Experimentations

Today is the day of experimentation.
One of the biggest 3D software company have a little application that can create 3D models based on pictures. The concept is pretty simple, you just take lots of pictures of an object, or a building, a sculpture or even a human. You shoot from many different angle and the soft compute a volume based on that.
Sound simple but it's impressive, since you have nothing to do, the software manage to get interesting result.

I came up with the idea of trying to use that to create a base reference for the Hasami Jaguar leg and finally had time to test it. Well, the result is impressive but far from usable. There's holes in the 3D mesh and there's some strange shapes. So nothing like a good set of pictures and some dimensions references. I wanted to share the result, since with the texture it's really impressive, but when you look at the mesh it's another story.

I'm pretty sure that there's a better way to take pictures and optimize all that, I might try that in a couple of days to see if I get something more accurate.

So, here's a little turnaround of that thing, enjoy the red carpet :))

I guess that once I will have finish my big project, it will be time to focus on his leg, he's been waiting too long with this spray can as a leg.
Talking about the current project, well, still in sanding process, more or less at the half of it. I really hope to be able to finalize it for around mid June, but I'm a bit too busy day and night with "real" work. It's hard to manage all that.

Jumbo Voltes V restoration finally over

Since it's not always about the bad guys, here's a little post about a project I've start years ago.

I've receive from a very good friend and junk body of a Jumbo Voltes V. He actually bought one trashed to use some parts to complete the one he had. And he was really kind to let me use his to cast a repro head and a chest piece.

Here's a picture before/after

 

I've first use some Daimos fists and grey stickers, but it's just recently that I've been able to finalize it properly. The original one come with some special fists, with black hands and blue sleeves. One of the member of the Robot Japan  board is doing some great work with repro fists and I've ask him to make a special version of the Daimos fists with the blue sleeves. I've receive them yesterday and was completely blow away by the quality of his work, they're just perfect. Another member of that board is doing some great work with stickers, I've send him the files I had to get real metallic stickers for the belt, the legs and the ankles. Those stickers came out really perfectly. I've search for years for making stickers like that but never succeeded.

At the end I think that I've a pretty good looking Voltes V that didn't cost me a fortune like an original. Well I still dream to upgrade to an original one but with that one upgraded like that now, I can wait a few more years before trying to get a real one.

Tiny Doublas

Since the super tiny Garada was so sweet, I've decide to do a little Doublas and it turned out pretty well also. I don't think that I'm going to paint that one, I like the clear look of it and I've order another tiny K7 so that I have both in clear version.

Tiny Garada Painted

As a continuity of the multiple posts about my Garada obsession, here's the tiny version painted. As you can see, for that one I went for paintbrush instead of airbrush, it's too small to start playing with masking tape and all that and since it's in one single piece, it's even worst.
I've use the same technique as I used for my little D&D figures that why he's go that little dirty look, but it suits him pretty well I think.
In really close up the texture is a bit grainy, that might be because of the primer that was a spray can, but even with some sanding after, the grainy texture is still there. But that only visible on close shots.

 

Here's a picts with him next the first mini Garada I've done. Colors are off but the first one was really too flashy. Also with his little box but little inserts. Ready to go.

 

And to get a better idea of size, here's a couple images with the full size version, a few family shots. Now that the tiny guy is finish, the main focus will be to finish the big guy, still a lot of work on that one....

Before and after

When I did the little fake Garada commercial, I've done a little side by side movie  with before and after, so that the people who don't know the original commercial can enjoy the joke a bit more.

I wanted to upload it but it never worked out and I just realize right now that it did work out but didn't know.

I should have maybe spend more time on it to be perfect, anyway here it is:

Split and details

Today we have a little "behind the scene" post.

I've disconnect all the parts of the Garada to bring him home to start the post process job on him. I've take some pictures to show all the separate parts. It's actually exactly like on one of the 3D render you can find in a previous post but now it's for real. What I'm really happy is that, except the little plug at the back of the head, everything is connecting properly and stand firmly.
Since all this is prepared virtually and you don't really have real constraints in 3D, it's always a surprise when you launch your print. On previous smaller prints I had to sand a lot some parts and adjust them to make them fit inside each other, but not here.

 

And this last one is the little "attention to detail" picture, as you can see I've push the detail to have the writings under the feet like on the original. The little holes next to that are for a technical purpose. The 3D print technique used to do it is with a bath of epoxy liquid that cure under UV lasers, so the liquid needs to be able to escape and those holes are there for that.

It's funny because I was showing this picture to a friend today and he pointed the fact that it looks like the little holes under the SW figures, maybe I will leave them like that.

 

 Those writings were a total nightmare to model, and the first modeling version was not really clean, I've try to take some shortcut and was hoping that the printing software will be ok with that but it was far from ok and I had to spend a few nights to optimize all that. Anyway, it's a nice detail to get.

Garada K7 Full size V2.0

Today I've receive the second full size print of my Garada model.

The idea from the beginning was to do two prints. First I wanted to print them at the same time to try to optimize the costs. But then I realize that it might be a bit risky since if there's something wrong with one piece I will have to reprint in double. And of course it did happen but luckily with the two pieces quite cheap, the pin in the back of the head to lock the sickles and the front part of the launcher.
And I'm even more happy that I've done that in two steps, since I was able to revise a bit the model for the arms. When I've put together the first print, the arms looked a bit too straight and the hand also and on the original Garada, the hands seem to be a bit more turned to the inside.

So here it is, the second version, a bit more accurate. Pretty cool to put them side by side on my table, but now the real hard work will begin, sanding, sanding and sanding for days....weeks....
But I have to say that this print looks more smooth than the Rokuron I did in the past, they're probably enhance the resolution of the print since then.

Here's the picts, as you can see the arms on the right one are a bit more bended and the hands more to the inside, it's subtle but makes a lot of difference to the global stance.
But I know it's a huge luxury to be able to do that since normally I only do one single print.

 And on this last picture you can see that the arms are articulated, it was missing on the Rokuron, I had to glue the whole toy, now on this one, I only have to glue the legs to the pelvis and the body too, the arms can rotate and the sickles is removable so that he will fit perfectly in his box. Because yes, I'd like to make him a box too, there's no reason why the little one can have a box and not the big brother.

Super tiny Garada K7

Ok ok I know, it's another post with Garada K7 related stuff.
But hey, once you have a 3D file it's always funny to test and experiment stuff with it.
For the tiny  Q9 I've test a 3D printer and I wanted to test it even more but back then, the company had huge problems with delivery schedule. The tiny Q9 was hollow and I wanted to print something but plain to have the transparent feeling more strong. So I checked and it seems that the schedule problem was long gone and so I've launch a test print with a tiny Garada. The result is pretty impressive, this printer have a really good resolution, way much better than the one I'm using to print the full size version, but more expensive also. For each size and each project there's a more suitable 3D printer and it's good to know a bit more about those to optimize each project.

So here's a little quick and dirty pict of this tiny Garada. Now I'm tempted to cans it a bit and then paint it, but the transparent feeling is great. Maybe I need to order another one :))

As you can see, he's standing on a can and he's pretty small, around 8 cm high. Funny to look at this tiny guy.

And here's a little edit with extra pict of this tiny guy next to his brother, the mini Garada K7, as you can see I've build him a tiny box too.

New box for the mini villains

I was pretty happy with the design of the boxes I've done for the mini villains, based on the original design of the first serie. But little Garada and little Rokuron are from second serie then I had in mind all the time that it could be cool to push the detail to the next level and have a mini replica of the original box of this second serie.
Well, those of you familiar with those bad boys know how hard it is to find a boxed second serie villain. But a good friend and fellow collector who owns those precious boxes helped me and provided me with high resolution pictures of his and after a little stop by photoshop, then the print shop, here they are.

 

They are a bit too big compare to the little guys but it's  because I had to match the depth and little Garada is pretty deep with his launcher and the trigger in the back. I still have to work on the insterts to put them properly and safely in their new boxes.

I'm still not sure of which version I prefer, on the previous one there's only the main character displayed:

 

And on the new one there's of course the whole second serie, so maybe I will have to do the whole set to be give this new box the real meaning of it. Hey but that's a hell of a job :))

Full size Garada K7

Hello everybody.

 Well, this is the first post of 2012 and for this first one it's time for big news.
Enough with 3D render images, time for real stuff here.

I've been busy like hell at my "official" job but I was able to continue working on this and finally launch the 3D print of a full size Garada.
I guess that it's not a mystery for anyone reading this that I'm kind of obsessed with this guy, and even if I'm a proud owner of a replica of the original I needed to make my own replica.
Basically after the print of the small version during this summer, I've work a fine tuning the model to be more accurate to the original, since it's printed in full size, there was a lot of work for redoing all the wall thickness on each part. I wanted it to be more articulated and have the launcher able to work but that's something you already know if you've follow this blog. I know I've probably mess a few stuff compare to an original, like the size of the launcher is probably too big and there's maybe other stuff weird like I'm symmetrical on hands and the original not but the overall look is there I think.

The production of this full size print was really interesting and I've learn some great stuff about how to optimize my prints for this specific printing process. But that's technical stuff and I'm not going to loose your time with this.

What you have to know is that I've work with Materialise, the same company who printed my Rokuron Q9 and the Daltanious head and once again they've done an amazing job. They offer an amazing service and you really see that they know what they're doing. So a big thanks to them.

I've just pick up my print this morning and here's the first image, completely raw before the long post process steps, sanding, drilling the rivets, mechanical parts for the launcher and finally painting. But the good news is that all parts are connecting perfectly and everything seems to be like it was in my head. The arms are raising, the launcher connect perfectly. When I've receive my package this morning at Materialise Headquarters I couldn't resist to open the box and put all the pieces together. I was really impressive to see it printed so big, incredible feeling.

Here's a few pict to see a bit this fantastic character. There's a few alone and then there's a side by side with a real Doublas to get an idea and then finally there's a side by side with the replica I own to check for size and all that.

 

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be busy for weeks to finalize this guy but stay tune for the evolution of this project and for the next stuff to come.
This blog start to look more and more like a huge dedication to Garada and this need to change a bit :))