2016 Christmas Ornament Auctions

The Fourth Axis 2016 Christmas Auctions will be starting up this evening at 7:30PM CST Oct 30 2016.

Just a few things tonight to prime the pump -- lots of good stuff still to come in the following weeks!

So visit ebay and take a look!
http://www.ebay.com/sch/bgreen42/m.html

2016 Christmas Ornament Auctions

The Fourth Axis 2016 Christmas Auctions will be starting up this evening at 7:30PM CST Oct 30 2016.

Just a few things tonight to prime the pump -- lots of good stuff still to come in the following weeks!

So visit ebay and take a look!
http://www.ebay.com/sch/bgreen42/m.html

Cygnus Update

Here is test #3 of the improved crows nest and base...

Cygnus Update

For those that are waiting for Cygnus upgrade parts, apologies for my absence. What have I been up to?

1) Bathroom renos

2) Checking out alternative resins. I've been making non-destructive tweaks to the Form1 to see if I can modify it to use DLP resins such as Makerjuice G+. Stay tuned, I should be sharing my secret in near future.

3) Pushing ahead with detailing strips, crowsnests and antennae bases for the Cygnus. Also tweaking the antenna for the Palomino.

4) Most importantly, this...

Cygnus Landing Bay v1.0 Test Fit

After a bit of chopping, sanding and a really half-assed paintjob, here we are...

It turned out a couple of mm short and I don't like how thick the side walls are. Will be redesigning the wall parts today.

Cygnus Landing Bay

I've worked out most of the bugs with printing the landing bay detail set. Here is a picture of the latest parts...

Only one fly in the ointment -- due to printing and design tolerances, etc etc, my bay is about 1.5 mm too narrow. I'm going to do a test build with the parts shown anyways to get an idea of how they fit together and paint up. Then I'll do some cutting on the Cygnus and figure out just how much I need to tweak the size.

Cygnus Level 1 Update

This week I updated the body extension section (removed piping standoff) and printed two piping standoffs for the original section. These and the side panel extensions are shown here:

I also printed a pair of lattice pieces for the nose, but they were too thin and flimsy, will redo those today.

Regarding the necessary extension to the piping rails, I WAS just going to say "screw it, make your own", but there's no sprue in this kit that matches. So I'll also include a piece for that. Also working on that today.

1/100 scale Clan Star

1/100 scale 3D printed Clan Star awaiting paint:

Ready to print

I finished the Gargoyle 3D model today - at least enough to do a 1/100th scale print from. Hopefully will start a printout soon, but may have to do some printing for a client first...

In the works...

I've got the design work about 90% done on the Gargoyle / Man o War. Once again, sticking closer to the original 3050 design...

Tentative Plans for 2015

So what do I have planned for 2015 we'll pretend you asked?

I've got 3 more 1:100th scale mechs that I want to print before moving on to other things. I've got STL files that I downloaded for the Deimos and the Atlas (MWO version) that I want to print for myself to help bulk out the 1:100th scale collection. Also want to get around to designing and printing a Gargoyle/Man-o-War.

THEN I want to seriously look at converting all of my 1:100th scale patterns to 1:60th scale to print out for others (1:100th will continue to be my preferred gaming scale but I've starting to collect a small pile of 1:60th scale stuff despite myself... I'm hoping that with the Form1 and cheaper 3rd party resins, that I can come in at similar prices to cast mechs.

To summarize, I currently have 3D models and STL files for the following (based for the most part on artwork found in the original release of TRO3050)

Urbanmech, Flea, Vulcan, Whitworth, Sentinel, Scorpion, Rakshasa, Hatamoto Chi, Ryoken, Fenris (Gargoyle coming soon)

I also have STL files for a few others, but because I just downloaded them and printed them, I won't be offering those. My intent would be to upscale the parts, add a little more detail and re-hollow them to make them more suitable to print at the larger scale. At a guess, I think I can hit $70 with the 45 tonners with assault mechs pushing closer to $200 -- but I'll have to see how much plastic I can hollow out of the larger scale mechs.

Anyone that is interested in pursuing this can contact me via the blog or at
bverde84 atsine hotmail dawt com

Let me know which mechs you would like me to upscale first. Worth noting, I probably won't be starting the 1/60th scale projects til June or so.

Work in Progress

Thought I'd post a few pics of 1/100th scale mechs that I have in progress:

This is my second printout of the 1:100 scale Fenris. The first one seemed a little big and so I gave it another go...

This is the latest printout. A 1:100 scale Ryoken under the curing light. For once the bayonet mount for the waist printed out perfectly. I'm going to try and make the weapons bays for this somewhat modular with pullout missle packs and changeable arms.

This is our version of the Sentinel. One of the student placements at Price did this model for me so if I sell any she gets a cut! Hi Danielle! The main feature of our 1/100th scale version is that he is SMALLER THAN A DAISHI!!!!!I never did like the lead mini for this reason.

All of the mechs shown here were printed with the Formlabs Form1 3D printer using Makerjuice gray resin.

2001: A Space Odyssey - Space Wheel

At long last, we will be auctioning a 3D printed space wheel on EBAY starting sometime around 19:00 EST this evening. Here are some pictures of what's coming, including a comparison with the old resin cast space wheel...

2014 Christmas Auctions

The Fourth Axis 2014 Christmas Auctions will be starting up again this evening 8:00EST Nov 9 2014. The first week will include old standbys with rarer items appearing in following weeks. For those that have been wondering, we will have at least one NSEA Protector ornament this year and there will be at least one Space Wheel up for auction. In addition to Christmas ornaments, we will also be auctioning EVA POD fridge magnets, a KLF Dalek kit and a test print of a Battletech Fenris (approximately 1:90th scale - so whoever bought the FLEA and the VULCAN test shots, this should match pretty well in scale to those).

So visit ebay and get your bids on!
http://www.ebay.ca/sch/bgreen42/m.html

Space Wheel

Finally have a successful printout of the girder half of the space wheel. With a little luck, the space wheel ornament should be available again for auctions this Christmas!

A New Post Just to Stay in Practice...

So the Form1 kinda pooped out after Christmas. Formlabs support, for the record, was wayyyyyyyyy more helpful than 3D Systems has ever been. So while it is away getting exchanged, I'm getting caught up on some mech painting. Base coats and dry brushing started on the Rakshasa and Vulture:

High Definition 2001 EVA POD

Thought I'd post a teaser of some of the prototypes for the 2001: A Space Odyssey EVA POD Christmas Ornament that I'm working on. It'll be the same size as the cast ornament that I've been selling through eBay the last ten years, but with a lot more detail. Yes, that's Dave in there. (He's a decal though, not a painted figure).

Hopefully will have two or three of these to auction before Christmas. Just have to work out some reliability problems with the file and how to paint them reeeeeeaaaal nice.

Revelation of the KLF DALEKS

I just did a quick cleanup on the new parts and set them together. Any fan of Colin Baker will recognize this one from Revelation of the KLF DALEKS!

FORM 1 - Second try

I submitted a pickup print job last night to see if I could get those 6 Dalek parts to work. The web site sez to just clean everything up and try again -- real helpful. But I figure that the auto-orient button is in the software for a reason and I give it a try.

Things worked much better this time.

I'm impressed with how clear the parts are. They get kind of clouded and scuffed during the cleaning process though. I suspect that a little Clearcote or Future would bring it back to a pretty clear finish though.

Gonna have to leave it there though. The timing of the FORM1's arrival has not been optimal and I won't have time to really put it through its paces for a few weeks yet. Should be some new stuff for Christmas auctions though -- including new mechs!

Wooohoooooo! The Form1 is here!

It took about a week to clear customs (I should probably get a proper customs broker soon) but it was finally delivered this afternoon at 3:00!

 

Now I can get back to some serious 3D printin'!!!