Gombabomb
Active Member
Woof. Looong time since last thread...
New to 3D design/printing and trying to learn on my own with a machine that someone has been letting me borrow indefinitely-ish. Was having a hell of a time with most of the things I was designing mostly because of no 3D modeling experience/freebie software, trying ambitious multi-part prints with weird shapes or interlocking parts (Fallout stimpak, mini nuke, Borderlands guns and grenades, etc etc) not to mention technical issues with finishing work on the PLA prints. Took a step back and realized I needed to start simple (duh). Started playing Loadout about a week ago after the art style caught my eye and instantly wanted to make one of the rockets, very basic geometry and kind of generic looking but still cool and distinctive (owing mostly to the paint scheme).
Here's the PLA "prototype" of my initial design after a significant amount of time with a wood-rasp, light sanding, and filler-primer:
Was designed from scratch without taking any screenshots, from memory more or less and without much thought to making it easy to finish. Kept tweaking the size/proportion throughout the modeling process and ended up printing it at about 7" from end to end. Was made in two parts that pop together and the fins were modeled onto the bottom half which made it very difficult to sand. Then after much more sanding and filling and going to grab some screenshots for the paint I realized that the rocket has 4 fins... instead of 3 like I imagined. Oops.
Since it was already a little off by this point, decided to use it as a test since I am still very new to using spray paints and masking things off etc. Got some awesome gloss yellow krylon since the local art store didn't have a close enough yellow of the high-end artsy-fartsy graffiti spray paint I used on my previous props. Had a much higher pressure than I was expecting and instantly made a really lumpy mess of the nice smooth texture... ended up sanding it back down and re-priming.
Unhappy with the paint I bought and not being able to afford another can that week... decided to experiment with colors I already had for another project just for the sake of trial and error and experience. Ended up using the green and red for the Fallout mini nuke plus some silver I picked up for this project. Practiced masking and getting everything straight. Came out better than expected after the weathering:
Since finishing the small rocket and learning a lot along the way... and after a complete redesign and 12 hours of printing I find myself with THIS sitting on my workbench:
11" high, printed in 3 separate sections plus 4 fins which slot into the base. A little more angular than I would have liked, but that's a software limitation.
After first session of rasping/sanding/filler:
Still need to round off the angles, as you can see but excited at the progress.
Also thinking of making the the rocket-boosters on the bottom as a separate piece to add later... it seems like there are different models of the rocket used in-game: one when loaded into the multi-rocket weapon mod that appears flat on bottom, and one that is used in flight or while reloading that looks like this:
So how's it looking? I'm happy with how it's going and really enjoying working on something simpler for once.
Want to make a mold of the finished rocket and slush cast a few but my funds are very limited so that kind of hinges on whether anyone out there would actually want one in the first place to justify the cost of silicone/resin. Alternatively could also print and finish the smaller versions which would be more economical to make a mold of... again depends on interest.
More updates and photos as the project progresses. : )
New to 3D design/printing and trying to learn on my own with a machine that someone has been letting me borrow indefinitely-ish. Was having a hell of a time with most of the things I was designing mostly because of no 3D modeling experience/freebie software, trying ambitious multi-part prints with weird shapes or interlocking parts (Fallout stimpak, mini nuke, Borderlands guns and grenades, etc etc) not to mention technical issues with finishing work on the PLA prints. Took a step back and realized I needed to start simple (duh). Started playing Loadout about a week ago after the art style caught my eye and instantly wanted to make one of the rockets, very basic geometry and kind of generic looking but still cool and distinctive (owing mostly to the paint scheme).
Here's the PLA "prototype" of my initial design after a significant amount of time with a wood-rasp, light sanding, and filler-primer:
Was designed from scratch without taking any screenshots, from memory more or less and without much thought to making it easy to finish. Kept tweaking the size/proportion throughout the modeling process and ended up printing it at about 7" from end to end. Was made in two parts that pop together and the fins were modeled onto the bottom half which made it very difficult to sand. Then after much more sanding and filling and going to grab some screenshots for the paint I realized that the rocket has 4 fins... instead of 3 like I imagined. Oops.
Since it was already a little off by this point, decided to use it as a test since I am still very new to using spray paints and masking things off etc. Got some awesome gloss yellow krylon since the local art store didn't have a close enough yellow of the high-end artsy-fartsy graffiti spray paint I used on my previous props. Had a much higher pressure than I was expecting and instantly made a really lumpy mess of the nice smooth texture... ended up sanding it back down and re-priming.
Unhappy with the paint I bought and not being able to afford another can that week... decided to experiment with colors I already had for another project just for the sake of trial and error and experience. Ended up using the green and red for the Fallout mini nuke plus some silver I picked up for this project. Practiced masking and getting everything straight. Came out better than expected after the weathering:
Since finishing the small rocket and learning a lot along the way... and after a complete redesign and 12 hours of printing I find myself with THIS sitting on my workbench:
11" high, printed in 3 separate sections plus 4 fins which slot into the base. A little more angular than I would have liked, but that's a software limitation.
After first session of rasping/sanding/filler:
Still need to round off the angles, as you can see but excited at the progress.
Also thinking of making the the rocket-boosters on the bottom as a separate piece to add later... it seems like there are different models of the rocket used in-game: one when loaded into the multi-rocket weapon mod that appears flat on bottom, and one that is used in flight or while reloading that looks like this:
So how's it looking? I'm happy with how it's going and really enjoying working on something simpler for once.
Want to make a mold of the finished rocket and slush cast a few but my funds are very limited so that kind of hinges on whether anyone out there would actually want one in the first place to justify the cost of silicone/resin. Alternatively could also print and finish the smaller versions which would be more economical to make a mold of... again depends on interest.
More updates and photos as the project progresses. : )
