Model Boat crew....
It is amazing what these 3D printers can do "modern technology "
Martin.
Martin.
If it looks right it probably is.
Model Boat crew....
Followers (5)
- RookysailorSilver
Model Boat crew....
I think I understood that - it looks as if using computers is getting very close to being a general option for people instead of being an approach that only specialists would consider.
I have successfully made up a CNC cutter and am starting to use it to cut model boat parts. I had no prior skill in that field and it cost me about the same as a Billing Boats Absalon kit.
If people will put their work up on the web for free download then we can create a very useful resource for the modelling community. All someone who wanted a 1:8 scale winch would need to do would be to download the file and take it to the local library or MakerSpace for a cheap replica. I think that this is the way things are going, although the model parts companies are going to be very unhappy about it...
I have successfully made up a CNC cutter and am starting to use it to cut model boat parts. I had no prior skill in that field and it cost me about the same as a Billing Boats Absalon kit.
If people will put their work up on the web for free download then we can create a very useful resource for the modelling community. All someone who wanted a 1:8 scale winch would need to do would be to download the file and take it to the local library or MakerSpace for a cheap replica. I think that this is the way things are going, although the model parts companies are going to be very unhappy about it...
Liked by Colin H
Model Boat crew....
I may have not made it clear but when I say you can make figures in Make Human they only exist in the computer (not physical items). All the programs make things on screen only but between them you can end up making a file that you can load onto a 3d printer and make the physical item.
I had a go at it and then left it . I would now have to start the learning curve again.
(Edit)
I just thought you probably mean physically do the sculpting. I guess with the right skills that would work. My mistake.
Les
I had a go at it and then left it . I would now have to start the learning curve again.
(Edit)
I just thought you probably mean physically do the sculpting. I guess with the right skills that would work. My mistake.
Les
Model Boat crew....
I wonder if the 1:12 poseable mannequin available on ebay might be a good basis for the figure you require. You could pose it manually and then put the clothes on using filler...?
Model Boat crew....
I have dabbled with 3d printing characters for my 1/12 Severn Lifeboat.
I have found some amazing free programs that really are of a professional standard.
"Make Human" is a program that lets you make figures and you can change their size, age , gender and clothing before your eyes.
"Blender" is a particularly impressive program that I understand has been used to make videos by professional movie makers. It does much more than handle making figures but it will let you import a figure from Make Human and put a skeleton inside it and then pose the figure as you require. It also lets you sculpt the figure just like using plastercine.
Another excellent free program is Sculptris which lets you sculpt as with plastercine.
While these programs are amazing, (The more so as they are free) they have huge learning curves to use them well.
I wanted a figure dressed as a lifeboatman in his kit. I had a go and "sculpted" a naked figure by adding to his body to try and crudely replicate the baggy waterproof gear. I got a figure out of the exercise with 3d printing it but I know I haven't scratched the surface of what these programs can do. I would like to create a lifeboatman and then pose the figure I create to get differing poses.
All these programs have many "how to" videos on Youtube.
I am sure that if you become competent with these programs you could make highly detailed figures for 3d printing. However it's not easy initially. It would be great if someone made a rigged (with skeleton to enable posing in Blender) figure available that could be posed as required.
Just to be clear my problem becomes more difficult because I don't want the clothed options the Make Human program will simply give me. I need to change the clothing.
Anyway it's a big subject so I will leave it there.
Attached is a picture of the figure I made.
Les
I have found some amazing free programs that really are of a professional standard.
"Make Human" is a program that lets you make figures and you can change their size, age , gender and clothing before your eyes.
"Blender" is a particularly impressive program that I understand has been used to make videos by professional movie makers. It does much more than handle making figures but it will let you import a figure from Make Human and put a skeleton inside it and then pose the figure as you require. It also lets you sculpt the figure just like using plastercine.
Another excellent free program is Sculptris which lets you sculpt as with plastercine.
While these programs are amazing, (The more so as they are free) they have huge learning curves to use them well.
I wanted a figure dressed as a lifeboatman in his kit. I had a go and "sculpted" a naked figure by adding to his body to try and crudely replicate the baggy waterproof gear. I got a figure out of the exercise with 3d printing it but I know I haven't scratched the surface of what these programs can do. I would like to create a lifeboatman and then pose the figure I create to get differing poses.
All these programs have many "how to" videos on Youtube.
I am sure that if you become competent with these programs you could make highly detailed figures for 3d printing. However it's not easy initially. It would be great if someone made a rigged (with skeleton to enable posing in Blender) figure available that could be posed as required.
Just to be clear my problem becomes more difficult because I don't want the clothed options the Make Human program will simply give me. I need to change the clothing.
Anyway it's a big subject so I will leave it there.
Attached is a picture of the figure I made.
Les
Model Boat crew....
Now THAT is a useful thing to know. All we now need is a 3-D modeller with time on his hands to design half a dozen basic sailor forms in different sizes...
Model Boat crew....
If you have access to a 3d printer,maybe at your local library,you can down load free from thingyverse,a couple I have had done Popeye 4"high and Captain Haddock 4" including base .these were both printed at my local library,with Popeye costing 50p and Captain H costing 75p.
Liked by Martin555
Model Boat crew....
I had hoped that this thread would cover ways to obtain useful model boat figures in the right scale and at a low cost. Re-casting existing models is useful, but only lets you reproduce what you already have, and 3-D printing seems VERY expensive at the moment.
Perhaps 3-D printing will come down in price? And G Code files to print them might be offered free on the Web? In the meantime, I am still looking for good ways to obtain figures without having to pay the cost of a kit to get them.
For my foreseeable future, I expect that modifying existing figures will be the best answer. As well as railway figures, there are a wide range of toy 'action figures' for sale at reasonable prices, particularly from charity shops. Looking on Ebay, these come in various sizes from 2" to 16" - but few of them will be suitable for modifying into nautical people with a bit of filler!
This artist's mannequin at 5.5" looks promising for a 1:12 scale at less than a fiver - see below. If anyone can find some other good examples of good cheap scale figures, do mention it...
Perhaps 3-D printing will come down in price? And G Code files to print them might be offered free on the Web? In the meantime, I am still looking for good ways to obtain figures without having to pay the cost of a kit to get them.
For my foreseeable future, I expect that modifying existing figures will be the best answer. As well as railway figures, there are a wide range of toy 'action figures' for sale at reasonable prices, particularly from charity shops. Looking on Ebay, these come in various sizes from 2" to 16" - but few of them will be suitable for modifying into nautical people with a bit of filler!
This artist's mannequin at 5.5" looks promising for a 1:12 scale at less than a fiver - see below. If anyone can find some other good examples of good cheap scale figures, do mention it...
Liked by Rookysailor
Model Boat crew....
Have a look at Shapeways, please find link below; https://www.shapeways.com or this one; https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace/miniatures/figurine there is a bewildering number of items that can be 3D printed to any scale.
Model Boat crew....
Another way for making extra figures similar to your technique, is to make a mold out of silicon rubber, then cast figures from two part resin, a bit safer than using HOT! white metal I think. Most items can be bought from Sylmasta https://sylmasta.com/product-category/casting-mould-making/
Model Boat crew....
Maybe another way (certainly in 1/72 scale) is to pewter cast new crew. I took the original figures included with the Flower Class model and made a RTV silicon cast of them (to ensure I had an original copy) This method is simple - place the figures into plasticine contained within a lego 'walled' structure, then pour on something like GP-3481 from Polycraft (Although I use MBR-s version). Once cured, repeat in reverse to get complete figures i.e put half silicon mold containing the figures at bottom of box, paint on some vaseline as a mold release and to stop the silicon bonding to itself, then pour more silicon. Wait for it to set and then split the new mold, remove the original figures, cut some feed and vents and then clamp halves together after dusting with talc and then cast them in Pewter. I made about 20 figures and then set about changing arm positions, legs, caps etc with simple jewellers files etc. Then I recast the figures in more silicon, more pewter and finally painted and posed them. The RTV and Pewter casting techniques are widely seen on YouTube and I found it so easy. It's not the cheapest way (although it undercuts buying cast white metal figures commercially) and it meant I could not only get the crew looking how I wanted, but the molds last ages and I can recast many more at any time for the next project. Incidentally, I always use scrap lead free pewter found on line or in local car boots for pennies. As an aside, I also used the same technique to make many more splinter canvases for the bridge of HMCS Regina - saved me buying more!
Model Boat crew....
A model vehicle - car, boat or plane - looks a little odd if it seems to be operating with no driver. Aircraft have quite a selection of different scale 'head and shoulders' figures - road vehicles seem to be made to standard scales so that driver figures are readily available - but boats are often made to a wide variety of scales and then need scale figures which are not readily available, and can be very pricey when they are!
I was asked recently about figures on the boats I make, which are continuations of the Keil Kraft EeZeBilt line. These were originally 'pocket-money' starter kits for young children, so they were very cheap, and the fittings were not bought, but made from available household items like paper-clips. I have continued that tradition, so making an EeZebilt remains cheap and encourages manual dexterity rather than a large wallet!
Figures can be made cheaply by adding filler to a wire armature, but this does require a bit of carving skill. It is easier to start with a basic shape and alter it a bit, and the obvious place to start is with a model railway figure. Cheap Chinese copies of products like the Preiser range are available on Ebay for around 10p per figure - see the link below for example.
These figures are available in many scales from 1:200 up to about 1:24. The first point to make is that choosing a suitable scale to build your boat to will make it a lot easier to populate it with figures! I typically look to make boats at 1:24 or 1:48, two common scales for railways.
Now the only problem is that the typical figures for sale are not sailors or naval personnel. Instead they are usually civilians, railway staff or workmen. But that is easily solved by using a modelling knife. I have illustrated this below with a set of drawings for a 1:48 figure - see the PDF link below:
1 - a typical figure. Note the jacket and tie lines embossed on the body. I wanted to make an Indian Naval Officer, so my first step was to look up the colouring and shape of their uniform. I find that they wear white, with either a plain-front tunic or shirt and shorts.
2 - To make a plain-front, simply scrape away the clothes lines embossed on the figure's trunk. You may also need to cut any hanging parts of a jacket away, or fill a hole with some modelling putty.
3 - To adjust arms, slice them off and then re-attach with Plastic Weld. The plastic will melt and conform to the new shape.
3 - To make shorts, just trim the long trousers in a bit at the shorts hem, then carve the lower leg to show the bulge of a calf.
4 - An officers cap is easy to make. Stamp out two tiny paper disks using a sharpened brass tube, and cut one disk in half. Cut a slot across the figure's forehead, and superglue the half-disk in there to be the cap peak. The full disk goes on top of the figures head, and the excess glue is drawn by surface tension to make a brim. The glue will soak through the paper and make it hard. See the PDF below for details...
I was asked recently about figures on the boats I make, which are continuations of the Keil Kraft EeZeBilt line. These were originally 'pocket-money' starter kits for young children, so they were very cheap, and the fittings were not bought, but made from available household items like paper-clips. I have continued that tradition, so making an EeZebilt remains cheap and encourages manual dexterity rather than a large wallet!
Figures can be made cheaply by adding filler to a wire armature, but this does require a bit of carving skill. It is easier to start with a basic shape and alter it a bit, and the obvious place to start is with a model railway figure. Cheap Chinese copies of products like the Preiser range are available on Ebay for around 10p per figure - see the link below for example.
These figures are available in many scales from 1:200 up to about 1:24. The first point to make is that choosing a suitable scale to build your boat to will make it a lot easier to populate it with figures! I typically look to make boats at 1:24 or 1:48, two common scales for railways.
Now the only problem is that the typical figures for sale are not sailors or naval personnel. Instead they are usually civilians, railway staff or workmen. But that is easily solved by using a modelling knife. I have illustrated this below with a set of drawings for a 1:48 figure - see the PDF link below:
1 - a typical figure. Note the jacket and tie lines embossed on the body. I wanted to make an Indian Naval Officer, so my first step was to look up the colouring and shape of their uniform. I find that they wear white, with either a plain-front tunic or shirt and shorts.
2 - To make a plain-front, simply scrape away the clothes lines embossed on the figure's trunk. You may also need to cut any hanging parts of a jacket away, or fill a hole with some modelling putty.
3 - To adjust arms, slice them off and then re-attach with Plastic Weld. The plastic will melt and conform to the new shape.
3 - To make shorts, just trim the long trousers in a bit at the shorts hem, then carve the lower leg to show the bulge of a calf.
4 - An officers cap is easy to make. Stamp out two tiny paper disks using a sharpened brass tube, and cut one disk in half. Cut a slot across the figure's forehead, and superglue the half-disk in there to be the cap peak. The full disk goes on top of the figures head, and the excess glue is drawn by surface tension to make a brim. The glue will soak through the paper and make it hard. See the PDF below for details...
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