Current and Finished Projects > Scifi and Fantasy

1/72 Convair re-entry vehicle

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Frank3k:
A few years ago, Winchell Chung (of Atomic Rockets) and I were discussing the lifeboats/re-entry vehicles from the old Hawk MOL kit:



I made a 1/72 scratchbuild years ago, followed by a 1/72 3D printed version.

The versions I made were all based on the kit parts while Winchell's was a 3D version of the boxtop vehicles (and of the original design). He sent me the .obj files (which were not printable) and I started working on making them printable.

I had my 3D version printed at Shapeways, but they've been a disappointment over the years. This - in part - caused the Winchell version to languish.

Recently, I saw that Fantastic Plastic has a version in 1/48; this and other events (one being my getting a larger printer and needing suitable test subjects) motivated me to finish the conversion of Winchell's version and send him a printed and painted model.

The Elegoo Saturn is a considerably larger printer than the Mars I'd used before and it can have a painful learning curve. I tried many different prints of the re-entry vehicle (1/144 hollow, 1/144 solid, 1/72 hollow and 1/72 solid) while adjusting the parameters until I decided to go with the brute force method of printing several solid versions right on the build plate, which usually isn't the best solution but it worked well here.

I had a small indentation in the rear (right on the build plate) for the engine insert, but the resin didn't fully empty, so I had to come up with a solution. Here is the model with some slight sanding and the engine insert glued to the rear:



Rear view:



Compared to my "kit version":



I wasn't happy with the 3D printed engine section, so I used a small square of styrene and some Gundam add-on parts to recreate it. I printed a decal with the positions of the parts (to use as a guide) and glued the parts over the decals.

I screwed up the paint job slightly when I darkened the panel lines - it looks far worse in these pictures - it's not very visible in the original:





The model is on its way to Winchell now. The files are his, so it's up to him to make them available to others.

Inactive II:
...Passing resemblance to Star Wars Episode V Empire Strikes Back T-47 Airspeeder it be.

Jeffry Fontaine:
Very nice recovery and a successful print.  :smiley:

GTX_Admin:
 :smiley:

Frank3k:
It does have a passing resemblance to the Star Wars aiespeeder. Both would probably be equally bad flyers. I had to add winglets to my scratchbuilt to keep it stable.

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