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| Truck with main wheels, next to Bolt Action Early war German |
The truck is really starting to take shape. After the success of the wheels(I was really quite impressed with the detail & smooth surface) , I decided I would try rapid-prototyping the entire engine section. this section has nearly all of the fine detail on it, and is really the part I was worrying about building. I'm a lot more exact and faster with Computer models then I am at actually scratch building, especially at particularly fine detail. the engine section took me about 2.5-3 hours total time to do. I'm not entirely sure if i could have actually have acheived it by entirely by hand, and certainly no to this level.
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| rendering of the front grill and engine block. |
I'm currently using Shapeways to prototype. I use the White Detail material(a photopolymer) and the detail is pretty good. Also, unlike their more common(and cheaper) materials they use, the white detail material gives a nice smooth surface.
Shapeways.com is not the best rapid prototyping business by far(in terms of detail produced), but you can't beat their prices. this engine block will cost me $7.40(USD or CDN, since they are effectively at par now)including shipping.. It helps that I hollowed out the engine compartment leaving ip open from the back(which you cannot see). If I could could afford to get them done better, I would, but this method (so far) has been surprising good. Also, if it doesn't work out for some reason, I'm only out $7.40, instead of $15-30+shipping i would be from most other rapid prototyping vendors.
now the one catch with Shapeways.com is that the minimum order is $25. this isn't a huge deal for me though, since i have 20+ star ships of my own design that I can order to fill in the difference. and i have already ordered some of those ships, so i know they will turn out.
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