StevenBills
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Posts posted by StevenBills
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Love it! It looks so good!
SB
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Hello everyone! Here is a build I completed some time ago. It's ERTL's Naboo Starfighter with a few 3D printed upgrades:
And below is a video documenting the build process if you're interested.
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Yeah I remember the decals being a bear on this thing. SOOOOO many tiny tiny ones all over the place. Looking most excellent!
SB
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18 hours ago, ernestf said:
Mate
this is damn nice tie !!!!!!! You have not just done a great 3D modelling job but also beat the best manufacturer out there !
the mix of grey and blue is also to the right spot for the look and feel of SW fighters.
I know it is technology (3D printing) but it also like magic, lots of magic !!!
You have made my day
Ernest
Thank you! Although I did not produce the 3D files on this one. I only printed and painted it. Still a fun build, though!
SB
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Cooooool. I have this kit in the stash, and I've been thinking about it a lot recently. Definitely gonna follow this build.
SB
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Alrighty, here's the image I made with this model, and here's the caption that I put with it:
"The TIE Defender was Grand Admiral Thrawn’s secret pet-project, built in an Imperial factory on Lothal. Even though a group of pesky Rebels were able to infiltrate the factory and steal the TIE’s schematics, Thrawn felt confident in going ahead with a test of one of the things that made the Defender different than all the other TIEs in the Imperial fleet: It had the ability of jumping to hyperspace!"
You can see more of my stuff on my Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/star_wars_battlegrounds/
And with that, this model hits the shelf! Thanks for looking!
SB
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Finished this up over the holidays. Picked out some details with XF-53 Neutral Gray, and then gave it an overall Starship Filth oil wash. Broke out the airbrush and painted some subtle streaks and scoring around the gun areas, and then I topped it off with the addition of the red guns and I'm calling this one done!
Thanks for following along. The last post will be a photo composite. Just need to think of something.......
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Time for an update!
I painted the cockpit black. I didn't worry about any detail painting inside because you won't be able to see it at all.
I then glued some styrene in the back of the engine section, closing it off:
Here are all the primed parts ready for paint!
I came up with a Tamiya mixture that I think is a good mix of gray and blue. I used XF-19 Sky Gray and XF-18 Medium Blue. The ratio is like 5:1.
The photo below shows the color, and also starting on the kool shade portion of the wings. I decided to brush-paint the kool shade because I just couldn't bring myself to do all of that fiddly masking. There are 7 panels on each side of the wing, so 14 total per wing, multiplied by 3 wings, equals 42 panels that needed to be painted! It was time consuming but worth it. Also, looking at each wing this closely for so long made me think that I should have spent more time combing over each piece and being more careful with the support removal. Next time.
This image show blocking out the edges of the kool shade with a fine brush:
This image is the completed wing:
There are pros and cons for both brush painting and using the airbrush. I would have used a LOT less paint if I had airbrushed. But then, I would have used a LOT of tape, plus the time to mask all of the wings. I actually had to run to the hobby shop to get another XF-1, as mine was just thinner by the end and the pigment was practically gone.
Also, this is $40 of paint now. When did this hobby get so expensive?!
In the next update I'll be doing some detail painting using XF-53 Neutral Gray.
Stay tuned!
SB-
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10 hours ago, Hunter Rose said:
Oh quality! I've always had a soft spot for the tie defender, ever since playing Star Wars:Tie Fighter on the PC back in the 90s.
Thats a great looking print, look forward to seeing this come together!
Thank you! And yes, those two SW simulator games were awesome. Lots of fun times. That's why I took to Squadrons so hard. It's just fun flying around in a SW spaceship!
And yes, the next update will be the paint. Should be soon, so stay tuned!
SB
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Hello! This is a pretty simple build/paint. Someone over on Starship Modeler gave me the bug to build a TIE Defender. I'm a big fan of SW Squadrons, and the Defender is a playable ship in that game.
The 3D model is fairly well detailed, and I bought the files from ModelWerks here. After reviewing all the parts, I was able to get things printed out pretty easily on my Elegoo Saturn, and everything fit nice and tidy on one build plate.
Then I ran into a hitch. The way that this is designed, the ball is split vertically into two halves. I didn't think this would be a problem, but after printing, support removal, curing (and resulting shrinkage), the two halves didn't exactly line up.
That cockpit consists of 5 pieces, and there was just too many things going on for it all to fit together well. SO! Back to the computer I went. I brought all 5 files into MeshMixer:
And combined them all into one part: (MM makes the preview of the model pretty low-rez. The actual model is fine)
With that, it was saved out as a new STL file and brought into ChituBox, with supports being added:
This might not be the most optimal way of printing/supporting a sphere, but it printed perfectly on the first try, with just a few support marks on the back of the ball to cleanup.
You can see a few layer lines in there, but I think between primer and a bit of sanding, those'll go away. It still blows me away that you can just print stuff like this. Here are some closeups of the cockpit and pilot: (and remember, this is all one part now):
This will all be painted black shortly.
I cleaned up the supports on the wings and the engine tri-section, and those got a layer of Tamiya fine surface primer:
Here is a group shot of all the pieces together. A simple build, really.
I'm going to wait for some warmer weather (maybe...) before I prime the new cockpit section and the rest of the parts.
Now on to color.... I know that the close Tamiya paint for the ANH TIEs is TS-32 Haze Grey, but I think that that is a bit too blue for my liking for this build. I am going to reference the SW Squadrons image at the top of this post for paint color: more gray with a dash of blue, rather than the other way around.
Anyway, that's all for now. I wasn't going to do a build thread on this one because it is such a simple build, but I thought I'd show some of the 3D stuff I did in MeshMixer in the hopes that it'll help someone else out someday.
Stay tuned for more!
SB-
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Love it! 1/48 is such a good scale for a Y-Wing. It's a shame Bandai/Fine Molds/etc... never popped on in this scale.
SB
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Swwwweeeet! I was looking for a set of these shortly after the film came out, and was sad that there weren't any at the time. Thanks for the heads up!
SB
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3 hours ago, Caerbannog said:
Cooooool!!!! I look for a decent Blockade Runner file for about two years now. Never knew about Merlin Models before. So the transaction runs smoothly? You get files for the single parts or are they already arranged "print ready" with supports?
I have the Elegoo Saturn as well so as yours came out so well, I would like to give it a try as well 🙂
Thanks for sharing
Yes the transaction is smooth, and Ethan and the rest of the gang over there are incredibly helpful if you have any issues. There are two versions of STLs that are included: Pre-supported and unsupported. I used the unsupported because I scaled everything down to 36% (If you scaled down the pre-supported files, then the supports would get scaled with it, and thus might not be viable any longer). Even then though, this was still a lot of trial and error. Needed to add drainage holes under the escape pods and guns that are along the side of the fuselage, as that was a self-contained compartment that had uncured resin in it the first time I printed it. I also used MeshMixer to combine parts in the computer, as I thought it'd be easier to do that than try to fight delicate parts (that might warp with curing) into fitting together. It was a fun project and I learned a lot with it.
I say go for it!
SB
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20 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:
Yep, Awesome!
Thanks!
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4 hours ago, Uncle Monty said:
Excellent job there. I didn't appreciate just how many engines that thing has, what with the price of fuel these days, must be pretty expensive to run...
Duuuude. 11! It felt like I was painting the engines for forever! 😆
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Heyo everyone. Just finished up a 3D printed model and thought I'd share some of the WIP photos with you. The STLs for this Blockade Runner come from Merlin Models (If anyone has been keeping tabs on Adam Savage, it's the same guys who made that gorgeous 1/48 AT-AT he built). It's well-detailed for what it is. I have an 18" model of theirs, but I wanted to practice on something a bit smaller, so I combined a few of the forward parts in MeshMixer, and then scaled that to fit the vertical build height on my Elegoo Saturn. Printed the engine sections separately. The engines are not lit, as I couldn't figure out a good way of doing it while keeping everything all self-contained (I build these mainly to photograph).
Here it is with the main engine section attached and with a coat of primer on:
The detail that resin printers can achieve is really stunning!
Paint chipping with AMMO masking fluid:
This round section would have taken FOREVER to mask off with just tape:
Some weathering progress (iPhone 13 image processing SUCKS!):
And some engine shots once they were all glued together (this thing is back heavy!):
And an overall shot:
It's a little darker than I initially wanted, and I think that has to do with the starship filth oil wash I applied, but oh well. I'll do better on the next one!
And here's a little image I made with it today:
Thanks for looking, and if you have any questions, please let me know!
SB
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On 7/14/2022 at 3:43 PM, RMCS said:
Excellent
Thanks!
SB
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On 7/5/2022 at 1:09 AM, Uncle Monty said:
Very nice build. The weathering around the engines is particularly effective.
Thank you! Looking at it now, there are a few things I could improve around there if I would have given it more time, but thanks!
SB
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48 minutes ago, Ventsislav Gramatski said:
An excellent build! I actually saw it yesterday on the RPF. Always nice to see one of the leaser known schemes of Red Squadron, and the R4 3d printed droid is quite nice.
What colour did you use for the yellow sections (canopy frames, etc.)?
The yellow is a mix of Tamiya desert yellow and white. I got the ratio totally wrong, though. On the studio scale model it's much more yellow. But I couldn't be bothered to go back and re-mask everything and paint it again
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10 hours ago, Ngantek said:
Lovely build, and the video is really well filmed. Seeing the build and techniques being done is invaluable, particularly if it's done with good lighting, clarity and sound like yours, so thanks very much!
I have one in the stash that I'm really looking forward to after this. Is there a transparent canopy piece that you chose not to use?
Thank you! It's often a challenge to build when there's a camera right in front of your face, but it's worth it! And regarding the clear canopy, yes there is one. I went through the trouble of masking it and everything but decided to use the frame version instead.
Thanks for watching!
SB
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So I was in a creative rut the past few months, and just wanted to build a kit quickly. I had never done a Red 4 paint scheme, and so I went (loosely) in that direction with it. The yellow color is wrong. Came out more flesh-colored than yellow, but oh well. Went together easily. Only real add-on I did was 3D print an R4 droid.
Also made a build video of it, if you're into that:
And some of the final photos:
Thanks for looking!
SB
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Incredible job on this kit! Amazing!
SB
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1/48 Naboo Starfighter [ERTL kit + 3D Printed Upgrades!]
in Ready for Inspection - SF & RealSpace
Posted
Thanks for looking!
SB