Limited Run 3D Scans of 150+ Star Wars Confirmed Donors

[Studio Kitbash]

Printer pause alert...

Before you begin 3D printing off your 5-footer Millennium Falcon vent rings, hold on a minute... the height looks like it may be off by 2mm according to another member with better photogrammetry skills. (I already sent mine to Shapeways to print, so I'll post a picture of them in comparison to the new dimensions coming in.)

More anon.

 

[Meerkat67]

Meerkat67, are you in on this run?

If not it's kind or wearing thin.

What is the sense in this targeted attack and bashing Studiokitbash over this?

What do you have to gain by trying to rubish his name?

Everyone who has contributed can, and should be able to chime in.

Are you trying to solve the problem, or fuel another?

Aside from the trip to Mexico, I can sympathise with most of these problems myself. And so can probably a good majority of other members that have contributed to this forum, especially given where the world is at the moment.

You have failed to list the following from what I can see:

- He has provided countless folk here with castings of expensive kit parts over the years. Some of these were freely gifted to builders (evidence in various member build threads).

- Freely offered assistance with identifying donor parts and information to help others with their build.

- Come through with a very difficult run for parts for plastic hemispheres for the 5 foot falcon, not attempted by anyone else here, and funded much of the R&D himself.

- And surely more good deeds which have gone unnoticed or I am not aware of.

Timing aside, he has been honest about his failings with regard from this run and he hasn't walked away like many here probably have in the past. It would have been easy to do if he was that type of person.

Cantina_Dude is going to try and get this up and going.
Few realise how much work is involved in what he has proposed.
Like Cantina_Dude, I have experience with scanning and working in CAD and it is a massive, massive, massive task to try to accomplish this.

If this project comes off it could be one of the most important things to happen to Studio Scale, given the age and rarity of these kits. Most here realise this.


Seriously, come on.

Seriously yeah come on, what you have failed to recognize is this dude dissappeared like the flash for a long time,,,, and only reappeared like a fly on cow dung when i posted what i did... so think about that...

 

[ventuoguy]

This is my result printing the left entex wenkel part on my new Elegoo Saturn. I just started 3d printing a few weeks ago! This is done at 75 percent scale of the original file. Does this size look right? It's larger than I might have thought but who knows?

 

[Jedi Dade]

I printed the full size one on my mars after cutting the part roughly in half along one of the natural "lines" in the part. At 75% that look approximately right based on my prints .

Jedi Dade

 

[Studio Kitbash]

This is my result printing the left entex wenkel part on my new Elegoo Saturn. I just started 3d printing a few weeks ago! This is done at 75 percent scale of the original file. Does this size look right? It's larger than I might have thought but who knows?

This "looks" really good. Original size is 208mm in length, if you want to compare.

 

[ventuoguy]

This "looks" really good. Original size is 208mm in length, if you want to compare.

Yup I measured my part - 156mm stem to stern. Spot on!!

 

[Cantina_Dude]

The scanner arrived today from "Studio Kitbash" and I have set it up and run a first test scan. I scanned one of the kit parts he included in this bundle that was a reasonable size and lighter in colour as I figured that would be easier to learn with than the really small stuff and/or darker coloured parts. Here is a quick render of the resultant model, at the full resolution available from the scan:

I also output a mesh after running the smooth modifier, sharpen modifier, and simplify modifier within the scanner's software, resulting in a model that is half the number of data points and looks like this:

Now I didn't do anything to the kit part to prep it in any way, it is just the bare plastic. I'm not sure if dulling spray or a thin coat of primer will yield any more detailed results, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

But at the very least, we have a watertight mesh that should be 3D printable. Before I upload this to the Box folder, I want to get some ideas on the best naming convention for these files. I think we will want to have something descriptive and consistent so as to make organizing and searching through everything a little less hectic. I would suggest something along the lines of the following:

(Model Company)-(Scale)-(Model Name)-(Part Number).stl

This would allow folks to file things in their own folder structure by Star Wars model if they so choose, but keeps things consistent and organized at the high level in the Box folder. This of course requires a complete list of all the details of each part, which is something I don't have personally, and all the kit parts "Studio Kitbash" sent me are just loose in a bag. For instance, this part I used for my first scan I believe is from the Nichimo 1/35 Jagdtiger but I don't know the part number, so I'll need that from someone more knowledgeable about such things to be able to complete the file name. But the rest of the name for this file would look like this:

Nichimo-1-35-Jagdtiger-(Part Number).stl

Of course, if anyone has an alternative naming convention that they think will better serve this project, please suggest it!

I'm going to play around with the scanner a bit more and see what I can come up with.

 

[janglesworthy]

looks good, you just have to experiment and keep doing it to learn, scan spray is cheap try it. Good thing is the more time you invest into the process the faster you get. Good practice is to write down on paper each step all the way through the process. It lets your brain kind of organize and construct clear workflows. I also live and die by prep lists and cross out as I go.

 

[ventuoguy]

Cantinadude that looks great!! Great idea for the STL labeling protocol also!! Keep up the good work )

 

[Jedi Dade]

While we're at it, it might be cool to create a spreadsheet that has this new naming convention associated with known uses on models... The part you scanned for example is used in many places including the Falcon, blockade runner and Y-wing - just off the top of my head but it may be used other places that I don't know...

Just a thought...

Jedi Dade

 

[Studio Kitbash]

Cantina Dude,

Looks really good, that's already a very impressive first scan.

I like your naming convention idea.

I think that's a King Tiger II main body, and in the instructions its referred to as part #B2. But on the Jagdtiger kit, which has a very similar back deck, it's not numbered in the instructions and is just called "Main Body".

 

[ventuoguy]

Funny how that part was the first cantina dude because on the little video feature on the 1:72 falcon they were demonstrating that section on the rear deck and that specific greebie as a demonstration of how accurate their model was. Great job!

 

[Cantina_Dude]

Thanks folks! I experimented with hitting the kit part with some dry shampoo after a tip I saw on a review of this scanner and it really does seem to improve the scan quality. I guess the slight shininess of the plastic causes a lot of noise in the scan data so the dry shampoo knocks that down a bit which helps give cleaner and sharper results. Check it out:

Here is a comparison of my first scan on the left and this new scan on the right:

I again ran the mesh through the scanner's software sharpening and smoothing and simplifying modifiers and got a lower data point count mesh that also looks pretty good:

So I think this will be part of my regular process to help improve the scan results.

It seems people are cool with the naming convention I came up with so I'll go forward with that. I will upload the two resolution version STLs labeled like this:

Nichimo-1-35-KingTiger-B2-FullRes.stl
Nichimo-1-35-KingTiger-B2-LowRes.stl

While we're at it, it might be cool to create a spreadsheet that has this new naming convention associated with known uses on models...

It sounds like you're volunteering to do just that! I'm pretty green with all this studio scale stuff so I don't have much to offer as far as what kit parts get used on what Star Wars model, so I will just concentrate on getting the best scans I can and upload them to the Box folder as they are done.

 

[janglesworthy]

Now that you guys seem to getting closer to printing here is a good video to watch that helps you understand how to get flat or cubic surface(model kit pieces) to print clean.

 

[ventuoguy]

Jedi and Cantina- you guys rock!!!

 

[Studio Kitbash]

That dry shampoo trick REALLY makes a big difference -- nice discovery!

 

[Jedi Dade]

Thanks folks! I experimented with hitting the kit part with some dry shampoo after a tip I saw on a review of this scanner and it really does seem to improve the scan quality. I guess the slight shininess of the plastic causes a lot of noise in the scan data so the dry shampoo knocks that down a bit which helps give cleaner and sharper results. Check it out:

View attachment 1446954

Here is a comparison of my first scan on the left and this new scan on the right:

View attachment 1446955

I again ran the mesh through the scanner's software sharpening and smoothing and simplifying modifiers and got a lower data point count mesh that also looks pretty good:

View attachment 1446956

So I think this will be part of my regular process to help improve the scan results.

It seems people are cool with the naming convention I came up with so I'll go forward with that. I will upload the two resolution version STLs labeled like this:

Nichimo-1-35-KingTiger-B2-FullRes.stl
Nichimo-1-35-KingTiger-B2-LowRes.stl



It sounds like you're volunteering to do just that! I'm pretty green with all this studio scale stuff so I don't have much to offer as far as what kit parts get used on what Star Wars model, so I will just concentrate on getting the best scans I can and upload them to the Box folder as they are done.

I'd be more than happy to do it. But I don't know the parts and where they all go... and I need a place to store the spreadsheet for the masses. I suppose we could use the Box site... but I don't think I have permission to write there. I suppose I could email the spreadsheet to you pretty easily - PM me your email address

Jedi Dade

 

[Cantina_Dude]

I'd be more than happy to do it. But I don't know the parts and where they all go... and I need a place to store the spreadsheet for the masses. I suppose we could use the Box site... but I don't think I have permission to write there. I suppose I could email the spreadsheet to you pretty easily - PM me your email address

Jedi Dade

It appears that "Box" allows for Google Sheets to be created right in the folder, so I've gone ahead and created a blank spreadsheet in the main folder. You should be able to open and edit it to create whatever spreadsheet you think will be best to organize and allow for easy searching of info!

 

[Ogibendogy]

Nice work Cantina_Dude . I like the naming convention and appreciate the forethought. As for uploading the scans, I suggest you hold off a week or two until you work out your process and learn new tricks. Will help reduce drop box clutter in the long run.

I have a large spreadsheet that we can use. I've been chipping away at adding parts numbers, so it's not ready share just yet. As of today, it documents 422 kits for 41 SS models and several props. I'll keep the group posted, but in the meantime here's a peek:

 

[ventuoguy]

Nice work Cantina_Dude . I like the naming convention and appreciate the forethought. As for uploading the scans, I suggest you hold off a week or two until you work out your process and learn new tricks. Will help reduce drop box clutter in the long run.

I have a large spreadsheet that we can use. I've been chipping away at adding parts numbers, so it's not ready share just yet. As of today, it documents 422 kits for 41 SS models and several props. I'll keep the group posted, but in the meantime here's a peek:

View attachment 1447281

That belongs in the Library of Congress or Smithsonian. Seriously.