Author Topic: 1/350 Spaceship designs (Read 10855 times)

Frank3k · « **on:** December 11, 2020, 01:47:49 PM »

These are a couple of renders for small (115mm/ 3.5" tall) 1/350 spaceships that I just finished drawing and will print soon. Actually, 4.5" isn't that small, print-wise.

The first is a late 21st or early 22nd century Mars or Titan lander, inspired by the artwork in this Hackaday article:

View of the aerospike-like engine:

The landing gear struts are not part of the finished model and are just representative; I'll have to find something that works.

The second one is of a 21st century Pluto/Kuiper belt explorer. I actually dreamt of something like this... The round blobs on the side are observation domes for the crew:

This is a view of the docking/sensor/cargo bay area at the top. The smaller airlocks are about the height of a human:

The engine section. The main, central engine uses advanced Handwavium Physics for propulsion, and it can get to 500AU in about a month. The engine should be familiar to anyone with a Leif Ericson kit. I just used it as an inspiration for this design (and "borrowed" some of the details from the 3D files I used to make the kit engines for Round2):

I should have these printing by next week.

Buzzbomb · « **Reply #1 on:** December 11, 2020, 02:11:39 PM »

Becoming quite the dab hand at this 3D stuff.. well done Frank

andonio64 · « **Reply #2 on:** December 11, 2020, 05:10:54 PM »

Fantastic Frank, I look forward to seeing some plastic printed!

LemonJello · « **Reply #3 on:** December 11, 2020, 10:05:09 PM »

Very cool.

Jeffry Fontaine · « **Reply #4 on:** December 12, 2020, 03:05:16 AM »

"Handwavium!:" The Only Way To Fly!

Frank3k · « **Reply #5 on:** December 12, 2020, 07:25:25 AM »

Thanks guys. The Pluto explorer alone will take about 14-15 hours to print (in three sessions). They are big.

Dr. YoKai · « **Reply #6 on:** December 12, 2020, 11:18:31 PM »

Really nice combinations of the classical "Space Age" imagery and the genuine hardware. I really like the faired landing leg pods, and yeah, the Leif 'Advanced Ion Engine' is the stuff. Can't wait to see what you do with the finish.

Robomog · « **Reply #7 on:** December 14, 2020, 02:49:36 AM »

Cool designs Frank, how many man hours did it take to produce them ?

Mog
>^-.-^<

Frank3k · « **Reply #8 on:** December 14, 2020, 04:18:14 AM »

Quote from: Robomog on December 14, 2020, 02:49:36 AM

Cool designs Frank, how many man hours did it take to produce them ?

For both, about 4 hrs each in Rhino3D, which includes going back and redoing parts.

@Dr Yo - I knew you'd recognize the engine!

Robomog · « **Reply #9 on:** December 14, 2020, 06:04:38 AM »

Hey, pretty good it would take me weeks to achieve something like that !

Mog
>^-.-^<

Frank3k · « **Reply #10 on:** January 04, 2021, 09:33:04 AM »

I have the Pluto/Kuiper belt explorer printed (mostly).

The first print is missing the middle ring:

I ran out of ABS-like resin, so I continued printing in Siraya Build, which is a strong, tappable resin. It's also smokey clear:

The middle ring is re-printing right now. This copy has issues, so I taped it in place. The dust is sanding dust. The legs are round styrene tubes - the landing pads and other bits are printed, but they're small and delicate.

I designed both ships in sections, for easier painting and also to get better with 3D printing tolerances. Since the parts are designed to friction fit into each other, I added the gray upper section for a stretched or cargo explorer:

To get a sense of scale, here's a closeup of the two 1/350 scale astronauts at the top, from a long stalled build:

Here are Leif-like engines:

The metallic sheen is pretty cool. I may just leave the engine mostly clear and light it internally.

Back to the original design goal - getting to 500AU in a month would be too close to fantasy... let's make it 10A AU/month. Don't want to make the trip a vacation.

The Mars lander also had one section print poorly, so I'm reprinting it as well.

Frank3k · « **Reply #11 on:** June 30, 2025, 10:01:42 AM »

Holy Thread revival! Both of these prints were done with my original Mars printer. There were some serious issues with the prints (especially with the Mars lander) so I set them aside for a while - almost 4 years. The Kuiper Belt explorer was in better shape, so rather than re-print it, I decided to build it to see how bad the surface quality and fit is.

Here are the main components. The upper section (with the antenna and windows) is removable and so is the engine section:

Here's the stack. I rearranged the short ring and now it's between the crew section and the engine/fuel section. Note the astronaut in front of one of the landing legs.

Closeup - it was a quick swipe with a paint pen. The pads have a copper wire acting as a hinge:

I've primed and painted it (aluminum with some black paint, which makes a dark metallic color)and the finish is just OK - if the fit or finish had been just slightly worse, I would have re-printed it. As it is, it's good enough to sit at the back of the shelf. I should finish this this week or next.

Jeffry Fontaine · « **Reply #12 on:** June 30, 2025, 10:52:40 AM »

Wow! Nice to see you moving forward again with an abandoned/stalled project. Hope you can finish it this time and celebrate another finished project.

Kerick · « **Reply #13 on:** June 30, 2025, 11:32:37 AM »

It would be great if you could get it to print a smoother surface. I don’t know how you would do that. It would probably take forever.

Dr. YoKai · « **Reply #14 on:** July 01, 2025, 05:45:21 AM »

Nice to see you back at it-those figures are outstanding.

Buzzbomb · « **Reply #15 on:** July 01, 2025, 07:20:04 AM »

Now, if I just rummage around the back of the shelf

Great to see this away again.

Frank3k · « **Reply #16 on:** July 01, 2025, 10:10:57 AM »

Thanks, guys - Ken, these are almost 5 years old, printed on 4 printers ago - getting a smoother finish and better results would be a lot easier now, and probably faster. Just not motivated to do that, mainly because cleanup is a PITA.

I have most of it painted. Here's the top deck. I used some interference film for the windows:

Old Wombat · « **Reply #17 on:** July 01, 2025, 02:29:10 PM »

That's looking better!

raafif · « **Reply #18 on:** July 02, 2025, 08:46:12 AM »

Can't wait to see what the top part looks like

Frank3k · « **Reply #19 on:** July 02, 2025, 11:23:37 AM »

This one is done. I thought about lighting it, but the quality of the print just doesn't make it worth the effort.

The optical communications dish is painted with Molotow chrome paint. You can see an astronaut just above the dish for scale:

I cut some styrene sheets to act as deployable heat radiators. It always bugs me that large spacecraft don't show a way of radiating excess heat, regardless of how advanced the technology is. As a famous engineer once said (will say?), “Ye Cannae Change The Laws Of Physics” :

The year and month I finished this. Also, assume that the cargo door for transferring crew and equipment to the surface is one of the gray rectangles under one of the radiators:

Top view:

Engine end. I didn't add nozzles because they didn't look all that great on the physical model:

Thanks for following along! I'm glad I was able to get this off my shelf o' doom.

LemonJello · « **Reply #20 on:** July 02, 2025, 09:25:02 PM »

Another fine project.

You're cranking them out at the cyclic rate compared to my absolute glacial pace, Frank!

Frank3k · « **Reply #21 on:** July 02, 2025, 11:36:20 PM »

This has been sitting around for years! I guess I was letting the resin "age".

finsrin · « **Reply #22 on:** July 03, 2025, 12:43:22 PM »

Most interesting and a bit complex.

Claymore · « **Reply #23 on:** July 04, 2025, 05:32:12 PM »


Fabulous '50s GB

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Author Topic: 1/350 Spaceship designs (Read 10855 times)