I have broken up the Atmospheric Booster into three major groups so people can buy the parts that they want. Instead of buying all of them and setting aside the ones they do not need. The most expensive part of this kit is the Crawler and there isn't much I can do to reduce its cost. (Other than print them out with my own printer). The Rocket Booster is at a good price point of being just under $20. On the down side, this single part will require a large amount of time to modify a VF Fighter into it. If you don't have the patience and or developed the skill set to take on a modification of this type. I would *NOT* order it!
This piece is in Beta for a reason, there are to many variables to this part and it fitting correctly with the PB VF Fighter. Not to mention all of the modification work you would need to do to the VF Fighter it self.
Some time down the road, who knows, maybe the powers at be will allow me to print out a VF designed for the Booster. Then they would be no worries about fitting & massive amounts of Modification.
All of the Control Arm kits are being sold at a reduce cost, ie I am making .50 on them. Since they should be apart of the basic Crawler, you are getting them close to cost. Plus if one ever gets damaged you can order a replacement one. It gives you more options to building the Crawler you want to have.
As I have stated before on the FB page. I do not make a lot of money on these models. I have over 120 hours of work just in designing the model. This does not count getting it ready and set for Shapeways printing. I know in two days I spent another 10 hours spinning my wheels trying to get it to work in shapeways with no results. Needless to say, your average 3D modeler works for $20 a hour. So I have over $2,000 in time put into this model so far. The bulk of the price is all shapeways profits. I will only see $2 in profit from this model. I know the price is to hefty but I need to be able to recoup some of my time. Granted it may take 10 years I would have sold 1,000 of them by then.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
Atmospheric Booster in Beta
It has taken a good week to make the Atmospheric Booster available to print in Strong White Plastic material which is by far the most affordable for a model it's size. Although it is still a hefty price at $76. But to do it in Frosted Detail was ranging from $160-$300 for the kit.
I am offering this only in Beta because it may very well be a nightmare to assemble. It will require a VF Fighter model and heavy modification skills to trim the feet thrusters, cut the knee joints and adjust the hip joints with the VF's main body to get it all to work. This is not for the faint hearted!!!
With all of that being said, I am still not sure how well the VF Fighter model will fit into the Booster. With Shapeways tolerance even a slightest difference of -/+ .01 can be a big problem.
The Crawler and its related parts I am not to concerned with. Some may take some filing again because of shapeways printing tolerances. Example the Control Arm with bucket, if it is printed exact there should be a .03mm gap on both sides with its recessed version when place into the hull.
The small square part is meant to help secure the Booster to the Launching Arm. It should also be a snug fit between the two lower sections of the Rocket Booster. It is detachable so you can display your crawler with out this attachment part. Plus you shouldn't have to glue it in place on the Rocket Booster either. This is meant to help keep the model clean looking in its two separate parts.
I am offering this only in Beta because it may very well be a nightmare to assemble. It will require a VF Fighter model and heavy modification skills to trim the feet thrusters, cut the knee joints and adjust the hip joints with the VF's main body to get it all to work. This is not for the faint hearted!!!
With all of that being said, I am still not sure how well the VF Fighter model will fit into the Booster. With Shapeways tolerance even a slightest difference of -/+ .01 can be a big problem.
The Crawler and its related parts I am not to concerned with. Some may take some filing again because of shapeways printing tolerances. Example the Control Arm with bucket, if it is printed exact there should be a .03mm gap on both sides with its recessed version when place into the hull.
The small square part is meant to help secure the Booster to the Launching Arm. It should also be a snug fit between the two lower sections of the Rocket Booster. It is detachable so you can display your crawler with out this attachment part. Plus you shouldn't have to glue it in place on the Rocket Booster either. This is meant to help keep the model clean looking in its two separate parts.
Monday, April 13, 2015
Shapeways 10% off!!
That's right with the site going down for days they are offering a 10% discount on your next purchase. Just use the code "THANKYOU10" at check out, this is good till only Monday, April 20th.
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Shapeways is still down
Yup, the site is still crashing. Not wasting my time like I did yesterday trying to work with their system.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Booster Up-date
I have spent the better part of 8 hours trying to get the booster just up-loaded to Shapeways.
It seems every time I try to do this, the site crashes on me. And when the model finally gets up loaded , every time I try to see if it passed its checks, it crashes on me.
Shapeways, says they are having issues with their site. So I don't know how much of all of this is, issues with the model. What I do know is, it takes over 10 minutes to up-load the model which starts the shop file for it as well. Then it can take up to an hour or more for it to scan the model.
So you understand where this is going, I then need to fix all the errors one at a time. Up-load, scan etc... So roughly at the very least 1 hours worth of time just to fix one wall thickness error.
Now from what I did see, some of my problem areas shouldn't even be an issue. So I do not understand why they are being flagged as to thin. There is something happening to my booster rockets that I do not understand yet either. Most likely has to do with groupings with the model. But the Rocket bell's are covered when exported in .obj format.
A part of me thinks that after the 15th when Shapeways makes their changes to their product line, most of these issues should be resolved. If I do this is detailed plastic, odds are I will not have any errors. But then it will go from a $80+ print to over $200.
I'll try working on this tomorrow. Maybe shapeways will be stable then.
Oh, it passed for Ultra Frosted Detail, just the crawler and its price point is $310. Are you F'ing serious!
It seems every time I try to do this, the site crashes on me. And when the model finally gets up loaded , every time I try to see if it passed its checks, it crashes on me.
Shapeways, says they are having issues with their site. So I don't know how much of all of this is, issues with the model. What I do know is, it takes over 10 minutes to up-load the model which starts the shop file for it as well. Then it can take up to an hour or more for it to scan the model.
So you understand where this is going, I then need to fix all the errors one at a time. Up-load, scan etc... So roughly at the very least 1 hours worth of time just to fix one wall thickness error.
Now from what I did see, some of my problem areas shouldn't even be an issue. So I do not understand why they are being flagged as to thin. There is something happening to my booster rockets that I do not understand yet either. Most likely has to do with groupings with the model. But the Rocket bell's are covered when exported in .obj format.
A part of me thinks that after the 15th when Shapeways makes their changes to their product line, most of these issues should be resolved. If I do this is detailed plastic, odds are I will not have any errors. But then it will go from a $80+ print to over $200.
I'll try working on this tomorrow. Maybe shapeways will be stable then.
Oh, it passed for Ultra Frosted Detail, just the crawler and its price point is $310. Are you F'ing serious!
Friday, April 3, 2015
Shapeways changes April 15th.
Here is the e-mail I got this evening.
Dear Shapeways Designer,
Here at Shapeways, we are constantly looking for ways to improve our material offerings to be more enabling, better and faster for you. As a Frosted Detail Plasticdesigner, we are writing to let you know about upcoming changes in our materials that will affect products you have made and/or are selling in your Shapeways shop.
What's happening? On April 15th we are:
Introducing Frosted Extreme Detail (FXD), with a higher resolution than Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD)Retiring Frosted Detail (FD); FUD will remain unchangedRenaming the Detail Plastics materials Acrylic Plastics
What does this mean for you?
If you would like to order your designs in FD, please do so by April 14th to ensure your FD order goes through, as the transition will happen on April 15th. As noted on our Material Status page, we have added 4 days to our expected production time for FD in anticipation of high demand.
Designs that you’ve printed in FD will not go away, and can be ordered in either FUD or FXD. We are updating success rate metrics so successful FD prints from the past will count towards FUD and FXD.
If you have a Shapeways Shop, customers will no longer be able to order your designs in FD after the transition. Products previously available only in FD will no longer be for sale unless you enable another material like FUD or FXD (when it becomes available.) If you have multiple products, the Pricing CSV Wizzard makes it easy to update materials and pricing in bulk.
Where you currently see Detail Plastic material names, you and your customers will see the Acrylic Plastic names. White Detail becomes White Acrylic, Black Detail becomes Black Acrylic and Transparent Detail becomes Transparent Acrylic.
Why are we doing this?
Frosted Extreme Detail has a higher resolution than Frosted Ultra Detail, decreasing the layer height from 29 to 16 microns (the shorter the layer, the higher the resolution). While more expensive to produce, thinner layers means unprecedented detail and surface finish, sharper edges, less stepping, and stronger models. It’s perfect for the most demanding miniatures, figurines, and molds and masters for casting.
Frosted Detail is a fragile material that often breaks during 3D printing, requiring reprints that make the process costly and slow. Because it is printed enclosed in support material that is difficult to completely clean, it's also hard to give you the quality you deserve. Unfortunately, after trying hard to improve the process, we've decided to stop production and focus on better alternatives for you.
Finally, we are renaming Detail Plastic to help reinforce that it is stronger but less detailed than our Frosted Detail Plastic.
----
In short Frosted Detail is going away and Ultra Frosted is taking its place at a higher price point. If you want something in Frosted Detail do it now, you are running out of time.
Dear Shapeways Designer,
Here at Shapeways, we are constantly looking for ways to improve our material offerings to be more enabling, better and faster for you. As a Frosted Detail Plasticdesigner, we are writing to let you know about upcoming changes in our materials that will affect products you have made and/or are selling in your Shapeways shop.
What's happening? On April 15th we are:
Introducing Frosted Extreme Detail (FXD), with a higher resolution than Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD)Retiring Frosted Detail (FD); FUD will remain unchangedRenaming the Detail Plastics materials Acrylic Plastics
What does this mean for you?
If you would like to order your designs in FD, please do so by April 14th to ensure your FD order goes through, as the transition will happen on April 15th. As noted on our Material Status page, we have added 4 days to our expected production time for FD in anticipation of high demand.
Designs that you’ve printed in FD will not go away, and can be ordered in either FUD or FXD. We are updating success rate metrics so successful FD prints from the past will count towards FUD and FXD.
If you have a Shapeways Shop, customers will no longer be able to order your designs in FD after the transition. Products previously available only in FD will no longer be for sale unless you enable another material like FUD or FXD (when it becomes available.) If you have multiple products, the Pricing CSV Wizzard makes it easy to update materials and pricing in bulk.
Where you currently see Detail Plastic material names, you and your customers will see the Acrylic Plastic names. White Detail becomes White Acrylic, Black Detail becomes Black Acrylic and Transparent Detail becomes Transparent Acrylic.
Why are we doing this?
Frosted Extreme Detail has a higher resolution than Frosted Ultra Detail, decreasing the layer height from 29 to 16 microns (the shorter the layer, the higher the resolution). While more expensive to produce, thinner layers means unprecedented detail and surface finish, sharper edges, less stepping, and stronger models. It’s perfect for the most demanding miniatures, figurines, and molds and masters for casting.
Frosted Detail is a fragile material that often breaks during 3D printing, requiring reprints that make the process costly and slow. Because it is printed enclosed in support material that is difficult to completely clean, it's also hard to give you the quality you deserve. Unfortunately, after trying hard to improve the process, we've decided to stop production and focus on better alternatives for you.
Finally, we are renaming Detail Plastic to help reinforce that it is stronger but less detailed than our Frosted Detail Plastic.
----
In short Frosted Detail is going away and Ultra Frosted is taking its place at a higher price point. If you want something in Frosted Detail do it now, you are running out of time.
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