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The Concept to Production of the Shrike Assault BattleMech by Vic Bonilla Part 2: Sculpting and Printing in 3D
After the final design has gone through approvals, the next step was to decide what medium the ‘Mech would be sculpted in. Up until this point WizKids had always done ‘Mechs using the traditional hand-sculpted method: with carved plastics, putty, resin, and found objects. The vehicles, however, were created in a 3D program called Rhino3D (http://rhino3d.com/) an industry standard program for Rapid Prototyping.
Rhino3D is an application for creating NURB models (Non Uniform Rational B Spline). I won’t go into the nitty-gritty of it, but it basically creates 3D models with excellent surface continuity and accuracy. Once the model is built it is sent to a 3D printer, a SolidScape T66 (www.solid-scape.com), which lays down micro-thin layers of thermoplastic surrounded by a wax. The result is similar to a Puzzle-3D.
It was decided to have the Shrike be the first ‘Mech to go through the entire 3D print process to production. This will also serve as a learning experience to streamline the process if it was worth doing.
The first part is to build the Shrike in Rhino. With NURBS modeling you create featureless surfaces that have no thickness. These won’t print, so the final model would not be able to have any open surfaces and had to be water tight, with no leaks. Below is the beginning of the torso, hollow. For it to be printed the torso would need to be solid.
Remember: Always start with general shapes and work towards the details. With any medium one must never start with details because you can get hung up on them and never finish the piece.
Two things were always in mind during the construction:
Location and number of articulation points, namely the upper arms, torso, and wings. This is vital since the final piece will be around 71mm tall not including the wings.
Can this fit in a booster pack without any problems or bulging?
First the torso and hips. You can see a pilot has been placed here to keep proper scale as well as a mockup of the base and heat dial for foot placement.
Then the legs. One leg can be mirrored for the opposite side. You can see now that the general shapes and a few details.
Next is the head:
Then the jump pack and wings. The wings took some work since I was only able to give them one point of articulation each.
And finally the main weapon and the controversial ammo feed/clips.
The final details were adding the tattoo-like etchings into the surface of the torso and legs. This will serve as guides for painting.
Once the model is complete and approved it is separated into pieces: torso, legs, arms, hips, head, jump pack, wings. These pieces are then fused into solid surfaces. Example: The arms with talons are comprised of 38 individual parts, each with its own surface. These must be fused into one continuous surface with no seams or open spots (again, water tight). This is can be very time consuming if this is not taken into account while building the model because you might have to recreate problem areas.
The next step is for the model parts to be laid out and translated into a file format that can be printed out. Once the printer is calibrated it begins to print layer by layer.
And below is the final sculpt fresh from the printer. The sculpt, in green, is encased in an orange wax which will be dissolved in a solvent solution.
The next step is to create molds and castings. Once the final sculpt has the wax removed it is very brittle and would not survive too long, so a master mold must be created. The pieces are placed into individual containers and flexible silicon is poured into the containers and left to dry. The dry molds are cut open and the original brittle sculpt is removed leaving a negative master mold. Below the Shrike parts are molded with several other vehicles and parts.
Once the master molds are cut and cleaned a two part resin is poured into the mold cavities. They are then placed into a vacuum chamber and all excess air is removed from the resin. Once the resin cast dries it can be removed from the master mold for cleaning and the details can be sharpened up. Since the printer lays down layers of thermoplastic the final positive cast contains striations that will be cleaned up and smoothed out. These are particularly noticeable on curved surfaces. Several casts are made: one to be the “tooling master” and a few others for paint masters.
Next Week: Final Painting, Production, and Post Production
Hmm. I have a close associate who does stereolithography (the 3d'printing' process he describes), and the models she makes are really quite durable. I would be interested in knowing what the difference in the processes is.
This is way cool. I actually used Rhino3D back in 1999 to make a model of the original Mad Cat (Timberwolf). It's real easy to use, more so than AutoCAD IMHO. Excellent job on the Shirke model Vic!
It depends on what type of SLA medium is being used. The stuff we use is pretty durable as we often use it for fit check fixtures on different products. Although its expensive stuff, about $900 for a 5 gallon container.
Firstly, would you release the 3d models of some of the Units? (highly doubtful, i know)
and Secondly, how hard would it be to animate them? from my limited knowledge of that sort of thing, it would not be hard to do a kick-### (albeit copyright infringing) music video
just think, double bass pedal to the beat of a Cygnus UAC20's.....
Firstly, would you release the 3d models of some of the Units? (highly doubtful, i know)
Sorry dood, no can do, policy prohibits :(
Quote
Originally posted by Chimperor and Secondly, how hard would it be to animate them?
I'm not an animator, that's another set of voodoo that I stay away from. But I have worked with animators who's kung-foo were the best. And from what I remember from watching them the Shrike would be a bit tough to animate. One thing that makes an animation convincing is making it look like it weighs 95 tons (hip rotation, weight shifting from leg to leg, speed of a foot fall, etc). And then there is editing and syncing. And THEN what happens when a leg is damaged and you have a gimpped mech!?... more crazy voodoo :p
Peace,
Whoah. That stuff is complicated, but cool. Wish I could do that. Heh. Mine would probably end up looking like a gelatinous cube with a few machine guns that are facing the wrong way. Heh
95 TONS?!? That thing looks like a medium or a light heavy! Oh, well. But, at least we know WK now actually pays attention to us, since Vic did mention the "controversial ammo feed/clips" that were heavily discussed last thread. Great work though! Can't wait to see the new Highlanders/JF/RoTS units! HURRY UP WITH THE SNEAK PEAKS!
A very interesting read. Never knew just what went in to the process. That gives a nice peek in to the process.
I may not be in agreement currently with the game mechanics but I love a lot of the sculpts that have been coming out as of late. Some are very accurate to the original. Kodiak anyone? :) Excellent job guys!
Awesome work, didn't know how complicated it is to make a new mech model. On a different note, I wonder why the awesome 3D model of the Marauder II looked so clunky and chunky for the physical model?
