Clear Doublas is for real

After playing with some rendering test with the model of Doublas and seeing how a clear version could look, well, I've decided to try to do it for real.
It was hard to find a way of doing it with a great result at the end, and I came across a printable transparent resin. The company who offer that is Materialise, the same company I've already work with on the big Q9 and the Daltanious head, but didn't know they had such a material.

I've decide to give it a try even if it cost quite a lot, the idea of this clear Doublas with paper inserts is too funky.

Just picked the print today and as you can see it's not crystal clear yet as I need to clean it myself, sand it, polish it and varnish it. I was able to reduce the price by doing the post process myself but it's still hard for the wallet.
Anyway, hope the end result will be great.

Here's a few crappy picts done with my cell phone.

 

You can check the size on this last picture, he's 25cm high, so a bit bigger than the other print as I need to be able to polish the inner parts as well, and damn it has to be bigger.

More about it soon.

Garada K7 Final Modeling

After spending some time discovering the pleasure of wet sanding this week, it was time to finalize the modeling of Garada K7. Well, at least the main shape as now I have to do the whole technical part as usual to make it hollow and ready for print.

Here's some images of the final modeling:

 

Hey but seriously, wet sanding changed my life. I was just writing the other day that I should spend more time on the sanding of my models, but with this technic, it's way more fast and accurate. I learn new stuff every day doing those little guys.

Mini Machinders update.

Here's a little update on the Mini Machinders.

The good thing with those projects is that it really involve a lot of different aspects, from 3D modeling to print, sanding and cleaning and finaly painting. I just realize that this combine almost all my passions together. Well, except maybe the sanding which is the boring part.

And you can see on the pict below that I maybe need to spend more time on that part as you can still see the printing layers on some parts of the Q9. This guy is almost finish and it was quite fun as I was doing all the paint brush parts tonight, I really had the impression that I was doing the same thing as on the bug one I did two years ago, same tricky parts but smaller.

One thing is sure, I'm getting older and my eyes are not as accurate as before when I was painting Donjons & Dragons figures.

I also just receive today the 3D print of Doublas M2, and he's looking pretty cool. On that one I've try to put the smallest wall thickness possible for this kind of print, something like 1mm and on this size it's maybe too thin. The model feels far more fragile than the Q9, so it's cheaper as price is calculated regarding the volume but it's a bit risky.

So, here's a pict with those two big guys, well not so big, but cool anyway.

 

And here's another one where you can see a bit the table with a plastic glass in the back to have an idea of size

 

Lots of stuff are happening lately, as each one is at a different stage but things are moving and it's good.

Oh, and I already posted this image on TBDX but it's good to have everything together at the same place, so here's an image of lots of Garadas,  just wanted to play with it a bit and make an image of something you can only dream of, or use as a wallpaper like a good friend :))

Garada K7 Work in progress Part 2

Here's a revised version of the modeling. The head was improved and the sickels are more define right now. There's still the chest piece that I need to redo from scratch for some technical reason.

I've always wanted to have a "virtual" Garada to do tons of render of it with lots of them in the frame. But for the moment, it's just a render test to see how the model look with some colors.
Well, I could have spend more time on the textures and add all the little details like the rivets on each piece but since it's just work in progress I wanted to get a quick result just to have an idea.

 

Looks like the arms could be a bit more wide, on the one on the left they seem too thin. I will need to check this next time. And I should also remove Grendizer from the image of the test scene. Or maybe not :))

Time for a sneak preview

Ok, so today I'm posting some work in progress on the last little vilain I've decide to make.
Doublas M2, Rokuron Q9 and Garada K7 are for me the most amazing vilains and probably most amazing toys produced. When I had the idea to print my Q9 in a small size, the concept of having the two other also was really turning into my head.

The paint on the Q9 is almost finish, I try to alternate some paint sessions with some 3D modeling. So I will probably post something with it soon.
The small Doublas is on his way and I can't wait to see how he will look.
And the modeling of Garada is on the right tracks I think. There's still a lot to do but the basics are there. Still need to finalize a lot of parts, do the line on his body, maybe reduce the one on the pelvis. The sickles are rough for the moment. But overall, I quite like the look for now.

Can't wait to have all this infernal trio printed and painted.

 

Just a little edit after a good night of sleep on this work in progress. After looking at a lot of pict of real Garada, well I'm still far for the face I think. There's something really strange in the original and I would like to capture that. It's somthing with proportions, the size of the neck compare to the face, the face looks a bit more flat. Anyway, still a few evening to work on this guy before he's perfect and ready for print.

Oh and while I'm at it, here's a little something for fun: I wanted to make a box for the small Q9 and here's the first idea based on the boxes of the first Vilains release. I know that Rokuron box is not like that but since I don't have all the other yet and I'm not planning on doing the other from the second release. I was thinking that a version like that could be cool too.

And the small detail, it's not written  Jumbo Machinder in Japanse but Tchibi Machinder (if I remember well as I'm far from able to speak or read Japanese) It's supposed to say small but in a cute way.

Clear Doublas virtual concept

The good thing with 3D is that once you have your model and a few textures, you can decline it and just do what's on you mind. It's a bit the case here as I've push my modeling quite far to get a decent and optimize 3D print of Doublas in small versions. With the influence of a post on TBDX BBS with clear toys, and also with the influence of the Incubot Sofubi, I wanted to try a little render test of a clear Doublas and a version with paper inserts. And also because I'm waiting my 3D print for a long long time and there's huge amount of delays in the orders, I had a bit of time to try it.

The fact that the 3D model is not just the exterior surfaces but there's all the details of the inner surfaces and the connections parts, make this super interesting with a clear render as this create interesting refractions.

Could be fun to produce that little guy one day, well after all the stuff I have to do before, like painting the Q9 for example and doing some new characters also. Good stuff with that kind of versions of Doublas, no paint is required :))

So here's the clear version of it.

 And here's the version with paper inserts.

18cm Q9 ready for paint

Just wanted to give a little update on one of the projects as it seems that I've been super busy with 3D modeling lately on other stuff like the Doublas and kept the other one on the side. I've order a few 3D print and it always take some days before they arrive, so it's time to focus on some sanding, cleaning and painting.

The 18cm version  (7.08 inches) of little Q9 is now ready for paint. I'm quite anxious as I'm going to try the airbrush on that one, but I will probably need to do some tests just to be sure not to ruin everything now.

So here's a few picts of it before this step.

Mini Q9 Not for sale anymore

Just a quick news. I've remove the Q9 from the Shapeways store.
My sample was in a box for two weeks and when I've pick it up this week end, some parts were super yellow.
So I've decide to remove it as  I don't want to have people disappointed with that. If I buy something I want it to be cool and durable, so I can't sell something that doesn't go in that way.

The good news is that I'm working on something that might solve that and even be more interesting. Well, I hope so :))

Quick Update

Super quick update. Here's the model with the hand, only a few hours to go for the final technical part (the part I hate the most) and it's going to be ready for 3D print.

There's maybe a few things that need to be improved on the hands. But the overall feeling is there.

Coming Soon...

Hello all.

Ok, here's a little sneak peak of what's coming next. For the little story, in my "free time" planning I wanted to focus on the painting of the Q9 I've printed a few weeks ago, and then start the modeling of the Jaguar leg. But the last print I've done was so amazing in quality and detail, and since it's a temporary offer as the print technic might not be available for some time, I've decide to rush on something else I wanted to do later after all the other stuff.

Well I guess you will recognize this famous character. The idea is to print it also in two size, 18 and 10 cm so that both the little Q9 will not be alone to play.

As you can see it's missing the hands for the moment, it's one of the tricky parts to model and I hope to have some time this week end to finalize the modeling as I also need to finalize the overall technical parts like connecting joints and all that.

Can't wait to get see this guy printed with the semi- transparent look.
But I already wanted to share this with you.