Some 3D printed designs

[frank2056]

I've been learning how to take a design, transfer it into a 3D program and from there convert it into a 3D object. It's been all self taught, but it's been a fun process.

My latest projects (which I drew in Rhino3D) came in today. They were printed by Shapeways. I use them because they're convenient and (relatively) cheap.

The first is a reprint of my 1/350 scale Invaders saucer. The original was printed on a higher resolution printer. The Shapeways printer has a lower resolution, but the material is easier to sand and can be polished to a glass-like transparency and smoothness. You can see the difference in resolution between the two; the printer artifacts stand out more on the Shapeways part:



The next object is the RAND Corporation's first publication, Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship (more here):



It'll be finished on a launchpad, replicating the drawing on the cover (and in the report). The scale is 1/350. It'll eventually be in someone's office at RAND.

I also made the Moonship, based on the specs and drawings in "The Spaceship Handbook". Also in 1/350:



Here it is against Jon Rogers' drawing:



I made a couple of mistakes on this one; the long strake along the hull is missing, and I screwed up the airfoil shape on one wing. I'll redo it next time I print something.

It's not too clear in these pictures, but most of these 3D objects are hollow; the walls are about 1.5mm - 2mm thick, which is the minimum Shapeways will allow. It's also the difference between an $8 part and a $40 part.

The last one is a bit unusual. I was given a book of Science Fiction magazine covers a couple of birthdays ago. One of the covers was from a 1951 British pulp called "Vega", written by "Gil Hunt", an in-house pseudonym for (in this case) David Griffiths:



I thought that bringing the design into Rhino3D would make good practice. I found a copy of the pulp on Amazon and quickly discovered that the cover artist (who was probably trying to churn out covers as quickly as possible; this cover has nothing to do with the story) played fast and loose with the ship's perspective. There was no way I could match the shape and orientation, so I made my own interpretation:



This is a thin upper and lower half. It's about 95mm (3.75") long. A magnification of the cover shows people sitting (or standing) just behind the front window, so I scaled it to 1/350.

I'll polish these out at some point and they'll look much nicer.

Frank

[John Howling Mouse]

Wow, it's cool to see a modeler actually using that software/hardware for making patterns.   

[noxioux]

Very cool.  I especially like your interpretation of the "vega" thing.  Looks good.

I have this sneaky feeling that the big-silver-rocket thing is coming back.  And if it's not, we should all try to bring it back.

[Taiidantomcat]

Wow 

[Green Dragon]

Excellent stuff Frank, really like The Invaders ship and your version of the Vega cover ship. 

Paul Harrison

[frank2056]

Thanks guys! I love the old 50's shiny silver rockets. So far I've made two ships from the "Spaceship Handbook" and two from "the Saucer fleet" (the Invader's saucer and the C-57).

I learned quite a bit trying to convert the Vega ship from artwork to physical. It may be obvious to someone with a much better artistic eye than me (like JHM) but the way the ship is drawn, it's twisted/deformed in length and the rear section has a twist all its own. I knew it looked off, but I have to try to make it "real" to see how far off it is.  I'll try to polish and finish this one first. I've been tempted to make a forced perspective diorama of the cover, but that would be more work than I'm willing to put into it. I think the aliens are saying "Hey! That ship is physically impossible and it's causing massive disruption to our space-time continuum!"

[BlackOps]

Frank, these are very cool. The whole retro sci-fi thing has always been fun.