Narcissus Builders Club N Stuff.

[Nwerke]

Shapeways order arrived today; got a new nozzle to replace the 'bad' one. I'll still only have two and will gang-mould, but it beats doing them all separately. Got replacement tail/side thruster wossname thingies too, revised shape.

STILL WAITING for the second clamp, arrgh dammit. They printed it once and couldn't print it again and didn't tell me why forever; sorted now I think.

Some of the Cygnus bits I got with this order have problems. There's *always* something with 3D print. But the new nozzle is beautiful; better than the 'good' one I got in the first order. Very fine, barely-there growth lines.

 

[Lee S]

For everyones info, the Italeri issue of the Airfix QL doesn't include the gun in the back and thus the piece that goes on the Vader TIE is missing. I just swore a little! The good news is that it looks like there's two in each kit. Anyone have a space??

L

Ah..... before anyone spends money on new kits...... you should have the parts in your stash already.

(Bear in mind the shots against the red background are of Martin's 1st replica, and are a bit misleading. At that time the front bits hadn't been completely identified so he used some substitute parts to get the model finished on time).
Correct ones below:

Keith

 

[jedimaster]

If there are two then I do. Dya need the tie part also?

 

[Lee S]

I haven't acquired a DV TiE yet. Happy to split the cost of one.

 

[Nwerke]

Damn, I had several and gave them to Muzza or someone!

Oh hey, I have made my 3D print parts available for sale in case anyone can't wait for resin. Way too expensive IMO though - resin will be way cheaper. Look for Kremmen on Shapeways.

 

[jedimaster]

I got a bunch of busted up DVD ties from Martyn. There should be plenty of spares.

 

[Lee S]

Thanks!! I have a pile of them in storage in the US, just not possible to get to them for awhile :-/

 

[Nwerke]

Ah sweet, couldn't think who nabbed them. Hey you owe me a Mustang for those.

 

[Lee S]

Fair trade

 

[Woodlake]

Test fitting of Lee's awesome prototype decal set.
Everything looks and fits perfectly :love

 

[Nwerke]

Dang that looks good man. It's really a sweet little ship isn't it! The differences vs the second proto are really going to be very minor - we'll have to do a side by side shoot some time and see if we can pick them. :lol

I'm stuck on my build; I plated half the upper surface before realising there was a problem with the material. :facepalm

I'll just get on with moulding the engines instead for now. By the by Simon and I plan a mould making session at my place over the weekend. (Simon - we'll be off to vote some time in the morning, I guess any time after say 10AM?)

 

[Woodlake]

Cheers Martyn - Yep, she certainly is a beauty!

I was wondering how you were going with it all! (I think your last email must have got lost! :lol)

Sorry to hear you had issues with the plating. You're using the same stuff as I did aren't you? I didn't have any issues with mine. I made sure I sanded the top surface so as to give the paint something to bite to (which I did before gluing them on). Is it something you can resolve?

I was thinking exactly the same thing - would be cool to do a side by side compare.

In the meantime I've built another "virtual" prototype to the lastest specs using all the acrylic and styrene files to "construct" it in a different software package. I will be adding Lee's decals to it, and if I had any kit parts, I'd model them too!

Great to hear you are moving forward with the moulding and casting :thumbsup
Can't wait to get to add them to the ship.

How did you go with the magnets and the removable canopy?

 

[Nwerke]

I sanded the acrylic, I sanded the top surface of the sheet, I even sanded the bottom surface of the sheet. It sticks okay, not as good as polystyrene I suspect but all right.

Unfortunately it was 0.5mm not 0.75mm. Noticeable difference; looks too thin. I was in denial for quite a while but finally had to give in and mike it; sure enough, too thin. We can get 0.75mm polystyrene ex-East, for some reason the local Mulfords doesn't stock it. Not sure what Simon's plans are tho.

Two of the engines are good to put in rubber and the other two not far off. Might as well get it done. The replacement nozzle is going to save a lot of work on the 'bad' one - it actually came out better than the first 'good' one.

I actually found the magnet solution very easy to implement. Aside from stupidly gluing one in place in the reverse orientation of course...a mistake so dumb I HAD to make it. :lol

I've picked up some Barnes TC892 for another job. It's a strong urethane (Shore 80D) intended for electronics potting jobs but casts very cleanly. I'll have a lot left over; think I might use it for the engines. With this I won't need to clay up their insides, they'll be strong enough at the same thickness as the prints. It also tends to foam very slightly, so no shrinkage.

 

[Woodlake]

Ah OK - Yeah 0.5mm is a bit thin. I just checked mine and it is definitely 0.75mm, so I'm not sure how they supplied it wrong??
At least you could get it off easily enough! :lol

Great to hear you got a break from the inconsistent quality that Shapeways has been putting out lately. At least something is going right!

Lol - reversing the polarity is easily done!
The magnets weren't too strong then?

Sounds like you have everything else under control.
I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel...

 

[Nwerke]

The underside material is the correct thickness but only scored half-way. It is harder than styrene and with the large mileage of scoring required, I'm finding it is blunting my blades rapidly!

Oh by the way, I found the best method for cleaning up the 'scurf' from the CNC scoring is to adze it down with a single-edged razor blade. How did you do it? I sanded the top half and found that bits of scurf would keep the paper off the surface around them, or wedge into the grooves. Scraping with the blade removes it entirely in no time at all.

Shapeways - oh no - no such luck. The same order contained parts which had entire pieces missing, for no discernible reason. Oh well. Got all the remaining Narc parts now including the tail details.

The magnets are quite strong but just about dead right for this application IMO. 10mm x 3mm discs.

 

[Woodlake]

The underside material is the correct thickness but only scored half-way. It is harder than styrene and with the large mileage of scoring required, I'm finding it is blunting my blades rapidly!

Oh by the way, I found the best method for cleaning up the 'scurf' from the CNC scoring is to adze it down with a single-edged razor blade. How did you do it? I sanded the top half and found that bits of scurf would keep the paper off the surface around them, or wedge into the grooves. Scraping with the blade removes it entirely in no time at all.

Tell me about it - I cut it all by hand! (so no "scurf" issues for me!).
I probably ended up using about 1/2 dozen blades and had a very sore hand/finger by the end.
I was hoping you'd avoid all that by having it CNC'd - unfortunately not!

Shapeways - oh no - no such luck. The same order contained parts which had entire pieces missing, for no discernible reason. Oh well. Got all the remaining Narc parts now including the tail details

Bugger!! :wacko
I saw the other bits and pieces on your Shapeways account - looks great.

 

[Nwerke]

Ouch! I can relate, did the same myself on a 1/3SS test model years ago. Even that ate a few blades. I never keep the callouses I get from these jobs - should take up guitar.

Oh thanks. We have a thread going in the general modeling section too, look it up some time. Dave (who's doing the 1/700 version) has been having major problems with his prints also. It gets a bit disheartening; I've spent a ton yet I have only a handful of pieces that I'll be able to use in the final build. Oh well, the end justifies the means...

 

[jedimaster]

Decals look good guy's. yeah... The supplier for the panels only has the stuff we are using in .75. Styrene which would be much better has to come from Victoria. And it ain't cheap. I bought an 8ft x 4 ft sheet of hips from them for $26.00. But they only have it in 1mm. I could get 3 models worth out of that but it's 1mm. I'm guessing that .25 of a mm is going to be obvious? We could try it out. If it looks ok then there's no problem. ****ing typical though eh?

Hoping to get a bunch of casting done this weekend as Martyn said. I can't get much done at home these days. Hoping to pick up mine , Lee's and Jason's Bits tomorrow as well as Martyn's extra bits. Then we just gotta stick the bits on and we can finally get this pig out there. Woo hoo.

 

[Nwerke]

Cool beans dude. I reckon 1mm is going to be noticeable, just as 0.5mm is. Look at Paul's pics above...they look dead right.

Mulfords can ship the .75mm styrene for $80. How many you gonna have cut? If it's a bunch then I vote to go for it. I'll fund if you're strapped.

 

[moffeaton]

I am excited!! You guys have really done amazing work.