Federation Commander

[djdood]

The store is live!! 21 selections to start off, with more to come later.
Check it out!!
https://www.shapeways.com/shops/amarillo-design-bureau-inc
_________________

[Rags]

Thank you everyone that made this possible, my first order is in. I look forward seeing how the F5S and the Fed CAR look when printed . As I already have a metal SL2500 D6 and Skyhawk waiting to be painted, I included the D7B and the Skyhawk-L. It should be interesting to paint the Shapeways versions in parallel to the metal miniatures. Unfortunately the budget didn't stretch to include the Seltorian today, but definitely for the next order.
_________________
------------------------
Gary Pollock

[Steve Cole]

As I said, we'll see how the plans go. Who knows what we'll learn in two weeks or six or ten? We know a lot more today than we did yesterday, and have already started changing (internal) plans based on the experience. We found out that the ships took 20+ minutes each to put into the store (including pricing and the materials list) and for 1 July the ships will already be in the store (just not public) until the day then all released in a matter of 2 minutes total.

Who knows? Maybe we'll find out that we really should add a ship every day or three?
_________________
The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[ecs05norway]

And the more materials you make them available in, the longer it takes. Most of the delay is in generating the renders of the model in the various materials.

Have you tried the new HP Grey Strong & Flexible material yet?

[Scharwenka]

[Sneaky Scot]

I have no experience with Shapeways, so I don't really understand the differences between the materials. Is there an idiot's guide (or some side by side examples) of how the materials differ "in the flesh"?

I note that the "White Strong and Flexible" is described as having a "slight grainy feel". What impact does that have on the finish? Would one need to spend a lot of effort smoothing it off? And for a completely khack-handed painter such as I (translation for all the US chaps that means I am really quite bad at painting) would you notice?

Grateful for words of wisdom!
_________________
Nothing is quite as persuasive as a disruptor pistol on slow burn and a rotisserie......

[Weirdo]

It's just my taste, but for me white string flexible's surface texture is completely unacceptable for objects the size of gaming minis. Fine detail such as found on a warp nacelle almost completely go away, and I can't imagine being able to find a phaser blister on a hull covered in bumps almost the same size as those phasers. From what I've heard, the polished materials are even worse, because they take the strong/flexible stuff and sand it down themselves. The end result is smoother, but surface detail is just gone. Whenever I get the chance to order these, it'll be frosted ultra detail or nothing.

On a different note...sometimes miniatures sellers on shapeways will have bulk deals, with multiple miniatures being attached to reach other by a sprue at some unobtrusive spot. I don't know exactly where the savings is on the printing end(presumably in setup, at least), but the end result is that the per-ship price is much cheaper than printing them individually. Is there any chance ADB might go this route, perhaps with smaller ships like frigates or fighters/shuttles?
_________________
Orbital Bombardment is too a natural weather phenomenon!

[Steve Cole]

We aren't far enough into it yet to know about the idea of spruing ships together, but a few thoughts from someone who doesn't know anything.

Unless the ships were done by the same sculptor, they probably aren't built in compatible software.

Someone told me once that there were issues, hoops, and tricks involved in doing this. Not insurmountable, but not nothing, either.

Experience in selling boxes sets of metal minis tells me that no matter what is offered as group somebody else wants a different group.
_________________
The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[Weirdo]

Very true. I was just throwing the idea out there, I have no idea if it'll prove practical for you guys.

As far as groups go, I was assuming identical ships, such as a sprue with three of the same frigate class on it, or a dozen shuttles, not a mix of different ships.

Though if there's any source material that points out common pairings(i remember something about the Kzinti liking to deploy a BC/FF pair whenever possible), that might also be a place to look.

Pairs, groups, singletons...I just can't wait to see more ships up there!
_________________
Orbital Bombardment is too a natural weather phenomenon!

[ecs05norway]

Most of the advantage of the group sale went out with the repricing of FUD, anyways.

As far as materials go, I've purchased things in both WSF and FUD and painted, so can give a good rundown.

The "X Strong & Flexible" materials have, as said, a grainy finish. We're not talking sandpaper here, just slightly rough. Enough that it's a great surface for drybrushing, if that's your kick.

You can also get them polished but this takes place in a ball-bearing tumbler and can damage small protrusions such as antennae or missiles. I don't see anything on any of the models so far placed in the ADB store that would be hurt by it, but it -does- take off a slight amount of material (about 0.1mm) so there may be some degradation of small surface details. Things like the Fed CA's shield grid and phaser bumps surviving would depend on the size of the phaser bumps and depth of the engraving. (If someone with access to the models could check? Engraving depth&width of about 0.3mm or better is good, phaser bumps I'm not sure of... guess we'll have to do a test print and see!)

The biggest issue with WSF is that small surface details tend to get lost in the muddle. The likeliest example I can think of from the models we see are the Frax, which might lose some of their surface details... some of the panels on the bottom of the secondary hull of the Fed CA... and maybe the shield emitters or whatever the 'bar' is at the 'hinge' of the wing on the Klink D7.


FUD is "Frosted Ultra-Detail", and provides a very smooth, crisp result, with no grain or the like. It can resolve details down to tiny fractions - about 1/10mm difference in panel elevations, for example, is detectable. This is the preference of most miniatures buyers who seek high quality.

BHDA is "Black High-Definition Acrylate", which -used- to be somewhat cheaper than FUD and produce similar results until FUD prices dropped dramatically recently.

Steve posted pictures of test prints of the Romulan Seahawk in several materials as I recall, could we get a link to those?

[Scharwenka]

I received my examples today.

First is the 3125 Demonhawk in the new HP Grey and strong. It runs just a little more than the WSF but is smoother, (despite that it looks grainy) but you do loose some detail as with any of the WSF.



On the flip side is the FUD as by this 3788 Seltorian DN example.

_________________

[koogie]

Yup, FUD for me and nothing else. Worth the extra cost. WSF is a pain, especially if you have to re-strip and repaint.

I would be curious to see the HP model primered to see finish.

[Scoutdad]

I concur with most of the posts above.
After some experimentation - I'll NEVER use anything less than FUD, and will go upwards whenever possible...
_________________
Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF

[ecs05norway]

There are some things that I think come out -acceptable- in WSF. But if I had my druthers and could afford it, I'd order nothing but FUD+ too.

The places where *SF tends to fall down is small raised details. Can we get a few good closeups of that demonhawk once it's painted? Especially the detailing on the warp nacelles?

[Sneaky Scot]

Thanks everyone - looks like FUD is where to go, so now I just need to convince C-in-C Home Command that I should order a couple "just to try therm out (honest)"!
_________________
Nothing is quite as persuasive as a disruptor pistol on slow burn and a rotisserie......