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Interest Ahsoka - The Map ball - several options (grouped project Wonderknight & eethan)
- Thread starter eethan
- Start date
drunkwoodworker
New Member
That is exceptional!!Hello there,
well, here is another update!
For the option 2, 4 and 5, the prop is printed is two halves of the full ball with all the details for all tiles as well as all the details from the base Megaminx toy. The 2 halves will seamingly close along the natural recesses on the replicated megaminx.
For the lit version, Julie found a small 7.6cm pre-wired lit ball that fits barely into the prop. I created the 3D model around it to try and make this all work together easily. I mentioned magnets in the first post, there is no room for that in the end, we are still testing for now, but here is what the 3D model looks like for this:
View attachment 1757244
This was a complex endeavour. I almost went crazy creating the printing file for the first half yesterday as the model is pretty complex and heavy and the slicing software was not having it (for close to 10 hours...).
I finaly made it work and we launched the first test print this morning. 5h later, here is a first cool teaser on this! pretty epic!
View attachment 1757245
I have absolutely zero patience with the anycubic slicer, so I always create all my supports directly in my 3D software. old school stylebut that way I have great control over what I actually want and don't get crazy supports everywhere, just what I really need
well, turns out, this complex model worked on the first test print
I hope you like it
Julie gets more busy with life than me so she has a hard time updating, but she should be ready to post some exciting stuff pretty soon, stay tuned
cheers
Hi everyone,
Here are some clear tiles printed .
I’m almost ready to release the black and clear tiles kits (option 1). The map in two parts (option 2) is coming soon.
I will be working on the painted version when I’m finished printing all the kit versions.
Cheers,
Julie
Here are some clear tiles printed .
I’m almost ready to release the black and clear tiles kits (option 1). The map in two parts (option 2) is coming soon.
I will be working on the painted version when I’m finished printing all the kit versions.
Cheers,
Julie
Just a little teasing on my first print of the full map file.
On the first video you can see some facets on the inside of one half of the map but don’t worry, Ethan corrected that now
On the first video you can see some facets on the inside of one half of the map but don’t worry, Ethan corrected that now
Hey guys,
I mentioned before that I would show more of the model and details when the kits would go for sale, that moment is coming, Wonderknight is finalizing the last details before the release of Option 1 - 62 Raw resin printed tiles (black or transparent).
So here we go! here are a few of the perspective matches I did on the 3D model to ensure every-single-possible-detail was reproduced as best as humaly possible (2 months of work! argh! this was crazy, but I'm so happy with the result!)
I hope you guys like it
stay tuned if you want a kit of the printed tiles, they are coming very soon
cheers all
I mentioned before that I would show more of the model and details when the kits would go for sale, that moment is coming, Wonderknight is finalizing the last details before the release of Option 1 - 62 Raw resin printed tiles (black or transparent).
So here we go! here are a few of the perspective matches I did on the 3D model to ensure every-single-possible-detail was reproduced as best as humaly possible (2 months of work! argh! this was crazy, but I'm so happy with the result!)
I hope you guys like it
stay tuned if you want a kit of the printed tiles, they are coming very soon
cheers all
Hi,
That's it, a few kits are released on my website www.wonderknight.fr (don't worry, I'll make more if they're sold out).
They are available in transparent and black. They are sold as raw printed tiles with their supports.
With Eethan, we did a lot of testing to obtain the best print quality we could but for a perfect result we advise you to lightly sand the surface of the tiles (500 or 600 grit should do it fine).
All the parts in the photos are raw, so you can get a pretty good idea of the quality.
We left the supports so that the parts would be easier to sand and they could possibly be left for painting as well. They are designed so the front two layers of supports can be removed separately to facilitate painting and sanding while retaining most of the supports.
A plan is provided to attach the tiles in the position where the ball lights up. Each tile has a number on the back so you can position it on the plan.
The final price of the kit is €85 + shipping costs
This kit was a really big modeling job for Eethan and I hope you enjoy the quality.
Cheers,
That's it, a few kits are released on my website www.wonderknight.fr (don't worry, I'll make more if they're sold out).
They are available in transparent and black. They are sold as raw printed tiles with their supports.
With Eethan, we did a lot of testing to obtain the best print quality we could but for a perfect result we advise you to lightly sand the surface of the tiles (500 or 600 grit should do it fine).
All the parts in the photos are raw, so you can get a pretty good idea of the quality.
We left the supports so that the parts would be easier to sand and they could possibly be left for painting as well. They are designed so the front two layers of supports can be removed separately to facilitate painting and sanding while retaining most of the supports.
A plan is provided to attach the tiles in the position where the ball lights up. Each tile has a number on the back so you can position it on the plan.
The final price of the kit is €85 + shipping costs
This kit was a really big modeling job for Eethan and I hope you enjoy the quality.
Cheers,
drunkwoodworker
New Member
Ordered a set! I’m excited; this looks awesome!
drunkwoodworker
New Member
My kit just arrived; can’t wait to put it together!
zjunlimited
Sr Member
Is there an advantage to the black or clear option if we are going to end up painting the tiles anyway?
Hi,
To be completely honest, there isn't much difference between both, we just did this to ensure people could chose what they were more comfortable with. The black option is more opaque of course, however it is not fully opaque, it is black tinted transparent resin to start with.
We printed the clear tiles on the new mono 6ks machine and the black tiles on the mono X 4k machine. We did a lot of testing to ensure basically the same result on all tiles, for this reason, the transparent tiles are printed at 0.04 layers height and are looking awesome like this, that new machine is very impressive.
The black tiles are printed at 0.02 layer height to ensure similar details, so they take much longer to produce for Julie but we wanted the best quality possible for you guys.
With a very quick sanding, they will both give a really great result
Cheers
zjunlimited
Sr Member
Perfect. Thanks for the reply and insights. Will put my order in.Hi,
To be completely honest, there isn't much difference between both, we just did this to ensure people could chose what they were more comfortable with. The black option is more opaque of course, however it is not fully opaque, it is black tinted transparent resin to start with.
We printed the clear tiles on the new mono 6ks machine and the black tiles on the mono X 4k machine. We did a lot of testing to ensure basically the same result on all tiles, for this reason, the transparent tiles are printed at 0.04 layers height and are looking awesome like this, that new machine is very impressive.
The black tiles are printed at 0.02 layer height to ensure similar details, so they take much longer to produce for Julie but we wanted the best quality possible for you guys.
With a very quick sanding, they will both give a really great result
Cheers
BTW, is there a recommended paint guide to finish these tiles? Of course after sanding, it’s the usual prime, paint, clear, weather process I presume but any tips or recommended paints? And glue (CA, epoxy, …) to attach?
thank you
alright, this is not a tutorial, just a few leads
There are a lot of solutions to approach this and it should not discourage anyone. There are simpler solutions and ready to use gold paint for this if you don't want to go with multiple coats of paint.Regarding gluing, we haven't tried it yet to be honest, Julie has been too busy with testing stuff for the light up version and it is taking all of her time. However, I would say that if you want to glue the tiles to a megaminx, sanding quickly the megaminx surface to knock out a bit of the smoothness and using CA glue would work perfectly. Make sure to sand all the supports under the tiles properly as well to ensure a good contact. Maybe others will have a different opinion on the best glue, I don't know.
Regarding paint,
The tiles need a tiny bit of sanding, the supports are a great help to hold the part in your hand for this. No need to go crazy, some fine 500 or 600 grit and a very light sanding with a foam pad to hold your sanding paper or something slightly soft should do the trick very quickly. If you don't have pads, folding the sand paper in 2 or 3 is also a solution to give it some stifness and avoid going into the details too much.
Then, they need a gloss black base coat. It can be a gloss primer or a good black paint. Julie tried with valejo gloss black primer, but she has been doing a lot of tests with other as well lately as she need to remove the paint for the engravings for the light up version and the valejo primer will peel off as it is very much acrylic based. So she has been using the tamiya black now instead which is a much stronger paint by default than a tamiya primer for some reason.
The gloss black base is mandatory for a good chrome. If you don't have a gloss black, you can apply a gloss varnish after the black to remedy this.
After this, you need to find a good chrome that will work for you. Julie has tested several of the alclad chromes and had good results with all of them. However there are a lot of other chromes out there and a lot of opinions on them as well! You can find a ton of video on youtube of people testing and comparing chromes that will possibly help you decide.
or, you can also check out our good friend Astyanax who has been testing a lot of ways to achieve the best gold effect lately here:
If someone is reading this and is in Europe, Julie went through hell to find alclad chrome in europe as they don't seem to be stocked here anymore. Don't go crazy for this, there are plenty of alternatives.
After the chrome is applied, it needs to be sealed to avoid any problem with future layers. She found out that the very common Liquitex high gloss varnish is pretty recomanded for this. it is easy and cheap to find.
after this, you need to apply another gloss varnish with a gold tint inside. Julie has tested with food coloring as this was recommanded but she personnaly had an issue with this as after a few days, it looks like the color bleed through the varnish in spots as well as accumulated at the periphery of the part, it was very bad. She has since tried with alcohol tints instead and it worked nicelly. Once again this is just leads, it would have to be tested with the varnish you'll use yourself. For this step, Julie is mixing the alcohol tints into Vallejo polyurethane gloss varnish and had good results. Some people use a 2K gloss varnish here as it is regarded as the best result, however, this is more complex and usually more toxic to use. You shouldn't use a 2K varnish if you don't have perfect safety gear.
after this, you can weather the ball as you like with black or brown details and washes
Lastly, Julie is using an airbrush for all of this. If you don't have an airbrush, i would recommand using a solution that doesn't require too many coats as they might not be as thin with a ratle can and you might start loosing some of the details after too many coats. Don't be too alarmed though, the details are pretty deep, it's just a warning.
This may seem complex and this is what Julie is going to apply to the finished comissions, but, there are plenty of other ways, some much simpler with ready to use gold products. Just be aware this prop is not "gold" per say but more of a dark brass with weathering on top.
I hope this helps,
cheers
amnesia0287
Active Member
Ooo this made a lot of progress since I last checked.
Hi everyone,
I'm here to post some news
The light up version is progressing well, but unfortunately not exactly as I would like. The system I was thinking of using, after testing it, only has very little battery life (something like 1h30). So I decided to turn to a system connected with a 12V cable. This also allows for better light intensity. We are thinking about where the best location would be to put the plug, but we will make sure that it is perfectly integrated into the ball and that once unplugged nothing protrudes from the ball.
But I have a good system for the interior electronics, I just need Eethan to create a little 3D printing support to support all this inside the ball
I had a lot of difficulty finding a good system to not block the light patterns. And for your information, the best technique I found is toothpaste. I fill all my engravings before painting gloss black and once my paint is dry I scrape the engravings with a pointy tool. Unlike masking latex, it is thicker and easier to clean when you put it in a place where you don't want it to be.
For the golden aspect, I'm still encountering a few small problems. Everything works very well on my small test pieces and when I go over the whole ball, I lose the gold chrome effect with the varnishes. So I still have to work on this a bit to understand what's going on.
Sorry I know I'm taking time, but I'm trying to really get a great result and I hope you won't regret waiting
I'm here to post some news
The light up version is progressing well, but unfortunately not exactly as I would like. The system I was thinking of using, after testing it, only has very little battery life (something like 1h30). So I decided to turn to a system connected with a 12V cable. This also allows for better light intensity. We are thinking about where the best location would be to put the plug, but we will make sure that it is perfectly integrated into the ball and that once unplugged nothing protrudes from the ball.
But I have a good system for the interior electronics, I just need Eethan to create a little 3D printing support to support all this inside the ball
I had a lot of difficulty finding a good system to not block the light patterns. And for your information, the best technique I found is toothpaste. I fill all my engravings before painting gloss black and once my paint is dry I scrape the engravings with a pointy tool. Unlike masking latex, it is thicker and easier to clean when you put it in a place where you don't want it to be.
For the golden aspect, I'm still encountering a few small problems. Everything works very well on my small test pieces and when I go over the whole ball, I lose the gold chrome effect with the varnishes. So I still have to work on this a bit to understand what's going on.
Sorry I know I'm taking time, but I'm trying to really get a great result and I hope you won't regret waiting
The care you two have taken with your projects is remarkable. I have never been disappointed in with any of them (The earrings are beautiful BTW). I'm sure you'll find an exceptional answer to the issues. I know I'll wait for these crafted projects. The videos look good. what is the diameter on this so we can start making sure thry are displayed well?
Thank you so much for your kind message
,The diameter of the ball is 8.6 cm (to get a matching size to the size of a Megaminx 8,2cm+ the tiles attached to it as was done in the series)
