Hobby Boss 1/32 B-24D

[D.B. Andrus]

Amazing...just like that, problem solved.  Kudos to you, Alex!

 

Cheers,

D.B.

[Jan_G]

wow! great work on it Alex

[Out2gtcha]

Wow, great stuff Alex!  THAT is why eventually 3D printing will be a standard even for small home users. I believe this will happen like most things, once the technology is smoothed out, and the quality, speed and DPI/step issues are figured out so that the home printer can use the 3D printer as an every day tool. Or maybe even one day AM guys will sell the files to modelers to make our own prints on the regular. 

 

I know all this is possible right now, but I think in the future we will see the technology go up, and the prices come down. 

[The Phantom]

If it looks right it is right, thats my motto. Awesome 3D printing effort

 

[GrahamF]

16 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Wow, great stuff Alex!  THAT is why eventually 3D printing will be a standard even for small home users. I believe this will happen like most things, once the technology is smoothed out, and the quality, speed and DPI/step issues are figured out so that the home printer can use the 3D printer as an every day tool. Or maybe even one day AM guys will sell the files to modelers to make our own prints on the regular. 

 

I know all this is possible right now, but I think in the future we will see the technology go up, and the prices come down. 

The technology already is smoothed out, now is as good as it's going to get, this technology is old, I remember seeing it in 1991 and to be honest the quality has shifted up quite a bit on the machines that are as expensive as a house. But the little machines that you are all seeing now only exist because the patents ran out a few years ago and most people have been ignorant of their existence. The media are constantly wetting their pants with comments like "you will just have to press a button and hey presto out it comes" now where have I heard that before?

Oh yes when CNC was new. You can just imagine it press 'A' for aeroplane and 'w' for windows and retire to bed.

It makes me laugh when I hear some comments because my first question is " How is your 3D CAD?" and the answer is usually 'well I've played around with NutterCAD or whatever in 2D at work.

The thing is also these printers they like models that are solid CAD models and not Surface models and an old hand at this like me finds that a big ask sometimes. 

Also you do have to know about scale thicknesses and what's likely to work and still look like the real thing, because everything is a cheat on the models we build.

 

Graham

 

[Out2gtcha]

I'm certainly not one to think that 3D printing in any capacity is as simple as a one button push and click, and you get a model with no work, effort or anything other than a button press, so I'm not really sure where you got that from.

 

My point was, 3D printing is like any technology, it will come down in price and  up in quality the longer it stays popular. Its already happened from the time I started looking at them. 

 I'm no expert, and am clearly not in the business like you are Graham, but from what I have observed its already started to happen.  I have 3 friends who all have small lower quality 3D printers (compared to larger professional printers) and they all have already gone through at least one iteration of 3D printers to upgrade to machines that could do things that the original printers they bought couldn't.

 

One of them has upgraded twice in the last 3 years with the advent of newer printers (his last being a super high end printer however that I could never ever afford - upwards of 5K IIRC). None of them knew anything about 3D printing technology when they bought their printers.

They went out and did the research to find which printer fit their needs and which printer had been vetted to the point of making sure many different people had already weighed in on how it performed,. Then they went and found the design/CAD program fit their needs (two of them invested in Rino and I bleive the other gent is using Fusion 360 IIRC). Of course the learning curve on the autoCAD was and continues to be the hardest and longest part (especially for the gent who recently picked up Rhinoceros 3D). But even that has substantially improved in ease of use and learning, so again this all seems to be pointing the direction I had hoped it would. 

 

I have sat down with one of them quite regularly so he can start running through the basics with me. Its quite fun! I'm not sure about anything other than my own experiences so far, but so far its exactly as I have said; I think this will be the future of modeling. Two of my friends have already started pumping out parts that I would not really be able to make by hand. That alone right there sold me on the technology.  Small parts yes, but more complex that I could readily make, especially when multiple identical parts are needed. So far, Ive made some small airplane parts, but the only thing large I've made is the Lament Configuration box from Hellraiser. The Lament Configuration came out well, but still has some definite layering/step issues to it, but was at the far end of the capabilities of the smaller machine I was working on for the two halves of the box. 

I never said it would be a one click operation, nor something you could master overnight,  I only stated that I think this will be the future of the hobby, and I think that the small home user 3D printers will continue to come up in quality and down in price, so I think maybe my point didn't come across to that effect. 

 

[GrahamF]

No I wasn't implying you thought it was simple! Just sounding out the general misconceptions I've heard over the years.

 

Graham

 

[nmayhew]

On 10/7/2019 at 2:17 PM, AlexM said:

Spent a bit time on the nose, and printed a new basic forward fuselage section and a mould for vacuforming. The mold required some sanding after printing to get rid of some ugly edges. Of course, no guaranty for accuracy, but I like the overall look compared to the shape of the kit's parts.

 

Cheers

Alex

 

that's super cool the way you can do that

 

now can you sprinkle some cool-ness in the direction of others by making the parts needed for a Coastal Command B-24?

 

[AlexM]

Thanks guys. It's indeed a nice technology that enables such modifikations which otherwise would be impssible, at last for me. While I'm on it, i guess the interior of the front section could benefit a bit from some frame details, since on the kit, those details are rather completly missing. There are 360 degree views of a museeum machine.

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Virtual-Tour/Cockpit360/

 

Taking this as reference, it seems that there are two main frames within this fuselage section. Does anybody has a plan showing the exact possition of those frames? otherwise I would just divide the part into three pieces

 

 

 

Once the 3d-model is ready, maybe I'll upload it to the Sketchup Warehouse, so everybody can download it for printing or further modification.

 

5 hours ago, nmayhew said:

 

that's super cool the way you can do that

 

now can you sprinkle some cool-ness in the direction of others by making the parts needed for a Coastal Command B-24?

 

 

I don't know that much about the B-24. What are the main visible difference to the D kit?

 

Cheers

Alex

 

 

 

 

[adameliclem]

1 hour ago, AlexM said:

Once the 3d-model is ready, maybe I'll upload it to the Sketchup Warehouse, so everybody can download it for printing or further modification.

 

 

You win the day, Sir. Great show.

 

Adam

[Jack]

On 10/8/2019 at 12:15 AM, Jennings Heilig said:

 

Oh for the love of Pete.  I really don’t see anyone holding a gun to your head making you read it Jack.  How many times do we have to go through this?  There are some people who geek out on accuracy.  If you’re not one of them, more power to you man.  But lay off the epic level WHINING about it.  

 

Jennings, PM inbound.

[belcherbits]

23 hours ago, AlexM said:

Thanks guys. It's indeed a nice technology that enables such modifikations which otherwise would be impssible, at last for me. While I'm on it, i guess the interior of the front section could benefit a bit from some frame details, since on the kit, those details are rather completly missing. There are 360 degree views of a museeum machine.

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Virtual-Tour/Cockpit360/

 

Taking this as reference, it seems that there are two main frames within this fuselage section. Does anybody has a plan showing the exact possition of those frames? otherwise I would just divide the part into three pieces

 

 

 

Once the 3d-model is ready, maybe I'll upload it to the Sketchup Warehouse, so everybody can download it for printing or further modification.

 

 

I don't know that much about the B-24. What are the main visible difference to the D kit?

 

Cheers

Alex

 

 

 

 

Alex

I'm very excited about what you have accomplished so quickly. Did you happen to see the engineering drawings posted on the Hyperscale forum? Your parts look good, but by using these drawings, they could be PERFECT  I want to get in on this development as I can see this as the best way to do a separate variant for the Dumbo nose radome. 

I like your idea of uploading the basic 3D drawing to Sketchup and letting others print it or modify it. I'm game, anyways.

As for internal structure, building it into your 3D model is a double-edged sword. You really need to make sure the kit-supplied floor structure fits or else new structure will be required.  Please contact me off-line at info@belcherbits.com for further discussion.

Mike

[AlexM]

Hi Mike, thanks for the hint about the drawings. Great stuff! Email sent

 

Alex

[Dennis7423]

Recommendations on where to purchase one of these beasties? I got scammed on Facebook on the one I previously ordered (got a refund fortunately), but I don't have my B-24D now. Would like to pick one up.

 

- Dennis S.

  Thornton, CO USA

[jimbo]

9 minutes ago, Dennis7423 said:

Recommendations on where to purchase one of these beasties? I got scammed on Facebook on the one I previously ordered (got a refund fortunately), but I don't have my B-24D now. Would like to pick one up.

 

- Dennis S.

  Thornton, CO USA

 

Hi Dennis, I purchased mine from Scalehobbyist.com (they’re out of New Hampshire iirc), a few pennies under $200 delivered to NJ. No connection to them, just a result of a search. HTH;

 

jimbo