GhostMinion's Fallout 3d Models and Props

Valcrow said:
Nice! I have a Form2 as well, really awesome so far! I think they fixed most of the issues people were complaining with the 1+
Click to expand...


Well, I'm very glad you chimed in with that. :thumbsup I was actually wondering something, maybe you could answer since you have one.....

So, with most of my stuff, I like to cold cast with aluminum powder. So, say I printed a part on the Form 2. If I take that part, and then make a mold for that part (without anything but the post print clean up in alcohol), do you think what little bit of print lines there are will polish out, during the process of polishing the cold casted copy to get it's metallic shine?

From what I've seen, it appears like you need a magnifying glass to actually see the print lines. So I figured that the polishing process would likely remove the print lines.



Another thing that has me thinking............how does the resin for printing compare to casting resin from someone like Smooth On? Is the printing resin easy to polish, like with small fine polishing wheels? If it were, I begin to wonder what the point of casting said part would be in the first place, if it's already a nice durable, solid resin part. Obviously for some things, if you wanted multiple copies of said prop, like frag grenades or ammo cells, casting is reasonable. But for an odd ball prop that I might only want one or two of, could the prints be just as good as casted resin parts?

Sorry if that's an earful, I'm just dying to know this stuff. :p
 
I'm pretty confident with 3D printing (made a mini nuke myself!) but my casting knowledge is quite limited. I've heard of the cold casting techniques you speak of, and I even bought some bronze powder to try it out, but haven't got around to it yet.

BUT I did have a customer that was trying to do some casting and I asked him test casting a piece for me and if he could give me the mold to display as well. He was gracious enough to do so. It didn't turn out super clean, but I think pewter is more challenging than smooth on resins. Plus I was mainly interested to see what kinda details and limitations it would have if I did get into casting it. (top left- Form2 print, mid- clean pewter cast, bottom-cast + patina juice + steel wool)

IMG_20160315_175929-1-1024x576.jpg


Don't be confused by the lines on the wings, they are actually part of the design I put in to see the casting detail and not print lines. The lines are totally invisible in pewter.

here's a better look at the printed part, no sanding, just cleaned with alcohol.
IMG_20160302_130903-576x1024.jpg


I imagine with smooth-on casting resins you'll get a very good result with little to no print lines showing. He showed me some resin casts of an FDM print from an Ultimaker 2+ and it caught every detail, even 60 micron layers.

As for being used as a finished part, it is pretty strong, but a little brittle IMO. If you dropped it, it would shatter into many pieces. It does have a little tiny bit of flex and resists bending pretty good. But I wouldn't use it for anything mechanical, FDM is a lot better for that kinda stuff. But the detail on SLA is quite a bit beyond any FDM. It just costs more, cleanup is not so fun, and large parts are a no go. But hey, if you have both. That's ideal :D

Here is a little T-Virus bottle I made to test the water tightness and polishing the surface.

IMG_20160206_134549-686x1024.jpg


I think as long as you're not going to bang the part around or drop it, it should be durable enough. It is solid and easy to polish.
 
Valcrow said:
I'm pretty confident with 3D printing (made a mini nuke myself!) but my casting knowledge is quite limited. I've heard of the cold casting techniques you speak of, and I even bought some bronze powder to try it out, but haven't got around to it yet.

BUT I did have a customer that was trying to do some casting and I asked him test casting a piece for me and if he could give me the mold to display as well. He was gracious enough to do so. It didn't turn out super clean, but I think pewter is more challenging than smooth on resins. Plus I was mainly interested to see what kinda details and limitations it would have if I did get into casting it. (top left- Form2 print, mid- clean pewter cast, bottom-cast + patina juice + steel wool)

http://www.redicubricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMG_20160315_175929-1-1024x576.jpg

Don't be confused by the lines on the wings, they are actually part of the design I put in to see the casting detail and not print lines. The lines are totally invisible in pewter.

here's a better look at the printed part, no sanding, just cleaned with alcohol.
http://www.redicubricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMG_20160302_130903-576x1024.jpg

I imagine with smooth-on casting resins you'll get a very good result with little to no print lines showing. He showed me some resin casts of an FDM print from an Ultimaker 2+ and it caught every detail, even 60 micron layers.

As for being used as a finished part, it is pretty strong, but a little brittle IMO. If you dropped it, it would shatter into many pieces. It does have a little tiny bit of flex and resists bending pretty good. But I wouldn't use it for anything mechanical, FDM is a lot better for that kinda stuff. But the detail on SLA is quite a bit beyond any FDM. It just costs more, cleanup is not so fun, and large parts are a no go. But hey, if you have both. That's ideal :D

Here is a little T-Virus bottle I made to test the water tightness and polishing the surface.

http://www.redicubricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/IMG_20160206_134549-686x1024.jpg

I think as long as you're not going to bang the part around or drop it, it should be durable enough. It is solid and easy to polish.
Click to expand...


Dude, thank you so much for that!!! Your pictures and descriptions were exactly what I was looking for.

And might I say, those are some mighty fine prints! This has me amped up! Thanks so much! :D
 
karmajay said:
Oh, is that the life size version? Pretty cool (but out of my price range!)
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They are described as 15 inches tall. Funny thing is that they (Gaming Heads) say that it's the first of the "mega bobbleheads". Implying that they'll be making more, possibly all of them? Who's gonna have room for all that! :lol

It is cool, for sure. I myself am big on collecting Vault Boy bobbleheads. Proud to say I actually have a full set, since Bethesda finally (and recently) released the third and final series. My favorite for sure is Big Guns.

But I'll be passing on these. Like you said, to damn rich for my blood. No interest in such a size as it's far from game accurate. But I'm sure it'll make someone's office look cool. Someone with a lot of disposable money.............
 
GhostMinion said:
Another thing that has me thinking............how does the resin for printing compare to casting resin from someone like Smooth On? Is the printing resin easy to polish, like with small fine polishing wheels? If it were, I begin to wonder what the point of casting said part would be in the first place, if it's already a nice durable, solid resin part. Obviously for some things, if you wanted multiple copies of said prop, like frag grenades or ammo cells, casting is reasonable. But for an odd ball prop that I might only want one or two of, could the prints be just as good as casted resin parts?
Click to expand...
Speed and price.
1 liter of resin from formlabs is $150. For roughly the same amount of Smooth On 65D you would pay $26. A quick guess at how thick a piece if have on my desk at work is about 1mm thick wall. When I cast the main body for a mini-nuke I made I used 1, maybe 1.5 cups of resin which translates into 1/4 to 1/3 of a liter.

I don't know how fast it would take to print that out, but 65D has a pot life of 2.5 minutes and a cure time of around 15 minutes. So assume four layers and it taking five minutes to measure, mix, pour, and rotate/slosh your mold. 4 x 5 + 15 = 35 minutes. And in some time for the pre-casting prep and you could have a casting done in 45 minutes.

I'm looking forward to how you do up your mold. I about get a hernia trying to get castings of my F3 nuke so I refuse to sell any more until I re-master (I destroyed the original removing the mold) and re-mold it.
 
Sorry to thread jack a bit, but you guys seem very knowledgeable about molds & nukes, and I have a very specific question on nukes and molds.

I'm curious if you think it's possible to make a mold of this nuke and cast it. Is it way too many internal cavities? What's the limiting factor in being able to cast something?

iUYhXjD.gif


I assume you can't cast the whole thing, but can you do it with the parts? Breakdown of parts?
http://www.redicubricks.com/wp-cont...-Printed-Fallout-Mini-Nuke-Prop-BREAKDOWN.jpg

Thoughts?
 
NormanF said:
Speed and price.
1 liter of resin from formlabs is $150. For roughly the same amount of Smooth On 65D you would pay $26. A quick guess at how thick a piece if have on my desk at work is about 1mm thick wall. When I cast the main body for a mini-nuke I made I used 1, maybe 1.5 cups of resin which translates into 1/4 to 1/3 of a liter.

I don't know how fast it would take to print that out, but 65D has a pot life of 2.5 minutes and a cure time of around 15 minutes. So assume four layers and it taking five minutes to measure, mix, pour, and rotate/slosh your mold. 4 x 5 + 15 = 35 minutes. And in some time for the pre-casting prep and you could have a casting done in 45 minutes.

I'm looking forward to how you do up your mold. I about get a hernia trying to get castings of my F3 nuke so I refuse to sell any more until I re-master (I destroyed the original removing the mold) and re-mold it.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I was thinking more with smaller bits and greebles for some of the kits. Not the full kits themselves. :lol The printer is setting me back enough as it is, don't know if I'd be willing to print something like a whole mini nuke. Mostly stuff like say a slide release for the 10mm and 12.7mm, or some other small piece that doesn't really print well on my FDM printers.

As for the molds, I'll post some pics once they're done. The set of molds I'm making right now are all cavity molds, the ones for the nuke halves use a lot of rubber. I'm hoping because I made them nice and wide that it'll be easier to demold the castings. I plan to then use the masters to make another mold, that one being a brush on mold. I need practice with brush on molds, so it's really just for practice and to try a different rubber for brushing. The mold for the fins themselves are gonna be two sided molds.

And I feel you on masters getting ruined in the molding process. My T-51b helmet shell did not survive, and the rubber didn't cure right in the detail groove areas. :angry

Valcrow said:
Sorry to thread jack a bit, but you guys seem very knowledgeable about molds & nukes, and I have a very specific question on nukes and molds.

I'm curious if you think it's possible to make a mold of this nuke and cast it. Is it way too many internal cavities? What's the limiting factor in being able to cast something?

http://i.imgur.com/iUYhXjD.gif

I assume you can't cast the whole thing, but can you do it with the parts? Breakdown of parts?
http://www.redicubricks.com/wp-cont...-Printed-Fallout-Mini-Nuke-Prop-BREAKDOWN.jpg

Thoughts?
Click to expand...


Essentially, you should be able to cast every part. But some might require specialized techniques. There is no doubt that making molds is much more a pain in the ass than most people make it seem like. Like all things, it's another skill to learn and practice. My skill set for it is still quite low in my opinion. I've made a good few in my time, but I've also had some rather nasty failures as well.

But yeah, you'd want to break it down as best you could. Then you could clean up the casts and assemble. Some parts you'd want to paint before hand, obviously.

Casting itself is much more enjoyable for me. Time wise depends on the type of resin you use. Some cure in minutes, others can take longer. But over all it doesn't take long to do up a cast.
 
GhostMinion said:
Essentially, you should be able to cast every part. But some might require specialized techniques. There is no doubt that making molds is much more a pain in the ass than most people make it seem like. Like all things, it's another skill to learn and practice. My skill set for it is still quite low in my opinion. I've made a good few in my time, but I've also had some rather nasty failures as well.

But yeah, you'd want to break it down as best you could. Then you could clean up the casts and assemble. Some parts you'd want to paint before hand, obviously.

Casting itself is much more enjoyable for me. Time wise depends on the type of resin you use. Some cure in minutes, others can take longer. But over all it doesn't take long to do up a cast.
Click to expand...


Hmm thanks for the 2 cents. I think I'll stick with 3D printing for now, I wouldn't know how to even begin casting some of those pieces, and not sure I have the time available to learn a whole new skill.
 
Well, started casting up the parts for the mini nukes. It's been............well................not so fun. To be honest, I really dislike making molds. Casting is not so bad for me, but making the actual molds are not my favorite things to do, to say the least. I do pretty good with most of my two part molds, for little parts. But I've yet to make a brush on mold that yields satisfactory casts. It's beginning to get very frustrating.


mini%20nuke%20casts_zpscybmxlgp.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]



The casts so far are not up to par with the standards that I'd hold them to if they were being sold. Now, truth be told, they aren't that bad..............but they aren't perfect. I modeled this to be two sections that mate together. The idea was that both sections would be slush casted. For the top half, I made a brush on mold with Rebound 25. Everything seemed as if it went well. But when I cast the part up, two sides opposite of each other are very slightly pulled in. I mean very slightly. But, on the original, the two mating sides butt up against each other nice and tight, and even all the way around. With these casted top pieces, it's not perfectly tight like it is on the master. It's damn close, and honestly still looks pretty good, but it's not perfect.

So, with the bottom half, I did a cavity mold. A really big, rather expensive, cavity mold. I poured over a gallon of 30 shore rubber into it. I did this because, well, that's the only kind of mold I've ever had true success with. The walls are so thick, they simply can't distort, and so the part will come out perfect. I've done this with a few of my projects, like the Ballistic Fist and the frag grenades. So, the mold isn't bad. It works, but it is mega heavy. A real pain to use for slush casting. I made it too big, and it was my hopes that being bigger width wise would make it easier to pop the cast out, without needing a cut seam...................WRONG! I didn't make it nearly wide enough for that to be the case, and as it turns out using a much softer rubber would probably been helpful, though that would've probably required a support shell. So, the part being locked in the mold, I just cut in a cut seam, and then I was good to go. I wanted to avoid having cut seams so there would be no flashing to clean up, but it isn't really that bad at all, so whatever.

The cast of the bottom is, as I imagined, perfect. Well, as perfect as a slush cast can be I should say.

So, I suppose I'll make another mold for the top section, this time being a cavity mold. Hopefully all goes well and the part locks up with the other like I'd like it to. I'm sure most would think these, as they are, are fine to sell. But I don't feel comfortable with that, and would much rather provide perfect parts for both mine and anybody else's kits. So, I'll try again, and hopefully get some better results.

I am still gonna paint the ones I've casted up and keep them. They're not that bad, and so I guess I'm happy about that fact. I'm looking forward to having a handful of these, I think they look so much better with a few rather than just one. So, I guess that's good news.

As for the other parts, the fin molds are being made right now (two part molds) and will be ready for duty Wed. morning. The stabilizer rings are coming from cavity molds that I made for them, casting them in my pressure pot. The rings are turning out good, just some trouble with the very top of the casts "sucking down" (sorry, don't know the industry term for this) from the pressure in the pot. This is easily fixed, however, by filling in the void with epoxy resin, then sanding it down back to a true flat surface on a flat wooden sanding block. Takes maybe fifteen minutes to square both rings back up this way.


So, that's what I've got with these. I had spoke of a run before, but at the moment not sure if that's gonna happen. I'd rather wait and see how things are looking after making the new mold. If things look good, I'll do a run. If not, well, you get the idea.

At the very least, I'll have myself a bunch of mini nuke props. That's pretty cool. Might have to rename my house Fort Strong. ;)
 
GhostMinion said:
I poured over a gallon of 30 shore rubber into it.
Click to expand...
I heard my credit card whimper when I read this.

Most of my problems with brush on molds have been because I did not make the rubber thick enough. I was told it needs to be 3/8" or 10mm thick. I still need to remaster and mold my Fallout 3 mini nuke. I think they are great to have sitting around the house. Although a co-worker did suggest I stop telling people I was building a bomb in my garage.
 
I have to say I am really split between your model and Valcrow's cut-away version (even if it's 2x the price) You do such a good job smoothing out the model, and I hate 3D printed lines in model.... but I don't think I can afford either at this point since I have my own project in the works. I at least have to stop by and say that I would have bought yours simply because it looks like it is almost ready to paint.
 
NormanF said:
..........I heard my credit card whimper when I read this..............
.
Click to expand...

I laughed my ass off when I read that. :lol Because it's so true.

Ten millimeter thickness, eh? Yeah, I might have to try another brush on mold and go a little thicker. See what results I get. Thanks for the tip. :thumbsup

zapwizard said:
I have to say I am really split between your model and Valcrow's cut-away version (even if it's 2x the price) You do such a good job smoothing out the model, and I hate 3D printed lines in model.... but I don't think I can afford either at this point since I have my own project in the works. I at least have to stop by and say that I would have bought yours simply because it looks like it is almost ready to paint.
Click to expand...

Thank you sir! Always happy when you chime in. :thumbsup
 
That's exactly what has kept me experimenting with the small Micro Mark kits. :lol I really haven't needed to mold anything larger than model parts so far.

The mini nuke kits are priced really well. Now I'm torn between that and trying a build. My nephew really wants one so I may have to get your kit and build it up for him.
 
Some fun with casting resin. ;) Need more resin, then I can get more fins casted up.

casting%20update_zps302km5js.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]


Also begun playing with screws. What is shown is just a test run, the results on the top row could have been better, won't countersink them next time. But the sizes of the screws looks good, as compared to the game renders.




Will hopefully have a painted, assembled nuke in a few days. Stay tuned.
 
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