As previously said, I found interesting idea to have the 7-cylinders radial engine would be installed inside the helicopter's belly in the fuselage center-section (and become almost hidden) and also 3D print a second removed engine, place it on a wheeled stand and present it nearby, as it would be there for maintenance purposes. By this way, helicopter’s inner area and the engine details would be both visible by any angle for the model’s observer.
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Some additional parts unrelated to the helicopter structure, also designed to get 3D printed later and be used later as part of a diorama scene. For example a couple of 200 litres fuel drums (also known as 55 gallons drums in USA) and few 20 litres (4.4 imp gal; 5.3 US gal) “Jerrycan” fuel canisters (originally called “Wehrmacht einheitskanister”) designed in Germany during 1930ies for military use. These fuel drums & canisters used by Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe & Kriegsmarine during WWII had the “Kraftstoff 200L Feuergefährlich Luftwaffe” and the “Kraftstoff 20 L Feuergefährlich 1941” inscriptions, engraved or embossed on side. Actually it took only 15 minutes of CAD work on my laptop to have this result under 1/18 scale. As previously described, the CAD file can be easily scaled up or down to reach the desired dimensions, with few mouse clicks only and later be 3D printed under any scale. Yes, I could scratchbuild some WWII Wermacht style fuel drums or canisters with my own hands, using metal foil or by vaccumforming styrene sheet, or simply by solid epoxy putty, but it would take much more time and I would surely get some dirt under my nails. The easier, the better! Actually, I’m not really sure if the handmade result would be so accurate in scale or if I could possibly build it within few minutes only. Notice that the fuel drum & canisters are not solid - they were CAD designed such way (width of skin is about 0.3 to 0.4 mm), aiming both to represent as closely as possible to real ones and also could be later filled with transparent resin material to simulate liquid fuel, always visible through the opened filler cap.
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Truly outstanding work, from research to design and making, amazing stuff! Enjoying this thread.
Si
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At last, a final piece also 3D designed to be used as a wooden 3-steps ladder as used by Luftwaffe WWII ground crews and technician personnel for ground vehicle & aircraft maintenance procedures.
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After digitally building the Fl-282 Kolibri 3D model using only mouse clicks, I saved it as an STL - STereoLithography format binary file and forward it on the 3D replicator to start generating the individual parts of the actual scale model. To do so, I used the best available tools & plastic material and asked from Shapeways, a special digital fabrication lab equipped with a high-precision & high-cost “ProJet HD 3000” machine for creating custom made-to-order products, to 3D print it. The 3D printing material used was a special plastic called “VisiJet SR 200”, a UV light cured acrylic polymer plastic material for 3D printing with ± 0.025 mm accuracy for every 25.40 mm. It’s actually an organic mixture, consists of 55% triethylene glycol dimethacrylate ester and 45% urethane acrylate polymer. It is printed using the “MJM” aka Multi Jet Modeling process. During this MJM process, cartridges of acrylate and/or wax material are heated and the plastic material is fired in ballistic micro droplets from a multi-chambered print head containing hundreds of Piezo jets. Molten plastic is deposited onto an aluminum build platform in layers using several nozzles, essentially like a large print that sweeps across the build layer. As the heated material jets onto the build plate, it solidifies instantly. After each layer is deposited, it is cured & polymerized by a wide area UV lamp. The next layer then applied, and through this repeated process layers of thermoplastic build up into a model. This method can print durable plastic parts with a high level of detail and accuracy as well as burnout materials and real wax parts for casting. Layers can be as thin as 16 microns, so MJM produces fantastic surface finish with minimal “stepping”.
The 1/18 scale Fl-282 V21 Kolibri “full fuselage” model kit consists of 60 different 3D printed parts made of matte translucent plastic material - in fact, the kit parts are quite more, but smaller in size are interconnected on same sprue frame which is counted as one part. Kit was CAD designed and 3D produced in such way to simplify assembling process while maintaining necessary details required by the scale size. Following the instructions described into the 102-page ultra-detailed “1/18 Fl-282 V21 full-fuselage kit building instructions” manual (which can be found HERE as a PDF format downloadable file), the assembling process becomes easy.
When printing is finished, the model parts are removed from the tray and placed into an oven that melts away the wax support material. Next, the models are placed into an a ultrasonic oil bath to remove any remaining wax residues, and then a ultrasonic water bath to remove any oil on the model. Final inspection and dry by hand follows for every single model part. Although the ProJet HD 3000 prints in high resolution (16 microns per layer) and can easily produce high detailed parts as small as 0.1 mm, it is better to avoid printing such small parts because they could easily get lost while washed into ultrasonic bath later, for wax residues removing.
Keep in mind that due to increased 3D printed items manufacturing demand and workload in Shapeways factory, a complete model kit takes about 5 to 7 days to get produced after order. Depending customer’s location, the 3D printed parts are produced at one of two Shapeways production lines based at NYC Long Island, USA or Eindhoven, Netherlands and shipped Worldwide, (24hrs to 48hrs delivery time) right at your doorstep by USPS, UPS and DHL with most reasonable prices.
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Shortly thereafter, the 3D printing proceeding outcome pleased me while watching the Mbytes, magically converting into actual physical objects. Yeah, that’s what I call “cool gadgets” on a scale modeler’s service. As soon as 3D printing process completed, the produced parts were cleaned & checked for broken parts or imperfections by Shapeways 3D printing lab specialized personnel. Later, everything carefully packed and shipped to my home address using UPS 24hrs delivery service. Next day, I got home to find a Shapeways box on my doorstep. After a long eye roll from my wife, I quickly grabbed a knife and opened it like all kids open their presents on Christmas morning. Nothing out of the ordinary, I decided to take a few photos to illustrate the experience of receiving my own custom designed & 3D printed model kits package and get in my hands the result of my very own custom-made kit, designed with laptop mouse clicks only and built from zero by converting a CAD binary file into an actual physical object, under my preferable 1/18 scale. Cool stuff, isn’t it?
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Each one of the two complete custom-made kits consists of 60 different 3D printed parts, some quite big and some others so tiny that could be easily become victims of the carpet monster. The only difference between these two Kriegsmarine’s V6 and Luftwaffe’s V21 custom-made complete kits, is that the single seat V6 version kit contains an extra cover for the observer’s rearwards facing “office” just behind the rotor shafts. On the other hand, the two-seater V21 version kit extra contains the two cylindrical 25 lt fuel tanks placed on either side of the cockpit, which are absent on V6 naval kit.
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Each complete kit contains the basic frame sections, the elevator & rudder fins, the landing gear wheels, the 7-cylinders radial engine, the upper rotor transmission & gearbox, the rotor heads & rotor blades, the two cylindrical 25 litres fuel tanks (V21 kit only), the cockpit compartment with front & side instrument panel, the control stick with thrust & collective levers & the rudder pedals, both crew seat frames (2nd seat for V21 kit only), a couple of cowling & opened for maintenance hatches and plenty of additional minor details such as supporting rods, control bars, knuckle joints, pulleys, hinges, D-rings etc, etc, etc. Some cable wires & rigging will be later added manually. As said before, any extra diorama accessories visible on some pictures (eg. engine's stand, fuel drums, fire extinguisher, jerrycans, wheel chokes, wooden ladder etc) are not included into kit but is possible to get 3D printed and be purchased separately.
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Amazing work and a great thread Nick. Very interesting to see this process and the use of modern CAD/3D in action. Look forward to more of this build soon. You are very lucky to have such an enthusiastic assistant!Comment
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Wow Nick this is very inspiring and at the same time very depressing for us mere mortals ! Ca'nt wait to see the next update !Comment
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That 3D machine is truly awesome, making kits like magic. Guess we don't need to stash up out kits anymore
. Thanks for sharing your awesome work Nick
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I am just a moderate level scale modeler with same skills as many other person here. In fact, I'm sure there are much better and more talented scale modelers in this forum, than me. If I was able to create this file with no special CAD studies, anybody can do it! If I managed to learn how to 3D design, improve, reconstruct & print my own models, in only few months period, anybody can also do it - possibly much better than me.Originally posted by \We are in front of a new era for scale modeling. Anyone can have access to this CAD designing & 3D printing tool. But as you know, each tool may become "useful" or "useless", "necessary" or "nonessential", depending on the hand that operates it. What really concerns me, is not so much the introduction of 3D printers as a usefull application into scale modeling, but the possibility that some of the things we take for granted, might never be the same again. For example, it is very likely that the model kits you buy from your local hobby shop, will not continue exist in their present form any more. Have you ever thought, that future shopping will not include visiting your local hobby shop to pick your favorite model kit from the shelves? Have you ever thought, that it is likely to buy the 3D file online and later print it on our home 3D printer, wearing your 3D printed slippers & drinking your coffe into a 3D printed mug same time? Freaky huh?Originally posted by \Feel free to follow my previously uploaded WIP articles here. You'll find that I always try to present a full "package", to offer a info about the real aircraft / helicopter and modeling tips & techniques as well. Have a look on following pictures for some projects already presented here in LargeScalePlanes forum.Originally posted by \
This Flettner Fl-282 V21 Kolibri helicopter (available in "cutaway" version too) and a Bleriot XI-2 WWI monoplane model, both designed & produced in huge 1/18 scale, are available for sale as full 3D printed kits, produced on high-precision 3D printers by using best available polymer plastic material to ensure the best printing results & highest possible quality on kit parts. Interested collectors, scale modelers & hobbyists could follow the building process and have a look on Work-In-Progress detailed pictures.
Click on Anyuta 3D printed scale models online catalog to have a look.
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Truly mind boggling in every way.Comment
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It’s been a long time, more than one year as far as I can remember, since my last update into this forum - not unreasonably as you’ll find out by reading the following lines. You see, 2015 almost as a whole year, was for me and my family - or at least what is left of it - a very bad year. Life is full of surprises and reminds us daily that we are only human beings, absolutely vulnerable to almost anything. Life prooves by most cruel way that we can become nothing more than dust and faded memories, at any moment, in just a blink of an eye. The following text and attached photos are about two years old and were supposed to be published on scale model related forums & magazines in late 2014 or early 2015. Unfortunately, we may make our plans but God has the last word and decided to take my angel for a while until we’ll meet again on the other side. I'm not worried - I know she is patiently waiting for me to join her some day and I pray for this day to come soon.
Although the above lines are not directly related to a hobby forum, sharing my thoughts with fellow scale modelers, relieves pain and makes grief a little softer. However, I would greatly appreciate if public comments & responses will be exclusively focused on scale modeling matters.
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When I first got this 3D printed kit in my hands, I noticed that most of the kit parts had slight traces of oil on their surface, so each time I touched the parts, my fingertips become oily. What really happened? Obviously, after the 3D printing process was finished and the kit parts been removed from the printer tray to be washed into an ultrasonic oil bath and later an ultrasonic water bath, some oil traces escaped the clean inspection and dry by hand procedure. When I later examined all parts by touching one by one with bare hands, I accidentally transferred the oil traces to every single part. When I realized it, it was already late. Well, it was not exactly a doomsday, but the kit parts should be cleaned thoroughly, because even the slightest trace of oil on the surface of model, could potentially be a problem in the painting process. Simplicity makes things flow without effort and oil traces could easily be completely removed by sinking everything into a 2 litres plastic bowl filled with White Spirit and leave it there for few minutes to wash oil traces. Shortly after all kit parts enjoyed their bath into a White Spirit filled bowl, they were washed with liquid soap and warm water and placed on soft paper towels and allowed to dry.
After all kit parts washed in White Spirit & water to clean the oil traces, every section of the model has been repeatedly dry fit tested to ensure that all individual parts could be later combined together as an overall built model. When looked OK to me, each part sprayed over with Ammo Mig Jimenez AMIG2004 “White waterborne polymer primer” to spot mistakes and prepare for paintjob. The next day, I did a visual inspection and shot some pictures. It looks that overall white primer, really helped to visually pop-up the printed detail and proved that use of best available 3D printing material resulted smooth and glossy surfaces on kit parts. As always, the final check held by my sweetheart wife who conducted a strict quality control and 3D printing result evaluation. With persistence on detail, she examined each one of the kit parts and compared them with the CAD design on computer screen. In fact, she spotted an almost undetectable tiny crack on a frame rib inside the helicopter fuselage, which had escaped my visual inspection earlier. Once the process complete, she smiled & proudly signaled green light for further building.
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