3D printing figures.

Well i thought i would have a go at printing the figures needed for the Lancaster.
But first they need to be designed in a 3D program.
I use Blender, which is a complicated program to master but it dose produce top quality figures suitable for pc games and film work.
of course mine will never be that good and to be honest that good a quality is not really needed for my models.

so to start off you have to take a cube (which is a supplied mesh) and subdivide it by 3.
this gives you the basic shape that the figure will grow from.



the next job is to cut the cube in half and activate the mirror modifier, this means that every modification on one side is copied automatically on the other. makes doing faces easier.

so now you can click on the vertices and pull them about to get the basic shape of your head. you can also extrude some of the flats to make the neck and then shape it by pushing in some of the vertices to get the required shape.



Now you can start refining the basic head a bit more by adding the eye and lip shapes using extrude and scale on some of the flats.



you then do the same for the mouth and lips.



the next job will be to give the lips more shape and then work on the eyes, nose and face.

Tony B

Nice work Tony. Love characters you are creating for the Lancaster. Just a thought but as your bomber crew are in high altitude gear all you really need is a basic head shape with goggles and oxygen mask. . Fascinated to see how you create a full figure though

I will be doing two versions of the face.
one with goggles and oxygen mask.
the other with separate goggles and mask.

that way i can have different pilots for different aircraft.
doing the 1/4 scale version for the fury will be fun.

Tony (square eyes) B

good plan. Look forward to watching them develop

i shall also be trying to print a smaller version as well, just to see how small i can go and still keep some detail.

Tony B

So i tackled the nose and gave it some shape.

Then i played with the lips by moving vertices about until i got some thing i liked.
I extruded the speaker covers over the ears.

And finally i started extruding the body from the underside of the neck.


I am having issues with the eyes as i can't remember what i did the other day. humpf

More to follow on another day.

Tony B

That's looking very good Tony

spent another couple of hours playing today.
I remembered how to do the eyes, so i have added them.



then i managed to add the flying helmet.



and finally some eye brows.



each time you add some thing you have to tidy up the model to balance the shape.
this all takes time, well it does for me anyway.

Tony B

I thought there were printers that could print from pictures Mick Rweeves showed me a model of him that had been printed from photos, and it was spot on, absolutely look like him
I would not have the patients to do what your doing Tony, the computer would have been thrown out the window

There are programs that will enable you to do that but they cost lots.
you can also buy 3D scanners that will do the same, but again they cost lots.

so i am doing it the hard way.

Tony B

'Doing it the hard way' is probably more satisfying for you when it finally comes right and more entertaining for those of us who do not have the patience or computer savvy to do it ourselves .You are doing a great job there Tony.

Very interesting tony, if a tad time consuming, great thread.

So todays job was to start the legs.

To do this you select "faces" and create the hip shape by using extrude and scale.



then while still in "face" mode, you can extrude the tops of the legs down and pull them out at the bottom.




Then the legs are just extruded down from this.
you stop where you will need to put the knees and just carry on extruding "oooh matron" and scaling until you get the required shape.



boots were made by extruding the front of the leg bottom outwards and then adding base, sides and heels.

the legs are too long at the moment, but that is an easy thing to alter once i am ready.

arms and hands tomorrow... i hope.

Tony B

Disregarding the fact I don't have a printer, I wouldn't know where to start! :evil:
One of the guys in the Halton club is busy printing a bigger printer!

Now that I'd like to see .Brilliant idea if it works He could keep on doing it until he could print full size models . :silly: :woohoo: [badass]