cylonchaney

The mini APC is up on thingiverse. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6088712 The final version: Hmm I wonder what could be next?

Thanks folks! I guess you could say I've started on the dropship speaking in the most technical sense. You really have to use your imagination at this point. LOL Below you can see why I've been so concerned about keeping it small. This is what it looks like when the cargo hold is just bigger than the APC. It would only work this way if lowered on a level platform. If there's a ramp, the hold needs to be a fair bit bigger. I hope I can make it work without making the dropship too big. I'm currently printing version 4 which will be the release version if I like how it comes out. If not, it will be version 3 that I printed yesterday. But the mini-APC is pretty much done.

You know, I've got more than enough Ninja Turtles and was pretty much done with this line some time ago. But I would buy this set just for that Rocksteady. They're all improvements in my eyes except the actual turtle. I wish we had gotten sculpted heads for them. Anyway, well done DST!

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.

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

I like the way you made these photos. It looks like a promo shot for an upcoming line.

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.

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.

I seem to remember you being quite torn up about it at the time.

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.

Nice work!

Wanted to see the ASCII version. LOL If you do this again, chop up a blank minimate in a photoshop like program.

Can we see what the hanged man would have looked like if bhm wasn't so smart? And get to work you. LOL

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.

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.

Not sure what those photos linked to. Are these some of them? https://www.ironcowprod.com/dc-supplemental-unreleased-concepts/

Getting much more proactive about cockpit sizing during the design phase.

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.

I've got it! The potboiler reference gave it away. It's going to be the cast of Hell's Kitchen. "Ramsays Men"

N seems like a good guess at this point.

Hey Luke, If you do another round in the future, there are two characters you could include that would guarantee a sale to me. They would be: Generic female futuristic military pilot with mirrored aviator sunglasses and flight suit with rolled up sleeves. Perhaps parts could be sourced from the Aliens line soldiers. Generic futuristic humanoid robot with white blood but it's all still inside his body (we just know it's white) that maybe happens to look a little like Lance Henrikson. These would be original characters of your own design and any resemblance to the last two characters needed to finish a certain line would be purely co-incidental. Bonus points if you can source a good helmet for definitely-not-Ferro. Seriously though. Please make these.

Is there an H in that codename?

Some super-early work. In this case it will be an armored person (<--singular) carrier. LOL I need to get it as small as possible.

I concur. That Thunder is also totally Crack'in!

Gorgeous!