Airfix 1/24 Bf-109E

[Volksjager]

Another week of designing and testing with not a huge amount to show for it yet but I have turned a corner with the printing at least. Its hard to see using the clear resins but bear with me, I will get a primer on them at some point!

 

So after being disappointed with the first painted result, I printed some calibration matrixes to dial in my exposure for a layer height of 0.02mm. With the settings dialed in I went ahead and made some tweaks to the design and printed it again (V4). I was a bit happier with the result. I definitely could see and feel a difference to the painted side above, but me being me couldn't leave it alone.

 

Below is the painted panel (which was a quick and nasty paint up mind you). Detail just seems soft

 

 

In comparison is the V4 print below, at 0.02mm Layer height. The back side has been sanded to test in the cockpit. Definitely better than the above but not massively.

 

 

To justify printing again, I tweaked up a couple of little parts and set off again. This time rather than using Siraya tech Fast (Smokey Black) I used Siraya Tech Blu (Emerald Blu) which I also received with the printer, but this time I also heated the bottle in a bowl of hot water first. I kept the layer height at 0.02mm but changed the angle to be lower, about 12 degrees up from the horizontal, in 2 axis this time not just the one.

 

Out came V5 after just over 3 hours. Again the back has been sanded to test in the cockpit.

 

 

Definitely a noticeable improvement in the clarity of details! Parts had been formed much crisper and the surface is a hell of a lot smoother! Is it the resin? Is it the settings? Maybe a bit of both?

 

Sunday saw V6 get printed for testing purposes. Again at 0.02mm layer height and with warmed resin though I changed the angle to about 23 degrees in 2 axis, which is the Arctan of my layer height/pixel width. This print was not as good in my opinion as the V5 but heaps better than both V3 & V4

 

V6 printed with no post print processing as yet. Definitely more layer lines but more subtle and with great detail.

 

 

So how to compare without primer, hold it up to the light! So here is V4 (Fast resin @ 0.02mm) directly compared to V5 (Blu resin @ 0.02mm). Night and day differences in clarity of details. Even the layer lines are better and it's noticeably smoother. Shapes have been formed properly, even the holes I have set in for parts/wires

 

 

Here is V5 vs V6. Notice the layer lines and a little softening of detail, but still much better than V3 or V4 

 

 

So I am much happier after all this testing and where I am now with the printer. Many parts to come but happier knowing I can achieve what I set out to do. Still, I would love to invest in an 8k printer when I see all these great results from others but its still early days at this point.

 

Between prints, I got 90% of the design work completed on the port side of the cockpit, just finishing up the canopy rail and will post how it's looking. As we have friends around this week I have had to pack away the hobby table and painting setup for the short term, so physical progress will be slow. I plan to finish designing the port side & the seat/flap wheel frame this week. Might even give designing the chains a go as well!

 

Hopefully more good news to follow

 

[Volksjager]

Just to finish off the day, here is the Port side cockpit wall ready for a test print. 

 

 

Onto the seat frame next so I can place the flap wheels 

[Jim Barry]

Wunderbar