T-16 Skyhopper in 1:144 Scale (Files available)

[monsterpartyhat]

Over a year or ago I scratch built a T-16 Skyhopper out of styrene sheet stock (photos here). I was pretty happy with it as a one-off, and my first completely scratch built model, but it had some issues (inaccurate pattern, too thick main wing, sloppy panel lines). I started working on plans to make a second, more accurate version, but it kept getting pre-empted by other projects and kits.

Fast forward to earlier this month, my wife got me a Cricut Maker (electronic die-cutting machine) for my birthday, and the very first thing I tried out on it was cutting my T-16 pattern out of .020" styrene - drew the patterns out in 2D, and it cuts very precisely.

In fact, it cuts so precisely that I was able to modify the pattern to include slots and tabs for assembly.

Naturally, once I got this far obsession started kicking in, and I started reworking the pattern to include alignment tabs everywhere I could, to ensure a good build.

This is neat - one of the pieces of the Bandai Vehicle Model T-65 X-wing works pretty well as one of the side greeblies on the T-16:

 

[monsterpartyhat]

The biggest problem with assembling this is attaching the wings - they have to be just kinda jammed into place and held at the right angle while the cement sets. With the rest of it going together so precisely, that just will not do. So.....I'm visiting family for the holidays and away from my modeling stuff, so I've spent the last few days creating a 3D model of the 2D pattern (in .020", since that's what I'm cutting it out of) so that I can test assembly virtually, and work out how to securely attach the wings at a consistent angle.

It will be a few days yet before I can print this pattern and test it out, but I'm pretty confident it will work. The process was pretty informative too - I found and corrected a half dozen small misalignments and inconsistencies that had crept in while working purely in 2D, and was able to come up with a solution for the wings and a process to translate the 3D data back to 2D patterns, so the 3D model is now the master. I can go from a 3D modeled "kit" to a set of parts cut from sheet styrene nearly automatically.

 

[monsterpartyhat]

I was planning to make some greeblies to cast for the underside and the engine -- my first idea was to just scratch build them out of random kit parts, but there aren't very many parts small enough to do that at this scale, so I started modeling them. That got a bit out of control (visiting family over the holidays gives me a lot of time to obsess), and at this point I'm modelling all the greeblies to 3D print and then cast.

I'm not going for perfect accuracy at this scale, just the general idea (and it's so small anyway), with a bunch of modifications so I can effectively cast each part in a one-piece mold.

If anyone's interested and loves working with tiny models as much as I do I could put together a few kits. The 3D model actually makes generating step-by-step instructions pretty straightforward

 

[Mike J.]

You know, you could design and then build a jig to hold the wings while assembling, using your Cricut ; )

 

[Britcinescribe]

That’s awesome!

 

[monsterpartyhat]

You know, you could design and then build a jig to hold the wings while assembling, using your Cricut ; )

No need, I built the alignment into the parts!

 

[BipeFlyer]

That's awesome! I just ordered a Cricut Maker 2 days ago.

 

[monsterpartyhat]

That's awesome! I just ordered a Cricut Maker 2 days ago.

Make sure you get the knife blade too -- it makes much more precise corners cutting styrene, since it can be rotated by the machine. If you want real sharp corners, it's the way to go. I cut styrene with the Balsa wood settings and it's working pretty well.

 

[BipeFlyer]

Make sure you get the knife blade too -- it makes much more precise corners cutting styrene, since it can be rotated by the machine. If you want real sharp corners, it's the way to go. I cut styrene with the Balsa wood settings and it's working pretty well.

Thanks for the tip. I did order the knife blade. This will be great for building RC planes too.

 

[Analyzer]

Great job!

 

[Valens Appendix]

This is really cool. I saw your original post a while back and tried my hand at building one too. I would be interested in your kit.

 

[BLADE and BRUSH]

I've always been a fan of the Skyhopper. Several years ago I considered scratching my own, but gave up pretty quickly. It's great to see yours coming to fruition.

 

[monsterpartyhat]

I've always been a fan of the Skyhopper. Several years ago I considered scratching my own, but gave up pretty quickly. It's great to see yours coming to fruition.

This is really cool. I saw your original post a while back and tried my hand at building one too. I would be interested in your kit.

Thanks!

That reminds me that I failed to post the current status. As soon as I got home from visiting the family, I cut the latest pattern to test the wing alignment, and it works great.

At the moment there's really no perfect way to have the machine handle the panel line engraving as well as the cutting, so I have it draw the panel lines in pen, and I go over them with a ruler and a scriber.

Here's the whole pile of parts:

I have a couple of very minor tweaks to be made to the styrene pattern, but mostly I'm now waiting for my Shapeways test order for the 3D printed greeblies.

So there won't be much in the way of updates until that arrives, then it will probably be another 3-4 weeks for any revisions to the parts before I can make molds and get the whole package ready.

 

[Lunajammer]

Boy those are some clean and precise cuts, and not just the panel scribing. In small scale too. I'm impressed.

 

[monsterpartyhat]

Boy those are some clean and precise cuts, and not just the panel scribing. In small scale too. I'm impressed.

The cuts are done by a machine

 

[Lunajammer]

Well, now it's a machine for me to covet. I misunderstood the Cricut reference in post 1.

 

[monsterpartyhat]

Aight, this is turning out better than I imagined - the physical model basically matches what I modeled in SketchUp almost perfectly. I've assemble all the 3D printed pieces onto the styrene frame. I used music wire to connect the gun to the lower chassis, with .047" music wire running through both the gun body and the lower chassis, with a small length of 3/32" styrene slipped over it for the chassis -> gun connector. The single piece of music wire that holds those together also extends through the bottom of the gun to form the model support, just like the original studio scale model.



The barrel of the gun is a piece of .032" music wire with aluminum tubing slipped over it. Drilling the holes in the various tiny parts with an 0.8mm and 1.2mm drill bit in a pin vise was a bit fraught, since they're so small, but the Shapeways fine detail plastic both sands and drills very nicely. I've updated the 3D models so that a couple of the holes I had to drill will just be part of the 3D printed masters.



I put a couple of quick coats of white primer on it, and tomorrow I'll paint the rest.



Here's a mix of photos, with the raw parts and primed.

 

[monsterpartyhat]

It's done! Painted, decaled, and detailed.

I'm going to make a silicone mold of the second set of 3D printed parts, in case I need to make any additional alterations to accomodate molding before ordering the final masters. I've already modified the parts to have a couple of the mounting holes for the steel wire pre-"drilled".

 

[BipeFlyer]

It looks fantastic!

 

[Analyzer]

Wow that is sure fantastic.!