Tactical Command
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Tracked Robot
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=24529		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  ChinaShopTaurus [ Sat Jan 19, 2013 5:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Tracked Robot
Hi guys,

There's been so many cool things being developed by very talented people over here that it's got me really wanting to design and print something for myself.

I've got nowhere near the experience and technical ability of others on here but I thought I'd share with you where I've got to and hopefully get some critique or feedback on it.

To give you some background, I've knocked this up over a few days in Sketchup, the rough idea was to try and put together something which I could use to represent a colossus robot in my skitarii force. I'd only need 4 so worrying about a design suitable for recasting hasn't been a concern of mine (I wouldn't know what I'd be looking for anyway). I'm planning to print in FUD which supports details down to 0.1mm and min wall thicknesses of 0.3mm, however I know from my one previous printing foray that at those scales things wont be sharp and precise, even knowing that I've still got a lot of detail on here which perhaps I should be looking to remove? I've tried to stay within a theme so I've replicated the half hexagon shape from the track guards all over him in various places which is why there are so many hexagons and octagons all over, do you think this works as a theme?

This is still very WIP
- The autocannons need turning out a bit so that they're not parrallel with the body
- The autocannons also need a bar running underneath the barrels to support the central spindle
- The head is just a place holder until I can think of what to put there
- It still needs a lascannon type armament or possibly a missile launcher in it's stead
- The pelvis seems to jut out a bit far, giving him a bit of an Elvis esque profile

Anyhow here he is, I'd be really interested in your comments

Image
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I've also noticed that the track unit could probably make a good gun sled, so i might look to try and re-use it as the tracks on a rapier or similar.

Image

cheers
Author:  jimmyzimms [ Sat Jan 19, 2013 6:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
Makes me think of a grim-dark version of a Terminator Hunter-Killer
I like where this is going :)
Author:  settra [ Sat Jan 19, 2013 6:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
Looks nice
Author:  madd0ct0r [ Sat Jan 19, 2013 11:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
looks good. very lost in space.
Author:  Legion 4 [ Sun Jan 20, 2013 5:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
Nice looking 'bot !
Author:  Vaaish [ Sun Jan 20, 2013 7:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
cool stuff, could make a nice adMech proxy for Praetorians.
Author:  fredmans [ Sun Jan 20, 2013 10:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
Looks very promising, I can think of several uses for them. I will be following this thread with great interest.

/Fredmans
Author:  lylekelm [ Sun Jan 20, 2013 11:00 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
very promising
Author:  moredakka [ Sun Jan 20, 2013 5:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
Yes i agree with the guys looks good, should make a very useful chassis.
Author:  ChinaShopTaurus [ Sun Sep 29, 2013 3:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
So this went cold for a while, but I picked it up again and I thought I'd show you all the final version. I've actually already had 4 of these printed and they haven't come out too bad. Not all of the detail made it and some of the edges aren't as crisp as they should ideally be, but it's still really cool having the end product in my hands.

I was going to show some pictures of the physical model but unfortunately I applied the primer spray really badly and after applying a wash it make it look horrible, so you'll have to indulge me and use your imagination.

Image

Image

Image
Author:  Lead-Space [ Sun Sep 29, 2013 9:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
That looks cool! Would work as a good conversion base also. How big is it?
Author:  Blip [ Sun Sep 29, 2013 9:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
Looks cool. Would be good to see the print even if a bit damaged. Looks like you were modeling in sketchup (?) How did you find preping the model for printing and what service did you use?
Author:  lylekelm [ Sun Sep 29, 2013 9:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
Like it.
Very nice
Author:  madd0ct0r [ Sun Sep 29, 2013 10:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
Blip wrote:
Looks cool. Would be good to see the print even if a bit damaged. Looks like you were modeling in sketchup (?) How did you find preping the model for printing and what service did you use?


+1
Author:  ChinaShopTaurus [ Sun Sep 29, 2013 7:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Tracked Robot
Blip wrote:
Looks cool. Would be good to see the print even if a bit damaged. Looks like you were modeling in sketchup (?) How did you find preping the model for printing and what service did you use?


Cheers, this is actually the second model I've had printed the first was a much bigger super heavy scale tank here. Both were designed in sketchup and printed at shapeways.

Both times I ended up following some advice by Stingray about how to work with skethup, in particular the pluggins he recommends are essential.

Stingray wrote:
Stuff thats good to know;


Its important to work in sketchup at way above mm scale (i go for 1000x the end size). Sketchup has a bunch of weird bugs the make stuff vanish if you work at scales under 1mm. Scale down only at very end.
Watertightness of models (also known as being closed or manifold) is crucial. I found the following 2 sketchup plugins useful for this;

Solid Inspector: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=30504
CADspan (free version): http://www.cadspan.com/tools
Its probably best to merge all your separate geometry into a single mesh when you export (using 'Outer Shell' or 'Union') but I found this to be incredibly tedious and mostly unnecessary. I saved merging for cases where the preview of the uploaded model looked screwy.

These are the rough steps i follow to get finished model printed;


Check watertightness (probably best to check this regularly during model creation)
Explode all groups and components - more bugs cause the exported models scale to be completely wrong unless its exploded completely before export
Scale down to correct size
Probably want to verify watertightness again
Export in Collada file format (you can also compress it in a zip file for a faster upload)
Upload to shapeways and make sure the 'fix problems'(called something like that) check box is checked. If post upload fixing fails, do some merging/tweaking and try again
Once uploaded go into your 'my designs' area and inspect the uploaded & fixed model with the in browser 3d model viewer. if you see anything screwy then correct/tweak your geometry on your sketchup model, export and upload again
And finally when it all looks good submit for print! (and find something else to keep you busy for several weeks while you wait for it to arrive)

Hope that helps.


In this case I actually had some problems. the first was that when minimising the guns, the bugs which stingray alludes to came into affect and created all kinds of horrible geometry, missing sides and parts of the model to pass through others. It really put me off as I couldn't fix the issue and didn't want to redesign the whole thing so I benched it for a few months. I guess in the intervening time sketchup was updated because I came back to it and it worked first time.

The second was more of an oversight on my part about sticking to the limits of the medium it's being printed in. I'd missed a couple of walls which were less than the 0.3 mm limit for FUD. I got an email from them with a screenshot showing the relevant parts to change and they were really helpful explaining how everything was checked. They did recommend the following as well but I didn't need it in the end.

Quote:
Did you know you can check your model with a free tool called Netfabb,

http://www.netfabb.com/basic.php ?

This program can check your STL/OBJ file, but also fix and rescale the model. You can find more information here.

http://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/how_ ... nd_netfabb



Well I guess I've put it off long enough, here's the disaster which is the primed final model. It's about 9mm high and stuck onto a 1p coin, the idea was to try and make it roughly the same height as the old plastic robots. I'm not sure what was up with the primer, perhaps I didn't shake it enough or it was too hot/cold a day?

Image

thanks for the comments guys
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