TTModelworks 1/32 AD-5 (A-1E) Skyraider

[thaipham101]

And I was right to get the S3U. The dog 💩 S4U wrecks itself again, a whole 2 days after I replaced the screen. This time its Z motor malfunctions and stopped moving mid-print. I'm done for the night. Whatever tbh I'll work with what works

[csavaglio]

Just ordered... The South Vietnamese aircraft lives at the air museum local to me and they typically let you get right up and under the airplanes, so I have lots of easy access to it.  I've also seen it fly a number of times... Who can resist? 

 

I get the printer issues. I upgraded my beginner-ish creality one to an Anycubic M7 Pro a few months ago. I was coin tossing between that and the Saturn 4 ultra. The tilting vat stuff and messy tiered build plate is what made my go with the anycubic.  I couldn't be happier with it. I immediately printed for about a week and a half almost around the clock doing a studio scale x wing and it never had a hiccup. 

 

C

[thaipham101]

24 minutes ago, csavaglio said:

Just ordered... The South Vietnamese aircraft lives at the air museum local to me and they typically let you get right up and under the airplanes, so I have lots of easy access to it.  I've also seen it fly a number of times... Who can resist? 

 

I get the printer issues. I upgraded my beginner-ish creality one to an Anycubic M7 Pro a few months ago. I was coin tossing between that and the Saturn 4 ultra. The tilting vat stuff and messy tiered build plate is what made my go with the anycubic.  I couldn't be happier with it. I immediately printed for about a week and a half almost around the clock doing a studio scale x wing and it never had a hiccup. 

 

C

I've seen pretty good reviews of the M7 series comparing to the S4. Can it run without the heater and resin pump plugged in? I'm thinking about trying one, not sure which version yet. 

[csavaglio]

I'm super happy with mine. I don't run the resin pump, but run one of the little air filters in that spot.  

 

They sell a vat without the heater if you don't want to mess with it, altho I've found it to be pretty painless to clean... There's a clean function, so you just add some alcohol and run that, it runs the heater pump without the heating element to flush it out.  

 

If you don't want any of that, the regular M7 is a good deal... Same screen, build plate, etc except no provision for the heater (no plug, so not upgradable), no resin pump, and I think it has a cheaper Z axis screw type.  From everything I've seen, tho, the print quality is just as good. 

[thaipham101]

Some sad updates. Looks like my S4U motherboard is toasted, so Elegoo is sending me a replacement mobo and z motor, which will put the S4U out of commission for the next 10-20 days if I'm lucky, more if I'm not.

 

Whatever, the S3U seem to be doing just as good, it's a little between the S2 and S4U. I'm also working toward buying at least 2 more printers to offset the absence of the S4U so things are still going at the moment.

[thaipham101]

On 5/13/2025 at 10:07 AM, csavaglio said:

I'm super happy with mine. I don't run the resin pump, but run one of the little air filters in that spot.  

 

They sell a vat without the heater if you don't want to mess with it, altho I've found it to be pretty painless to clean... There's a clean function, so you just add some alcohol and run that, it runs the heater pump without the heating element to flush it out.  

 

If you don't want any of that, the regular M7 is a good deal... Same screen, build plate, etc except no provision for the heater (no plug, so not upgradable), no resin pump, and I think it has a cheaper Z axis screw type.  From everything I've seen, tho, the print quality is just as good. 

yeah right now I'm on the fence between the M7 Max and the GK3 Ultra, still don't know which one yet but there's a GK3 Ultra local to me, brand new, for even cheaper than a new M7 Max so I'll probably nab it and if I can, a M7 Max, to compare the 2

[thaipham101]

Good news for the week

Despite the S4U being such a shitty printer, the rest are pumping prints out like there's no tomorrow with less than 1% fail, mostly concerning the 5" HVAR, some of them warped for some reason while others are just fine. Pictured is half of what I've printed from the previous week.

 

Another good news is that I'm close to closing some deals with a US distributor and got contacted by and am working on a deal with a European distributor, and orders are flowing in so probably I'll invest in some more reliable printers like Uniformation and Phrozen.

 

[csavaglio]

Wow, we were definitely on the same page about printers....the Uniformation ones were on my top 3 list, but dropped out because Anycubic seemed to have better parts support...you can still get screens, vats, etc for their older printers. Uniformation says they'll keep parts going for "older" printers 2-3 years after production stops, but that doesn't seem like a real long time.   The features looked good on the GK3 but it wasn't out yet when I bought, was significantly more expensive ...about 40% more street prices... and the Uniformation printers seem to have a following of people who like to tinker to make their printers work.  I wanted a printer to enhance my hobby, not BE my hobby.

 

The M7 Max has good reviews and has been out long enough for some honest experiences to be out there.

 

That said, if I ran across a GK3 ultra that cheap, I'd have to try it.

[thaipham101]

6 hours ago, csavaglio said:

Wow, we were definitely on the same page about printers....the Uniformation ones were on my top 3 list, but dropped out because Anycubic seemed to have better parts support...you can still get screens, vats, etc for their older printers. Uniformation says they'll keep parts going for "older" printers 2-3 years after production stops, but that doesn't seem like a real long time.   The features looked good on the GK3 but it wasn't out yet when I bought, was significantly more expensive ...about 40% more street prices... and the Uniformation printers seem to have a following of people who like to tinker to make their printers work.  I wanted a printer to enhance my hobby, not BE my hobby.

 

The M7 Max has good reviews and has been out long enough for some honest experiences to be out there.

 

That said, if I ran across a GK3 ultra that cheap, I'd have to try it.

Right now I'm torn between that GK3U and the Phrozen Mega 8K S. I never care about all the extra bullshits like resin pump, heater, autoleveling, etc. or even the fancy doors since I throw them all away anyway and the Mega 8K S seem to be the good fit. The only thing is it's too simple to the point that it doesn't even have wifi but that isn't that big of a deal breaker. That said, it's not easy to find a GK3U that cheap so I'm waiting to see how things go and if I get 9-10 more orders I'd probably get it and leave the Phrozen for later.

 

The GK3U begin with a fiasco called rail gate since they advertised it as having dual linear rails but people get shipped ones without, but they have already fixed it so I think it should be good

[thaipham101]

another printer is added, this time I've decided to move away from Elegoo and toward more consistent brands like Phrozen and Uniformation

 

so now at least I have 4 printers running

 

Edited May 17 by thaipham101

[thaipham101]

Last update for the week, see y'all Monday

I was packing the fuselages into the boxes when my fiance propose an idea that she wanted to have her hands in this so I'm packing everything into a box and tmr I'll bring it and the kit boxes to her house and we'll do it together, our kind of date I guess. The ones wrapped in foam are wings to prevent damage on their delicate details

 

 

Also she proposed printing some cute AD-5s as wedding gifts, so I'm printing a proof of concept sample to show her tmr

 

 

 

Edited May 17 by thaipham101

[CRAZY IVAN5]

Well, it looks like you're making progress despite all the equipment woes! As I don't have the  slightest idea what that all means ,it still sounds frustrating as all hell. Once you get all the hardware issues out of the way, you'll be able go like "gangbusters". I'm patiently waiting for mine [it'll be worth the wait] of that I'm sure. 

[gunpowder]

On 5/13/2025 at 2:28 PM, csavaglio said:

Just ordered... The South Vietnamese aircraft lives at the air museum local to me and they typically let you get right up and under the airplanes, so I have lots of easy access to it.  I've also seen it fly a number of times... Who can resist? 

 

I get the printer issues. I upgraded my beginner-ish creality one to an Anycubic M7 Pro a few months ago. I was coin tossing between that and the Saturn 4 ultra. The tilting vat stuff and messy tiered build plate is what made my go with the anycubic.  I couldn't be happier with it. I immediately printed for about a week and a half almost around the clock doing a studio scale x wing and it never had a hiccup. 

 

C

I have the Saturn 4 ultra and the mars 5 ultra. Both are good. the Mars 5 is better for small things as it has a smaller vat and so needs less resin than the saturn I have heard alot of reports on the new saturn 4 ultra 16k having issues with build plates being warped , so it sounds like their qc isnt the best.

Funnily enough csavaglio , the x wing was the first thing i printed too!

[TimNT]

I received the long awaited A-1E today: my first impression is, for a first attempt and many hardware issues encountered during its production, the kit looks pretty darn good! The French would have said: "Oh là là! Coup d'essai, coup de maître."

Kudos to Thai Pham for a job well done. QA notwithstanding, the other hiccups that I noticed so far are chips on very thin parts. A foam wrap should help.

Hope that things will go smoothly for Thai from this point on, and I look forward to future productions from TT Modelworks.

Whar about an  1/32 F-5 series, Thai?

[quang]

5 hours ago, TimNT said:

I received the long awaited A-1E today: my first impression is, for a first attempt and many hardware issues encountered during its production, the kit looks pretty darn good! The French would have said: "Oh là là! Coup d'essai, coup de maître."

 

Like we used to say in these premises, no pictures = no happening. So we’re all waiting …