Elite Plastic Model Ship Kits

[popuptoaster]

There is no reason you couldn't 3D print fairly good quality ships yourself IF you have the model to print from, I bought an Anete A8 just before christmas and from knowing nothing at all I have managed to print this thing already.~
It prints in parts and assembles to just over a foot long, it's not glued or painted here obviously.
There's about 40 hours of printing time on my particular printer at this scale and quality setting so you're not going to be printing things for commercial gain but for your own use it's fine.

Getting the assets and preparing them to print is the hard part, the printing is simple in comparison and the materials are cheap, I used a tiny percentage of a £20 roll of PLA.

This is where i got my printer from,

http://www.gearbest.com/3d-printers-3d-printer-kits/pp_337314.html

and this is the Gowanus Monster for in case your interested.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:854906

 

[Father Cool]

No offence to you as that type of pri ter is ok for what it is but the quality of print available with that tech is very poor in my opinion.

There are much better printers out there but you have to pay. For example I have a DBX model that is I want to print at 100mm long would cost me around £120 plus postage. However at that length/scale some of the fins are too thin to print successfully without risk of beeaking them during manufacture.

 

[popuptoaster]

No offence to you as that type of pri ter is ok for what it is but the quality of print available with that tech is very poor in my opinion.

There are much better printers out there but you have to pay. For example I have a DBX model that is I want to print at 100mm long would cost me around £120 plus postage. However at that length/scale some of the fins are too thin to print successfully without risk of beeaking them during manufacture.

If you're that bothered by quality you just hand make the parts you can't print, printed parts can be sanded down the same as any hand made model would have to be. When you can buy a whole printer for not much more than the cost of ONE model and then have the ability to print as many as you like (Even if you still have to hand finish them) it's a no brainer these days.

Nothing stopping anyone combining kit bashing, sculpting, moulding AND 3D printing to create whatever models they like over and over again.

 

[Father Cool]

Then I may as well make the whole thing by hand.

I agree you can sand and finish and whatever but its defeating the object because its a real ballache to not remove or fill in detail and such by the time you've finished it. It actually becomes more trouble than its worth. At which point you simply switch to handmade items as you can finish them and then add details.

I speak from experience here as I make models for a living and do a lot of 3D printer modelling. 3D printers have two great uses. Cheap prototyping for mechanical objects which can be poor finish as it doesn't matter and high quality parts that would be difficult to hand make and finish, this is expensive but saves time or even allows you to make something otherwise impossible.

 

[popuptoaster]

Then I may as well make the whole thing by hand.

I agree you can sand and finish and whatever but its defeating the object vecause its a real ballache to not remove or fill in detail and such by the time you've finished it. It actually becomes more trouble than its worth. At which point you somple switch to handmade items as you can finish them and then add details.

I speak from experience here as I make models for a living and do a lot of 3D printer modelling. 3D printers have two great uses. Cheap prototyping for mechanical objects which can be poor finish as it doesn't matter and high quality parts that would be difficult to hand make and finish, this is expensive but saves time or even allows you to make something otherwise impossible.

Your speaking from the point of a professional, a guy at home who doesn't have the tools and equipment and parts to hand to hand make items can 3D print a basic ship using nothing but a reel of plastic and then sand it down and add parts as required.

It may be easier for YOU to scratch build but an average person would probably have far more success (and get done faster) is he printed his Asp hull in maybe a left and right section and a rear section with the engines on it, sanded is smooth (nice easy flat planes to sand) and then added on the extra details as he saw fit. Don't forget you can start a 12 hour print and then wander off to work or school or whatever, you can't do that when scratch building so even if technically you can do it faster in reality you can't do anything else at the same time.

 

[Father Cool]

I agree, to get a basic shape to work up from its a good starting point. I just want to ensure that people who don't have any experience with 3D printing don't see your machine and think that it will churn them out a retail standard model of an Asp is all.

 

[Bryan K]

3D printing costs scale exponentially with volume. That would cost you a fortune. Don't expect models to be bigger than 200mm in length

My intention is to 3d print it myself in pieces. I can make it as big as I want. The trouble is that current at-home 3d printers aren't good enough for my taste yet.

 

[Rakaposhi]

+1

Lego or Airfix would do me! I'd buy both .

 

[Martin Schou]

I, personally, would love Lego kits - to scale with the Lego people. I suspect an Asp would be about the size of my coffee table...


Z...

It's not quite that bad, but if you're genuinely curious I made the calculations for sizes a while ago. The Anaconda, Beluga, Corvette and Cutter would make for amazing eye catching displays as game shows.

Min-fig Scale:

Ship	Width (cm)	Height (cm)	Length (cm)	Box Volume (cm3)
Scarab SRV	9	6	11	527
Imperial Fighter	33	5	14	2338
F63 Condor	24	6	30	4053
Taipan Fighter	38	6	31	6703
Sidewinder mk I	48	12	33	18895
Eagle	66	16	69	72199
Imperial Eagle	77	16	69	84354
Imperial Courier	61	16	94	89878
Viper mk III	53	19	66	67498
Diamondback Scout	54	27	87	127920
Viper mk IV	55	19	66	70510
Adder	64	21	70	95573
Hauler	58	23	64	85519
Cobra mk III	98	18	60	103374
	Width (m)	Height (m)	Length (m)	Box Volume (m3)
Diamondback Explorer	0.61	0.3	1	0.18
Cobra mk IV	1.07	0.19	0.73	0.15
Vulture	0.77	0.27	0.96	0.2
Type 6	0.6	0.33	1.08	0.22
Fer de Lance	1.15	0.34	1.64	0.64
Keelback	0.9	0.33	1.1	0.33
Asp Explorer	1.14	0.44	1.26	0.63
Asp Scout	1.32	0.38	1.22	0.61
Python	1.29	0.4	1.95	1.01
Federal Dropship	1.16	0.48	1.64	0.92
Federal Assault Ship	1.1	0.51	1.64	0.91
Federal Gunship	1.18	0.5	1.68	0.99
Imperial Clipper	2.3	0.55	2.37	3.01
Type 7	1.25	0.56	1.81	1.28
Orca	1.13	0.5	2.9	1.65
Anaconda	1.37	0.69	3.39	3.2
Imperial Cutter	2.47	0.74	4.28	7.84
Type 9	2.56	0.74	2.61	4.93
Federal Corvette	1.94	0.63	3.73	4.54
Beluga Liner	2.92	1.01	4.65	13.74
Imperial Capital Ship	10.6	10.4	42.31	4664.38
Federal Capital Ship	17.91	6.67	45.33	5413.14

 

[BigF]

The thing to do would be churn out a master, in pieces on a printer then cast from the parts in resin, that way bigger models can be made and more default detail packed in. The purchaser then assembles and paints. Garage kits have been like this since before the dawn of 3D printers. Some of the best kits I've ever bought have been short run garage kits.

 

[Bryan K]

The thing to do would be churn out a master, in pieces on a printer then cast from the parts in resin, that way bigger models can be made and more default detail packed in. The purchaser then assembles and paints. Garage kits have been like this since before the dawn of 3D printers. Some of the best kits I've ever bought have been short run garage kits.

Same here. I have some great resin garage kits from Star Trek Voyager that are the highlights of my collection. They're super-accurate, too (the USS Prometheus model I have even separates into the three different sections).

 

[popuptoaster]

The thing to do would be churn out a master, in pieces on a printer then cast from the parts in resin, that way bigger models can be made and more default detail packed in. The purchaser then assembles and paints. Garage kits have been like this since before the dawn of 3D printers. Some of the best kits I've ever bought have been short run garage kits.

As I said and as has been mentioned by others, legal access to accurate and printable assets is the stumbling block, the printing part is easy.

 

[Father Cool]

Well my initial plan was garage kits as I doubt to return on a proper IMP run. I just wanted a yes from FD before investing in the prints and moulds but they want to see the sample first. Grrrrr.

 

[cometcruiser]

One of my old posts.

A paper mache Asp I made a few years of.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/197046-Paper-Mache-Asp-Model?p=3042850

 

[BigF]

All the garage kit builders I have known or dealt with over the last 15 years or so have only had issues when producing too higher number, with the exception of anyone producing Disney owned products, where they'll just go for anyone since money doesn't really come into it, it's all about the brand.
One guy I know who also builds film props for a living got a ceasation order from one properties owner, who in the documentation completely missed the fact that for the last few years he'd been producing kits of their other properties from the same series just because he had given them a slightly different spelling of the name.

Not that FD would have to worry too much a small run type operation would likely only get most of its publicity from this forum, so they could keep a handle on it, or place a royalty if they wanted.

 

[Bill Clement]

Wish I was allowed more rep to send you, Father Cool. Count me in if you ever get a green light- I'm not exactly wealthy, but I reckon I could get anything up to about a ton past my long haired admiral.

Meanwhile, has anyone got a link to anyone doing card models? I remember seeing some pretty neat ones back in beta, but I never got around to buying/downloading any...

 

[BigF]

Meanwhile, has anyone got a link to anyone doing card models? I remember seeing some pretty neat ones back in beta, but I never got around to buying/downloading any...

A quick google of "Elite Dangerous papercraft" should fuel your need, although that little rabbit hole leads on to much bigger things

 

[AgamemnonWhen]

+1 for Airfix-style model kits here. I would definitely, absolutely commit to buying a Cobra, and possibly an AspX / Python as these have been my favourite ships thus far.

I think the suggestion of a Kickstarter, associated with Frontier (or at least with their blessing), would be awesome.

If the goals aren't reached, the project doesn't go ahead and everyone gets their money back... but if enough people commit, it would be viable: Come on FD! Have a think about it...

Start with a popular vessel, and have others as stretch goals. Obviously, it would be difficult to have the Anaconda and the Sidewinder next to each other at the same scale, so research would need to be done as to which scale suits which ship (or even the Coriolis station!).

So, Team Awesome: What ship would you like to see as the initial Kickstarter "Goal", and what would you like to see as Stretch Goals?

For me, it would have to be the Cobra - the ship that started it all with CMDR Jameson!

 

[cometcruiser]

Just a thought on how long it could take to get an "airfix" kit of any ship.

I keep an eye on he airfix website (I collect RAF models) and they released a pre-order for a McDonnnell Phantom F4 K. The ones used by the RN and RAF. It showed up in the store as a pre order around November, maybe earlier. And it is due for release "winter 2017".

Thats over 12 months to get a model released from scratch. And the Phantom is a shape thats been modelled for decades.

The delay I expect os just getting the mold done.

Any airfix from FD would take a similar time.

 

[Bryan K]

Just a thought on how long it could take to get an "airfix" kit of any ship.

I keep an eye on he airfix website (I collect RAF models) and they released a pre-order for a McDonnnell Phantom F4 K. The ones used by the RN and RAF. It showed up in the store as a pre order around November, maybe earlier. And it is due for release "winter 2017".

Thats over 12 months to get a model released from scratch. And the Phantom is a shape thats been modelled for decades.

The delay I expect os just getting the mold done.

Any airfix from FD would take a similar time.

Not as bad as Model Space. I ordered their Millennium Falcon kit over a year ago, and at the rate they send me parts, it'll be another year until I have all of it. Whatever happened to selling model kits whole? The monthly box of parts is a really stupid idea, since if I had all the parts I could build the whole thing inside of two weeks.