Archive for the ‘Shapeways’ Tag
More PRHI Space Blasters are available now in the PRHI Shapeways Shop! These two should be familiar to anyone that had the original Kenner Star Wars toys. Like Wave 1, these Space Blasters are 3D printed by Shapeways and offered in two materials, White Strong Flexible Polished and Black Strong Flexible. The WSF Polished is better for painting, and is what was used for the painted samples in the promo pic above. The BSF option is better for folks that do not want to paint their guns. Both are durable, with good detail and decent surface finish. These guns will look great being wielded by your favorite 6″ action figure.
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I’ve got some new items up in the PRHI Shapeways Shop, the first wave of Space Blasters! The first batch of blasters are all things that I have received multiple requests for from Star Wars collectors. Two are a set of blasters designed for use with the Star Wars Black 6″ Boba Fett Prototype version, based on photos and video of the early character design. The other is a pistol for use by your SWB6″ Imperials. Each is available in two materials on Shapeways, White Strong Flexible Polished, and Black Strong Flexible. The WSF Polished versions have the best surface finish, and are better for painting (as seen in the promo pic above). The BSF option is for folks that don’t want to paint their guns and they come dyed black from Shapeways, but are not offered with a polished finish. Head on over to the PRHI Shapeways Shop to buy some space blasters at the link below:
http://www.shapeways.com/shops/prhi
Lots more pics of each after the fold:
I’ve been collecting a lot of Star Wars toys lately, and one of the things I was most excited to get was the latest version of Hasbro’s big X-wing. Amazingly enough, the modern X-wing mold’s origin can still be traced back to 1998’s Power of the Jedi 2 Electronic Power F/X X-wing mold. I remember seeing TV commercials for the Power F/X toy back in the day, but never had one. The mold has gone through a number of revisions, but the bones are still the same in today’s X-wing toy. I was thrilled to get a big new X-wing toy, but I was incredible disappointed by the S-foil deployment gimmick when I finally put the toy together. Out of the box, the wings are saggy, loose, and do not deploy evenly. I figured the mechanism could not be that complicated, so I cracked open my new X-wing and got to work. The jist of the mechanism is a lever that depresses a spring-loaded plunger that deploys the wings. The level slides to the side to lock in place, but when slide to the side the lever does not depress the plunger evenly or far enough, so the wings are uneven and floppy. I fired up the computer and designed a new piece and printed it on my 3D printer, going through a half dozen iterations in a weekend until I had a new piece that held the plunger all the way down evenly when locked in place. The ABS plastic part printed on my UP Mini was good enough for me, but not something I was interested in making a number of for others. Instead, I ordered a couple of test prints from Shapeways and found the best one, which is available now in my new Prometheus Rising Heavy Industries Shapeways Store! I may use Shapeways to offer some of my own toys in the future, but for now it is the home of my first third-party toy add-on part. Keep reading after the jump for details on the development, installation, and end result of my X-wing bar.
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The “My Friend the Micronaut 2013” opening sounds like it was a huge success. There are a ton of pics on the Micronaut 2013 Tumblr page now, so thanks to everyone who attended and snapped some shots! The show’s webstore is now up on the Grass Hut site for your perusal. There are three Allarounds left for $150 each and the Blockman prototype for $275. I’m pleased to say that my 3D printed figures are in good company, as they are listed right alongside the incredible works of Brownnoize Productions. Sanjeev is cranking out some incredible stuff. His Shapeways-produced Powered Suit Fake Type is an multimedia tribute to the original Diaclone Powered Suit toy. What speaks to me more, however, is his home-printed Powered Bio Suit (PBS), a Diaclone Powered Suit scaled up to Microman size. I’ve been following this project behind the scenes for a while now, and I am so excited for Sanjeev to finally be debuting such a rad project. It’s funny that we both independently came to similar conclusions with what we wanted to do with our consumer-grade 3D printers. I am sure we will be seeing some Blockman and PBS crossovers in the future. There are also some other terrific Microman-centric works for sale in vinyl, PVC, canvas paintings, and more than one other 3D printed project, so make sure to check it all out on Grass Hut’s site.
The Wear Puppet EVA-WP-4000 Allover is a power suit design from the classic 1980’s Japanese mecha series Galactic Drifter Vifam. It’s a dumpy, simplistic design with a lot of charm. I recently got a new modeling book with some Vifam lineart in it. When I saw the Allover, I immediately thought ‘I could totally make that’ and began figuring out the basic shapes and whipping up some models. I changed some bits and details along the way, coming up with my own variant I nicknamed the ‘Allaround’. Read on to see how a figure goes from shapes on a screen to a plastic toy.
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This 1/18 scale Bounce Tortoise is the first fully finished printed figure made on my UP! Mini 3D printer.
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On Monday I received a package. I attended MakerFaire NYC back in September, and was blown away by all of the consumer-grade 3D printers being shown there. I had been looking at Makerbot Industries’ offerings, which are something of a standard for the home level 3D printer market, but they are still out of my price range. Makerbot’s machines also are a bit large for the space I ave available. Then I saw the AC Gears booth, where they were showing the recently debuted UP! Mini from UP! 3D. AC Gears is a tech retailer in New York City, and they had a coupon for UP! 3D’s two printers. I was so enamored by the look, size, and quality of the UP! Mini that I went and ordered one as soon as they went live.
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I don’t have anything to report yet on getting the Bounce Tortoise into resin because I ave been busy with work and commissioned models, but something amazing did show up in the mail yesterday. When I learned that Shapeways competitor i.materlise offer 3D prints in solid brass, I was intrigued. When I saw the example prints on their site, I knew I had to have one. The process for 3D printing to brass is to 3D print the wax and do lost wax casting. The result is polished and plated, with a variety of finishes offered. I went for the high gloss polished gold plating, and the results are stunning.
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I’ve been showing off blazing white prints for the last few posts, and I thought it was time to finally show off the detail of the Bounce Tortoise design. The WSF Polished prints have some surface texture to them, and the detail is not razor sharp, but I could not wait any longer to try painting one of these guys. This is a PBT-0xx print as shown in Adventures in Shapeways Part 2, before some changes and tweaks were made to the detail and size. It was still a blast to paint.
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This 1/60 scale PBT-000 Bounce Tortoise print is not for any higher purpose or machination, I simply wanted a stainless steel print of my power suit.
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Prometheus Rising Studios 
