Something completely different

[nzfinescale]

Here is something a little different from all that gold and silver!

This little (15mm square base) model of the most fundamental of facilities was printed in Proto at 25XY with 20Z. The corrugated iron is 0.15mm at its thinnest, and you can see it is translucent in parts. This printed OK but was a little fragile, so this version is beefed up a little in areas where it doesn't show (you can see this in the parts photo). It was printed in 4 parts as shown in the B&W photo. The main reason for doing it this way was to simplify painting. The iron, roof and door were printed vertically with virtually no supports - The 'timber' framing was extensively supported using Contour. There is a little layering evident on the door, but the iron is superb.

This started out as a little father/son exercise drawing up some model buildings. We chose the smallest to start on, and it was only after we were well through the modelling that it occurred to us to print the model rather than build it. Unfortunately, most of the buildings we are interested in are far too large for the Solus, but we will be able to print details.

One interesting lesson was that very thin structures lose all strength when washed in water. The main iron part completely collapsed when washed, so for this model a quick alcohol rinse was all the parts got. Strength is regained when the parts dry, so in some early experiments I was able to drape the iron over the frame and have it dry for a snug fit. That is not particularly controllable or quick though, so for the final model I just tweaked the scale slightly in Contour to get a perfect fit right off the build plate.

The Solus is an amazing printer!

Photos were taken with a 50mm macro lens at F32 with a multi-flash set up. Enjoy!

[Archerm]

Thats pretty cool!! Did you leave the supports on during the cleaning process? if you did not try it it would add some support while rinsing and curing.

[GSJ_NZ]

Hey that's fantastic! Nice paint job too!

[M-Williams]

kudos. Fantastic prints.

[nzfinescale]

In the latest in the series of odd things to print:

This was a test exercise for Mark Andrews of Marks Model Works, who did the design work.

It's printed in Solus proto 25/25/20. The shafts are 0.6 mm square maximum, and that's a US quarter lurking in the foreground. The spring details are ridiculously fine and took a few tries to get right - they are still not all that reliable. In this example the wheels are also a bit wobbly. I packed the whole model into a single print, which may have compromised the supports a little. Earlier versions needed 2 runs and the wheels where noticeably better.

Printed in 4 parts: 2x wheels, the body and an assembly consisting of chassis/springs/shafts. The wheels are doweled in place with 0.3 mm wire.

It could definitely be tweaked a little more, but as this was only an exercise for me, I decided to stop at this point.

Now I need a horse....

Lawrence

[mongerdesigns]

That's ridiculously awesome! Great job.

[mongerdesigns]

Do you have any photos of the parts before they were painted?

[nzfinescale]

Thanks Emil

Yes, but I'm on my real job now. But I can do something in the next day or so. Proto is a nightmare to photograph though, as the orange seems to give a super-saturated image.

If anyone has any tips on photographing Proto models I'd be interested.

Lawrence

[nzfinescale]

These are quick iPhone pics of an earlier print run where the shafts were printed as separate parts.

Was there something particular you were interested in Emil?

Lawrence

[nzfinescale]

Having printed the gig, it was too much temptation to leave the horse undone, so here it is:

Horse is basically a Daz3D standard product taken into Blender to have all the harness and tack added. The mane and tail were also manually modeled in Blender.

Not much support was needed other than simplifying the underside of the hooves in Blender and lifting a smidgen. The tail was supported in B9creator as Contour didn't want to support it at all. After that it was auto supports in Contour without lifting, and then some manual tweaking (mainly removing supports that really were not required, but adding more around the mouth to stabilise the head). The rein guides on top of the saddle are extremely fine and printed perfectly, as did all the buckles on the harness that are beyond my ability to paint.

On a technical note, A huge benefit of Solus/Contour is their ability to deal with stl files that are less than perfect. I didn't check the horse, but I'm sure it has problems. I used to check and repair files carefully, but found i really don't need to bother with Solus.

It's been a fun distraction: I had absolutely no need for these models other than personal amusement.

Lawrence