Or you can call this my Garada obsession...
I know, I need to finish my clear Doublas, but I'm so sick of sanding that it's almost impossible to find the motivation to sand during the evenings and the night.
So I've decide to spend a bit more time on something else for the moment and go back to 3D modeling. Well it's not like starting from scratch here and doing a new character but it's something I wanted to check first.
After I've finish the small version a few month ago, there was something not really accurate in the head and some proportions. Of course the little one is nice but it was a bit like something was missing. Like if I wasn't able to catch his real soul. That's maybe a bit why also I wanted to get back to this model.
Since I have the 3D file for it I wanted to see how much it might cost to do a full size version. I've first think: ok let's scale it and see, but actually it's not that easy. When I've done the scale up of the little model, well the wall thickness of each pieces was around 4mm, that was too much and since a part of the price of a 3D print is based on volume, you can easily guess that it can turn out more expensive if you don't optimize your model.
For that size you need to have 2mm of thickness so for the moment I'm redoing all the interior of each part to get that.
There's also a few things I wanted to optimize based on my first big replica I've done a few years ago. One of the regrets I had for that one was the fact that it was a fix figure, I had to glue the arms and legs. So for this one I would like to be able to move the arms. I don't really care about the legs actually.
And if I go for it, why not try to have a real launching gimmick, so I will be able to put small balls there and launch them. So I'm also working on that and try to find a way to make it work.
Enough talking, here's a few picts.
On those two first it's a side by side of the previous model, the one I've printed in small and the revised version.
Ok it's a bit like the 7 mistake game: Oops our graphic designer have done some mistake, will you be able to find them??
So basically what I've done here, is make the head a tiny bit bigger, raise the eyes levels, make the nose go down more and change his orientation. I've also make the launching gimmick more in the right size, it's still maybe a bit too wide. I've adjust some height like the knees are more high, the legs also. The feet are a bit closer to the original. So a few details that improve the overall feeling I think.
Oh, and I've also add the detail on his mouth as you can see below.
Here's a pict with all the main parts spread apart to get an idea of how it's put together. The launcher will be connected in the middle so I will be able to pass one part in the front and the other one in the back. Actually I'm really curious to know how the real launcher was put in place on the real Garada. I don't know if the original launcher was also in two parts or if it was in a single part and push inside the vinyl. If anyone have an idea, please don't hesitate to post a reply here.
And here's the final pict with a detail of the connection I'm planning to do on the arms. So it's pretty simple, you will put the arms raised, push them on the connection part and when you turn them down it will be locked. Normally this way you can have some range of movement. I might put a little rubber band around the connection piece to create some friction so that the arm stays in place as I'm afraid that with the weight they will go down all the time and I will end up gluing them :))
Once all this will be finished and looking perfect I will be able to get a real quote to see if going for a full size is an option or not. Price for the Rokuron Q9 full size was kind of heavy but it was almost three years ago. So now 3D print is more popular and it might be more interesting.
Anyway, one thing is sure, the chances to score a real one are so close to zero and the price for the real deal is soooooo high that it's maybe more realistic to dream about this project than the real one.
But you never know, maybe one day for real.
