agree that a 1mm difference won't be very perceptible. Crap, I'm the only person who's going to notice even 2mm, I'm sure.

Shame about the dome. I've been trying to get away with thin domes too, so am not very optimistic right now regarding those.

First thing I'm gonna notice when I see it.

Here are pics of the parts that arrived yesterday. You can definitely see stair-stepping on the bottom of the power module. The artifacts on the observatory dome are facing away from the camera so you can't see them. I will try a thicker version to see if that corrects the problem. Otherwise, I'm really happy with how they came out!

I've made some paper mockups of the substructures these parts fit on. Hopefully you can see how I'm planning to put all this together. Next parts on order span the center section between the outboard modules on top. They should really make things start to take shape.

As always, feel free to make any comments or critiques!

Seeing those pieces on the paper mock-up...this is going to be even cooler than I thought! I'm totally jealous!! Nice work!

Jaw-dropping work, Dave, seriously. Wow.

daverep, don't be jealous...you can buy Dave's pieces on Shapeways and start a model yourself!

They're actually really inexpensive, relatively speaking at least - great value for money IMO!

By comparison, my parts, um, ain't. They're costing four or five times as much due to the volumetric pricing. If Shapeways didn't give a discount on volume above 20cm3, I'd be completely sunk.

Dave, an order which should have shipped yesterday is still in production. What does it meaaaaannn?!? Jonesing for a fix here!

Nwerke said:

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daverep, don't be jealous...you can buy Dave's pieces on Shapeways and start a model yourself!

Really? I've been meaning to take a look at the Shapeways site but simply haven't. However...

Thanks for the info! Will have to do that when I get a few minutes here at work. Thanks!! Keep up the work guys!