Really Big Imperial Star Destroyer

Re: Studio Scale Imperial Star Destroyer

Baseline said:

In my view I think you are correct there is at best a bleak outlook for the future of studio scale modeling. As time marches on and the number of years pass since the last film produced using physical models and the number of people who are exposed to those films that are able to form a meaningful enough connection to those works diminishes. Added to the near impossibility that finding the correct parts is likely to become an insurmountable financial undertaking relegated to an increasingly elitist minority. This would seem to paint a bleak future to the casual observer.

Ultimately the decision is not up to me as to where this thread belongs on this forum and I am indifferent to whether it is allowed to remain here or be moved elsewhere. Your feelings are crystal clear and you can be completely assured that you need not reiterate your position because I do get what this section of the forum is about.

Being someone who was part of the transition from physical modeling to digital believe me when i say I have seen this all before.

At times like these I am reminded of this, "If there is to be a brave new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it." - Chancellor Gorkon Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered County

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Don't get me wrong I don't want to say this is not an incredible project, printing, prepping, assembling a 3D printed ISD that large is a huge and incredible work.
Studio scale modeling is a bit more like archeology and probably turned to the past haha.
If that technology was available back then, they would have used it for sure !

However I'm not sure a 3D printed model that big would be cheaper than getting the kits to detail it (I hear you regarding time to find the correct parts though, not everyone has the luxury or the will to spend that much time on that).
Do you have an estimate of the price regarding the printing only of your project ? Do you print it in house or get it done by an external company ?
I'm close to the $10K mark in kits for the ISD so far, but I guess you will be close to that in printing ?

Re: Studio Scale Imperial Star Destroyer

Thank you for your input.

It is my assumption that either one of you has the time in service on this forum to contact a moderator and ask that this thread be moved. I have absolutely no objection nor would I harbor any animosity if anyone were to ask that it be moved. Or if you have a suggestion I will do it myself.

Peaceful coexistence and mutual respect are a thing in short supply in these troubled times and we have no wish to be at the center of any drama here.

Re: Studio Scale Imperial Star Destroyer

Apologies I did not see your reply before I posted my reply to eagle1.

Although I may be very vague and uncertain as to the final dimensions our project will turn out to be, which is primarily due to the nature of our process and that we are complete rookies using it, I have a very good handle on our costs to date and can roughly gauge from here what our final cost will be in the end. We own our equipment so we are doing everything ourselves.

Even including the cost for both our Ultimaker 2+ Extended and our Inventables X-Carve plus all material costs we would not come close to equal your investment.

Re: Studio Scale Imperial Star Destroyer

Baseline said:

Apologies I did not see your reply before I posted my reply to eagle1.

Although I may be very vague and uncertain as to the final dimensions our project will turn out to be, which is primarily due to the nature of our process and that we are complete rookies using it, I have a very good handle on our costs to date and can roughly gauge from here what our final cost will be in the end. We own our equipment so we are doing everything ourselves.

Even including the cost for both our Ultimaker 2+ Extended and our Inventables X-Carve plus all material costs we would not come close to equal your investment.

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Well with 2 U2+ Extended you're already close to the 6 or 7K mark ! Not sure how much costs an X-Carve.

Did you print all the details with your U2+ ? ABS ?

Im eager to see some close up ! This is going to be a nightmare to clean up all the parts with all those details. How do you plan to proceed ?

Im a U2+ owner too (not extended), so I'm going to follow that closely !

Re: Studio Scale Imperial Star Destroyer

All follow this in either forum looking forward to see it come together.

Re: Studio Scale Imperial Star Destroyer

My pointing out as to which forum this build belongs to was merely an observation & from my point of view, this will be an exciting project!.
The rear engine assembly is stunning, thank you for sharing this project. I look forward to the progress & hey...it's a huge stardestroyer...doesn't get any better!.
I think sometimes we 'old guard' of the studio scale forum can become too protective of what we take as the set of rules to submit a build, but no builder should be put off from posting.

Subscribed sir!

Stu

Re: Studio Scale Imperial Star Destroyer

Thanks for your support.

We have just one Ultimaker 2+ Extended and our BOS for it was $2,200.00 US we have $1,600.00 US in our X-Carve and it has a 3.8W laser upgrade from J-Tech Photonics included in that cost. So total we have $3,800.00 US in our production equipment

Everything you can see in the picture I posted in the first post is almost straight off the printer with almost no clean up save peeling off a brim and on a few parts only some minor supports. We are printing entirely from PLA. our PLA comes in 1Kg spools and we have consumed 3 complete rolls to date at a cost of $30.00 US each including shipping.

All parts are printed with a 4mm nozzle using the following settings layer height 0.1mm, shell thickness 0.8mm, bottom and top thickness 0.6mm, fill density 10%. If you already own a 2+ you would recognize these as nearly default settings in Cura.

Re: Studio Scale Imperial Star Destroyer

Sorry I misread regarding your UM ! Wow you got the extended for what I paid for the regular one !

Are you not concerned regarding PLA ? This is not a plastic that lasts forever and it can get out of shape with very low heat. ABS would suit your project better maybe ?

Re: Studio Scale Imperial Star Destroyer

No worries at all friend.

We did extensive filament testing before starting our production and we were very satisfied with the ability of the PLA we are using to meet our needs. Not all PLA filaments are the same these days it appears and we discovered that ourselves first hand. All our PLA is supplied by MatterHackers and I highly recommend them to anyone living in the US their products are outstanding and their service is beyond exceptional.

We have been nothing short of blown away by the ability of the Ultimaker 2+ Extended and I believe this project would never have gotten off the ground without it.

eagle1 I am very pleased to hear your sentiments and believe me when I say I knew there was a better than average chance that I would encounter some push back from "The Old Guard" but I thought it would happen no matter where I posted my thread. I never intended to trample on any existing etiquette. It is my hope that we can all be good friends here and share in our knowledge and support of each others projects and approaches.

There is one thing I know very well and that is our project is different and it is, as far as I know of, a world wide first and sometimes there is a cost to being first. I am willing to pay that cost to share with what I believe, in the end, are like minded people that share a love for this craft. Further it is my deepest hope that we can meet one day to share stories of our love for this unique craft over drinks and laughter.

Very, VERY cool project!

'Baseline', as often happens, the 'studio scale' (SS) label is confusing since it implies an actual 'scale' is involved. However, here on RPF, it simply translates as 'replica of an original filming miniature' to include (as much as practical given many of the donor kits are simply no longer available...) the original studio model shop construction techniques & elements. So, although the physical 'size' of the replica is an aspect of a 'studio scale' project, it is essentially a derivative characteristic. In short, making something the size of the original does not mean it is studio scale, but rather "studio scale" results in the 'original size' (otherwise, as so often turns out, the original donor parts don't "fit"!)

Since your ISD project is not a replica of a studio filming model, it does not meet the basic criteria for the RPF Studio Scale definition. No big deal, however. It is still a physical replica of the actual 'virtual' model used in the film production (if I understand you correctly.) Further, since the virtual "studio model" (VMS) does not physically exist, there is no way to say the size of your model matches the studio model's size. Depending on how the VMS was designed, it may not even have a 'size' - although I suspect it must have some scaling characteristic in order for the rendering software to treat it correctly with regard to lighting, movement, etc. If so, then your project may even be capable of being an actual 'scale' model which SS models typically do not easily determine (especially when referenced against "full size" filming sets!)

Regardless of this minutia, the happy fact is that it will be nearly the same real-world size as the original ISD studio model used way back in the '70's for Star Wars, if your calculation are correct. Which is perhaps the intent - it will have that physical impact when on display, an impact well known from displays of the original ISD models.

Whatever the RPF classification of BP's ISD project, it is still a wonderful project with its own inherently fascinating process, of which I am grateful you are sharing with us here.

Carry on.

Regards, Robert

Note: All commentary is my own, developed from within my own personal universe which solely exists between my ears and no where else. As such, it does not reflect any other intention or opinion of the RPF forum in general or in specific. I hope you find it entertaining although your mileage may vary. ;^P

Hey thanks for your support and input.

As far as I am concerned the debate is over, the powers that be here made their decision and here we are in the General Modeling Section.

From here out I'll just let our work do the talking and all of you can decide for yourselves. As promised here are first looks at the major components of the head section with additional details yet to come.

Just my tuppence worth. It's a giant star-destroyer model, that, if cgi were not being widely used these days, would probably be used in studio as a filming miniature. So,in my opinion,it is studio scale. Just my tuppence worth....
Anyway-let's go with the flow and enjoy this build!

Okay, this is cool is ways that are just too numerous to mention!

Based on my experience PLA is fine, even for long term use, as long you don't bury the model in a compost heap (did you know PLA is bio-degradable?). Even so, a good aluminum structural armature would be recommended. Did you know small PLA parts can be glued with acrylic solvent cement like Weld-On #3?

Looking forward to seeing your progress! What are your plans for internal lighting?

So very grateful for the support and interest in our little project.

DaveG suggests two very good bits of information with the Weld-On, I most like that it can used to make a slurry like you can with ABS and acetone. We will indeed have an internal support structure it will be unique and is tied to what I believe is a very cool custom stand that I will share at a later date.

As far as the lighting goes we have some ideas for something I think is pretty cool involving tried and true fiber optics and some new and interesting technology that I will also reveal once we get quite a bit further into the project. So stay tuned for a lot more on all of that.

Looking mighty fine so far! Very interested in seeing this thing come together.

I actually prefer PLA over ABS. Much easier to print, in my opinion, even though it's not as tough. And it smells less toxic.
It should be fine for model-making purposes.

That bridge (and towers) look very good indeed. Love the dainty supports of the towers; way cool!

Just wondering- the Bridge you showed us seems to be a mix of the ISD-I (Devastator) and ISD-II (Avenger) details- is your project going to be a hybrid of the most desirable features?

What an impressive model this is! I will follow this one with interest. The "drama" over if it is studio scale or not is really non important. As a modeler myself its the model that gathers my attention and interest not the arbitrary classification some people come up with. Keep up the awesome work!

Thanks for your comments and support.

I agree with you completely about ABS vs PLA the fumes were a major consideration especially when doing print jobs that are measured in days as opposed to hours.

The shield towers are not the finished parts that will be used. They are prototypes we discovered the limits of printing vertical columns at 4mm that are unsupported in our attempts. Likewise the head section is a prototype and will look different in the finished version the one pictured will be used for lighting test.

So what can you expect to see from us next? Additional drive section details and assembly of the drive section.

Richard Baker said:

Just wondering- the Bridge you showed us seems to be a mix of the ISD-I (Devastator) and ISD-II (Avenger) details- is your project going to be a hybrid of the most desirable features?

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Yeah, I noticed that as well.

But looking good so far.