Author Topic: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul  (Read 17660 times)

Offline Weaver

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #25 on: June 20, 2016, 08:15:33 PM »
That looks great Frank - well done!
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Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #26 on: June 21, 2016, 07:58:25 PM »
Frank that is just awesome...
The quality from Shapeways is superb, as I expected.
Nice job on the "demo" model a well.

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #27 on: June 21, 2016, 09:08:39 PM »
Dang, you're awesome. Looks beautiful.

Offline Frank3k

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #28 on: June 22, 2016, 11:25:52 PM »
Thanks guys! Masking took a very long, annoying time but it did come out better than I had expected.

The Shapeways DLP resin feels (and responds) a lot more like styrene than the output from their Frosted Detail acrylics - it certainly feels less brittle. The high definition acrylate is also cheaper, so for a slight reduction in resolution you get a cheaper part that's easier to work with and requires almost no surface prep.

Offline Camthalion

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #29 on: June 24, 2016, 05:39:20 AM »
Nice one

Offline taiidantomcat

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #30 on: June 25, 2016, 12:41:06 AM »
Incredible, unique, and as a big fan of Retro Sci If I am enamored  :-* :-*
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Offline Frank3k

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #31 on: June 28, 2016, 01:50:10 PM »
I got the second print of the "Asteroid of Death" ship. It's slightly larger than the first one, and closer to the cover artwork. Black plastic is hard to photograph at night...:



The printing artifacts are exaggerated and most will disappear with light sanding a coat of primer or both.

The new engine end. Each rocket tube is 1.8mm in diameter. The holes are 0.5mm in diameter:



I made up a basic interior that I can spruce up later. The little pips are printer artifacts, but I think they add interesting surface details, so I'll leave them:



This is the front end, with the control panel shown in the illustration below. The printing is superb.




Here's the hole, in detail. It doesn't quite match the cover, but the cover doesn't match the interior illustration, so I combined the two:



there are three other parts I didn't photograph - the upper floor, an undamaged lower hull (with two 2001-style circular airlocks) and a set of slotted circular disks that appear on the cover. The printer supports were on the inside this time, which means less surface processing, but there are little support pips in the joining surfaces that will have to be dealt with, and some minor warping of the very thin tip of the fins.

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #32 on: June 29, 2016, 03:30:03 AM »
Looks good.
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #33 on: June 30, 2016, 10:45:02 AM »
Terrific

Offline apophenia

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #34 on: June 30, 2016, 11:01:25 AM »
Great stuff!  :)
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Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #35 on: July 01, 2016, 04:28:38 AM »
Wow that looks great, Frank! That's some amazing 3D printing. I had no idea the tech was capable of something so fine. I couldn't agree more about keeping those printing pips. Not only do they add plausible detail, but knowing the origin adds an extra intangible special element I really appreciate.

Watching with great interest,
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Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #36 on: June 06, 2017, 04:38:35 PM »
Reviving an old thread but this was too cool not to share on what was probably the same line of inspiration that Frank used.

From wonderfest 2017


There is the complete build on Starshipmodeler
http://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=120964

Offline Story

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #37 on: June 06, 2017, 08:26:02 PM »
You do nice work, Frank.

Reviving an old thread but this was too cool not to share on what was probably the same line of inspiration that Frank used.

Ooh, just saw that - you too, Buzzy.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2017, 03:19:10 AM by Story »

Offline andonio64

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #38 on: June 06, 2017, 08:35:35 PM »
That is awesomely beautiful , buzzbomb!
But the work of Frank3k is fantastic as well, I wish I was half as good in 3D modeling...
 :-[

Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #39 on: June 07, 2017, 01:28:52 AM »
Yes!  Definitely worth a revisit :)
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Offline Old Wombat

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #40 on: June 07, 2017, 10:46:47 PM »
Where's the finished product, Frank? ???
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline Frank3k

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #41 on: June 08, 2017, 01:35:32 AM »
I've been working on it - the main craft is painted and the astronaut is almost finished. I'll post some pictures this weekend.

Part of the delay is that I tried to print the astronaut's helmet and torso in ABS on my printer. Two fist fulls of failed prints later, I had a just OK helmet and torso. I said screw it and printed it at Shapeways and that came out great.

The asteroid itself was finished about 10000 years ago...

At least now I have a huge supply of 0.4mm and 0.2mm ABS "stretched sprue" and a pile of ABS that I may dissolve and use as plastic putty.

Offline Frank3k

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #42 on: June 08, 2017, 11:23:38 AM »
This is far from finished - front view (lower hull is not glued on). My masking isn't the greatest, but I'm going with "asteroid damage". The porthole glass is white glue:



Underside:



Split open:



Interior detail of the lower half:



Here's a detail of the cover artwork, showing the astronaut:



Astronaut and "asteroid" (volcanic rock from Amboy Crater in the Mojave)



The arms and legs and head are from random 1/35 figures, modified to fit the pose. The helmet and torso were printed at Shapeways. The proportions on Paul's cover art are way off for a human...



I don't know if he's upset because his ship blew up or because he just realized that his helmet is open to the vacuum:



The head and right arm came from the Viet Cong figures in the Masterbox "Charlie on the Left" set.

I still need to add his various tools and ropes. I printed the leg braces and it's all I used from my abortive attempt at printing the major parts of this figure. I was hoping I could use Acetone to smooth out the printer artifacts from my Monoprice 3D printer. It did... but the resolution just wasn't there.

I'm also making the floating debris from the ship (including the dead astronauts).

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #43 on: June 08, 2017, 03:00:58 PM »
Looking good! Has that 1940's/1950's pulp-magazine art vibe. :)
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #44 on: June 09, 2017, 01:19:42 AM »
The proportions on Paul's cover art are way off for a human...


Sentient Simians?  :P

I must have missed the part where you were describing forced perspective with the astronaut being larger than the space ship.  That makes this even more interesting now that things are no longer all in the same scale.  A great visual treat!
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Offline kitnut617

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #45 on: June 09, 2017, 01:40:58 AM »


Sorry Frank, I LMAO looking at this one, reminds me of some characters on 'Robot Chicken'

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #46 on: June 09, 2017, 02:16:56 AM »
Coming along nicely
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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Offline Frank3k

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #47 on: June 09, 2017, 02:44:45 AM »
I must have missed the part where you were describing forced perspective with the astronaut being larger than the space ship.  That makes this even more interesting now that things are no longer all in the same scale.  A great visual treat!

Thanks for the comments. I'm disappointing with my masking prowess (or lack of). I can see that I need to do some touch-ups, everywhere.

Jeff - The astronaut's head in the cover art is far too small for the body (look at the model - the helmet is really tight around the head). The torso is off, too. I used the torso from the original figure as a guide. The waist is a bit narrow, but I was going to add a belt.

I hadn't planned on a forced perspective with the astronaut. I was thinking on how to mount the ship, with the debris floating in space. I thought of adding a rock as both a base and a stand-in as the asteroid... but if I was going to go that far, why not add the astronaut? I thought it would be an easy addition.

Offline Story

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #48 on: June 09, 2017, 09:02:32 AM »
Jeff - The astronaut's head in the cover art is far too small for the body (look at the model - the helmet is really tight around the head). The torso is off, too. I used the torso from the original figure as a guide. The waist is a bit narrow, but I was going to add a belt.


I think it works very well. There's got to be some flexibility in Atomic Age spacesuit design interpretation. I gather you were thinking more along the lines of a Dive Helmet?



Also, in case anyone didn't catch this trend but those Pulp Fiction novel cover style suits are now a *thing*.

In science fiction, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Ender's Game, astronauts zip around zero-g environments clad in stylish, skin-tight spacesuits. In reality, outfits designed for outer space are bulky, hard to maneuver, and have all the charm of adult diapers. Even their name, Extravehicular Mobility Units, or EMUs, is clumsy.
Enter Dava Newman, fashion designer to the stars. You won't see her work on the red carpet, but if this MIT professor has her way, all the most fashionable space explorers will be wearing her designs when they set foot on the red planet.
https://www.wired.com/2014/01/how-a-textbook-from-1882-will-help-nasa-go-to-mars/
&
https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/617047main_45s_building_future_spacesuit.pdf
the "Biosuit" concept at MIT aims to launch spacesuit into a new frontier. See how MIT's Biosuit may pave the way for better astronaut clothing on Mars and beyond.
https://www.space.com/27210-biosuit-skintight-spacesuit-concept-images.html

Astronauts heading into orbit aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will wear lighter and more comfortable spacesuits than earlier suits astronauts wore. The suit capitalizes on historical designs, meets NASA requirements for safety and functionality, and introduces cutting-edge innovations. Boeing unveiled its spacesuit design Wednesday as the company continues to move toward flight tests of its Starliner spacecraft and launch systems that will fly astronauts to the International Space Station.

A few of the advances in the design:
Lighter and more flexible through use of advanced materials and new joint patterns
Helmet and visor incorporated into the suit instead of detachable
Touchscreen-sensitive gloves
Vents that allow astronauts to be cooler, but can still pressurize the suit immediately

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-spacesuit-unveiled-for-starliner-astronauts


Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: "Asteroid of Death" spaceship, by Frank R. Paul
« Reply #49 on: June 11, 2017, 03:25:23 AM »
The damage is great and the look on that spaceman's face is a testament to your amazing talent and skill, Frank!

Brian da Basher