My Little Pony: Action figure (fully articulated) Princess Luna 3D printed

[Mike J.]

So, who are you having do your printing? In what material?

 

[HaVoC373]

So, who are you having do your printing? In what material?

A friend of mine who works at a local university offered to have it printed on an SLS machine. I believe it is a nylon based plastic. It's the same stuff shapeways calls white strong and flexible he tells me. Since i've used WSF before i'm probably going to have to use some sandable primer and some TLC if I want to get a smooth finish on that. So i'm going to do a bit of post production on it before I cast it in resin.


Unless someone has a better idea to get a nice smooth finish on WSF, thats my plan.

 

[NoMaybeYes]

Man that is some amazing detail youve put into just one figure. I absolutely love how youve done it. One question I wanna know is, do you plan to do others and if so who?

 

[HaVoC373]

Man that is some amazing detail youve put into just one figure. I absolutely love how youve done it. One question I wanna know is, do you plan to do others and if so who?

Thank you
Well if this figure turns out like I want it to (and that's is entirely up to my meager skills outside of the digital realm ) The easiest to do next is Princess Cadence since she has the same bodyshape as Luna. So a different head, thigh's, wings, feet, hair, tail and regalia would be enough to convert Luna to Cadence. So i'll probably do her next. but I really wanna do Celestia as well. So if i do more then the next one will be cadence and after that Sunbutt. after that who knows.

 

[SigsegV]

10 inches! That's pretty big, but I guess anything smaller and many of the parts will be too delicate. Since you're going to be casting copies of the printed parts anyway, have you thought about doing the mane and tail in something flexible?

 

[HaVoC373]

10 inches! That's pretty big, but I guess anything smaller and many of the parts will be too delicate. Since you're going to be casting copies of the printed parts anyway, have you thought about doing the mane and tail in something flexible?

I had considered that and i might still try that. but i want the purple outer ring to be cast in a purple dyed transparent resin to sort of re-create the ethereal effect it has in the show. if i can find those materials in a flexible variety i'll probably do a test cast. but more importantly my biggest concern for the hair is weight. I want to be able to pose the head without it constantly falling down because of the weight of the hair. So if I can find a flexible resin/silicon that is also transparent and doesn't decay and also doesn't weigh as much. i'll probably make a few of those

If you have a suggestion for those materials please let me know. As I said in my original post this will be the first thing I've ever casted

 

[SigsegV]

I've never cast anything either, so I can't help you on materials. And I didn't think about weight at all,or transparency.

 

[HaVoC373]

While i'm waiting for the prototype to arrive (only a few more days) I've made a few renders of some of the poses the figure will be capable of.

Once I am sure the figure works as intended I am going to make a set of folded wings and 2 additional heads. one angry and one laughing

Enjoy

 

[HaVoC373]

The prototype of the figure arrives tomorrow, and I'm going to have to smooth it out because the print will likely be very coarse because of the material it is printed in.
So I was thinking of using some sand able primer to smooth it out. But I was also told that I need to make sure the primer doesn't react with the silicon (i'm going to use moldstar 15) so I was wondering if anyone can give me some recommendations as to what primer I should use. I was told that it shouldn't contain sulfur but since that's not listed as a property of the primer on most websites I hit a dead end.

any suggestions you're willing to provide are much appreciated.

 

[Irken Tech]

I've been hearing good things about this new XTC-3D product from Smooth-on. I haven't tried it myself though.

http://youtu.be/GSKxycs3kPg

 

[HaVoC373]

I've been hearing good things about this new XTC-3D product from Smooth-on. I haven't tried it myself though.

http://youtu.be/GSKxycs3kPg

I saw that. trouble is i don't know if its compatible with nylon based plastics in which the figure is printed. does anyone know?

 

[Irken Tech]

Specs:

Coat any 3D Print Surface - XTC-3D® can be applied to both SLA and SLS prints. It works with PLA, ABS, Laywoo, Powder
Printed Parts and other rigid media. It also can be used to coat EPS, EPDM and urethane foam as well as wood, plaster, fabric,
cardboard and paper.

I believe the White Strong Flexible is nylon powder printed

http://www.smooth-on.com/tb/files/XTC3D_TB.pdf

 

[HaVoC373]

It has arrived!, well some of it anyway. there has been a mixup and i'm missing over half the figure. most of the missing pieces are of the front legs and the midsections of the rear and all of the balljoints.

i'm trying to find out what happened but the stuff that did arrive turned out beautfully.

here's a sneak peek.



Here are the parts i have right now. in total there are 35 pieces missing. i'll keep you guys posted as to what happaned to them.

 

[Irken Tech]

That looks surprisingly good. I can barely see the build lines. I wonder how this compares to Shapeways in the same material.

 

[Mike J.]

That looks really fine and smooth.

 

[HaVoC373]

That looks surprisingly good. I can barely see the build lines. I wonder how this compares to Shapeways in the same material.

Something went wrong with the printer who was going to do it for me the day i announced that it was going to the printer so i've had to divert to another print service and in this case that was shapeways. so that is actually a shapeways WSF print and i am really pleased with the quality.

That looks really fine and smooth.

It looks that way in the photo but that's just an illusion because it's big. and the details are big. That head is about 4 inches tall not counting the hair. (I have freakishly large hands) it's not smoother than the average WSF print. but it is smoother than a WSF print I got 3 years ago. So their machines or at least their handling of them has improved significantly

 

[Mike J.]

Shapeways now has the option of 'polished' WSF, which is a nice improvement over the unpolished stuff.

 

[HaVoC373]

Shapeways now has the option of 'polished' WSF, which is a nice improvement over the unpolished stuff.

Indeed but that is a random subtractive process. Since I am going to mold this figure i'd rather that i myself decide which parts get smoothed and what gets chipped away. Since they just toss the pieces into a vat with smoothing stones and let it vibrate for a few hours.

so I'd rather maintain control over what gets smoothed etc myself. These prints are rough unsmoothed WSF.

 

[HaVoC373]

It looks like shapeways is going to reprint the parts that are missing. and I should have them next week.

 

[Victor3]

Thought I'd chime in and say how cool this is. Great work designing the articulation and capturing Luna's character. She's one of my daughter's favorites!