Sorry for the crappy photo quality, but it was late when I took this and I wanted to show off this pic of my little TARS army as I put the final touches on them. Anyone who follows me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or Facebook (follow buttons on the left) has seen work-in-progress shots of these for a while now, but I know there are some people that just follow the site so I wanted to make sure they don’t miss out. These are a 1/18 scale version of my TARS model, 3D printed, articulated at the middle, and painted with Monster Kolor metallics. They are just about done and will be available soon in the PRHI section of the Monster Kolor Store: http://www.monsterkolorstore.com/prhi/ I’ll post up a full gallery and release details when they are ready. I’ve got a little more weathering to do, and then they’ll be ready to go.
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.
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:
Interstellar was one of the tent-pole sci-fi movie releases of 2014. The actual movie seemed to get mixed reviews (I dug it), but there was one thing everyone could agree on: the companion robot design was incredible! The robots just about stole the movie, delivering the humor of R2-D2 and C-3PO with the intonation of HAL 9000. To boot, they featured a phenomenal mechanical design, able to solve a variety of problems in straightforward, real-world ways. I went home after the movie convinced that I could make a working toy of the design and got to work. The alluring thing about the robots TARS and CASE (and KIPP!) is the way their blocky bodies can reconfigure along a couple of axes. For a big, DX style toy of the bots, I knew I wanted to be able to move parts along two axes seamlessly, which meant using magnets. The end result is a little complicated and awkward, like the real thing, but it does work! I made this first version in 1/12 scale to go alongside my 6″ figure collection.
I’ll be offering a smaller, 3 3/4″ scale version for sale in the near future, so check back here or follow me on Twitter and Instagram for news!
Here’s a shot of TARS alongside Star Wars Black 6″ Han Solo for scale. TARS is painted with Vallejo alcohol-based metallics for a smooth finish, and detailed with Monster Kolor and acrylics. I did the ‘face’ screen displays with waterslide decals, tinted with clear green paint. The name and logo were painted on using a 3D printed spray mask.
TARS in motion! Check after the jump for lots more photos.
My 3D printed Gonk Droids have been a popular item since I posted the first one in 1/6 scale and sent one to Tested.com as fan mail. The 1/6 scale ones take a tremendous amount of time to produce, but I still wanted to come up with a way for folks to add a 3D printed, heavily weathered little Gonk to their collection. A friend of mine suggested I go with 1/12 scale (6″) instead, as has been popularized recently with the Star Wars Black 6″ collection. I’m a big fan of the scale myself from collecting Marvel and 3A Portable figures, so it was an easy fit. I had to make a few tweaks to the legs to make the ball joints more durable in the smaller scale, but for the most part I was able to scale my existing model files down by 50% in the printer software without any problem. After some acetone treatment, Monster Kolor, and a healthy dose of weathering using acrylics, the first batch of 6″ scale Gonk Droids are ready to go. To celebrate the first sale of 2015, the Gonk Droids will also be the inaugural release on the new PRS Store site on Storenvy! Head on over to PRSStore.Storenvy.com at 8PM EST on Saturday, January 17th to pick up a Gonk Droid for $50 plus shipping.
Here’s a shot with 6″ SWB Han Solo for scale…
… and here’s an action shot! More pics after the break.
Brownnoize and I were recently approached by a friend of ours looking to surprise her partner, Jeff, with an awesome Star Wars-related gift for Christmas. She had recently had the opportunity to have his head 3D scanned and had a great idea for how to incorporate that into a gift he would appreciate. She asked me if there was any way to make a figure of Jeff frozen in carbonite like Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back. I knew it could be done, and that it would require me to learn a new piece of 3D modeling software that I did not have an experience with, Blender, so I jumped at the opportunity. Brownnoize helped with the initial concept and logistics, and then I did the final modeling, printing, and finishing. Learning to use Blender was very different from the Creo that I’m used to, but thanks to some terrific video tutorials I was up and running much quicker than I expected. From there, it was just a matter of transplanting Jeff’s head onto the model, and engineering the model for detail and affordability using a combination of high-detail SLA printing from Shapeways and good ol’ FFF printing for the larger, less detailed parts. The result came together better than I had hoped, and after some paint work based on the original film prop, Jeff in Carbonite was ready to go. I provided the figure and display stand, and my friend produced a custom backer card in the vintage Kenner style of the original Star Wars line. By all accounts it was a slam dunk on Christmas day, and I am happy to have helped!
I also had a really good time with the photo shoot for this project, so read on for many more fun pics!
This guy finally made it across the country to the guys at Tested.com so I can show him off. I’ve been a fan of the Tested crew for years, so I wanted to send them something as a small thanks for all their years of awesome content. Fortunately they are fans of making stuff, 3D printing, and Star Wars. All things I can contribute! Thanks to the Tested guys for the awesome mailbag vid and website shout out.
This Gonk Droid features a few tweaks over the first green one I did that help with printability, as well as some better detail on the (not printed) leg wires. I also took the opportunity to try out something I’ve been thinking would work, a 3D printed paint mask! Testedcles is the old Tested logo, and I really wanted to work him onto the droid for them. I traced the logo in my modeling software and made it a cutout in a thin slab of plastic that worked perfectly as a spray mask. After a few different coats of weathering, any remaining sins, and my orange Gonk Droid was good to go!
The first official release of the Prometheus Rising Heavy Industries Roteaugen 1/18 scale 3D printed mechanized infantry action figures will be available at FOE Gallery in the shop on Saturday, August 30, and online Sunday, August 31st. These special forces are printed in color with details painted with Monster Kolor and acrylics, are fully articulated, and are equipped with light grenade launchers for anti-mecha operations. Catch this first release for just $20 each on ShopeFOE.com starting Sunday, August 31.
This black and red CollectionDX-themed microrun was a sneak peak release of the PRHI Roteaugen 1/18 scale mechanized infantry figure. They are full articulated, 3D printed in color in ABS plastic, with details painted with Monster Kolor and acrylics.
Prometheus Rising Studios 