1/700 & 1/350 scale BH Cygnus builds

[Nwerke]

Yeah, the conversation on their own forum is pretty brutal. God knows what people are saying elsewhere. I did research other options and it looks like Pinshape might be the best post-hike option, if they can handle the complexity (it's definitely harder getting good uploads, and that is saying something). Also, more expensive than the old SW prices - but a long way off the pending new ones.

Incidentally, everything I can fix (hopefully!!!) in time is up and available so go crazy if you're prepared to take the risk, and have deep pockets! You have 4.5 hours from now to take advantage of the old pricing...

About one in ten of my parts should drop in price under the new regime. They drop by small amounts, typically. "Low density" parts e.g. all the impossible cagework/framing stuff goes up hugely. More solid parts like the tower body or the transport tubes drop in price.

Was getting misleading error/rejection messages for four major parts for days, that lead me down the bloody garden path, not happy. Finally worked out it was merely a size/complexity issue and spend this afternoon racing the clock to get good uploads. I think I did, but my final pre-hike order had to be placed under the "print it anyway" no-refunds option. Meh, I've had about twelve hours sleep in the last four days so by this point I'm happy just to be making sense, if I am, haha.

 

[Nwerke]

PS thanks for the kind words. Meh - I see they've gone ahead with *half* of your order - wonderful. :\ Well, you could order the other half again just in WSF, some people are doing that. Bit of a workaround but I don't feel safe any more to take the files *down* again now - what's to stop them from messing with the rules catastrophically again, with insufficient notice, again.

But if you can wait I hope to get the revised version loaded in the next few days. I have tons and tons and tons of housekeeping to do on the account; and that's just one mostly personal project. I really feel for the guys who make their living this way and have hundreds of now-unaffordable models in their catalogues.

I apparently can expect a huge great dump of parts around the 22nd to the 24th. (Yeah right, it'll take weeks longer than that; their production pipeline will be maxed out with panic orders by now.) Anyway, whenever it gets here I'll post a bunch of pics. And probably lots of whining about flubs and fails and whatnot, haha. I may be mostly coherent but just try driving a CG drawing program when your head feels like it is packed with mud...

Well anyway, here's some SW renders to dress the thread up a bit. Ooooh, girder porn!

 

[Frankpr01]

These pieces are gorgeous!!! I can't imagine seeing the whole ship put together and painted...gee...I am now drooling seeing it lighted!!! I certainly will wait for your final revised versions...even if the prices on SW go up, every once in a while I am entitled to go crazy with my entertainment budget...this is worthy to be a "Pièce de résistance! in anyones model collection.

 

[Nwerke]

It's going to be a $5600 piece of resistance. (Lego movie ref ftw, not too lazy to find the accent marks, honest guv.)

I checked Dave's prices, luckily he does take a much smaller hit than me, but still a hit. Here's a good collection of pics of his full set:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lazymodeler/sets/72157644653412223/#

Thanks Muzza for the link. Is that someone here?

 

[JeffBond]

Yeah, that's me. I started buying Dave's parts like two years ago.

 

[eimb1999]

Blown away by the stuff you guys are doing with that Cygnus. Simply incredible. I'd love to just get that 350th scale Palomino at some point just to see how it all works, but I think I'll wait until things become more affordable and reliable based on what I'm reading here.

 

[MWB]

Hi Martyn,

Been awhile since I bought the V0.1 bow section ($195.00 back then) and I just checked your SW page. WOW!! it's $338.27 now. That really sucks. Back then I bought it just because it looked really cool, not to build the ship. But after perusing your SW pages there are several pieces that I'm now considering. If I do, I will post pics, or send them to you to post if I cannot figure out how to.
Dave, yours looks awesome. Cannot wait to see it finished.

Mark

 

[MWB]

Martyn,

I've sent you a couple of PM's.

 

[Nwerke]

Jeff, it's awesome. If I hadn't had to go all bloody minded about 1/2 studio scale, I'd have happily jumped on board Dave's project myself. I somewhat regret it now but I try to tell myself I won't when the ship is finished, haha.

eimb1999 - you could have saved some money with the Pal by going with the white/strong/flexible plastic at the old price, but it wasn't printing reliably and the SW team have rejected a few orders. I'm reworking it into three parts for Frosted Ultra Detail, which is more expensive than WSF, but which allows for finer girders and details. I've also broken it up into three parts which has brought the FUD cost down slightly. The first two are uploaded but not yet orderable; I'll change that when I have the upper hull uploaded and successful test prints done.

Mark, I know, I could cry! What an "improvement", huh? I'll PM you in a minute.

Oh yeah, just got this advice from SW. I CALLED IT:

"We are sorry to tell you that your recent order is going to be delayed. We sincerely
apologize and are doing everything we can to get your order out as soon as possible.
For your context, we're undergoing a few major changes that, despite our best
efforts, are impacting our ability to get you your order on time.
We're moving our factory:
http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/18046-the-new-shapeways-factory.html in
Eindhoven, the Netherlands to a new, bigger location that will enable us to better
serve you and the rest of the community. During the relocation, most printers will
be offline, causing delays in production and shipping. Further, our recent pricing
changes:
http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/18119-new-pricing-for-strong-flexible-plastics-and-steel.html
caused a majority of models to decrease in price, while some increased. Spurred by
this change, many people placed large orders during this time to take advantage of
the changing prices. We saw an exponential increase in orders that far exceeded our
expectations, and our ability to fulfill them within our usual timeframe."

So, changing their location AT THE SAME TIME as implementing a massive pricing restructure which was always going to cause an entirely predictable spike in orders? Riiiiiight. I've seen this kind of behaviour from companies before, usually right before they go bust. It's not a good sign.

Cheers,
Martyn

 

[MWB]

Martyn,

They mentioned moving their factory in the Netherlands. They have a new, big, muti-machine factory in New York City. Why couldn't that place fill the orders?

Mark

 

[Nwerke]

And supposedly that's where my orders are coming from, anyway. So...huh? It's a shambles.

 

[MWB]

For those of you interested in Nwerkes version of the Cygnus, here are some pictures of the bow section I purchased awhile back from Shapeways. It is an amazing piece of 3D printing. This is version 1 and it does have a slight warp in it lengthwise. Dimensions: inches(centimeters); length = 17 5/8(44.78), base = 9 3/4(24.77), tip = 4 3/4(12.1) and height = 2 9/16(6.5). It reminds me of the façade of a cathedral if stood upright. This is my first attempt at posting pictures so bare with me.

Enjoy, Mark

 

[Frankpr01]

So rich in detail. Exquisite!

 

[publiusr]

I wonder if this may help lighing such a fragile model one day?
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/P...sitive_displays_on_various_materials_999.html

 

[psimon]

How are people painting these parts to ensure complete coverage (ie. airbrushing, dunking in paint, brushing)?

Also, can someone provide a complete PrimitiveDave SW inventory listing of all the parts required and number of each part to assemble the entire kit? I want to ensure I am getting everything I need without overbuying. Thanks!

 

[JeffBond]

The information listed with each part on shape ways indicates how many you need. I just airbrushed mine with Tamiya Gunmetal--the "strong white flexible" material is EXTREMELY absorbent and just soaks up the paint so you can get the pieces covered (even fairly deep inside all the layers of interior detail) without too much effort. You should probably use something like Mr. Surfacer if you want a less grainy surface--the texture of the SWF material is rough but I didn't mind that because it gives you a nice flat finish.

 

[psimon]

the texture of the SWF material is rough but I didn't mind that because it gives you a nice flat finish.

Thanks for the information! When you got the parts did you have to clean up any support struts?

 

[JeffBond]

You can see that there are a few parts like the observation dome braces and some antennae that are mounted on "sprues" like model kit parts; those you do have to clip from the sprue and do some minor sanding on; the vast majority of parts come completely free and clear with nothing you really need to clean up. Some people will want to deal with the grainier texture of the parts with Mr. Surfacer or do some sanding maybe on the main command center tower, but most of the other parts are so complicated I don't know how or why you'd really want to sand them. Paint/primer application will likely do the most to affect the final look.

 

[Nwerke]

Good stuff, Mark!

Paul, I also airbrush my parts. I'm using a locally made "effects" bronze paint which can be chemically aged. It's incredibly thick but airbrushes quite well when diluted and should end up giving an approximation of the aged bare metal on the original models. Jeff's approach looks great though.

He's dead right about the porosity! It's easy to paint and yet you get through a ton of paint at the same time. Kind of counterintuitive.

The slightly rough texture actually works *for* this ship, considering you can't really over-weather it.

Martyn

 

[Jedi Dade]

The slightly rough texture actually works *for* this ship, considering you can't really over-weather it.

Martyn

My thoughts EXACTLY...

Jedi Dade