Improper Salute? Put that WAAF on a Charge!

Hello Moonbasers,

do you like Gashapon figures?

Those carefully detailed Japanese figures come inside plastic balls and can build up to quite impressive sizes. They need to fit inside a 50mm ball and I've been toying with the idea of turning some of my puppet film work into collectable figures.

On a Monday night, I go to a local group "Sketch Club" held by a retired Art School tutor. I often draw pictures of toys, but I also work on clay sculptures.

I decided to make a figurine of the central character in my film, as a combination of

"sweater girl" and Spitfire pilot! I've already made a 1/2 scale head with flying gear, so I shrunk it down to 1/5 scale and sculpted a clay body to go with it.

Then life got in the way and the clay figure stood on my 3D scanning stage for weeks. The other day, I decided to look at the scans and discovered I hadn't done any final scans at all!

So with a quick session, I managed to get my figure into the computer and printed out on my 3D printer. The 50mm gashapon size,

is a perfect fit for the Trumpeter 1/25 scale Spitfire kit I'll be using for my VFX.

Last night I was watching the movie Shamrock Spitfire for reference and inspiration. I noticed the RAF salute with the thumb facing downwards, whereas my sculpt is American style.

Luckily I can modify the clay arm, rescan it and print out a King's regulations version!

I'm just having too much fun! For the first time in my life, I'm enjoying the journey as much as the destination.

Happy toy hunting Moonbasers! 

Looey

Oz

Looey's 3D Printed Georgian Mansion

Bob's Lunar Rover Wheel

Woodsy,

As I convert my studio (winding down my toy business) from making my science fiction 1:6 scale action figures, to displaying my huge space toy collection, which now mostly resides in totes, I will take photos and send your way.

Besides the Spacex/Golden Astronaut scale space toys, I have a large collection of space rovers from world wide.

 I have numerous lunar/Mars habitat/base toys. Japanese Sci-fi space tank kits, robots, and custom made (Buck Rogers to 1950s to contemporary) space vehicles I made myself.

 Attached is a picture of a lunar rover wheel I just 3d printed this past week for a new design lunar rover I'm building for my grandson. I even made a special logo for it. See attached pictures.

I officially retired from Aerospace Electronics industry in 2015. Now space toys are my passion 😉

Re. Bob Burns, he's not well. He is in a care facility now. I am not sure who is administering the breakup up of his television/film science fiction prop collection. I've seen a few pieces go up for auction. It's too bad a museum couldn't have snatched up the collection in whole.

Anyway, 

thanks, and take care.

Bob Aucutt

USA

*

More of Bob and Bob Burns to come readers.

You know the Drill ....

Back from my earliest days as a kid making models, I loved the way Thunderbirds would use pieces of plastic kits to embellish their models.

Amongst other things, I'm working on a Giant X-ray robot and I want concealed boring drills in it's toecaps!

I couldn't find an off the shelf shape, so I decided I'd have to make it myself.

My 3D modelling skills fall far short of organic or mechanical subjects, so I couldn't just slap one together with a mouse!

So I decided to sculpt some examples using Kleenclay and talcum powder to polish it. After getting a nice smooth general shape, I carefully rolled a Satay stick into the surface to create the spiral grooves.

Then it was just a matter of 3D scanning it and a little smoothing and polishing in zBrush!

Now I can stretch or size it to my satisfaction.

...a pretty high tech way of making things with my own hands!

Looey

Oz Base

Looey's Hammer

I've been working on a HUMONGOUS 3D print for a friend. It's sort of a War Hammer thing!

Cheers

Looey

Oz Base

M.CHRISTIAN'S 3D THINGIVERSE 2

Thanks so much, Woodsy and HUGE thanks to all the great folks who enjoyed my Cosmos Corps Build-A-Rocket Kit pics - 

so here’s a bunch more, including how everything fits together, and even a couple of fun ephemera like a movie poster and magazine cover (all hail Hero Forge!)

Got a 3D printer? 

 Join in the fun by downloading my parts files over at Thingiverse!

M. Christian

CHRIS'S 3D ROCKET BASE

Fellow toy enthusiast here, and a huge, huge, HUGE fan of your site - and REALLY wish had as many cool boot sales in my neck of the woods!

Anyway, thought you might like to see my current hobby project: an old-school, retro sci-fi 3D printable build-your-own rocket toy - with plenty of accessories and ephemera as well!

http://www.mchristian.com/cosmos-corps

Keep up the great work and have FUN!

Chris

www.mchristian.com

amazon.com/author/mchristian

TERRANOVA47'S 3D PRINTED BATTLESHIPS

Last week when you posted Wotan's LEM you asked :

You could get anything 3D printed I imagine these days!

Have you got anything readers?

Well, yes.

Long ago I sold off my Tri-ang Minic Ships Waterline Models, as they were not of any great interest to me but then on eBay I saw a 1/1200 HMS Rodney, 3D printed.

To me that class of battleship defined the look and power of a battleship and in the listing it mentioned the company that designed the software for printing it, Ghukek's Miniatures.

I contacted the designer, paid $10 per design, sent them scale drawings of Royal Eagle and Crested Eagle.

I then arranged with the company that printed the models to provide them 1/1200 and 1/600 scales after getting the software from the designer.

Here they are. On the larger scale ones I replaced the masts with plastic to be thinner.

One shot has a Tribal Class Destroyer and a Flower Class Corvette as escorts.

Terranova47

USA

ORANGE AND WHITE: LEMS THE RIGHT COLOURS!

Remember the beautiful Tri-ang SpaceX LEM we've featured in the past? 

A wonderful old plastic toy in detachable white and orange parts. Along with its companion Apollo capsule Its one of the larger SpaceX toys. My friend Paul Vreede covers it beautifully on his Triang SpaceX website

https://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAtoys/Apl8/SpLTApl8.html

BILL BULLOCH

Well look at Etsy's 3DStuffUK's Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 crew dragon capsule, a 3D printed model rocket. They could be from the same SpaceX! This model is 22cm tall assembled and it looks great!

3DstuffUK also make a Dyna-Soar! For the Project SWORD fan on a tight budget!

You could get anything 3D printed I imagine these days!

Have you got anything readers?

Looey's Fabulous Fugurines

Things Are getting creative down under in Oz Base. Here's a couple of Looey's amazing creations ....

For SOFUBI Dollars More Part 1

Hello Moonbasers! 

Recently, Scott Kellogg deftly defined the meaning of SOFUBI, which Woodsy thought might be an acronym!

If it was, it would be Suffering Overconfident Failures Utterly Beyond Imagination!

Like fellow Moonbaser Richard Dixon, I have a self created comic story I want to build as models and bring into the real world! I wanted to make Japanese style Soft (B)Vinyl figures and my main character seemed to be a perfect subject...

Meet Peregrine Besset, a time-travelling Ancient Egyptian Astronaut! Inspired by an actual alabaster statue of a dwarf Steerswoman found in Tutankhamun's tomb. I wrote a series of self published comics about her adventures in the late 1990's and she is still forever in my thoughts!

...and yes, she actually IS a real trademark, for online comics, and animated films.

So I wanted to make Garage style vinyl toys. How difficult could that be? It turned out there wasn't a lot of hard information out there to guide me. The Japanese tend to keep their secrets closely and even the name "Sofubi" is the equivalent of French Champagne, no bloke making sparkling wine in Pontefract can use that name! The basic porcess is to have a hollow metal mould that you fill with liquid PVC and cook in an oil bath until a thin skin forms against the inside of the mould. Then you empty out the unset PVC, cook it again to set the skin completely and pop it out of the mould with a theatrical flourish.

You can see clips of a Japanese Master who has spent his entire life making these these toys here...

Japanese soft vinyl (sofubi) toy factory

Eventually I worked out all the talk about "Iron" moulds was a smokescreen. The moulds may have looked like rusty old iron, but in fact they were ELECTROFORMED COPPER!!! I knew this was possible to do in your garage, so I spent several hundred dollars buying a home electroplating outfit!

Now it was time to turn my character into a toy. It took a very long time to get just the right level of stylisation on what is essentially an imaginary person! I did try sculpting a fully realistic face several times but ultimately I was happier with a Thunderbirds style than a Captain Scarlet type character!

Hold that thought about me being happy, I was about to enter a world of pain beyond anything I had attempted before! ...

To be continued

CHRISTMAS POD

Hey there! Just an update on the Space Pod for my next project...

It's tough work using CGI, but I think it's mostly done now so I can look at printing it out and finishing it in the real world...

Cheers, 

Looey

Oz Base

Sherlock Holmes Book Nook Diorama

Book nooks are small dioramas, which will fit on a book shelf. They are very narrow, but fairly deep. Apart from making your own, there are now kits available. Wood seems to be the main material.

In this series of You Tube videos Brad hair looks at a kit called Library Prague. He turns it in to a crime scene for Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson to investigate. The figures used are 3D printed.

I had not seen these kits before, but had a look around the shops recently, and found some. Not the same as the one featured in this video, but similar. They include lighting.

Fairly expensive, but they look like fun.

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag86Fhcmev8

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JKYuPNoMvE

Part 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQJru61ZdIM

Part 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgEvu-U1LiU

Part 5 - all finished. A highlight of this episode is a guest appearance by his cat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLpd3E1AstY

Paul Adams from New Zealand

BODY DOUBLE

Its amazing what's on the 3d printing site Shapeways.

Here's a gorgeous little Lifting Body Space Glider a la Project SWORD and Triang SpaceX.

I wonder what else is on there!

THE HORNET AND THE SCOUT

Whenever I see a yellow plastic plane I'm reminded of my Scout 2.

Here's such a plastic plane on the 3D printing platform  Thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4783409

The R/C Delta Hornet Owl by OwlPlane.

I've stitched together two of the pictures to make it easy to see; what a sleek neat craft!

By comparison here's my beloved Project SWORD Scout 2, which I adored as a kid.

Any similarity ends there though if any at all! 

The Scout 2, being one of the three smallest SWORD toys, could fit on your palm, whereas the 

Hornet Owl is huge! Have a look at the assembly video on the maker's page. How cool is that!

There's a design video and test flight video too, both on the Thingiverse link at the top.

Have you anything like this?

LOOEY'S DARK SUN REAPER DOODS!

Hi Woodsie, as always a mad rush, but me and my my latest 3D printed Art Toys made it to Melbourne for the opening of a new toy store.

These are my Dark Sun Reaper Doods* (it's Dutch for dead!) A love letter to all those 60's skeletons in space helmets! I took a lot of effort to get that transparent pill bottle yellow colour to match the old Major Matt Mason space visors.

And they glow in the dark!

How many references can you spot, Moonbasers?

Cheers, 

Looey

OZ

Tampo Printing

This is a technique for printing on to either flat or irregular surfaces.

Using stencils, ink is applied to rubber or silicone pads, which are then used to print on to an object, such as a die-cast model.

It can follow curves, and other complex shapes. In the case of die-casts, it is used mainly on the metal parts, but is also suitable for use on plastic, and other materials.

Early diecasts either had markings, such as lettering, cast-in to the surface of the model; or used paper labels, stickers, decals, or even masked and painted markings.

A few had tinplate parts, which could be printed on to while the tinplate was flat, that were then bent or folded to shape, and applied to the model.

I am not sure when tampo or pad printing was first used on die-casts, but some time around the 1970s or 1980s. Initially, only one or two colours were used, and the markings were fairly basic.

Today, several colours can be used, and the markings can be very complex. Sometimes colours are printed on top of each other.

Even the cheapest Matchbox or Hot Wheels models now use tampo printing for chrome trim (using metallic inks), number plates, headlights, indicator lights, and other markings.

This page on tampo printing includes a very brief video showing the printing process.

What is Tampo – Also Known As Pad - Printing? (oberk.com)

Paul Adam NZ

LOOEY'S 3D MAGIC: LIFTING THE LID ON MIKE HAZARD'S HAT

As you've seen, with my new kit, I made my own Mike Hazard hat!

I'm using my childhood toy memories to inspire my art toys and I'd already sculpted a spy hat for my own planned Bess Hazmaat Civil Servant figure. I'd managed to make a metal mould of the hat and cast it in soft vinyl, but the complexities of the actual figure had stumped me.

So I decided to 3D scan this hat, shrink it down and 3D print it out for Mike H!

It took a couple of attempts and two different sizes, but I finally got something I'm happy with. This new technology now allows me to recreate and restore old toys to an acceptable level.

Next up (sometime in the future) will be the scanning of the missing landing leg of my Dinky UFO Interceptor, so i can finally have the toy I never had as a kid, in proper WHITE livery!

Cheers,

Lewis

OZ