Great job! The cooling vents look fantastic. Are they printed or scratchbuilt?
I use PLA for quick test prints and usually darker colors. A shot of a contrasting primer helps when sanding, since the PLA will show up first. ABS (and similar styrene based filaments) is handy, especially when you want to glue it to other styrene parts but it can be finicky and you absolutely need an enclosure - to keep the fumes in (or vent them out) and to keep the workspace warm, since the ABS can shrink and peel off the hotplate with a cool breeze.
If your program can display multiple viewports (top, front, left, perspective, for instance), it's pretty straightforward to add 3 view drawings. You just have to make sure all the views are the same size and are placed at the same relative position in each viewport; pick one point that is visible in all three views and move it to the 0,0 position for each viewport.
Thanks Frank. The engine exhaust/cooling vents are stollen from bits left over from an old IS-2 (I think...) and cut to size.
I really must try ABS one of these days but just too lazy to make the effort!!
Multiple view ports? You’re talking crazy talk!
The CAD program I use (Tinkercad) is an introductory elementary school tool used to teach the basics to young (probably very young) kids and just about matches my computing abilities and/or willingness to learn anything too complicated - old dogs, new tricks, etc.
It really only allows you to play around with basic shapes, cube, cylinders, cones, wedges and alike. Having said that, by breaking down objects in to their basic components, a surprising amount of complexity can be achieved. The most annoy thing about Tinkercad is its lack of a true cut and paste facility - to cut a piece from a larger shape you have to first block out (make invisible) everything you don't want, copy the result and that can then be pasted. Like I said, it's meant for very young kids!!
