1/350 scale C-57D from Forbidden Planet

[Frank3k]

"Forbidden Planet" is probably my favorite movie; I remember watching it on TV when I was 5.

I made a model of the C-57D in Rhino3D, based on the construction drawings that appeared in the Starlog Photo Guidebook Special Effects Vol 1 (ca 1981) screen caps and the C-57D chapter in "The Saucer Fleet", mainly for dimensions and stairway details:



I've printed several versions. Here's an older version printed in a Fusion Deposition Modeling (FDM) machine. The printing artifacts would be too much work to fully remove. The blue parts were printed with a much higher resolution printer and will be used in the final builds(s):




The last two C-57s that I've printed have been the definitive ones and they're the ones going to completion. They were both printed at Shapeways.

The first of the two C-57D is made up of three parts - the upper dome, the saucer section and the lower dome. The upper dome and saucer were printed at Shapeways in Transparent Detail.
The lower dome, central post and three legs are the blue parts in the model above. They were printed at Printapart (before they stopped offering the service).
The pictures below are all of the first one, sanded down and painted to bring out any remaining scratches and printing artifacts.  The bright sunlight really brings them out:



There are some scratches and printing artifacts still visible, so they will have to come out:



The legs were just painted in metalizer; they haven't been sanded or processed in any way. The printing artifacts are visible, but they're not too bad:






I still need to finish the saucer, add the dark ring around the edge and work on the stairs and central post.

The second C-57D was printed using Shapeway's frosted detail, which is a higher resolution than the Transparent Detail. This one is proving a lot harder to work with. I printed it as a single unit (upper dome, saucer and lower dome) and reduced the wall thickness to only 1mm, which makes it lighter (and cheaper) but it also tends to flex when I put pressure on it while trying to sand. Not good, since this material is not flexible and therefore it's taking longer to process.

[Doom!]

Now that's cool!  :)

[GTX_Admin]

Outstanding.

[Dr. YoKai]

 I remember you talking about these elsewhere, but I think this is the first time I've seen them-
 its a beautiful design, and you have done it justice.

[Brian da Basher]

Frank, you're a trend-setter! I bet lots of us are using 3D printing to get the kind of models we want in the very near future.

I really like your flying saucer and I actually think the "printing defects" look very passable as the surface of some alien metal.

Great stuff!

Brian da Basher

[Alvis 3.1]

Heh...where the Profile Artist becomes the kit manufacturer. Neat.

Alvis 3.1

[elmayerle]

Gorgeous work!!! I've always loved that movie (I've got both the soundtrack album and the novelization).

[Frank3k]

Thanks for all the comments! I still have a long way to go with both of these... but this has been my "holy grail" model for years . I had the 1/72 scale kit, but it was just too big and it has shape issues, which are obvious if you're a C-57D JMN (like me).

Frank, you're a trend-setter! I bet lots of us are using 3D printing to get the kind of models we want in the very near future.

In a way, I've already done that. If you have a copy of the Leif Ericson re-release, I made the engines for that kit. The original molds for the clear parts were lost, so I measured the engine bits on my original kit, put the engines together in Rhino, had some sample parts printed, then sent the files to Round 2, who made the new engine parts.

Gorgeous work!!! I've always loved that movie (I've got both the soundtrack album and the novelization).

Same here! The novelization is absolutely awful, though.

[Tophe]

You pretend this is 1/350? Wrong! This is 1/333! hehehe...

[elmayerle]

According to Pournelle and Niven, the Lief Erricson was the inspiration for the second-empire cruiser in The Mote in God's Eye.  I'm sorely tempted to try and duplicate that cruiser.

[tsrjoe]

cool modelling, looks like it printed out really neat, hmmmm (looking at the 3d printer sitting in the workshop!) 

cheers, Joe

[Frank3k]

You pretend this is 1/350? Wrong! This is 1/333! hehehe...

I know you're kidding, but... the first C-57D design I made turned out to be a little bigger than the "actual" ship. It's the gray one to the right in this picture:



I just calculated its scale, and it's 1/334!

Joe - what type of 3D printer do you have? The FDM print is not great. The gray one above was made from sintered nylon; it took a ridiculous number of primer layers to seal.

[GTX_Admin]

What print resolution?