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teddylindsey

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Everything posted by teddylindsey

  1. Removing the parts from the supports sprues is not too different than removing a conventional injection molded model part from the sprue, only multiply it by 25. It can actually be pretty tedious and requires a good amount of clean up with a scalpel and sanding sticks. I understand that more experienced folks will often override the automatic positioning of the support sprues to minimize the amount of clean up that might be required, especially around edges. This does carry the risk that the print will fail due to inadequate support but it's something I'd like to experiment with more in the future. I oriented the parts to minimize the number of supports that would be in contact with visible details of the model. It's also the reason why I separated out the aft panel since I could have the supports that linked to the aft of the ship covered up. Below you can see me in the midst of removing the supports, many of which left messy little nubs behind that required trimming and sanding. The parallel lines across each print are formed by the laser as it cures each 25 micron layer. While the surface appears to be rough, it's actually pretty smooth and the lines are more of a visual artifact that will be mostly be covered up by primer. The separating line in the middle of the airlock is only 0.13mm across. I couldn't even see this detail with my eye, but the camera picked it up. I modeled a recess in the turret hard point that would accept a 10mm neodymium magnet with a 10mm steel washer that will be attached to the underside of the missile turret, allowing 360° rotation.
  2. The first step is 3D modeling. I'm not going to delve into excruciating detail about this step since it can get pretty convoluted. I use a modeling application called Moment of Inspiration 3D (MOI3D), which has been my favorite modeling application since 2010. Prior to this, I used Rhino 3D, which uses the same NURBS file format as MOI3D, but is more complicated and costly. The original model was created in Rhino, but much of the small details and greebles were added more recently in MOI3D. After determining that I would be using 1/350 as the scale of the ship, I started adding in little details such as panel lines, "rivet holes", vents, ports and other small greebles that I want a wash to settle in and around. I broke the model up into separate parts to make painting easier. As you can see below, I hollowed out the main hull to reduce the amount of resin that would be required for the print. I also created the aft panel as a separate part that would have two open sections showing exposed mechanical details much like the "maintenance pits" of the Millennium Falcon. Because of the tiny details of the maintenance panels, I modeled them separately to make painting easier. I also want the thrusters to be painted a different color than the main hull, so I added two square posts to each thruster and a matching square hole for each in the aft panel. After many hours of modeling and tweaking, the model is output as an STL file (Standard Tessellation Language) which is accepted by the Form 2 software, PreForm. You'll notice the little sprue-like bases under each model component. These are supports which provide structural rigidity for various parts of the model as it's being built layer by layer in the vat of resin. The Form 2 is capable of printing at the smallest details at 25 microns, but I've found that 50 microns looks almost as good. To give you an idea of the scale, an average human hair is between 30-100 microns in diameter. This print took 10 hours and 16 minutes to complete at 50 microns, after which I removed the parts from the printer, rinsed them in vats of isopropyl alcohol for 20 minutes to remove excess uncured resin. Next, I placed the parts in a UV light box for a couple of hours to assist with the curing process. The UV light helps the photopolymer resin in finalizing the formation of long-chain molecules to strengthen the material. Below you can see the parts after coming out of the UV light box.
  3. This topic is going to be a little different than then the usual WIP since I'll be covering my process of taking a design from a pure digital form to a physical 3D printed model. I'm no expert, so this is going to be a learning experience for me and I hope to share some of what I learn along the way. While I've seen lots of posts that cover various aspects of 3D printing, I want to focus on my approach that's influenced by my background in miniature painting and scale model construction. First, a little background: the model I am creating is a "Type S Scout/Courier" from the Traveller Role Playing Game universe. It's a design that's been around since the 1970s, with a number of iterations over the years, but clearly influenced by the hull of an Imperial Star Destroyer. In 2002, I had the privilege of collaborating with Bryan Gibson, an artist whose work for various games I had admired since my teen years. A new version of the Traveller game, called Traveller T20, was in development and some of Bryan Gibson's sketches had been posted showing some really interesting redesigns of iconic ships. Since I had done numerous pieces of artwork for the Traveller and 2300AD game systems over the years, I had some familiarity with the artists, writers and art directors in the field. I was able to get in touch with Bryan and we decided to collaborate on creating a 3D version of his new design. We ended up collaborating on a number of ship designs over the years and became long distance friends. I lost touch with Bryan around 2008 since I had become very busy with a new career while raising three kids and didn't have time for much time for my hobbies and interests. I was saddened to learn of his death in 2014 from complications around viral pneumonia. He was a fantastic artist and a good friend. In any event, the original concept for this ship is Bryan's and while the original 3D model is pretty old, I've taken some liberties to redesign certain aspects to be better suited for 3D printing. I will be using a Form 2 printer from FormLabs, a leader in desktop stereolithography (SLA) fabrication. Unlike FDM (fused deposition modeling) 3D printers which extrudes molten plastic filament out like a tiny tube of toothpaste, SLA uses an ultraviolet laser to "draw" a design into a vat of photopolymer resin which solidifies layer by layer. SLA results in much higher resolution prints than FDM, but requires some additional post-printing preparation, e.g., immersion in isopropyl alcohol and curing under UV lights. While I've done some minor experimentation with the Form 2 to gain an understanding of how various 3D modeled details print, this will be my first project with a specific goal of creating a 1/350 scale model of the Type S Scout that I can paint for display. I chose 1/350 since it's the same scale as Bandai's "box scale" Millennium Falcon included in the Last Jedi Resistance Vehicle Set.
  4. Thanks, Hockeyboy76! Thanks, Andy! I'm a big fan of your work and your 1/72 build of the "McQuarrie X-Wing" inspired me to give this 1/144 rendition a go. The masking was indeed tricky at this scale but a steady hand and reading glasses prevailed in the end.
  5. Thanks for the tips, Dennis! I can definitely go with a lighter base color to compensate although I'd prefer to avoid this if possible. It sounds like spray-on sealers can alter the amount of wash pigment that is absorbed depending on their glossiness. I understand that glossier coatings are generally less absorbent than flatter coatings. I'll have to experiment with the various clear coats that I have to better understand the relative absorbency of each.
  6. The color I chose for the hull (1:1 mix of Tamiya XF-2 Flat White and XF-82 Ocean Gray 2) came out a bit too dark and not quite blue enough based on screencaps from Rogue One. The Flory washes definitely contributed to darkening the color since the original color seemed quite close to the photos before the washes were applied. I sealed the base colors using Tamiya TS-79 Semi Gloss Clear but it seems to have been more absorbent than I expected. I have a can of TS-13 Clear, which I've yet to try out. Is TS-13 Clear glossier than TS-79 Semi-Gloss? Suggestions for a more appropriate base color or how to better preserve the original color when applying washes would be appreciated.
  7. I wasn't able to take many in progress photos, but I do have some notes associated with the photos of the finished model. I'm torn on the design of this ship. My initial reaction was that it looks like a potato-bat, but it's grown on me. From certain angles, like the first image below, it definitely gives off the "swooping bat" vibe in "attack mode" when the wings are lowered, although it does make photographing details of the central pod difficult because the wing/solar panels obscure it. As I noted above, I had to replace the upper set of laser cannons with lengths of metal wire since I busted one off during handling. Luckily, they turned out pretty well and look good from the front. It seems like my lightbox washes out the metallic sheen of the Vallejo Steel applied to the solar panels. It looks much better in normal lighting. I I used Flory Black wash for the panel lines as well as Dark Dirt and Grime washes on the hull. Unfortunately, the tips of the laser cannons don't look so great from an oblique angle like below. I think it's due to not being able to sand the tips of the wire down perfectly. Every inaccuracy is greatly magnified on these little 1/144 models. I may have to get something better than reading glasses to see the detail since my eyes are definitely not resolving the same level of detail as these macro shots. It was quick little build and a good exercise to prepare for the TIE/ln and TIE Advanced models I have on the way.
  8. Thanks, Andy! I was really pleased by how well the masks worked out. I'll have to do the same for my TIE/LN and TIE Advanced models I have on order. For the bases, I'd love to spend some time creating scenic diorama bases for my various models. The trick is going to be finding the time. Thanks, Pete! I found the contrast between the high-tech approach for the masks and the discarded jar lid pretty amusing.
  9. I recently picked up a boxed set container a Resistance U-Wing as well as a TIE Striker, both of which debuted in Rogue One. I have been itching to build some TIE fighters after seeing some of great builds on the forum. While I'm waiting for delivery of my TIE fighters and TIE Advanced models from Japan, I decided to try out some colors on the TIE Striker. After seeing the meticulous masking required for the TIE solar panels, I decided to try out a shortcut. So I pulled out an old flatbed scanner and scanned one of the wings at 600dpi, then pulled it into Affinity Designer and drew shapes to mask the panels. I then exported the mask as an SVG file and imported it into the software which drives my Silhouette Cameo 3 cutter. I decided to use transfer tape as the mask material since it has a low-tack surface. I applied a base coat of Badger Stynylrez Black then sprayed a light coat of Vallejo Metal Steel (thanks for the tip to @AndyRM101) . Below you can see the masks applied. The fit was close to perfect although the central solar panel section was every so slightly narrower on the bottom side than the top. For the TIE hull color, there seemed to be significant variance between Episode IV (which featured light gray TIEs) and later episodes which had a pronounced bluish hue. At one point I came across explanations related to advances in blue screen technology which allowed ILM to use non-gray colors for the later movies. I liked the gray/blue tone and this seemed to be what was used in Rogue One so I followed instructions on a thread on theRPF which recommended a 1:1 mix of Tamiya XF-2 Flat White and XF-82 Ocean Gray 2 for the gray/blue color. I probably should have applied the Vallejo Steel a little more liberally, but it still has a subtle metallic sheen that reflects the light nicely. The Bandai models are designed to not require glue, which means that test fitting parts can require some degree of force to pull apart. Unfortunately, while trying to remove the cockpit part from the fuselage, I snapped off one of the two tiny laser cannons underneath the cockpit window. This part is a fraction of a millimeter in diameter and while trying to glue it back on, the force of the tweezers on the cylindrical shape caused it to fly off somewhere under my workbench. After crawling around and eyeballing every gray speck under my workbench (and there were MANY) I actually found it. Predictably (for me) the same exact thing happened again with the tweezers rocketing the fragment in a random direction not once, but twice. After the third launch, I couldn't locate the damned thing, so I threw in the towel and decided to try another approach. So I cut off both laser cannons and drilled them out with a pin vise, then cut a couple of pieces of wire to appropriate lengths as replacements. I tried to smooth down the rough edges of the wire left by the snips using a Dremel rotary tool with limited success. The model also came with a black rectangular base which featured a multi-position tip that inserted into the bottom of the TIE Striker. When I took some of the test photos with the included base, the shape of the dual axis swivels was somewhat distracting, so I decided to create a custom base. I found an old jar lid in the garage and a piece of dowel which I used to bolster a length of 3mm tubing. Painted black with a white decal cut on my Cameo 3 cutter, it bears a striking resemblance to the base AndyRM101 created for his TIE Striker. I had asked my son if he thought white, gray or silver decal would look best and he suggested that I go with white.
  10. Thanks for the tip! I found a set of accurizing parts for the 1/350 Millennium Falcon on Shapeways. Looks like their Fine Detail Plastic material has improved quite a bit since the last time I used them, which was over six years ago. I tried having one of my 3D models of a Traveller Type-S Scout printed as a mold master for a line of Traveller starships and the resolution was simply not fine enough back then. I'll have to give them another shot.
  11. I decided to keep tinkering with this model a bit and create a landing pad display base. I've only created a diorama once before (for a Snowspeeder Hoth scene) and it was with AK Interactive Snow, which is pretty forgiving and doesn't require much in the way of detail. This is probably going to be a throwaway experiment, so we'll see how it goes. I had an old 6"x5" wooden rectangle laying around which I will use for the foundation and then build up some details with styrene sheet atop it. Unfortunately, the wood rectangle is horribly askew, but since this is an experiment, I'm not that worried about it. I then drew a simple grid pattern, rotated it to 20° for a little more visual interest and exported this to an SVG that I then had my Silhouette Cameo 3 scribe it on 0.01" styrene sheet. This took some experimentation since I've never scribed or cut styrene sheet with my Cameo and I've realized after some experimentation with various settings that it's not going to cut all the way through even 0.01" styrene in a single go. Since the "multiple pass cut" features of the Silhouette Studio software seems to NOT perform multiple pass cuts, I found that I can manually get the same result by resending the cutting job after it complete for another pass. Then I primed it with Minitaire Stynylrez Black and laid down some coats of Minitaire Concrete followed by Dusty Ground, building up some variations in the tones. Below is a shot of the concrete over the black. Before I primed the styrene I roughed it up with a sanding block to give it some texture which can be faintly seen below. I'm not sure if the texture and cracks it caused are the appropriate scale for the 1/350 Falcon but it certainly seemed to cause the styrene to suck up more paint than I was anticipating. Then I drew a "landing zone marker" and had the Cameo cut out a mask from vinyl transfer tape, which I discovered is not that great as a masking material since I had it lift up on me when airbrushing and had quite a bit of seepage later. I also made the mistake of trying to sponge on Microscale Liquid Mask for chipping the markings. Unfortunately, the painted styrene just seemed to absorb the liquid mask. Any suggestions on how to approach this in a better way would be appreciated. Then I tried to "chip" the markings by sponging on a mix of concrete and dusty ground paints and this did not turn out so well as you can see below. Next, I cut a short length of 3mm metal tubing and drilled a hole in the base as a stand for the Falcon. Since the model didn't have an option for landing gear like some the 1/144 version and larger have, I'll have to depict this Falcon as hovering over the landing pad. I wish someone made 1/350 landing gear for the Falcon model! Luckily, the Falcon actually hides most of the crummy chipping work and it doesn't look half bad in the light box. I'm considering making a little fueling structure with cables next. My wife looked at it and said that it needs weeds coming out of the cracks in the tarmac. At this scale, I guess I could just paint on some tiny dabs of greenish brown. Once again, suggestions on how to accomplish this are very welcome!
  12. Thanks! I feel like the Flory wash did much of the heavy lifting on this model and I can't wait to experiment more. It's a huge time saver over the washes and pigments I've used before. Thanks, Mike! I've been really impressed by the detail on these 1/144 Star Wars kits. They have almost the same level of detail as the 1/72 kits and take up much less space which makes the wife happy. And I'd also LOVE to see a 1/350 scale CR90 Corvette as well as a 1/144 Lambda Class Shuttle and B-Wing.
  13. Thanks, Dermot! Luckily, this boxed set is readily available at my local hobby store (in California). However, I have a TIE Advanced set that's been in transit for quite a while from Japan. Maybe it's on the same rowboat as your order?
  14. I did some very minor clean up on the Dark Dirt wash and switched from using a moist paper towel to a small eyeshadow sponge brush. I had noticed that the moistened paper towel was snagging on the tiny greebles of the Falcon, leaving paper fibers wrapped around bits of the model which then had to be picked off using tweezers. The sponge brush didn't have this problem but it wouldn't be effective for larger surfaces. Unfortunately, I may have overdone the exhaust carbonization since my Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black sprayed out much faster than I had expected when laying down the initial scorch mark. Not much left to do at this point other than match the darkness on the other exhausts. As much as I want to experiment with the Flory washes, I decided it best that I don't go overboard with the washes on this Falcon and leave further experimentation for another day/model. Thus, I'm calling this one done for now.
  15. I'm really impressed with how you've done your OSL, Will. The technique is often overused or becomes the focus of the entire piece but the way you've used it on your Immortals and Wraiths really enhances the overall look of each figure.
  16. I'm just completely blown away by the level of detail and artistry in your 1/144 builds. I've been building some of the Bandai Star Wars Vehicle sets recently and your work is an inspiration!
  17. After cleaning up the colored panels and sponging on some very subtle chipping I sealed the model with Tamiya TS-79 Semi-Gloss and let it dry. Next, I cracked open my first bottle of Flory Wash and started experimenting. I have watched a few of Phil Flory's videos on his site, so I was familiar with the technique of slathering on the clay wash, letting it dry, then rubbing it away with a slightly moistened paper towel. I have to say that it worked exactly as demonstrated and was very forgiving. I was able to move it around with a slightly moistened brush as well as apply some directional streaking quite easily. I'm still getting the hang of it, but I'm quite pleased with this first coat of Dark Dirt wash and I suspect that Flory washes just might become my go to solution for weathering from now on. Below is a shot of the first application of Dark Dirt wash. The wash seems to act like a filter as well, pulling the colors together in a very natural way. Hopefully tomorrow I can experiment with some other washes as well as airbrush on the "carbonization" coming out of the dorsal exhaust ports. Looking at photo reference, it seems odd that the scorching radiates away from the exhaust ports radially rather than straight back in the direction of flight. Maybe physics behaves differently in hyperspace?
  18. I was able to block in some of the colored panels before relatives showed up to visit. I'll need to make a sweep to clean up the edges and add chipping to the markings.
  19. Just started out on another model from the Bandai's Resistance Vehicle Set which includes two 1/144 T-70 X-Wings along with this 1/350 Falcon from the Last Jedi. Few parts but great detail. I'm really impressed by the pipes which run from the hull into the maintenance pits. The parts were all very clean except for the radar dish, which had a prominent mold line running down the center. I laid down a base coat of Badger Stynylrez Black Primer followed by random squiggles of Vallejo Model Air 71.119 White Gray to give some modulation to the hull color. I just received a set of Flory Washes in the mail yesterday, so I'm eager to try them out soon.
  20. Haha, why thank you, sir! My brother has an Etsy shop with various laser cut items, but generally smaller items than these paint racks. I'll ask him if he'd be willing to make these. I've considered making the plans publicly available, but they are highly dependent on the thickness of the material they are cut from because of the interlocking tab and slot construction. I've found that typical 1/8" MDF board can vary between 3.2mm to 2.7mm and a difference of 0.2mm can make the design too tight or too loose. This means I'd probably have lots of requests to tweak the plans to account for varying material thicknesses. Anyway, I should probably not hijack this thread talking about the paints racks. I'd appreciate any suggestions as to which part of the forum I should start a new thread to discuss the possibility of getting these paint racks made. I'd love to get input from folks to see if there are additional improvements I could make.
  21. I recently overhauled my workspace which is situated on an Ikea glass desk in my garage. The key for me was designing some custom paint racks to hold paint bottles and pots from various manufacturers that would allow for easy identification as well as easy retrieval and reorganization. I had previously been using a Vallejo Paint Stand as well as an Angel Giraldez Custom Paint Rack but they didn't offer the range of sizes for various paints I use, some of which are 30+ year old Tamiya pots. Reorganizing paints was always a chore since it felt like I was playing a pegboard game shuffling all the bottles to insert a new one. I wanted something where I could easily identify each bottle and when reorganizing, just push a new bottle in and the others would make way. Here's the finished workspace with my custom paint racks. Next I'll explain the process I went through creating them. To begin, I modeled some of the bottles I typically use in 3D and then built some racks based around the dimensions of the bottles and the available space I had to work with. Below are renders of the models I built for scale: a Badger Minitaire bottle, a Vallejo Pigment bottle and a Vallejo Dropper Bottle. I went a little overboard on creating the labels. My initial concept was too small, just three rows, but I wanted to test out the strength of the design since I would be fabricating it on my brother's Glowforge laser cutter using 1/8" (3.17mm) MDF board. The initial 3D model is shown below. A rendering of the initial concept design. The central support spine was not quite enough when fully loaded and the shelves sagged ever so slightly, so I went back to the drawing board. The next design added two additional shelves and was narrowed from 50cm to 40cm so that I could comfortably fit three shelves, side-by-side on my desk. The 20° tilt of of the shelves was perfect for preventing the bottles from falling out without requiring a lip for retention. Another rendering of the rack loaded up with paint bottles. I got lazy and rendered this one in all black rather than trying to replicate the MDF board texture and the scorched edges of the laser cut sides. Next, I wanted another rack that would accommodate my entire set of 84 Badger Minitaire Airbrush paints. Since I generally use a color reference chart for the Minitaire paints and I had the color ID numbers written on the caps, I wanted to orient them horizontally for more compact storage. Thus, the next design was born which allowed for horizontal storage of the Minitaire line along with two additional general purpose shelves. And here's the final product with two general purpose racks on the left and a Minitaire-specific rack on the right. Overall, I'm really happy with how these turned out and it's made a big difference in keeping my workspace tidy since it's so easy for me to retrieve or replace the paint rather than letting them clutter up the desk.
  22. Thank you! Thank you! I will certainly post future builds. I'm currently on travel and I have a number of Bandai Star Wars kits awaiting me upon my return. Thank you! The Bandai kits are quite fantastic. The level of detail has really impressed me and I'm hoping that Bandai sees fit to release a B-Wing soon.
  23. This is my first post and the third model I’ve built in over 30 years since I just got back into the hobby. Having found the Britmodeller forum a couple of months ago, I’ve learned so much from the fantastic community and I hope to keep improving my skills so that I can someday contribute back. This model is part of a Last Jedi Resistance Vehicles boxed set that includes Poe Dameron's boosted X-Wing, a Blue Squadron T-70 X-Wing and a 1/350 scale Millenium Falcon. Rather than going for the standard Blue Squadron paint job, I wanted to try to something a little different. I've seen a number of people create builds based on Ralph McQuarrie's concept art from the 1970s and I really like the color scheme. The design team for Episodes VII and VIII went back to a lot of McQuarrie's original concept art for the "new" ships as you can see from the half-cylinder engines in the X-Wing image below. AndyRM101, who’s become one of my favorite modellers due to his superb skills, wonderful advice and top notch contributions, did a fantastic job with the 1/72 scale version for his Resistance T-70 X-Wing model and I'm hoping to do something similar at a smaller scale. As with the other Bandai Star Wars kits, the quality and detail of the parts are exceptionally good. However, this kit was unusual in that the halves of the thrusters did not perfectly match up when assembled. Bandai usually has exceptionally good fit for their parts but I had to trim down the assembly tabs to manually align the parts for a perfect fit. They were only misaligned by a fraction of a millimeter, but on a model this small, the mismatch is more prominent. Another minor issue is the central shaft that the S-foils rotate around was too loose and it's too easy to nudge the S-foils out of their X configuration. I found this to be the case on the T-65 X-Wing model as well. I ended up adding some glue around the central shaft to bulk it up slightly and tighten up the fit. I applied a base coat of Stynylrez Gray Primer followed by a coat of Vallejo Model Air 71.121 Light Gull Gray which turned out to be a little too dark. The orange-yellow hull and wing markings were masked and airbrushed on with Minitaire D6-125 Warning Yellow. I used Minitaire D6-109 Badger Fur for the gray hull stripe and Minitaire D6-110 Charred Stone for the darker blocks. Metal panel details were a thin mix of Vallejo Game Color 72.054 Gun Metal and Model Air 71.057 Black. Some panels were painted with Minitaire D6-108 Rock which has a lighter, warmer tone than Badger Fur. Like most X-Wings, there are quite a few markings and panels that need to be masked. I copied the wing markings from AndyRM101 which used a combination the orange along with smaller dark gray blocks on the wings to give a little more visual interest. After blocking in all the base colors, I sprayed on a coat of Tamiya TS-13 Clear so I could begin weathering. Since other builds of the "McQuarrie X-Wing" I've seen were painted in a clean style like the original concept painting, I wanted to weather mine a bit to look closer to the grungy style of the movies. Due to the tiny size of the model I avoided the use of chipping fluid or liquid mask on the markings and instead sponged on small spots of Light Gull Gray using a torn bit of makeup sponge. Since the orange hull markings are pretty light, the chipping is not very prominent. I also sponged on darker scuffs and streaks with Model Air 71.268 German Gray. I'm eagerly awaiting a shipment of Flory Washes which I understand to be excellent. In the interim, I used Vallejo Model Wash Light Gray, Dark Gray and Rust in various mixtures for picking out panels lines and details. The BB model droid is a tiny little piece of plastic which has surprising detail for being so small. It was tricky to paint and required quite a bit of time to sharpen up the details. Below is the initial color blocking before cleanup and a pin wash. Another tiny detail were the red triangles near the leading edge of each engine intake. I didn't have any decals so small, so I made a little mask and airbrushed on Model Air 72.711 Gory Red and it turned out great. I should have gone for a lighter hull color like Vallejo White Gray, but I didn't have any on hand and I wanted to try out my Minitaire paints. I also feel like I went a little overboard with the panel line washes which is a habit I picked up from painting miniatures where "black lining" and exaggerating edge detail is crucial for reading such small shapes. Overall, this was a fun little build and I'm slowly building up a fleet of 1/144 Star Wars vehicles from Bandai. Now I just have to find the time to build and paint them!
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