"2001: A Space Odyssey" Discovery Build

Gimpdiggity

Master Member
***EDIT***

I accidentally deleted my ENTIRE PhotoBucket library, so some photos on the first page are no longer available...they also were deleted from my phone when I first took them as to save space. Complete photos begin again on the second page.

***EDIT***



Hi everyone!!!

I have very limited modeling skills, but I've been looking for something to kind of slowly work on over the winter.

This past February I got a basic 3D printer. I've tweaked it and got it set up so I actually get some pretty solid prints from it. Over the 10 months or so I've had it I've spent hours on Thingiverse finding things I'd like to print. At one point I found a model of the Discovery...at 45" long and 60-ish parts I added it to my Favorites and figured it was a bit too much for me to tackle.

However, this past week I was going through and cleaning up my Favorites list on the 'verse...taking some things off that I couldn't get to print right, or no longer had a use for, etc...I stumbled across the Discovery again.

With no real printing projects that I need to work on, and a need for a winter project, I downloaded the files and got to looking at them.

The model files were made from images from the film. The pieces are designed to use a 1/4" steel rod to provide structural support. The pieces are designed to reduce warping as much as possible, but when warpage does occur it should be easy to work with.

I'll be printing in black PLA at .2mm. I might try to do a couple of small parts at .1mm to see if there is a really noticeable difference in print quality. Due to the nature of the greeblies on the outside of the ship, I most likely won't worry too much about smoothing out the print lines...I'll just let the paint do it's thing.

Ive got a few pieces printed out already, and will post pictures later this evening when I'm not posting from my phone.

Thanks for reading, and wish me luck!!!
 
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Sorry for the delay on the pictures guys. I was trying to use my phone and it kept pasting the IMG tag incorrectly. Didn't get a chance to get to the PC until today.

So here we are...

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I also printed one of the side pieces of the drive unit last night, and it came out pretty well. The other side is printing as I type this.

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So far everything is printing well and going together pretty well. I'll need to see about getting that 1/4" steel rod soon, so that I can make sure it all slides onto the rod correctly.

I feel like the cargo pods are going to be a nightmare...there are 36 of them, and I'm pretty sure I'll only be able to print one at a time...and they'll probably take a good 5-6 hours to print. I don't like leaving my printer running while I'm at work, so I'll probably be able to only do one of them a day, and then maybe two on my days off...so printing them will take a good long while.

For this reason, I'm planning on doing three of them to see how they go together, then starting with the other pieces of the front of the ship...that way I can work on painting the front and drive portions of the ship while I slowly work on printing the cargo pods.
 
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Thanks for the kind words everyone.

I finished the other side piece piece of the drive section, and I'm currently printing the front piece.

The prints have all come out well so far, and they seem like they will fit together nicely. The next pieces are two parts that act as supports for holding the entire rear section together...they won't be seen but it's incredibly important that they print well AND fit in the slots on the inside of the side pieces.

After those pieces, there are four plates that print to form the top and bottom of the drive unit. I'm thinking that these were split into two halves for each side to help eliminate warping. They'll be fairly thin so even with a bit of warping they'll probably still easily fit in place.

I have Thanksgiving off from work, so I may give the front sphere a run...it's by far the largest part and will be one of the longest prints I've ever done.

I also am going to try to find some documentation about the ship. It's been a LOOOONG time since I've seen the movie, and I'd like to be able to refer to the parts with the proper terminology.

Finally...I'm thinking of ideas for putting together a Monolith to go with this display somehow...I've got a few ideas up my sleeve...
 
Awesome!!! I look forward to watching your progress. The model looks great.

Regards
T
A
Z


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
The front of the drive section came out really well. I've got to trim some brim from it, and hopefully can get some pics of it tonight. I'll be printing those "skeleton" pieces tonight, and that should allow me to do a loose test fit of the drive unit to make sure it all goes together well.
 
Some progress tonight...and a pretty disappointing setback.

First, the progress...the EM cowl came out really great!!!! I had to do some trimming of the brim that I used to keep it flat on the print bed, and that ended up meaning that this is the first part of the model that will have some spots that do NOT show print lines...right around the very bottom edges of this piece. Luckily, they won't really be easily seen, so with paint and finishing on the whole model I'm guessing that they won't appear any different at all.

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This is the piece that goes on the front of the magnetoplasmadynamic drive unit. Ooooohhhh...look at that big word...magnetoplasmadynamic...I did some research on the parts of the Discovery and what they were actually called!!!! I'll be calling it the MPDD for ease of typing from now on. :lol

Next??

The setback.

The sides of that MPDD that I printed were from a remixed file of the original. The artist of the remix claimed that his design would go together easier because there was no way for the parts to "shift" when gluing them together. See, the original files had basic triangles "cut" out of the bottom of the side pieces...these cuts went completely across the part, as it didn't matter because they would remain unseen when fully assembled. This, however, means that to correctly assemble the part you almost have to have it "put together" without glue, then glue it together while it's together...if that makes any sense. Ultimately, if the support skeleton pieces are slightly off center due to the "triangles" being cut all the way across the part, then the top and bottom pieces of the MPDD unit wouldn't mount correctly. This artists fix would work great...if both the side pieces AND the support skeleton pieces were changed...but they aren't. The side pieces are...the "triangle" that was cut across the entire piece has been centered and the ends "filled in." It makes it look almost like an oblong pyramid that the supports would slot into. The problem is the supports are just the exact same piece that they are with the original model, so they don't actually fit into those "pyramid" like cutouts in the MPDD side pieces.

Hopefully this will kind of display what I'm talking about...

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You can see on the portion on the top left of that "cross" and the bottom right where I had to cut the edges off...I had to cut them off with some scissors, which isn't ideal and not what I would like to do. Without doing this, however, these skeleton pieces wouldn't slot into the MPDD side pieces.

Soooo...I'm left with two options...first, I started printing another of the side pieces from the original file...this has been confirmed to have been built by multiple people, so even though it's not quite as easy as it could be, at least I know it will work. Second, while that prints, I'm going to TRY to see if I can use basic elements in Netfab to cut those corners off myself, and see if I can get some pieces that will slot in correctly. I've also contacted the designer of the remix to let him know that his files don't work...as far as I know, he built the model first from the original, then uploaded this remix after he noticed the problems with assembly on the original, so there's a good chance he didn't even really notice that the files don't work correctly.

The worst part of this is that's 30m of filament basically wasted. I have tons of it laying around, but I HAAAATE wasting filament...

That said...since those side pieces are MOST LIKELY going to end up being trash, I went ahead and mocked up the whole thing with the hacked up skeleton pieces and some hot glue. Hot glue is easy enough to peel off so the parts that ARE good to go (the front and rear of the MPDD) could easily just be pulled back off of the sides and then used correctly once I get the new sides printed.

So...as long as the new sides print correctly, which I have little reason to believe that they wouldn't, this is what I'll have hopefully tomorrow evening after doing both sides and the skeleton pieces again...

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It actually kind of looks like something!!!! I'm even happy with the way it's gone together. It fits well enough that I'm doubting I'll have to use any putty or filler in the areas where the pieces go together. The whole thing looks like it would be assembled, if it were real, almost exactly like it's going together as the model...so those small areas will probably end up looking just fine when it's together. If, for whatever reason, the cracks and creases are really noticeable I have some filler that I can use that's pretty easy to get into small areas without require too much cleanup.

So, a bit of an up and down day with this.


As I move forward, I was wondering if any of you guys had any ideas on exactly what color I should use to paint this monster. It APPEARS that the ship is supposed to be white, however, in pictures it looks almost more like an off-white. I don't have a copy of the film on hand, so I've been using shots from the web as reference materials...and I really can't tell if it's just stark white, or kind of a very light gray???

Thanks for keeping up with this build guys...I'm having a blast, even with the setback today. I've really loved having my 3D printer, but lately had felt like I had run out of things to print...this has given me a reason to hang out in my hobby room again.

Oh, and one last thing...I've read that the dish array is VERY difficult to print. I'm going to give it a couple of attempts, and if it doesn't work out for me, there's a good chance I'll just end up ordering it printed from Shapeways so that I can save myself the trouble. I'm confident I'll be able to get it done myself, though.
 
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Just curious. (Given that you have the printer).. how much is the cost of printing your Discovery ??


That's a good question...and one that I won't be able to answer very well right now because I'm not sure how much material the smaller pieces are going to use.

I have a printer that uses "DRM" style filament...so I can ONLY use filament from the manufacturer. I buy it 5-6 spools at a time when it's on sale. So figure $20 per spool. Spools are 200m of filament. So that's 10 cents per meter.

The sides of the MPDD used about 16m each, so about $1.60 for those. Those seem to be the largest pieces of the model, other than the main sphere.

So, I'm guessing about $100??? That's a really rough guess, though, and it's with hoping I don't need to reprint many pieces.
 
Back on track!!!

The two new sides of the MPDD printed just fine, and I'm currently printing the support pieces.

I will be trying to get the two panels that form the top printed tonight so that i that I can see if it all goes together well, or if anything needs to be adjusted at all.

I'm trying to decide on what kind of glue to use...I've got CA on hand, but I'm thinking some two part epoxy or contact cement may be a better option in this case.
 
Update for tonight.

I got the two panels printed for one side (we'll say the top) of the MPDD. I've done a test fit of everything, and it seems to fit...okay.

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Mind you in this picture nothing is glued...it's all just loose fit together.

I'm reprinting the panel that would be nearest the back on the top...I made it shorter along the length of the ship by 1mm. Yes, 1mm. I think that the 1mm will be the difference between having to sand it a TON to get it to fit well, and having to sand it just a little to rough up the sides in order to get the glue to stick. I shortened the one side by 1mm without having all of the dimensions scale, so it should retain it's width while only making it a bit shorter. This will distort the details VERY SLIGHTLY...but I don't think it will be enough to really make any kind of discernable difference.

That piece will be ready to test fit tomorrow. If it ends up fitting better, I'll go ahead and print another exactly the same way to use for the other side. This will allow me to make sure that the support piece that goes inside the rear end of the ship is the correct size...from just eyeballing it, it appears that it might be too "tall" inside the MPDD, which means I'll have to make it a bit shorter in order to get the parts to look correct when all of them are glued together.

I'm still trying to decide on some glue...CA seems like a good choice, but there are a few spots where there is VERY LITTLE material that will be touching other material...for instance, where the top panels meet side panels, it's basically just a corner that touches a flat spot. I think that CA will work, but it will have to be painstakingly applied to the parts. Two part epoxy may end up being a better option...I guess I'll have to see.

The other thing I'm not really sure about is the gaps that are going to be present. They'll be very small...like maybe .5mm when it's all put together. I'm not sure if it's worth it to try and get some Green Stuff to work down into those areas, or if I should just try filling it with gap filling CA. Again, the epoxy MIGHT do a better job of kind of filling those gaps seeing as it's a bit thicker, but I'm not sure. I worry about using the Green Stuff because of the tiny area that actually needs to be filled...with the details on the pieces, sanding is almost out of the question...but I could use some sculpting tools to help get it in there and smooth it out.

I was HOPING that it would all go together with no need for any kind of gap filling, but I should have known better...models aren't really made like that if you buy them as a kit...and when 3D printing there's always a bit of warping and size differences from printer to printer. Luckily, although there are a TON of other pieces to the model, very few of them need to be assembled the way that this rear piece has needed to be assembled.

Anyway...I should have a bit more of an idea about how well this is going to go together when that other panel is finished printing. Luckily, the panel that I'm printing again, and the supports that I may have to print again, are all pretty low-filament using pieces that print fairly quickly...so I don't really feel like I'm just wasting plastic on this...I'd rather waste a little plastic and have it look good than try to force it together with what I've got and have it not look very good.

Oh, I've also decided that I'm going to be printing random pieces for it over the next few days after these panels are done...I'm getting close to the end of this roll of filament, and I like to try and use as much of it as I can, so I'd rather print some pieces that I might not use right away to try to maximize the amount of filament I end up using than throw some useful filament away because I try to move on to another larger part. So I may do a bunch of the coupling pieces.

Oh, also, the guy that designed the model said he used 36" long steel rod that was 1/4" diameter for the spine of the ship. He said it would be ideal to have it be a bit longer than that, but that was all that they had at his local home improvement store. I've sourced 1/4" diameter hardened steel rods online. I can get it in a 48" length, which of course I'll have to cut, but at least I won't have to worry about it needing to be a bit longer. It's only $3...but to get it shipped because it's so long is about $16...:lol
 
The 1mm made all the difference. The panels both fit well now.

I'm printing the panel for the other side now, and then I'll work on getting those supports reworked, because they do seem like they will be a bit too large. One needed to be reprinted anyway...I hadn't noticed at first that an error with the model had caused the hole for the support rod to be printed incorrectly. After repairing the part the issue resolved, so it just needs to be printed again only slightly smaller along one axis.
 
Sigh. Self-inflicted damage.

Measure twice, cut once...it even goes for 3D printing.

When I was reworking the support piece, I did two sizes. One 5mm shorter along the necessary axis, and one 3mm shorter. I figured that would give me a good baseline to go from if I needed to print any other sizes. The 5mm piece ended up being too short...and I was able to fit one of my Allen wrenches between the parts snugly, and it's exactly 2mm in diameter...so the 3mm piece should be perfect!!!

Only problem? When I made the 3mm shorter piece I accidentally left the box ticked to scale all dimensions in order to retain the same shape. So my 3mm shorter piece was also about 4mm to narrow.

I was tired, long day at work, and I was just being careless. I'm printing another 3mm shorter piece CORRECTLY right now, along with a 2mm shorter piece as well. These are small parts so I can print several at a time to make sure I get one that works very well. The upside of this is I am guessing that the OTHER support piece will need to be adjusted exactly the same, so I probably won't have much trial and error with that piece.
 
Well, you're making good progress I see; as for the color of all of the models used in the original movie, you're gonna have to paint it gray (that's what I did with my 2001 Space Station). If you want, you can also search the pics of the original Aries-1B that was sold in auction several months ago and photographed at length by Gene and Andre, here at the RPF.
Gray was used to make sure that those brutes (name of some of the lights being used to film the models) weren't washing all the details away (+ other camera/practical tricks that are too long to explain here).
Eager to see your next update.
 
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