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Remember the Cant!


Mike

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I've had a small scale Rocinante for a while, and after stumbling across printedplanes website from a thread on the forum, I found that they also do quite a few Sci-Fi models, amongst which is the Canterbury, that unlucky ship that kicked off the Expanse series by getting nuked.  There were 2 options of sizes, one at 100mm the other at 150mm, and on the basis of go big or go home, I selected the larger of the two.  The lead time was quite substantial after order, but with 3D printing that's fairly likely, as anything 3D printed takes an age to get done.  This process is the stereoscopic laser in a bit vat of resin goop, the name for which I really can't remember right now, but it seems to give a pretty good result.

 

When it arrived it was in 3 pieces, main ice storage area, fuel tanks, and engine pods.  It was also goppin'! :S What do I mean?  It was slimy and sticky, with white goop oozing out of it in places.  I was bit concerned until I read their FAQ and found that this is pretty normal, as the models are hollow printed, and some of the resin gets trapped inside the voids.  There are some vent holes in the model, but it's difficult to get it all out, so I left the parts tipped up to allow the stuff to pool in the bottom, then blew as much of it out as I could using canned air (butane).  Then I cleaned all the parts in a bath of IPA in my ultrasonic cleaner, which got things nice & clean, although the occasional little blob of goo would still find its way out.  I ended up leaving them to drain naturally by propping them up again, with the occasional squirt of air evacuating the accumulated goop from time to time.  A couple of weeks later and the parts are nice & clean, and the resin has hardened up too, being much more rigid, as I found out when I dropped the engine pods by mistake.  I glued the broken pod and its supports back on and have now finally gotten round to priming it along with the Roci.

 

primer1.jpg

 

primer2.jpg

 

I wish the ice storage area had been printed in top & bottom halves really, as painting inside that area is going to be difficult, and I still haven't ruled out making a few cuts somewhere to facilitate this, but I'm pondering it long and hard before I make any final decision.  The surface is well detailed, and there's very little evidence of the layers to be seen, but there are some attachment points for the support structure that need sanding back flush.  This is what the first primer layer is all about really, to check for imperfections.  The most obvious layer pattern is visible on the outsides of the baffles on the engines, but as these are flat surfaces, they shouldn't be too hard to clean up.  I'll be working on getting things ship-shape in short sessions, and once I've got it suitable for painting, I'll give it a coat of grey and then start trying to replicate the surface colouring to match the few pics of the Cant that I can find online.

 

I'm trying to resist the urge to get the printedplanes Roci in 300mm, as the wee one I have from Shapeways is a bit small, although it looks like it scales out somewhere near the same scale as the Cant, although they're never seen together on screen.  Can't wait for season 4 next year ^_^

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4 minutes ago, Mike said:

although it looks like it scales out somewhere near the same scale as the Cant, although they're never seen together on screen.

looking through some pics on Reddit, it seems that the Roci is actually about as long as the aftmost flat plate on the engine pods.  That's the short edge too! :shocked: Apparently, it's meant to have been a re-purposed colony transport, which would be pretty large.  Just goes to show what I know! :lol:

 

GIN0e0U.jpg

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The subjects are new to me but look interesting.

Is this the future of modelling? If you want limited edition then I suspect it could be.

I had a look at the site you linked to. Some great stuff on there and the prices aren't bad either.

 

Dear Santa,

If you're reading this,

A Spinner and a UFO Skydiver please.

I've been (mostly) good.

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18 minutes ago, teddylindsey said:

What primer did you use, Mike? 

A bit of Alclad black. Seems to stick pretty well, partly thanks to the IPA bath I gave it, I'd imagine :)

 

19 minutes ago, teddylindsey said:

FAQ indicates that they are using the same printer I recently purchased

Jealous :jealous:

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13 hours ago, Will Vale said:

I think 3D printing is turning a corner!

It's definitely getting better, and streets ahead of the first 3D printed part I ever used.  The Cant still has a few tiny ridges here & there, where the lasers haven't quite been aligned briefly for whatever reason, but there has been a whole lot less work to get it to this stage.  The Roci is pretty much ready for a base coat, but I'm still mulling over the interior of the Cant, as although I've got primer into almost everywhere, I'm seeing problems coming when I put the top coats on.  :hmmm:

 

I was planning on modelling the Roci as she became after the gas hauler disguise turned her grey, but I need to have a shufti at some references to decide on a base colour.  More :hmmm: to come. :)

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On 9/25/2018 at 6:43 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

 

Dear Santa,

If you're reading this,

A Spinner and a UFO Skydiver please.

I've been (mostly) good.

That spinner looks great I think it could be on my list too. Would love to try a blade runner diorama. What show are these ships from? 

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1 minute ago, Tommygunn1972 said:

That spinner looks great I think it could be on my list too. Would love to try a blade runner diorama. What show are these ships from? 

The only thing that put me off the Spinner is the lack of interior, or I'd have been eyeing one up myself.  I do like a nice Bladerunner and would have liked to get the old injection moulded kit of the spinner :) The Cant and the Roci are from the superb series The Expanse, which was developed by the SyFy channel from the popular series of books of the same name.  Now Amazon have bought the rights and are producing Season 4, and I can't wait! :frantic:

 

The books and the show are both awesome if you've not read/watched them.  Anyone that likes hard(er) sci-fi where the laws of physics usually apply at least for the most part would be well advised to have a squint/read when they can.  It's my favourite thing on telly bar none :yes:

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45 minutes ago, Mike said:

The only thing that put me off the Spinner is the lack of interior, or I'd have been eyeing one up myself.  I do like a nice Bladerunner and would have liked to get the old injection moulded kit of the spinner :) The Cant and the Roci are from the superb series The Expanse, which was developed by the SyFy channel from the popular series of books of the same name.  Now Amazon have bought the rights and are producing Season 4, and I can't wait! :frantic:

 

The books and the show are both awesome if you've not read/watched them.  Anyone that likes hard(er) sci-fi where the laws of physics usually apply at least for the most part would be well advised to have a squint/read when they can.  It's my favourite thing on telly bar none :yes:

Yeah, I googled it after I posted. I have never heard of the show but will definitely have a look now. Might even check out the books.

I agree about the spinner the Resin windows don't look great tbf but blade runner is a bit thin on the ground so beggars can't be choosers 😕

There are so many opportunities for dioramas around either of the films. I would love to see the spinner next to the tree with the drone flying around.

Anyway enough dreaming, I'm off to find the expanse on catchup!

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It is one of the best space operas in a long while.  Thomas jane was the best film Punisher in my book. ;) ( the Tv series is great as well)

 

I noticed  another company who is selling 3d printed spaceships and one of them was the last star fighter. ( just noticed this company does them as well. Other company was cheaper though)

 

£55 for the 300mm Roc very tempting

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1 hour ago, Pilgrim_UK said:

£55 for the 300mm Roc very tempting 

That what I was thinking :Tasty:

23 minutes ago, Yeoman1942 said:

Not watched it yet, but the first 2 series are free on Netflix. I didn't know they were books, so thanks for the tip Mike

 

 

I honestly can't recommend either (both) highly enough ^_^

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3 hours ago, Yeoman1942 said:

Not watched it yet, but the first 2 series are free on Netflix. I didn't know they were books, so thanks for the tip Mike

 

 

They are disappearing from Netflix from the end of the month,  presumably due to the Amazon thing.

 

You can get S1 & S2 on DVD/Blu-ray,  although S3 seems to in limbo if you don't have Syfy. There are S3 DVDs around, but I strongly suspect that they're dodgy...

 

I suppose I'm going to have to get myself a Prime subscription sooner than I expected. 

 

The books are brilliant, I've got all 7, and the 8th is on pre-order, but I got an email a couple of weeks back saying that book 8 will be delayed by about 3 months.

 

 

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Hi Rob

 

I just found that it had disappeared from Netflix as well.  It must be the licensing deal with Amazon. You have to buyout to watch on Amazon as its not part of the Prime Package.

 

Just started the books, great hard science fiction, another top BritModeller tip

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I'm going to have to buy the DVDs, I can't risk not having it to watch. Am severely tempted by the allegedly dodgy S3 sets for less than a tenner vs £30.

 

But, as I understand that these series cost a lot of money to produce, I'll probably bite the bullet and buy the official release. S1 & 2 Blurays were on sale in HMV today for £17.99 each,  and I nearly pulled the trigger,  but as always happens in my universe,  lovely,  lovely vinyl records took priority... 

 

I am seriously thinking of a foot long Roci though, and just imagine a Nauvoo to the same scale! I reckon it would be approximately the same size as my house...

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Season 3 is worth the wait, as they finally find out what the protomolecule is up to, and some new characters get introduced.  I was watching Killjoys the other night, and almost the whole background cast had been in The Expanse at some point.

 

I've had to strip the Roci again (3rd time IIRC), as I wasn't happy with my preparation job, and the wash reacted with the paint somehow.  I don't quite understand how, but It's now back in bare resin/whatever it is, and I'm going over it slowly trying to remove some of the roughness from those hard-to-reach places, with my new Ultimate Customisable Sanding Sheets (plug plug!).  I'll go over it by eye first, which is quite tricky with this slightly translucent white-ish material, then prime it again and re-sand it to reduce any remaining roughness.  The Cant is getting the fine sanding treatment too at the moment, and that seems to be going well enough.  There's not much in the way of roughness, just a few slight misalignment of a layer here & there, which should disappear under primer. :)

On 30/09/2018 at 22:29, Rob998 said:

I am seriously thinking of a foot long Roci

I bit the bullet last night in frustration with the little one, so I'll report back when it arrives.  They have quite a lead-time, but as they're honest about it and my memory is terrible anyway, I'm ok with that :)

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Hi Everyone,

Hope you don't mind but I thought I would add a little to this post. We are www.printedplanes.com and produced the models mentioned above. Each time we produce a set of models we take photos and upload them to our Instagram account #printedplanes so you can see how they all look when actually printed. We use the renders on our website as its notoriously difficult to photograph matte white models and while all the detail is there, it doesn't always come through on the raw white photos. At the start we did have some teething problems with deliveries as we received significantly more than anticipated but we bought a few new machines so now most orders  are shipped within a couple of weeks. Just to give you all some idea of the life cycle of a print, lets take the 150mm Canterbury in this post. We printed two of these at once. It took 18 hours to 3D Print them. We then clean/soak/agitate them in IPA solution for 20 minutes and then leave them to dry/cure [although from reading above we probably should have left this one for longer in this instance]. Once they are dry and cured [this usually takes 3-4 days] they are then ready for shipping. So if the machine is available then we can print and ship within a week however due to demand we usually have about 1 weeks worth of printing lined up [or sometimes more if everyone wants the 300mm Roci which takes 28 hours to 3D Print - That is 28 hours to 3D Print just a single one]. 3D Printing is still a prototyping process hence its slow and expensive but my aim was to try and make it as affordable as possible for the hobbyist and to print on the best machine on the market. 

 

If anyone has any questions please do feel free to ask. We are running an offer today [for today only]. Free worldwide shipping for all orders over £25 if you use the code 'Instagram' at checkout. Its a proof of postage offer so not tracked but we have not lost a parcel yet and they are still insured. 

 

Thanks for reading

 

Adam 

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Thanks for joining in the discussion!

 

Taking the 300mm Rocinante as an example, what sort of surface prep (ie sanding, priming etc) would be required before painting? And what sort of paint would you recommend? Is there a curing period that you recommend before painting of the model?

 

@Mike mentioned a considerable lead time, how long would that be and do you charge on receipt of order or on despatch?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, Rob998 said:

@Mike mentioned a considerable lead time, how long would that be and do you charge on receipt of order or on despatch?

I think I must have ordered during the period that Adam mentioned (it was a couple of months ago, afterall), as I understand from talking to him yesterday that my 300mm Roci is now in the drying phase, which is nice.  So add the 3-4 days that he mentioned and I should get it next week, all being well. :)

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I must have somehow unconsciously clicked on the buy it now button for that DVD set of S3 I mentioned upthread, because it arrived at the weekend... 

 

If it's dodgy, it's incredibly well done, embossed slip cover, perfectly printed case sleeve and discs, proper menus and bonus content stuff. Perfect picture quality too. No Netflix branding though, just Syfy. 

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I'm waiting til the whole lot is available in UHD, as I know it's out there somewhere.  Meantime, my 300mm Roci has arrived! :yahoo: thanks to @3DPrinting and their newly improved pipeline :yes:

 

I've gotta say - most impressed.  It's a four part "kit", with the front and rear, plus the two antenna "whiskers" separate to the nose.  It's still "green" insofar as it feels slightly soft in terms of touch, but tough and doesn't bend or break easily.  There are a few tiny areas of stickiness where the uncured resin hasn't quite drained away, but it's incredibly slow moving, so it's hardly surprising.  I've taken the pics on a doubled-up sheet of kitchen roll so I don't get any goop on my cloth, but I think I've managed to bring out enough detail from the cream-white resin to show you just how good it is.  If you're hanging on the brink of getting one, my recommendation would be to pull the trigger, and you won't be disappointed.  All you need is some patience, a bit of IPA to clean up and dribbles that surface, and some sanding sticks to minimise any tiny blemishes.  I've been over mine quickly and there's not much to do TBH, which is always nice :yes:

 

I've pulled out all the "scaffolding" from insider the two hollow halves (lighting possibilities, anyone?), although I didn't really need to, and if you look very closely you'll see some tiny "pimples" here and there that are where the external scaffolding was removed.  Did I mention that detail is excellent?  I've got some graphics for the logos, and will have to dig out my ALPS printer to run on a Windows XP VM and see if I can create a set for myself.  Deep joy... more learning how to do things! :lol:

 

Enough blather, here's the pics:
 

parts2.jpg
 

parts1.jpg

 

How cool is that, eh? ^_^

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Ooh, I nearly pulled the trigger the other night,  might well actually do so over the weekend... 

 

How long do you think you'll have to leave it before painting Mike?

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2 hours ago, Rob998 said:

How long do you think you'll have to leave it before painting Mike?

Not sure. I'll play it by ear, as it's a different size than the other one, and it's a lot less wet with uncured resin than the Cant. I'll probably get busy with reviews and finishing off my Me. 262 as well, so the days will fly by :)

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Thanks for that Mike, I literally just went for it as you posted. Now to decide whether to do it as the Tachi or Rocinante.  decisions decisions!  I'lll have plenty of time to decide and let it cure because I've still got an awful lot of holes to drill in my ISD Devastator... 

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