Caerbannog Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Just for info if anybody else is interested - CG Trader have a discount today (they seem to do this regulary) which pretty much outweights the tax they add, so I got me the Y-Wing and the B-Wing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted June 27, 2020 Author Share Posted June 27, 2020 Little update. I sliced the wings so that they were angled up at a 22° angle, and then removed the supports before I cured it. When I went to grab the parts, they looked like this: No good! They warped like crazy. I wish this stuff wasn't so brittle once it was cured, because there is absolutely no give without them just snapping in half. So I had the thought, "The rooks that came with the printer printed just fine on the build plate, so why can't these parts just print on the build plate without supports as well?" So I re-sliced the parts, and they're on the printer now. I just have the left and right two halves left on this thing, and then all of the parts are printed! I'm excited to be done with the printing phase (not to mention my wife hates the smell!), and on to the actual building itself! Stay tuned! SB 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 So you have the same issues with the resin as I had with the water washable one from Elegoo regarding warping. On those prints which warped most I had the feeling, the warping happend after I detached the parts from the build plate. Do you use a turn table and an UV lamp to fully cure the parts? My turntable broke and I think this was at least one reason why the warts warped (despite some where very thin). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwarz-Brot Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 If your parts become too brittle you are probably postcuring too long. The hardening never stops - to the point where the parts are extremely hard but brittle. To avoid that I store my printed parts in dark containers and at least primer them pretty soon when building something up. There's flexible resin out there that can be mixed into the standard resins to give stronger parts that don't become brittle. Maybe this can help you? Have not tried the stuff yet, but might do in the future. I did some parts directly on the buildplate which worked out fine. But it helps to model a groove around the edge to help with removing from the buildplate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 (edited) Thanks for the tip on the flexible resin, @Schwarz-Brot, I'll have to try that in the future. My prints that I printed on the buildplate came out perfectly. They are nice and straight, with no warping whatsoever. But then someone on the RPF mentioned that I should just combine the parts into a single piece to print as a whole. This would save me time gluing/filling/sanding when assembling the parts later, so I tried it over the weekend. Here's a shot of them combined in the slicer: And here's how it came off the printer: (don't mind the fuzzies, they're from the tissue I use to wipe the IPA off before curing) Now that got me thinking: what other parts can I combine together that are split up unnecessarily? The cockpit, perhaps...? This wraps up all of the printed pieces on this build. Maybe I'll play with printing the cockpit head as all one part. We'll see. But other than that, it's on to the actual building! SB Edited June 29, 2020 by StevenBills 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted July 1, 2020 Author Share Posted July 1, 2020 So I had a go at printing the two head pieces as a single combined piece, and came home from work to this: 14 hours down the drain. However, I had never seen a failure like this one before, so I drained the resin vat, and found that there was a tiny pinhole in the FEP! There was cured resin on the surface of the LCD. I was able to gently wear away that resin with some IPA on a tissue, and it appears that there's no damage. Then I replaced my FEP, and restarted the print. Hopefully we'll see a better print in the morning! Although this got me wondering: Should I be slicing my parts on different places on the build plate, so that the FEP doesn't just get worn out in only one spot? Does that make sense? I just usually center my prints on the build plate without thinking. Maybe I'll try moving them around in the future. SB 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nocoolname Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 On the basis of what I've been watching here I decided that instead of throwing another couple of hundred quid at Shapeways I'd buy myself an Elgoo Mars and start doing my own parts. My plans are nowhere near as ambitious as yours, just looking at adding detail parts to existing kits and already have the models built and exported as STL files. That said I did get as far as creating an entire model (13" Eagle Transporter) and learned a lot around the design approach, material tolerances etc. I was close to buying a Form Labs Form 1 which at the time offered the only realistic option for SLA printing at home but at over £2000 it was too much for what I was planning to do with it. But from what I can see above, the Mars offers a similar output to what the Form 1 used to but at only £230. That's a lot more sensible for what I have in mind, namely 1/48 radars and other detail parts for my aircraft that are not produced by existing vendors along with interior and other details for my Space 1999 and other Sci-Fi kits. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted July 1, 2020 Author Share Posted July 1, 2020 5 hours ago, Nocoolname said: On the basis of what I've been watching here I decided that instead of throwing another couple of hundred quid at Shapeways I'd buy myself an Elgoo Mars and start doing my own parts. My plans are nowhere near as ambitious as yours, just looking at adding detail parts to existing kits and already have the models built and exported as STL files. That said I did get as far as creating an entire model (13" Eagle Transporter) and learned a lot around the design approach, material tolerances etc. I was close to buying a Form Labs Form 1 which at the time offered the only realistic option for SLA printing at home but at over £2000 it was too much for what I was planning to do with it. But from what I can see above, the Mars offers a similar output to what the Form 1 used to but at only £230. That's a lot more sensible for what I have in mind, namely 1/48 radars and other detail parts for my aircraft that are not produced by existing vendors along with interior and other details for my Space 1999 and other Sci-Fi kits. I can't recommend the Mars enough. This thing has been printing day and night for the past month and has been pretty reliable. I've learned a lot on this project, such as greasing the z-axis rod once every few weeks, replacing the FEP, etc... If you keep up with maintaining it properly, you can get really fantastic results. And speaking of which... Success! It's a little wavy towards the top, but nothing a little sanding and elbow grease can't handle. I'm excited to get going on this one! SB 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nocoolname Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 13 hours ago, StevenBills said: I can't recommend the Mars enough. This thing has been printing day and night for the past month and has been pretty reliable. I've learned a lot on this project, such as greasing the z-axis rod once every few weeks, replacing the FEP, etc... If you keep up with maintaining it properly, you can get really fantastic results. And speaking of which... Success! It's a little wavy towards the top, but nothing a little sanding and elbow grease can't handle. I'm excited to get going on this one! SB I'd love to have a 1/48 Y-Wing (and B-wing for that matter) and did at one point look into the feasibility of building one from styrene sheet and strip but it was a bit beyond me. That said, the combination of my Silhouette and now the Elgoo certainly offers the possibility of creating a mixed media At-AT in 1/48. That is, if I can find correct scale plans... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 I got a little side-tracked with a project that's been mocking me since last September. I couldn't decide how to fix the dreaded "smile" so I snipped off all the pegs and carefully glued it from back to front. I ditched the internal white diffusers and used my own lighting. And here's an image I made with it and the 1/72 Falcon and TIE Fighter: Anyway, back onto this Y-Wing! SB 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Just, Wow! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted July 22, 2020 Author Share Posted July 22, 2020 I couldn't resist. Here's another image I made: All Bandai kits. 1/72 for the X-Wings and TIE's. And of course the 1/5000 SD. SB 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 Made another image with my SD. I titled this one: The Might of the Empire. (Y-Wing updates coming soon!) SB 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted August 8, 2020 Author Share Posted August 8, 2020 Still off topic, but I used one of my 1/72 Y-Wings to make an image based on the bombing run from Rogue One: SB 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James G Posted August 16, 2020 Share Posted August 16, 2020 Great work on the 3D printing, I always liked the look of the Y- wing. And your image look like stills from the film, exemplary! What graphics package do you if use? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted August 16, 2020 Author Share Posted August 16, 2020 5 hours ago, James G said: Great work on the 3D printing, I always liked the look of the Y- wing. And your image look like stills from the film, exemplary! What graphics package do you if use? Thank you! The great looking prints can be all attributed to the Elegoo Mars. It's an amazing piece of kit for the money. And for the pictures that I've been posting, I just use Photoshop to make those. Thanks for looking! SB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 Bit of an update after a while (sorry about that). So I was fiddling around with the chassis pieces the other day and noticed that, due to curing or something, many of the pieces are warped. So I went into MeshMixer and combined all of the chassis pieces together into one part, and that is currently on the printer. Should be done in the next two or three hours. Here is a picture pre-supports. SB 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Welcome back. Good to see this back on track again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 Thanks @Pete in Lincs. I just wrapped up a 1:48 Fine Molds X-Wing, and so I'm just putzing around trying to figure out what to do next, and I saw this box in the closet. Honestly one of my main fears is just all of the piping that I'll have to do on this, and just getting the parts to go together well. Slowly coming together, though. SB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Styrene tube, wire coat hangers, Fuse wire and household (mains) copper wire. The tube, in various diameters, can connect bits of wire too. That's pretty much how I do it. Or, were you intending to print the tubing? In which case, good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 44 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said: Styrene tube, wire coat hangers, Fuse wire and household (mains) copper wire. The tube, in various diameters, can connect bits of wire too. That's pretty much how I do it. Or, were you intending to print the tubing? In which case, good luck! I have the files to print the tubing, but I bought some styrene rods for this purpose. I think printing them at this scale would be too brittle. SB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 The way I oriented this part on the bed made it bend slightly, and some of the details on the bottom side (the side/corner that faced down onto the plate) were mooshed. The details on the top seemed to work out okay though, so it's not a total loss. So I re-oriented the part to sit straight up (as in my photo above), and it's currently reprinting. We'll see how it goes in about 18 more hours! SB 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomjw Posted January 3, 2021 Share Posted January 3, 2021 This is a really interesting project to follow. I'm enjoying seeing how this is coming along and like how you're also sharing the not-so-successful parts. Cheers, Tom 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenBills Posted January 4, 2021 Author Share Posted January 4, 2021 @Tomjw thanks for looking! I'm a believer in showing the whole process, warts and all. Don't want anybody to get the idea that it just magically fell together! And besides, that, I'm learning a LOT from this experience. My prints have gotten substantially better even since I started this project back in the summer. So I hope others can learn something as well! My 20 hour print finished! And it looks pretty good! There are a few areas that peeled away because they weren't supported properly, but I'll take what I can get at this point! And a detail shot from the bottom: Now I think the next step is to start mating the different parts to the body. Stay tuned for more. SB 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen W Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 Well done on the print, it seems a labour of love and you have to love the Y Wing too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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