1/700 & 1/350 scale BH Cygnus builds

Not heard too much here recently, although my latest order from shapeways has been delayed. I got an email from them this morning saying the new despatch date would be next Tuesday(20th) at the earliest, with no reason given for the delay. Strange, as its not a big order. Just the bow fuel tanks section and Martins lower spine antenna section. The antenna was completed the same day the order was put in(last Thursday), but the bow tank section is still "processing".
I find this a bit odd as they were able to get my last order, which was a big one, delivered to me in eight days.

My expected ship dates used to be 2 weeks, now they are 3 weeks. Either business is too good and they are not keeping up or all these Cygnus pieces are driving them crazy

I don't know what's happened with ShapeWays. They used to be great at answering their Emails. I have sent them a few Emails since back in early December and they have not responded to any. I even had a small dispute with PayPal over one of the bad prints and they never responded to PayPal either so I got a refund. I sent them a test file asking for some information 2 weeks ago and still no response. Is anyone else waiting for an Email response from them?

On a similar note has anyone heard from Dave? last he wrote he was finished his files and was going to update his store with all the parts but there are many parts still missing and he hasn't been on here in so long.

I agree. Prints have gone down in quality in the past few months. 3 of the 5 antenna I received last month were messed up on one end and almost 50% of the pieces I just received for my Hasbro Millennium Falcon are very substandard from previous prints. It looks like bad resin or a bad cure or the printer is just out of alignment.

Haven't heard anything from Martyn in a week either. I hope he is OK and just otherwise busy. My latest order had a couple of his repaired parts get rejected within an hour of placing the order. If it is like the Falcon part that was rejected earlier this week it was because a file name or the like was not what they were looking for. As soon as Tony (FZ6) called them on it they said to just reorder but it is now too late for this go around of ordering.

mythshaker said:

I agree. Prints have gone down in quality in the past few months. 3 of the 5 antenna I received last month were messed up on one end and almost 50% of the pieces I just received for my Hasbro Millennium Falcon are very substandard from previous prints.

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Since they don't seem to be responding to PayPal disputes, you may want to consider that option and get a refund on those parts. I have another dispute in since they sent me 2 Stern fuel tanks storage units instead of one stern and one bow. It's been over 2 weeks and they have not responded to PayPal so I suspect I will get another refund with no argument. PayPal even said that if they continue to not respond they will lose their 'seller protection'.

Hi guys,

Sorry for my absence. Been avoiding work lately due to, er, work, mostly; I'm back after the Christmas shutdown and there's a lot on; mental energy at a low ebb and a few real life bits and pieces to deal with too.

mythshaker said:

Could you please make the set of 3 antenna bases available? I'm ready for a short order.

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Sure, I’ll get on that tonight.

psimon said:

My replacement parts arrived this morning! Thanks again Nwerke for the antennae boxes. They fit great!

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Good to hear! If you can’t get anywhere with the antennae, let me know and I’ll have a go.

JeffBond said:

Anyone have any news about the forward section of the armature for the 1/700 version? I thought someone other than Dave was at work on it...

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See psimon’s post above.

mythshaker said:

My expected ship dates used to be 2 weeks, now they are 3 weeks. Either business is too good and they are not keeping up or all these Cygnus pieces are driving them crazy

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I got the same email. Parts I ordered before Christmas won’t ship till next week. Seems to be the new normal.

psimon said:

Is anyone else waiting for an Email response from them?

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Yes. My two new lower spine pieces (with holes for stands, something I didn’t have time for originally) won’t print, apparently. Weird because the original version was fine and the struts are all the same sizes. Their email was supposed to include a picture showing the problem, as usual, but didn’t. I haven’t heard back but it’s only a day or two since I wrote.

On a similar note has anyone heard from Dave? last he wrote he was finished his files and was going to update his store with all the parts but there are many parts still missing and he hasn't been on here in so long.

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I admit to being worried. The only things I’ve had from him in many months are spam emails suggesting his system or account has been hacked. I’ve alerted him to this but no response and those malicious emails still come from time to time.

mythshaker said:

I agree. Prints have gone down in quality in the past few months. 3 of the 5 antenna I received last month were messed up on one end and almost 50% of the pieces I just received for my Hasbro Millennium Falcon are very substandard from previous prints. It looks like bad resin or a bad cure or the printer is just out of alignment.

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I’ve also had one out-of-alignment part in WSF, and all four stern platform pieces came with major integrity issues, but that’s on me as those four were “print-it-anyway” orders i.e. the ‘print it and charge me even if it’s crap’ option. I placed a bunch of those in a panic on the last day of the old pricing, and they should have printed fine. Around the sides the upper row of X tie rods were fine and the lower rows didn’t print properly for the most part and the ones that did were wonky. No difference in the file…! They should have been perfect but I took the chance, so I can't complain.

Haven't heard anything from Martyn in a week either. I hope he is OK and just otherwise busy.

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Yep sorry. I’ve had a few queries I haven’t yet answered; also the rejection notices not yet looked into and there’s a few big jobs I need to get onto but I won’t find time this week for most of that I’m afraid.

My latest order had a couple of his repaired parts get rejected within an hour of placing the order. If it is like the Falcon part that was rejected earlier this week it was because a file name or the like was not what they were looking for. As soon as Tony (FZ6) called them on it they said to just reorder but it is now too late for this go around of ordering.

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Bluhhhhhhhh. I don’t get it; the spine *middle* piece is fine. What’s wrong with the front and rear pieces? No idea.

Cheers,
Martyn

Correction: just received a response. It says, and not for the first time, that parts are below the minimum size criterion for the material. No, they aren't. Their material guide specifies .8mm as the lowest spec for 'supported wires', and I design to .86mm for safety. LE SIGH. Still no pic though.

Oh and they've rejected one of my A fuel modules, the aft one, with no word regarding the other one as yet; it's still in production - but it will be rejected too. WTF, Shapeways?!

Good to see your back!

Let us hope the center lower spine actually completes. I've gotten to the point now until it says done I don't count on anything. Even then the quality is descending and I'm building a list of do overs for them. Could the upper and lower spine pieces be done as one thing? If nothing else with sprue between the halves?

So far no rejection on the lower observatory base in FUD but I expect one.

I was worried about the lower center stern not printing in WSF, I thought that had been printed before.

Now trying to decide whether to have the bow framing tried in white detail or transparent detail.

My latest order is to arrive sometime today. Will post up and let you know what the parts are like when they arrive.

That's how I did my original spine pieces in October. But the new algorithm makes the pricing punitive for that layout.

I had to order my lower observatory base in 'print it anyway'. Fortunately, no issues there.

Yes. My lower centre stern 'deck' piece printed fine. Hands in the air...

Re: 1/700 & 1/350 scale BH Cygnus builds

PS 3 antenna boxes part is up.

- - - Updated - - -

PPS my back is showing?

Parts arrived. The spine antenna base turned out very good, but the bow fuel section leaves a lot to be desired, with a nasty print/finishing error. I've contacted shapeways and sent them three pictures of the fault. Awaiting their reply.

Got a reply from shapeways. They are to investigate what could have caused this and establish if they can successfully reprint the part for me. I will be kept informed by email.

That's what I saw on my print-it-anyway parts. And a few others, for that matter.

32buds said:

Got a reply from shapeways. They are to investigate what could have caused this and establish if they can successfully reprint the part for me. I will be kept informed by email.

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They actually responded to you!? I have been waiting since the beginning of December to get an Email from them. They are not even responding to the PayPal disputes I opened. :/

Other than the parts showing up F'D I must admit I'm finding this Ok too print, not printable, oops printable, not Ok to print, printable cycle amusing. And the fact that they do not support changing materials in an order or uncancelling things I think is making them a bit less efficient that they otherwise might be.

That their website was down for almost 24 hours is a bit disturbing. It was obviously not planned as there was no announcement beforehand and I'd bet there is more than one person looking for new employment. I only use Paypal with them so I'm not worried about financial information theft but...

It took two months and a LOT of reprints to get a full set of parts out of them. I ordered everything for the Cygnus on the eve of the price hike, and then parts started trickling in. But parts shifted, were warped, had missing details - the outboard modules were the worst. I got two good ones out of the six needed, and they had to reprint EIGHT times to get four "good" ones to complete the set. My experience with the customer service was fantastic, though! They just kept sending replacements, I'd take pics of the flaws, and they would redo until I got good ones.

Welp, confirmed, my other Fuel Module 8 has also failed. I do kind of feel for them at times; the parts pass the software checks and engineer checks and should print, but they try and try and fail. It seems to be as much an art as a science - the variables seem to include irrational ones like who's running the machine, how the machine feels that particular day, etc.

Oh for the love of....now I have received three identical letters, for refunds of different dollar amounts, but each claiming that ALL FOURTEEN PARTS from my last order are to be refunded...!!!

For crap's sake, Shapeways!

Yeah, I got two of those today too. Had to go back to the Shapeways site to see what was what. Probably something to do with the outage. Every couple of days the amount paid in this order goes down. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on the FUD lower observatory base. At least the main engine caps printed OK. I hope there is not a problem with the bow engine caps.