Ah, thanks for the info. Yes, I've had my eye on the Ender 3 for a while. The prints you get from the Ender 5 look great though.
Will be watching this thread!
Thanks for the vote of confidence Taz - yeah, I've seen video reviews of the Hiya Toys APC. I think it's a good purchase for folks who'd like something at this scale. It might even be an ideal subject for customisation. As for me - onward and upward.
I added a wire loop at the top of each seat and threw some primer on to see how they looked (more of a morale booster really). Size in proportion to a generic 1:18 figure looks good.
Gorman's console (and the other major pieces) will be removable like this for ease of painting, lighting etc and to check fitment. I'm just trying out desk height here and checking that I have enough space for lighting.
I knew the top face wouldn't be finished well enough for me - that's just the FDM process, so I cut a disc in thin styrene sheet and applied a 3d print of the hub detail onto that. With a little filler-primer and sanding it'll look fine.
Well, Joberg - I'm glad you asked that. #ahem# Ron Cobb came to me in a dream and explained exactly how the engines worked (each wheel has one) how they were battery powered and where the batteries were housed.
But. . .if it had individually driven wheels, it wouldn't need a transaxle. Anyway, I hope you put in an extra sturdy one, otherwise you'll just be grinding metal.
I've got filler primer on the first wheel - just getting rid of the layer lines.
..and a second wheel-in-progress.
I'm also thinking about fitting out some of my generic 1:18 scale figures with Colonial issue kit and to that end I've started to model a helmet for print.
After a couple of prints to fine tune the helmet scale I held the parts in place with blu-tack and jointed them with cotton thread fixed with blobs of cyano gel.
If that holds in place it'll be great. So, once dried it was time for a fitting.
That looked OK so I splashed a little primer on it - the white has a translucency making it hard to see surface detail.
Once I start properly with these I'll need to give them a filler primer and a good sand before assembly. I've yet to work out how to successfully add the mic.
Anyway, I'm happy with how this is going. It's been a nice break from APC interior pieces.
EDIT: Just added the mic - a semi-stripped wire piece. Here's a cheeky shot with the Hiya Toys Hicks.
I printed out 2 full Smart-Gun 'kits' today. I built them with a raft to try to avoid any smaller pieces getting knocked off the build plate. That worked, but the flat halves aren't finished very well as a result - so they don't go together as well as they need to.
So, I'll re-design the print to get a better result.
Anyway, I couldn't resist building one up and sloshing some primer on it. The MKII will fit and look a lot better.
This whole thing will only ever be a prototype, and I couldn't put this bit off any longer - Gorman's console.
I'll be lighting the screens and hopefully a few of the desk elements on this build. To that end I've cut holes for all the screens and 3d printed bezels to go on them once the whole thing is painted.
I set the bezels on sticky-side-out masking tape to keep them in place while painting.
I've sent a couple of these pinging across the room but luckily found them again so I requisitioned this box to keep everything organised.