Back to the olden days

[decapod]

In lieu of either renaming this forum to "Shapeways and 3D printing" I thought I'd drop this in here....

Back when I was a youth - we're talking late 1970's here - I started WW1 wargaming with 1/72 airfix on big poles with tape measures etc.
It was limited to just a few Airfix kits and later some Revell ones. (Kid's these days are just spoiled for choice)

I always wanted a Pfalz DXII kit but no one made them at the time - eventually carved one out of wood.

Took me a while to realise but today I just printed my DXII at double the size and 6 hours later, using about £1 of resin...





I thinned a few parts but probably should have made the wings a bit thinner.

Would have been £20+ on shapeways and not as detailed - Happy child now

[Biggles downunder]

Oh they are just beautiful!

[gully_raker]

Some great work there!

[CaptMoonbeam]

Great work Paul!
A couple of queries with your resin printer, do you set the supports or are they default settings for points of attachment? I guess for the relative low cost of resin, there is still a balance between supports and structure as it cures.
The resin sure does capture the detail in the wings!

Terry

[Hedeby]

Wow... never thought about using the 3D printers to make larger scale planes, very nice indeed. Must be a cheaper way of getting 28mm tanks for Bolt Action, I just need a printer, lol

[mikeemagnus]

Very nice Paul. Don't suppose you still have the wooden version. It would be good to see that

[flash]

They look great Paul

[Guntruck]

Wow... never thought about using the 3D printers to make larger scale planes, very nice indeed. Must be a cheaper way of getting 28mm tanks for Bolt Action, I just need a printer, lol

Lots of people have got files out there for 56mm tanks, Chris. The world is your lobster.

[malachi]

Very nice

[ReducedAirFact]

Very nice. And I like the way you've made it easy to tell the supports from "real" parts. I assume the printer software figures out where all the supports need to be, once you've set the angles?

[Jager]

Nice looking! IIRC, both the Fokker D.VII and the Pflaz D.XII had pretty thick wings, so I think it's fine.
Karl

[Flying Helmut]

Super prints!

[decapod]

I found the wooden one a couple of years ago at a friends house in northern france, sorry no pics but mostly still whole

I'm really loving this printer, having so much fun, the detail you get is amazing.

I use slicing software called chitubox. You just import one or more STL files into the project to fit them onto the build plate.
That Pfalz only just squeezed on, I probably couldn't do a whole 2-seater without chopping it into bits that glue back together.

It took me quite a few failures to work out how to orient the model to get the best results - printing them flat causes all sorts of problems with supports (which can leave dimples) or warped wings. The only one I've not got to print properly so far is the eindekker.

The software just has an "Add Supports" button that automatically generates them - you could add them all manually but it seems to do a good job without my help.
They stop the model dropping off the bottom of the plate and stop "islands" of parts not connected to the base - which would otherwise just stay in the liquid below while printing.

Once printed and washed in alcohol they're still quite soft so simple to remove with clippers or a scalpel. Then the final UV curing makes everything more solid.

The slicer software just generates a series of images that let the UV light through from below the resin vat. It also tells you how much resin it will used - that one was just over 20ml with the supports - they are about 1mm in diameter and really don't use very much.

I'm still busy painting my first batch of models (including ships) I'm also writing some software that can generate decal outlines from selected faces on the model so they fit exactly.
Just not enough time in the day with a full time job too

[decapod]

Wow... never thought about using the 3D printers to make larger scale planes, very nice indeed. Must be a cheaper way of getting 28mm tanks for Bolt Action, I just need a printer, lol

How big is the tank you want? I've got a few armoured cars but there are hundreds of good free tank models on Thingiverse - I'm up for a challenge

[CaptMoonbeam]

Keep up the great work Paul!

Terry

[milcoll73]

HONEY, I BLEW UP THE AIRPLANE!
great detail on the prints.