800mm 3d printed Sulaco

[Kingbob]

It is remarkably difficult to take a pic of a ship that is shaded in light grey, medium grey, dark grey, neutral grey, german grey, sky grey, ijn grey, nato black, rubschwarz, tire black, oil black, and who knows how many variations thereof...

I painted over the SULACO logo, it was too big, and i couldnt do the "USS" part small and neat enough. So i've ordered some printer decal sheet so i can print it and do it as a decal. Once thats on and ive blended it in, i think it'll be finished. Then i'll try and get some good photos under good light. In the meantime, these are pretty close, though dont quite show the shading as well as they should.

 

[gedmac66]

Superb.

 

[Duncanator]

Very nice!

 

[Kingbob]

FFS, i got some clear decal paper for inkjet printers, the kind from Bare-Metal, scaled and printed the ships name, printed fine.
Sprayed on a fixative lacquer as they suggest, all good. Once dry i put it in water to soften the decal... and as i lift it out the ink just falls off!

They do suggest using Microscale Liquid Decal Film specifically, but other articles online say any clear lacquer will do. Guess not!

 

[Hagoth]

Cool project. Planning something similar. Great reference material here.

 

[Kingbob]

Well i completely ballsed up the Sulaco decal. When i put a matte clearcoat over it, it would up with white tide marks around it, possibly some kind of reaction to decalset. I grabbed the airbrush to try and tidy them up, but ended ruining the definition of the text on the decal.

In the end i sanded it back and repainted the grey.

I was sitting there thinking:
"Damn i cant cut the USS letters small enough, and the bigger letters dont necessarily come out well when cut either. Wish i had a sticker cutting machine so i could cut a nice mask"
And then like an idiot i facepalmed when i realised, i could have just used the 3d printer to print a paint mask! So thats what i've done, but havent had time to paint it yet. This ship name is literally the only thing holding it back from being finished!

 

[Kingbob]

I have also decided to freely share the STL files for those who want to print their own

 

[Kingbob]

Because i got a "few" private messages... easier to post it here.

I havent uploaded it to thingiverse or elsewhere yet because i havent drawn any instructions yet (hopefully this weekend), but anyone can download it from here:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/Sulaco/Sulaco.zip

You'll need 2mm and 3mm screws to put it together, and looking at about 90hrs to print (@0.2mm layer height, though some parts will benefit from a 0.1mm layer height). You'll need about 1050gm of filament, so just over 1 spool. (barring failures), and a few bits of 1.2mm styrene rod.

It comes in at about 800mm, but should resize up or down a bit with no problems. I havent added in a mask for the name yet, i'll update here with it when i've done it, probably on the weekend.

Look forward to seeing what other people make of it.

 

[NS4]

Awesome work - and kudo to you for sharing your files - bravo!

 

[frostrubin]

Very noble to share the files!
I've done an paper version years back. Maybe its time to do her in PLA

 

[Hagoth]

Thank you for the file share!

 

[Kingbob]

Well i'm as happy as i'm going to get with the name i think. The "USS" is a little larger than i'd like at 5mm. But i can live with it.
Now just need to do a little bit of panel painting around it, and it'll be finished!

 

[Kingbob]

FYI, anyone who downloaded the model zip file, download this little extra as well. Its just a mask for painting the name.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~canison/Sulaco/Sulaconamebadge.zip

 

[Haui]

Thanks that's a great service

 

[JiminSTLouis]

So cool of you to share the files! Will definitely put this in the hopper for a future project.

Your build came out georgeous! Did you ever consider printing the USS SULACO so it’s slightly raised?

Thanks again!

 

[Kingbob]

So cool of you to share the files! Will definitely put this in the hopper for a future project.

Your build came out georgeous! Did you ever consider printing the USS SULACO so it’s slightly raised?

Thanks again!

I did think about raising, or indenting the Sulaco logo, but given that i sanded the panel to get a smooth surface, it'd get in the way and wind up distorted. I could print separate letters, but then they'd look raised, which would look wrong.

 

[basementdweller]

Oooh - indented letters printed face down on the build plate to get that nice surface finish on a panel that can be glued in place on the model would be fantastic. Totally doing that. No need to sand this part or anything then.

 

[Kingbob]

Oooh - indented letters printed face down on the build plate to get that nice surface finish on a panel that can be glued in place on the model would be fantastic. Totally doing that. No need to sand this part or anything then.

I did think of that, but it means the letters and panel fit would have to be EXACT. Otherwise you'd have to putty the gap, and end up ruining the whole point of nice sharp letters.

 

[basementdweller]

I did think of that, but it means the letters and panel fit would have to be EXACT. Otherwise you'd have to putty the gap, and end up ruining the whole point of nice sharp letters.

I'm looking through the parts, but I am uncertain of which panel it is. Finally - 11 it is. It's better than I thought being just one part. Printing it as is with indented text, but face down instead of up on the buildplate should be ok since all the raised areas of the hull plates are flush with each other and any bridging that tiny is fine. That should be no different than printing face up sans sanding. I get a bit of elephant foot, but I've pretty much resolved that in the slicer. It's worth a try at least imho.

 

[Kingbob]

I'm looking through the parts, but I am uncertain of which panel it is. Finally - 11 it is. It's better than I thought being just one part. Printing it as is with indented text, but face down instead of up on the buildplate should be ok since all the raised areas of the hull plates are flush with each other and any bridging that tiny is fine. That should be no different than printing face up sans sanding. I get a bit of elephant foot, but I've pretty much resolved that in the slicer. It's worth a try at least imho.

Hmm, yeah, should work.