HK B-17...C 8/9 movement at the station!

[brahman104]

Hey guys,

 

Just a quick update for some not-so-quick progress. Well that's probably relative. Over the weekend I've managed to design and print the forward half of the rear fuselage and have just about finished the rear 3 parts, which I have yet to separate to fit them in the printer. Here's a screen shot of what I've been working on all day. It's not quick, but it is very enjoyable. I just wish I had another weekend now to do some work on the cockpit and bomb bay! 

 

I'll post up pics tomorrow of the other printed parts.....

 

 

Not quite sure how to add the fillets along the horizontal and vertical stabs but I'm sure in due time Tim will be able to point me in the right direction....

 

Cheers, 

 

Craig

[brahman104]

Thanks Peter! This whole CAD thing has literally leapt onto the WIP forums in the last few months and it's opening up a lot of doors for many people. It's very addictive, I only started using Rhino about three weeks ago, and struggled to draw even a straight line, but once you get the basic concepts and conventions down, you find that you are no longer satisfied with basic shapes and the drive to go further means the learning of new techniques happens by default!

 

It is a whole new world in that you could quite easily spend your time just making models on the computer, even if you never did them for real. That's probably a real bonus for me as I go away a lot, usually for extended periods of time. But no matter what, I still miss good old fashioned modelling and I don't think any model is complete without it

 

Craig

[Barry]

Craig,

 

Your skills are simply awesome! :wow:

Barry

[brahman104]

Update time!

 

So all my modelling time has been devoted to drafting up the rear fuselage and tail fin, in preparation for printing. I've been leaning heavily on Tim's assistance to get me out of a few jams when it came to using Rhino and thanks to his advice, everything has been overcome to the point where I can print the parts I need that will serve as a good base point for extra work to be done at a later date. Despite how quick it is to draw basic shapes on the program, you can still quite easily sink many many hours into parts, so they are "completely watertight" in order to print them as solids. 

 

Tim reinforces the point to constantly take the time to ensure your work is clean and all the lines are joined. Yes, Rhino is clever enough to make the best guess to what you are doing to help you out, but when it comes to the printing process, the machine will struggle if you haven't done a good job and the results will be plainly obvious for you to see.

 

The other thing I've learnt is that during printing, the orientation of the parts is critical to the overall finish. Below are two prints of the "bathtub" turret under the rear fuselage. 

 

 

As you can see, this was printed horizontally on the bed. The printer also struggles with big open spaces like windows, as it is trying to print onto thin air, or at the very most a fairly flimsy raft. Due to earlier experiences, I had a feeling it would do this, so I split the part in two on Rhino, then stood both the parts vertical and tried again.....

 

 

MUCH BETTER!!!!! 

 

So most of the aft fuselage is done. Knowing what I do know now about the program, I could have probably gone back and made recesses where I wanted the entry door and blister windows to go to ensure they were exactly the same, but I don't feel it will be too much of an issue to sort them. 

 

 

I printed the fin as a solid piece, vertically, and it came out pretty well. It will just need some clean up around the edges and then I will separate the fin and rudder. I'm thinking I'll probably rebuild the rudder using brass and then see if I can use something to replicate fabric over the ribs for a better look but that will be much, much later

 

Also, if you haven't been following the Rhino user tutorial that Tim is doing in the General discussion forum, here's my drawing of the rear fuselage tail assembly, with sections 4 and 5 together. All I had to do then was mirror it and press print! Mind you, do draw that up took me pretty much the entire weekend........

 

 

Lastly, here's the whole lot together. The fuselage is so big I have to put it on the floor and stand over it to photograph it!

 

 

 

 

Now to cut some windows and get back to the cockpit and bombay!

 

Thanks for looking, Craig

[wunwinglow]

Excellent progress Craig, you are clearly having a ball pushing back the frontiers! This will make a great model when done, and I'm so pleased to have been able to help you a bit. What is it they say about teaching someone to fish? Looks like you will be eating for life...

 

 

Onwards!

 

Tim

[BiggTim]

This is very cool, though I confess I still cringe a bit at the thought of hacking up a $300+ kit to do it!! Ouch....you have more stones than I do.

[brahman104]

This is very cool, though I confess I still cringe a bit at the thought of hacking up a $300+ kit to do it!! Ouch....you have more stones than I do.

 

I hear you! I really wanted to wait and see if someone was going to start one, get sick of it then sell it off second hand. Unfortunately no-one seemed to be doing that and I wasn't sure if these were going to become hard to get in the future. I also run with the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" theme and I find the build part much more fun than the sitting on the shelf collecting dust part; maybe it's not about having stones as much as being hopefully optimistic of a successful outcome?

 

Cheers, Craig

[Wolf Buddee]

Wow, truly remarkable work Craig! This is turning out to be another incredible build here within the hallowed halls of LSP! Wow again!

 

Cheers,

Wolf

[geedubelyer]

This is fascinating stuff Craig. Very grateful to you for sharing your experiences. Interesting revelation regarding the orientation of the piece on the printer.

 

The work thus far looks extremely good. Keep it up and you'll be rewarded with a unique model at the finish.

 

Cheers.

[LSP_Kevin]

This is great, pioneering work Craig. Would love to see more!

 

Kev

[brahman104]

This is fascinating stuff Craig. Very grateful to you for sharing your experiences. Interesting revelation regarding the orientation of the piece on the printer.

 

The work thus far looks extremely good. Keep it up and you'll be rewarded with a unique model at the finish.

 

Cheers.

Thanks Geedubelyer, I pretty much knew absolutely nothing about 3D printing when I brought it, but I'm starting to come to grips with what you can get away with and what you can't. Lots of trial and much more error!

 

There are a few other things that can bite you with this stuff too. For example, if you are trying to make a vertical, thin walled part (like most of mine, wall thickness 1.5mm) I found out to my frustration that you can get about half way through a print and the bottom can separate from the board, instantly throwing the piece out of position and ruining the print (there is no pause button once it starts, other than to turn it off and start again). This "raft separation" doesn't always happen, but I have found that if I build a solid wall (about 2-3mm) thick on the base of the part when vertical, kind of like a bulkhead in my case, then the part has a much greater surface area to cling onto the print bed and you can pretty much guarantee there won't be any separation. Then I just trim off the extra when I'm done.

 

I'm having an absolute blast with this build and learning so much at the same time! My imagination ran a little overboard the other day when I had the thought that if I could build myself a little CNC engraver, then I could design and cut out all sorts of shapes (like rear fuselage formers) in brass and pretty much just solder them together. Now wouldn't that be cool!

 

Dream on Craig, dream on.....

[brahman104]

Sweet sweet build......watching this with great intrest!!!!!

 

 

Wow, truly remarkable work Craig! This is turning out to be another incredible build here within the hallowed halls of LSP! Wow again!

 

Cheers,

Wolf

 

 

This is great, pioneering work Craig. Would love to see more!

 

Kev

 

Thank you so much for your interest and comments guys! I'm far from being competent with this stuff, but if someone recognises it as a early B-17 at the end then I'll be more than happy!

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

 

Edit: If anyone wants to know more about the printing side of things don't hesitate to ask, I can reply with my worldly 3 weeks of experience!!!!!

Edited March 12, 2015 by brahman104

[Out2gtcha]

Well isnt THIS a sign of things to come!!!

 

Im sure you have already discussed this a bunch on this thread.......................and although I have minimal interest in the big Fort, I think this is really terrific modeling and something Id LOVE to get into one day......................What are you using for a printer?  I know Id love to invest in Rhino one day, but if the printer itself was even remotely in my price point, that too is something Id love to save up for.

 

TIA

[richdlc]

wow, amazing scenes..

[brahman104]

Well isnt THIS a sign of things to come!!!

 

Im sure you have already discussed this a bunch on this thread.......................and although I have minimal interest in the big Fort, I think this is really terrific modeling and something Id LOVE to get into one day......................What are you using for a printer?  I know Id love to invest in Rhino one day, but if the printer itself was even remotely in my price point, that too is something Id love to save up for.

 

TIA

 

Hi Brian,

 

Thanks for your comments! I have an Up Mini Printer. It's a fully enclosed bench top unit (about the size of an expresso machine) that is USB driven and can be used with either PC or MAC. As long as you can design something on a program that will export a .stl file, the machine will accept and print it. The print area on my machine is 120mm x 120mm x 120mm and uses ABS as the filament.

 

Mine came with a 0.5kg roll and I've still got about a quarter of that left after doing this and a few other things. When I was looking around the Up Mini seemed to be one of the most professional looking "entry level" machines and it only took me about an 30 minutes from opening the box to first print. It also was among the cheapest that I found, and I got mine with free postage for $725 AUD.

 

The print resolution, which obviously dictates how much "grain" you see on the finished print (hard to see in my photos) is 0.2mm, which seems to be pretty standard for this size machine, if you want better resolution, the price seems to climb rather quickly.

 

The machine and indeed this type of process certainly has limitations and is not the be all and end all, but for the rapid creation of solid shapes to me it's worth its weight in gold!

 

They are definitely becoming more common and affordable for the masses, but if you are considering getting one, have a good hunt around, I'm sure the market would be much bigger in the states.

 

Cheers, Craig