Robot Chicken's PILLAR OF AUTUMN Build - 3D Printed

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RobotChicken

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Alright, technically this isn't my build - I'm helping my kid build one for a school book report project. The plan is for the report to be on the hull of the ship itself. We're going to attach the paragraphs as removable panels so afterwards he can have the ship hanging in his bedroom. Long story short, this is on a tight schedule - roughly 4 weeks, so not going for complete accuracy here.

I couldn't find any Pillar Of Autumn files available but CPO mendez was gracious in providing one of his models for the project. Unfortunately this model has a lot of bad polygons in it and is needing a lot of cleanup work. While doing this I am also improving its details here and there when the edits aren't too difficult. The model's scale is huge - nearly 6 feet long! Although very tempting to make it full size, it's just not practical so we're building it at 50% scale, which makes it just over 2 feet long. At first this was going to be a Pepakura project but we just don't have the time to make the model edits, unfold it, clean up the junk Tamasoft exports with DXF files, and do all the folding and gluing - so this has ended up being a 3D printed model. The model file will not be provided for download (at least not just now).

So like I said, the first step is getting that model cleaned up. I've got the forward section done (minus the lower turret - all the turrets might end up having to be put on later after we get the ship back home from school). To save on filament and overall weight I've hollowed out the model, and in order to print the parts without any steep overhangs needing supports plus keep the parts small so they print quicker I've divided the ship into parts similar to a model kit. Each part is represented by a different color in the image below:

POA1_zpsazqzw8q7.png


As you can see, still a long ways to go on converting the model. The first few parts are already printed and here we are with sandpaper getting them prepped:

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I'll get a close-up photo of the printed parts when more of them are ready and before they start getting glued together. Still working at trying to figure out this whole 3D printing stuff. Hoping the build turns out looking good.
 
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Yeah, I think we've decided that even if we can't make the report deadline we can at least make the ship and already have a contingency plan for an alternate report style. So even if this doesn't get done within 4 weeks, the project will still get finished. Right now fighting with damned Simplify3D slicing glitches and the damned Dremel printer spontaneously aborting jobs before completing. 3D printing is as equally frustrating as it is enjoyable.
 
After a fully frustrating day of messed up prints and screwed up slices, I finally figured out what the problem was and parts are moving along the pipeline again. I got most of the second section of the ship done and hope to have the rest of it done tomorrow night (the second section, that is):

POA3_zpsslb3z6km.png


Comparing against game images I realize there are a number of things not quite right but just don't have time for any major corrections. We started gluing the first pieces together tonight and I can see already that Bondo will be needed to smooth out printing defects and seams, if we have time for that level of cleanup before painting.

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Getting more parts printed. The "pink" area is Bondo filling a printing defect gap. The recessed triangles on the outer parts are alignment marks for positioning parts that are printing right now.

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a good part-smoothing material is spot putty. It helps a ton with parts like this when filling build lines.
 
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Yep, I've got a tube of glazing putty sitting here for smoothing out the various holes and cracks. This particular gap was significant though so I went with Bondo for filling it in.

Edit: So....don't you just hate when this happens? We did all the math correctly and came up with 50% scaling but now seeing actual printed parts it's just going to be too small. We're going to bump it up to 70% which should provide better surface area for attaching his paragraphs. Now it's going to be closer to 3' long! Also, again seeing the actual printed parts, paint just isn't going to get into all the little crevices so the bigger parts are going to be printed in silver instead of white. The last couple days of printing weren't a total loss - I learned a lot of what not to do...
 
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Man, i had a feeling you were gonna blow my build out of the water! i'm loving this thread so far. also, regarding your material color with painting in mind; i printed my ships in black, because, for the most part, the UNSC ships are MOSTLY black, with silver and other color variations, and even if you miss the cracks and crevices while painting, it's almost impossible to see unless you know its there.
 
Thanks! This wouldn't have been possible without your help. What's been killing me is all the extra and inverted faces in the model, overlapping faces, and non-manifold shapes. It's taking considerable effort cleaning up the model for STL exporting. About the color, to me the ships typically look a dark silvery grey (type "pillar of autumn" into Google Images) so I figured the silver filament (which actually looks metallic dark grey) would be a good match in the dark shadowy crevices. (The unpainted color will appear darker in those areas simply because light can't get in there any easier than paint can.) Two of the new parts are already printed in silver (4 hrs print time jumped to 11 hrs) so if I was going to switch color now would be a good time to do it (before any more parts are printed). The black filament is very glossy and, well.....black, so I'm still leaning towards the "silver" because I already have 2 spools with 3 more on order. The silver also seems to print finer and smoother than the other colors for some reason. In either case, this thing is going to be big.....
 
Got four of the resized parts printed, and in "silver" now (which actually looks more like a metallic dark grey). Here's a size comparison photo to show how much larger the parts are. It looks really rough because that's right off the printer with no sanding yet. We'll start on sanding these up on the weekend.

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(And see, CPO mendez, it does look black in the shadowed areas! :))

...and what happened to the MENTION tags? When I try to use them no hyperlink is created for the user, and there's no toolbar icon anymore for the tag.
 
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When the implementation of a feature is changed and you're asking what the new syntax is (assuming the feature isn't deprecated), that's not a noob question. Posting a thread asking if you can use copy paper and tape for building your AirSoft Halo armor, well that's a noob question!! :lol:
 
Okay, for the 3D printing gurus out there, what do you think is causing this?

POA8_zps9rxiddzr.png


Fresh build tape on the table, reloaded filament and it flows from the extruder, leveled the table at least 10 times now, but filament refuses to stick, and extrudes intermittently as shown in the photo above. Filament seems to be collecting up on the nozzle instead of being deposited onto the table. Any ideas? I've lost an hour of potential print time battling this and nothing is printing until I get this figured out. :mad:
 
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you might want to clean your extruder. there's some esun extruder cleaner that is supposed to work, However, this will not unclog the hotend, so you'll have to research based on your printer. Your problem is most likely due to your filament. If the filament you use causes your printer to do this; clean your extruder, and never use that brand filament again. tell us which brand you used so that we can put it in the blacklist. I hope this helps!
 
Oh...shoot. I had no idea you used the dremel idea builder. well...I don't know what you should do...off-brand filament, maybe? Or try a different color. oftentimes color can make a difference.
 
Just took a print off the machine this morning that printed through the night without issue. I go to load up the next model and suddenly filament isn't sticking and comes out of the nozzle intermittently. I hate this machine.
 
I think I've had it with this machine. It's not even loading filament now. I've been wanting to upgrade it to a dual-extruder larger print area machine anyway, so maybe now's the time. Can I get suggestions? I sort've like this one, with the self-leveling upgrade and possibly also the laser engraving upgrade, but there are so many printers to choose from it's a bit overwhelming. Tevo 3D - Newest Black Widow 3D Printer Kit for sale - Buy online
 
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