Question for the 3D Printers... How Easy to Take a 1/48 Part, and Scale It Up?

[Dennis7423]

All-

 

I wanted to pick the brain of our 3D printing gurus and pose a question. Is it possible to "scan" a 1/48 part, and scale it up to 1/32 and print it? When I was in CSI, we had a very large 3D scanner that we used for crime scenes that was accurate to within a fraction of a millimeter with its measurements. Have they created something similar in a smaller scale for us modelers to use, or am I flying to close to the sun here?

 

Any insight would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

- Dennis S.

   Mount Juliet, TN USA

[Landrotten Highlander]

I know of hand-held 3D scanners used in a variety of industries, so they are available but will not be cheap.

re printing in 1/32: there will be some issues with accuracy of fit, since any deviation of true measurement will be increased by 50%.  From what I gather you will need to alter the scans (and improve the details) before printing.

[LSP_Kevin]

You can actually do this with a simple phone app these days, but the results need a lot of cleaning up and post-processing before they're really usable.

 

Here's an example video from the Uncle Jessy YouTube channel:

 

 

Kev

[Bob MDC]

3D scanning is getting better and better I've had a few things done, the beauty is that once you have the object in a 3D file it can be altered, re-sculpted and manipulated to get the part you desire.  Eddie the guy I have been working with in 3D for well over 10 years is now offering a scan and print service.

https://zealotminiatures.com/3d-scan/

He is one of the best in the industry and knows it from the users angle.

 

Bob 

[Lee in Texas]

Are there any copyright issues with this? I would like to have accurate prop blades and spinners for rebuilding 1/18 planes. 

[LSP_Kevin]

5 minutes ago, Lee in Texas said:

Are there any copyright issues with this? I would like to have accurate prop blades and spinners for rebuilding 1/18 planes. 

 

Generally speaking, if you're doing it for your own personal use, and not selling anything, you'll usually be OK - perhaps not in the strictest sense of the law, but nobody will come after you for that.

 

Kev

[Dandiego]

Dennis when you scan a part it is just a cloud of dots in your computer. While manipulating it you can assign any dimensions that you want.

 

Dan

[Ebf2K]

I have not used a scanner but have some experience to share with designing parts in various scales.

If you're going from a 1/48 to 1/32 you should be fine, but there are a few things to consider.  The 1/48 scale part may have had to take some design liberties with some details such as rivets, bolts, panel lines, and thickness of some parts compared to the actual 1/48 scale dimensions of those parts due to the physical process limitations of making the final product.   For example, if you are scanning a 1/48 bomb, the fins might be too thick compared to the real dimensions because they would be too thin to manufacture otherwise, and when you scale it up, that gets even worse.  Once you scan up that 1/48 bomb to 1/32 you should be able to edit the model and bring that fin thickness down to a smaller size that you can still print out and make it an overall more accurate model.

[Dennis7423]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! Ultimately, I have two pieces in mind that I had hoped to have scaled from 1/48 (readily available) up to 1/32 (neither are available). One was the underside nose plate from the 1/48 Meng Me-410 with the big cannon so that I could convert the HpH kit, and the other was the belly bomb carrier from the 1/48 ICM He-111H-20 kit to 1/32, so I could convert the Revell Germany He-111H-6 to one of the Poltava attack birds. Two ambitious projects, I know, but with these pieces, relatively simple from there!

 

- Dennis S.

   Mount Juliet, TN USA