[BFG] - Ork ships for 3d printing

[Malika]

I've been working on the ship some more and I'm running into a major problem: costs.

I did a test run on Shapeways, not actually printing the model, just uploading it to see how much it would cost. At the moment I'm at $45, and that doesn't include the mark-up, furthermore, the model is far from finished.

For a ship the size of an Ork Kroozer, this is simply too expensive. I tried putting the model in a pack of two, or even three, but then it lowers to around $40 a model. I've been trying to hollow it out, but that's a rather complex task, considering the shape of the ship.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how I could lower the price?

[Lex]

Are the "sides" indentical ??   if they are, make them NOT so, then split the ship into a left side and a right side (which should help a lot in hollowing them!!) AND mirror the layout over the axis and you should have printable halves that allow 4 configurations    (if I did all the math correctly

[Malika]

The ship isn't symmetrical, the left is very different from the right. The right side is also very flat at the moment, can't hollow it out without making the model unprintable.

[Jimmy Zimms]

Two points to make and elucidate here having made plenty of models myself:

1. 3d printing is based on a combination of convenience and quality, not price point.

2. Look into resin casting on the actual items for sale. Use #1 as an essential step in mastering for #2.

Splitting the ship down the middle axial is a great idea regardless. It'll reduce #1, better enable #2 for all those bits and details. And easily allow for future additions/variations. Being a model it's easy to mirror the two parts to make 4 variations off the bat right now like Lex points out.

If you don't want the hassle of going down the casting route then don't worry then. Do your best to not make the thing super expensive but if it is, then so be it. It's better than NO SHIPS.

[Malika]

So just a cut through the middle through the entire length of the ship? That's very doable! I might even try that out with the older ships I made, could reduce the price greatly!

[Jimmy Zimms]

It'll certainly make it easier to hollow out that way

People that are not a rank amateur like myself though probably have tons of awesome, less obvious suggestions. Hit Todderman, E&C, and BerserkMonkey up over at TacComs for advice. They realllllly know their sh!t. The ResinAddict Forums are great place to glean knowledge of resin work as well.

[Malika]

Back to the Orky like ships! I've shortened the ship, replaced the engines, tweaked it like crazy!




The ship is 4cm long, making it an escort of a sorts. I'm testing a little bit with hollowing it out to see if that's even possible. A lot of the details are super small, I wonder if they'll be that visible, I guess this means I'll be doing a few more test prints soon.

Looking at the bigger picture, I can see these ships as raiders of a sorts, not sure yet how I would explain their shape and everything. They would make a nice thing for the Legion ships to fight against...

[horizon]

And like always, paint um red to make um go fazter.

[Malika]

Almost done!

Left side:


Right side:


Back thrusters:


Head on the front:


Bottom:


Top:


Some final details need to be added to the head and engines, then I need to keep on scraping tiny bits off it to make it look more wear and tear.

I would love to do some test prints soon to see how the details will look, a lot of it is very small, meaning it might be totally visible.

The more I look at this ship, the less I'm inclined to sell it through Shapeways. I might put it up there in the beginning, just to make it available, but in the end I just want to print this fellow property and see it cast. These make nice little buggers for the Legion ships to shoot at!

@Horizon: is red rust also ok?

[Malika]

Placed the model next to a Legion ship to give it a sense of scale. Ideally the ship would have been 50% smaller, but as a model that simply wouldn't work. But for the artwork that might not pose such a problem. The picture posted here has the ships in 'model sizes', not 'artwork scale'.



I'll consider this ship done for now. I've tried hollowing it out, but it's impossible because the model is such a mess on the inside, trying to add multiple of them in a single .stl file has failed as well because the file would become too big.

At the moment it's too costly to sell them individually through Shapeways, printing costs alone are around €20 per ship, too expensive for a mere escort ship.

Plan now is to make a new version of the ship, make it hollow and multipart (separate head, main hull and a few weapon systems), and then see if I can get it printed at a better place after which I'll try to have it cast.

[Malika]

Just started on version 2.0. As you can see the design has changed somewhat. The head has been replaced for an array of weapons. To also link it a bit more to the rest of the setting I've also included some Legion ship styled guns in the mix.



It's still a very early WIP, most of the body still needs to be added, more weapons, etc. Not sure yet what will happen with the previous version of the ship, but the plan is to have 3-5 variants of this little fellow which could then be printed and cast. Since the models are quite small (3.5 - 4 cm long max) I'm tempted to keep them single piece. It wouldn't be too hard to cut them up and mix the components together.

But first I'd need to get this fellow finished...

[Malika]

Another step closer...



I've added some extra guns (still not enough!), as well as a torpedo launcher on the top, kinda like how certain submarines have it I guess. Now it's adding more details and such to it. At the moment the ship lacks any 'damaged' parts like the previous one had. I might look into that a bit, would love to make some of its interiors more visible.

[Malika]

Still not enough guns...

[Malika]

Don't they look cute together?



Note that they're both still WIP, the one in the background almost done, the other one need a bit more work.

The main challenge will be how to cast these things once they're printed, seems like quite a nightmare to do so. Any tips regarding that?

[Blindhorizon]

The cruiser looks badass, my only issues with it are, 1 the two guns on the lower jaw are too uniform, different sizes or different guns altogether. Or add another different gun to one side of the jaw. 2, the side guns look like they need to be shortened quite a bit to cast properly. Nice stuff keep up the good work.