3D Printed and Build Starbug Models For Order

[Niki Hutchinson]

So I was just checking out YT for anything new (and good) Starbug related vids and… came across this video by Fab365 which show off a fully Kit-Assembled, Starbug 3D Printed Model. Which you can apparently you can have made ? Or at least have an order to have one printed out for you.

Link to video:

 

Link to the store:

https://fab365.net/items/257

 

I’m gonna check out a little more about this site (just to make sure it’s all good) But, in the meantime. give the links a look and see what you lot think.

 

[Flap Jack]

The video so good you posted it twice!

This does seem very cool. I was shocked initially at the low, low price of $5.49, but then I twigged that that just gives you the blueprints for the model, and you have to actually produce it yourself. I have no benchmark to judge whether that’s a good deal or not. Maybe?

I think the shade of green is a bit off though.

[GlenTokyo]

The video so good you posted it twice!

This does seem very cool. I was shocked initially at the low, low price of $5.49, but then I twigged that that just gives you the blueprints for the model, and you have to actually produce it yourself. I have no benchmark to judge whether that’s a good deal or not. Maybe?
I think the shade of green is a bit off though.

It’s on the low side of average but this is a site that does a lot of easy to assemble/print in place stuff so they probably have a business model.

To get it printed by someone though in good quality at that size (0.12mm layer or finer) I wouldn’t be surprised if cost about 30-40 quid.

[Niki Hutchinson]

Ok, two things.

One: I posted this twice by accident (Thanks to finishing off one post, wanted to change a word. And then going back a few pages that still had most of text in it already. Then posted that, without seeing or knowing the other one was done :P) Sorry.

Two: You do have to register, in order to request the data of the model. (They do show off how long, each parts takes to make) But the fact this is a thing you can get, is just such a surprised to me.

The fact is design to have the landing legs up or down is just a very nice added touch.

I may end up getting this to see how good it is, but I will let you fellow G&T’s know ;)

Although, I kinda wish they had a Starbug 1 sticker to go on the sides. Just looks so un-finished without it.

 

 

[Moonlight]

It’s a set of parts you can paint yourself. It can be any color. I have a 3D printer so I am 100% doing this and will post pics when I get to it.

[Niki Hutchinson]

Great to hear that :)

[Me Own Stunts]

It looks very good.  And all the snapping sounds are very satisfying in that video.

[Moonlight]

I have a copy but I forgot to print it.

[Moonlight]

It’ll take another few days to reprint the failed front / mid section but I swear on all that is holy in the eyes of Cloister the Stupid that I will shoot an actual model shot with the finished ‘Bug. It’ll look like ass but it’ll fulfill a tweenage fantasy of mine.

[Flap Jack]

[Danny Stephenson]

I have tried to print a Starbug in the past, but the legs are always my undoing.

[Moonlight]

The legs printed fine. It’s the body and head that keep failing.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Dave]

The legs printed fine. It’s the body and head that keep failing.

[Moonlight]

Finally got the rear section mostly printed without failing. I’ll take proper pictures when it’s assembled.

[Moonlight]

He’s not quite done but he’s looking sexy.

[Dave]

Wow, that looks great.

[Moonlight]

Just wait until I composite a fly-by.

[Flap Jack]

Marvelous!

[Moonlight]

The rear section looks different in texture because it got printed at a lower density after failing like three times.

[Jonathan Capps]

Sir Mix-a-Lot isn’t going to be happy

[Moonlight]

The white balance of the lighting is different from both sides and the rear section is out of focus and the bluescreen itself was not very good. I’ll do experiments before I actually try to film a model in motion. Too bad I own a giant green screen and only have this shitty blue cardboard display that’s WAY too shiny and uneven. Ideally I’d hang the thing from wires and use my tripod dolly to breeze past it but I’d need to do a lot of work to get that set up back. I tried it like ten years ago with a Lego ship on my greenscreen but I didn’t have the right camera to do chroma key well at the time. I probably still don’t, but a DSLR is better than a shitty blurry 720p camcorder from 2009.

(I had to clean up the Starbug matte a bit with masking, to be clear. It’s only this clean because I did extra work.)

[GlenTokyo]

Could you film against black? Then you might have less cleaning up, can fiddle with the contrast and crush it down a bit, and then screen it onto a starfield.

[Moonlight]

Filming against black would require as much work to set up as just getting a bluescreen, and a proper one would eliminate much of the issues I’m having anyway.

[Moonlight]

BIG FINISHED STARBUG IMAGE DUMP

^^^^ “The leg must have got twisted man! This ‘bug is really good!”

Apologies for taking so long. The rear section failed to print days into the process multiple times.

[Moonlight]

Here’s the raw version of that Starbug in space shot illustrating why I had some cleaning up to do.

But not as messy as you might think. This is the matte I was able to get before masking out the garbage. All that junk definitely lands on the spots you’d probably expect looking at the first image.

I really want to hang this from a wire and do a proper fly-by but I need a better setup. Ironically I used to have almost everything I need 10 years ago, minus the decent camera. But the large chroma key screen I have is green instead of blue. Dammit.

[Dave]

That looks great! Fantastic work.

[Moonlight]

To be fair, my dad actually did most of the work in printing and especially painting it. I’ve been using his 3D printer, and I have no idea how to operate it. But I’m going to try to do some cool things with the Starbug.

Could you film against black? Then you might have less cleaning up, can fiddle with the contrast and crush it down a bit, and then screen it onto a starfield.

Come to think of it, these are all things I could just do to the bluescreen to clean up the matte. No need to introduce a black background I couldn’t possibly light correctly.

[Flap Jack]

Looks great!

[RunawayTrain]

It’s gorgeous!

[GlenTokyo]

If you got a less reflective surface, you could key Starbug out and then set it as silhouette alpha and then use that as an inverted alpha for Starbug. Bit of a stack like but when it gets these results who can argue :P

[Moonlight]

I did consider having the matte as a separate layer from the actual bug so I could do more processing shit for a cleaner matte that might impact the foreground object I want to keep. Obviously, the lower quality of the video I’ll be shooting (same camera though) will make the keying more difficult.

[Moonlight]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfeimxV3hpQ

Might as well do my own 2D one.

[Author]

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