1:32 Jet Blast Deflector for diorama

[ClumsyDude]

Hey, that's awesome! I need that dude in 1:48, do you download the file and send it to a 3D printer?

 

Jim

[hpetiers]

Hi Jim,

 

yes you can, but not immediately the way you download the model because it's 1:350 scale. You can download a free program like Meshmixer from Autodesk, load the model in there, and scale it up. You can then upload the saved model to a printing service like Shapeways and have it printed & sent home. Be aware that if you only print 1 model, the relative cost for 1 print (you always pay a handling fee per print) plus the postage cost, can make it quite expensive.

 

Now you know why I will try to put a whole bunch of unique flight deck people in different poses into 1 print, same goes for pilots btw.

 

in the meantime I uploaded this model to the site. It says that a print of 1 will cost 8.40 euro and 10 will cost 34 euro (ex postage of 5 euro). So make sure that you add as many figures in the print as you can (up to 64 Mb).

[hpetiers]

in the meantime I have been busy with the JBD housing.

First I chamfered the edge where the hinges will be placed, with a 60 degree angle. This was to prevent the JBD plates to hit the deck while they rotate upwards.

 

I glued the 3D printed rib with the hinges to the underside of the deck. I had to reinforce the rib a bit to make sure that, with the clicking in of the JBD plates, the rib would keep its straight form. Also the other ribs (evergreen strip) were glued to the base.

 

then I glued the tie downpoints from the bottom into the deck, making sure that all stars were pointing in the same direction:

 

too bad though that I did not have enough! Will have to reorder and extra print now...

 

No worries, there is still plenty to be done. Like the pads on which the JBD plates rest in their housing. I made these by drilling 2.5 mm wide holes into a 1.5 mm plastic sheet., After this, I stuck 2.5 mm plastic rod into the holes and  cut+ground them off at the top of the plate, resulting in 2.5 mm pads of 1.5 mm high.

 

And then glue them in of course. By this time I wish I had not drilled the holes...

 

But the result was quite satisfying!

 

 

[ClumsyDude]

Great result, Hugo, I really like it. Your work on the plates looks brilliant, really professional.

 

Cheers

Jim

[hpetiers]

this morning came the proof of the pudding. After having glued the bottom pate to the rest of the deck, I decided to add the sidewalls of the hydraulic ram housing and put one panel completely together. The whole thing had to prove that it works of course!

 

First glued the base plate:

 

then added the sidewalls, having aligned them to the short side of the rechtangular holes. Also added some reinforcement strips to prevent the bottom plate from warping:

 

and finally added the hinges to the mechanism arms.

 

And indeed now the whole mechanism works!

 

Mechanism in folded position:

 

slowly going up...

 

until completely extended!

 

this concludes my building dash of this week, next update might take a bit longer due to the ordering of new parts.

[andromeda673]

wow too cool!!!!! I also agree with others, 3D printing will take this industry over, once the price comes down, and the technology becomes more available, the sky is the limit!!!!!! Just need a process to cut the parts cleaner with no burrs and or roughness, but that's nothing some wet sanding can't fix. 

 

The sheer amount of detail that can be achieved is incredible!   

[youngb]

Hi Hugo

 

These look awesome....

 

I noticed on shapeways that there is a 6 panel blast deflector.  Is this for  JBD 1, 2 and 3 (#4 JBD is the 4 panel blast deflector?)?

 

I'm looking at getting one set.  These look perfect for my dio that I've always wanted to build..just like NArita's F-14D, but I prefer the F-14A

 

regards

Bruce

[hpetiers]

Hi Bruce,

yes indeed, 6 paneled JBD's are for cat #1, 2, 3. The outermost waist catapult #4 on Nimitz and Kitty Hawk class carriers is of the 4 panelled type.

Btw I have seen pictures of the new carrier USS Gerald R Ford that has all JBD's of the 6 paneled type. So it depends a bit on which carrier you want to build and what part of the deck you find most interresting. I personally think that cat #3 has a very interesting piece of deck because the left runway line runs through it.

Also note that, depending on the carrier and the timeframe, the housing of the JBD can be white or red:

 

 

I can get you a drawing of all the dimensions of the deck features and lines around cat #3 and 4 that I figured out from photo's on the net. Just send me a PM and I will mail them to you.

[Bill Cross]

****ing amazing detail. I can't scratch-build an itch, so I admire your work tremendously.

[hpetiers]

Hi BIll,

 

thanks for the compliment! But even though I am not afraid of scratchbuilding, making something as complex as these parts, with consistent quality, is exactly why I started to try out 3D printing. Basically you create your on model kit where assembling the phisical parts is easy again.

Speaking of creating model kits: Last weekend I spent some time on isolating the limbs of a crew member in 3d CAD so that I have unlimited freedom in postures without hacking away in nice prints. There is not much of deck crew members in all scales to go by anyway...

So here is what I can do now:

made from the same 3D model!

No idea yet what a print in 1:32, 1:48 or 1:72 would cost but I will find out soon. I made this one in 1:144 and if I manage to put 10 men in one print, the cost of each fgure will be around $1,50. So maybe not suitable for putting 100 printed in a diorama, but probably they can act as good masters for resin casting.

The detail is not nearly of the quality of the one from readoak (http://www.largescaleplanes.com/reviews/review.php?rid=1534), I will have to see if my model is more suitable for the smaller scales or not...

[ClumsyDude]

Brilliant stuff Hugo, just ingenious.

 

Jim

[hpetiers]

Hi Mariu5137,

 

thanks for the compliment! But truthfully, once you know the CAD program it is all a matter of stacking squares and cylinders on top of each other.

Here is another example of what I made. Not sure yet if I will use it on my diorama:

[ClumsyDude]

Wow, that's brilliant. I'm genuinely impressed by what you can do in 3D. Did you learn how to do that at work, or did you teach yourself?

 

Cheers

Jim

[hpetiers]

Hi Jim,

 

honestly, I had the luck to learn drawing in CAD professionally as I worked as a mechanical engineer for 8 years. The 3D package that I used for my hobby  I had to learn by myself but there is plenty of on-line tutorials to be found for 123D design (autodesk). On top of that it is for free. I don't do any 3d designing professionally anymore nowadays but I guess the skill hasn't completely gone to waste I guess.

 

By the way if you still need the shooter that I found, pls let me know because by hollowing the figure out a bit it might save quite some cost. For the sake of the cost of a print it would be good to add another 5 figures. Let me know if you would like to have the crew in a specific pose (or send picture in PM) and I will see if I can make it for you.

 

I also saw that you have been working on the same catapult hatch that I just modelled. Coincidence!

I believe the yellow box is also a way to launch the catapult, I read in a online doc. I will try to find the link back and send it to you.

 

Good luck with your diorama!

[ClumsyDude]

Thanks Hugo, that's brilliant. Would love to see the link (and of course I've sent you a PM on the figures). It's great that you picked up a skill at work, that now becomes so useful in the hobby with 3D printing appearing. If only there were some modelling application for 1990s-vintage MS Access databases I'd be able to claim the same thing!

 

Really keen to see how the figures turn out.

 

Jim