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The Viper is published to thingiverse. I'll probably start working on the Buck Rogers starfighter again next. That one was getting close to printable as well.

Aside from my final version, I've printed 6 Vipers at various stages of the design. Anybody want one?

 20230602_071258

 

 

 

Edited by cylonchaney
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:thumbsup:

I would love one & we'll need to discover what you'd like in return ?  Those Vipers of yours are a testimony to your talents & particularly to your patience ....awesome.  3D printing remains a mystery to a dinosaur like myself but you seem to have mastered it .

My BSG Minimate collection is one of the most ridiculously large parts of my ridiculously large Minimate collection , I loved that show . I acquired some 'modified' standard Minimate versions years ago which had customised landing gear & that mod IMHO transformed them . I've also got several of the Eaglemoss Vipers ,bought when they were heavily discounted. They are Minimate scale but unable to house a pilot & they too have no landing gear but there was someone printing compatible items at one stage & selling them on eBay .    Just saying!  

 

So...once again...yes please.

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The original BSG show has its fans but (ironically, see above)  I never really got into it . I showed no interest in the reboot ,it would be fair to say that my love of anything Sci-fi was low (early 21st century)  ,too much of it & not enough quality IMPO.

The BSG Minimates arrived on the scene & I became enthusiastic about them . I'll cut to the chase ....I never watched an episode of the new BSG show until Series 4 had nearly ended , I kept away from the various BSG threads on here & remained unskinjobaware until I figured it out  myself after binge-watching the whole damn series in the space of a few weeks!

If you've never seen BSG then I envy you because it is superb ...not perfect but superb & you are in for a treat . It is perhaps the only Space-themed soap opera that I could ever recommend to anyone . 

The TRU BSG Minimates arrived ,perhaps a little late, & were almost in a different class to their LCS predecessors & are some of the best quality 'mates to date .

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Thanks guys!

It's looking like in order for it to be tall enough to sit in and somewhat proportionally represent the APC, it will end up being a two-seater. Once I've got a prototype, maybe I'll find a way to squish it a little further. I've already made the wheels a bit smaller which allows it to be shorter in length. Will probably mess around with it more as I go.

One cool thing about a functional language based cad tool is I can use variables. So I made functions to cut the wheel wells and place the wheels. They have settable x,y,z, and wheel diameter inputs so if I want to see what it looks like with the wheels a mm farther apart, I just change the wheel_offset distance and re-render.

apc-early2

 

Edited by cylonchaney
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So it looks like it will hold 2 and be around the size of the Viper which is basically the same size as the DST factory Viper Mark V. I'm hoping I can squeeze it down a tiny bit more. Either way, it looks to me like it should be possible to build a drop ship to carry it. It might not even be bigger than the 3 man Raider. I'm so psyched for that idea!

Boxy things are much easier to model. I'm already to the point where the hubcaps are a separate piece and the wheels will hopefully pop on with a bit of a click, stay on, and spin. I'm not sure about a roof hinge. My laziness at this point is pushing me towards a friction fit. the gun mount rails should give enough grip to pull it out. Lots of detailing to go yet but I'm feeling good.

 

apc-early4

 

apc-early5

 

wheel-design

 

 

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I would love a printable dropship - at either your scale or one scaled to go with the official DST released APC.

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4 hours ago, Onyx_6 said:

I would love a printable dropship - at either your scale or one scaled to go with the official DST released APC.

I really spent some time thinking about it. For me, one of the things I like about minimates is they are small and so I can display a fair bit of my collection even though I'm in a one bedroom apartment. But there are limits. Smaller vehicles fit in better with the existing minimate vehicles. They take up less space and are quicker to print.

I don't know if you saw but I printed six Vipers before I was satisfied to post my files online. Can you imagine how much time and plastic it would take to do 6 full-size drop ships? I think I've made a good compromise here and a mini-APC fits with the line. DST's dropship would have been a troop carrier only. Mine hopefully will at least carry a small APC. :) If I should get rich enough to have more space, maybe I'll try for the full size. It would be cool for sure.

Regardless, it's fun for me and I hope someone prints some of my stuff one of these days. Like any art form, I guess I'm developing a bit of a style. I feel like I need to de-squish my Buck Rogers ship a little and this was more appealing to work on. Anyhow, it's coming along.

 

apc-early6

 

apc-early7

 

Edited by cylonchaney
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apc-early8

 

Tomorrow I will carve out and print the wheel mount and the inner bit of the wheel to see how good of a fit I have and see if it needs more work. If all is good I might be ready to upload. Then I can work on something to carry it. :)

Edited by cylonchaney
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12 minutes ago, Onyx_6 said:

When I dig out my printers, I promise to print one of your models!

You may have few to choose from by then the way I'm going. LOL

My wheel mount is a success. Didn't think of it when designing but it's basically the same design as a Lego propeller mount. Anyhow, it works. So tomorrow I'll make my first attempt to print a mini-APC.

20230612_153602

 

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Well, once again I'm going to have to make it just a little bigger because only bald mates fit in. There are some other things I will fix but here is my first prototype of a mini-APC. The wheels spin. Not very well but we'll get there. The guns rotate and the top one can be stowed at the back. Seats two.

The downside is I need to make it bigger. The floor and the walls between the cockpit and wheels are too thin for my liking and the passengers don't have enough headroom for a helmet or hairpiece. I'm going to try to make the top gun a fair bit bigger as well. It's a little over half the length of the DST one. That will make a huge difference in being able to print a drop ship. My feeling is I'll only need one more round to be done with this.

This is pretty much how I intend it to look except the roof should not be recessed like that.

For those unfamiliar, on the left is my mini APC and on the right is the DST factory one for Minimates.

20230613_212027

 

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I thought this one was going to be easily finished. But I'm just too darned picky. I'll just fix this one more thing. Oh and this one more thing. Oh and this one more thing. Oh, if I just do this last thing it will finally be finished. Oh and ...

The other challenge with tweaking the mini APC is that the bulk of it is the main body piece. It' a 6ish hour print. I'm trying to take a little more time than usual between prototypes to fix more things because of this. I think I'll manage to beat the Vipers where number 7 was the uploaded version. I've only printed 3 APCs so far. 

Also, because I'm trying to keep it as small as possible, the changes are small. I assume many people wouldn't notice much difference between the latest one on the left and the previous version on the right. But there are at least 10 changes there. LOL

I feel like I'm close though. I'm using Lee Adama as my real world test fit these days. Between his belt and pointy hair, he ends up being rather tall for a standard mate.

 

apc-1

 

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