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

the first set of replacement parts arrived today along with luna's angry head and i re-assembled her again for a new set of a pictures :) still got quite a bit of sanding left to do as you can see. the white parts are the replacement pieces and the dark grey pieces still need to be sanded. the tail the mane and the feet have all been finished as has the neutral head.


without further a due


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and just for fun don't **** of luna!


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I apologize for the poor quality of the photo's. Once the figure is ready i'll get a set of professional photo's made of her so you can see her in her full glory rather than in crappy phone camera quality
 
Ok the last set of replacement parts are in and they work beautifully. that means i'm done with printing. all i need to do now is sand the remaining pieces smooth. thicken the joints so they have a bit more friction (in the photo's it was a miracle i got her to stand up on her own with how loose some of the joints are)


once she's completely smooth i'll order the mold silicon and resin and we should be good to go.
Expect to see the details and order info up at the end of this week :)
 
Speaking of casting supplies. I'm currently thinking of using Smooth on Moldstar 15 and Smoothcast 305. but these were the first that were recommended to me by a friend but i'd like some advice from some you guys. people here seem to be much more knowledgeable about these things here.
 
Love this project! Been following it with interest. I used to make toy prototypes, back when all we had was a wax machine, very early form of Rapid Prototyping. If you want fast molds to get some rough test pieces, then the mold star 15 is fine. But if you plan on making proper production molds you want something that cures slow so shrinkage won't be too much. Especially when dealing with interlocking parts, shrinkage is nightmare. I've been using mold max 40 or Sorta clear 40. One is a tin, the other a platinum. But I'm pressure casting parts in Task9, which might be overkill for what your doing. The smoothcast should be OK as long as your parts are small, but the larger you go, more shrinkage.
 
wondersquid said:
Love this project! Been following it with interest. I used to make toy prototypes, back when all we had was a wax machine, very early form of Rapid Prototyping. If you want fast molds to get some rough test pieces, then the mold star 15 is fine. But if you plan on making proper production molds you want something that cures slow so shrinkage won't be too much. Especially when dealing with interlocking parts, shrinkage is nightmare. I've been using mold max 40 or Sorta clear 40. One is a tin, the other a platinum. But I'm pressure casting parts in Task9, which might be overkill for what your doing. The smoothcast should be OK as long as your parts are small, but the larger you go, more shrinkage.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice!
Well i am a little worried about shrinkage especialy because there are a lot of interlocking parts. And as you can see there are a lot of large parts. That head is 10cm to the top of the horn and the mane is nearly 20. So i think i'll take your suggestion for moldmax 40 to heart. Do you have any tips regarding working with this silicone? Anything in particular i should keep in mind?
 
Its a standard 10 to 1 ratio, so don't freak out. It also takes a full 24hrs to cure, so build your walls tight to prevent leaks and place it on a level surface and leave it alone. If you don't have a vacuum chamber, pour a thin stream high up. There should be videos online about this. Other then that, I guess seal your pieces with some primer. Generally speaking, tin based silicones are kinder to weird plastics, but you dont want a weird reaction between the silicone and your part, so I usually spray a primer on before I mold.
 
wondersquid said:
Its a standard 10 to 1 ratio, so don't freak out. It also takes a full 24hrs to cure, so build your walls tight to prevent leaks and place it on a level surface and leave it alone. If you don't have a vacuum chamber, pour a thin stream high up. There should be videos online about this. Other then that, I guess seal your pieces with some primer. Generally speaking, tin based silicones are kinder to weird plastics, but you dont want a weird reaction between the silicone and your part, so I usually spray a primer on before I mold.
Click to expand...

Ok thank you. yes I was planning to seal the parts mainly because the plastic i am using is nylon based and in its raw form I've heard people tell stories where the silicone got absorbed into the plastic and ruining the mold. but with the excessive amount of sanding and primer I've already sprayed on it it should be good with one last coating once it's ready to mold. thank you for your help :)
 
I haven't read all your thread .. but are you printing in White, Strong and Flexible? If so, I STRONLY advise to make a test mold FIRST of your part. I can't stress enough how WSF is bad for molding unless you truly sealed all the surface due to the porous nature of the material.. I learned the hard way when I thought I had put enough filling/sandable primer on my parts. I've completely changed to polyjet material since then.

Again, test mold one part first and see from there, don't do a large mold (even though it will be tempting) first!

Good luck!
 
Bigturc said:
I haven't read all your thread .. but are you printing in White, Strong and Flexible? If so, I STRONLY advise to make a test mold FIRST of your part. I can't stress enough how WSF is bad for molding unless you truly sealed all the surface due to the porous nature of the material.. I learned the hard way when I thought I had put enough filling/sandable primer on my parts. I've completely changed to polyjet material since then.

Again, test mold one part first and see from there, don't do a large mold (even though it will be tempting) first!

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Yeah this is my biggest fear, I am printing in WSF. so far i've coated the pieces in 2 layers of high build automotive primer and sanded them smooth to the point where the print lines are invisible even to the touch. i am thinking of going over it again with another layer of automotive primer now that they are smooth and a clear cloat for good measure.

But yes i do intend to mold a small piece first. Mold silicone isnt exactly the cheapest material on the market
 
What you could do is take that big hair piece, put it flat on a table and pour silicone onto it .. just a tad on the flat surface .. no need to cover it completely. Let it cure and try to peel it off and check what it's gonna do!

The first time I molded a part (it was an ironman WSF bolt), the mold was crap and the part tinted blue as there was soo much silicone in the WSF surface! Arg ..

But then again, I'm still a newb to all of this! :)
 
Bigturc said:
What you could do is take that big hair piece, put it flat on a table and pour silicone onto it .. just a tad on the flat surface .. no need to cover it completely. Let it cure and try to peel it off and check what it's gonna do!

The first time I molded a part (it was an ironman WSF bolt), the mold was crap and the part tinted blue as there was soo much silicone in the WSF surface! Arg ..

But then again, I'm still a newb to all of this! :)
Click to expand...

Don't worry it's all new to me as well. But I've learned that the best way to learn these things is just to take the plunge in the deep end and try to keep your head above water.

I'm going to order the mold supplies tomorrow and they should be here on Tuesday then.
 
Oh and don't worry about wasting a little bit of material .. I've messed up a HIC mold that collapsed onto itself .. there was about 80$ of silicone in there! loll :thumbsup
 
So i came across an interesting method of sealing the wsf parts. Appearantly you can dissolve cyanoscrylate glue in acetone and then dunk the parts in there for a little bit. Let the parts suck it up and then take em out. Once the acetone evaporates it leaves a very well sealed part behind. A single primer coat should then be sufficient to make sure it is really sealed.

i'm going to test this on some of the extra failed parts i have and see what the result is.
 
You know that moment when things are finally picking up speed after constant delays and something just throws a spanner in the works again. Well that's whats happening to me now. I ordered the mold silicone from the only supplier in the Netherlands that i could find. but the way their order system works is really weird.
so you place an order online. then you have to wait for them to physically check their inventory then they run you through a database to check if certain discounts apply to you etc. If they don't have something in stock they don't tell you they just make you wait. and only after this ritual is complete will they give you a means to pay for your stuff and then that payment has to go through another ritual before they actually ship the goods to you. Right now i am still waiting for them to give me the first payment option... This just keeps getting better and better :(


Meanwhile i'm stuck here unable to work on Luna cause everything is done and ready for molds :(


I believe it was Adam Savage who said, you know you're a maker when your current project is kicking your ass every way imaginable, and you still push through it. or something like that i don't remember the actual quote
 
Contec said:
Next time...don't order from them. :)
Click to expand...

I wish it was that easy, they seem to be the only supplier in the Netherlands that carry anything from smooth-on or any form of mold silicone that isn't brand less or house brand from the local crafts store.

But they finally shipped everything to me so I should be getting all that in the next few days. but I ran into another problem. I have no idea what clay to use for my 2 part molds. i went tot he local crafts supply store and the lady just looking at me like i just asked her to walk on water.
 
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