I made a thing! Fully 3D printed Werner Von Braun rocket.

[MoFo]

 

Got distracted while cleaning my hobby space, decided I could do it bigger and better than the Glencoe kit, so spent a bit of time in SW designing a 1/144 kit.  The shuttle and detail parts will be printed in resin; the rocket and base are FDM printed since they're large, simple shapes.  If there's interest, I'll post pics of the prints and a test-fit when it's ready.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dnl42]

Ooh! Ooh!

That's nice! I definitely want to see this!

[modelmax]

Super cool!

More for me please.

 

Ernie A.

[MoFo]

My first print was the shuttle.  Actually, it was mostly 'just because I can' that I upscaled the model to 1/144 and ran a print.  (all parts are straight off the printers, BTW.  No sanding or smoothing)

 

I did two versions of the 3rd stage booster.  The first was a simple version like the original kit; the second is more 'accurate' to the actual models and illustrations in the Disney film.

 

Later, I realized the Glencoe tail was wrong (per the film), so it was revised to add dihedral:

 

Quick test fit:

 

The booster is FDM printed, as mentioned previously, since it's a simple shape without a lot of details.  It wouldn't really work for the shuttle, wings or detail parts, but for the large, basically smooth rocket body, it's fine:

 

Wings added (these are a rough test print, hence the wonky shape where they meet the rocket):

 

The rocket is hollow, so it gets a blanking plate laid out to fit all 29(!) boosters.  Again, the plate is a simple shape, so it gets FDM printed (a light coat of filler will eliminate the print lines); the boosters are finer and more detailed, so they're resin: 

 

The boosters press-fit to the plate and the plate press-fits to the rocket:

 

Next are the support jacks to hold the whole rocket off the launch pad.  These had to be beefed up slightly as it's obviously heavier in 1/144 scale, and the resin isn't quite as rigid.  I didn't want anything to sag or deform.

 

The wings just slot in for a nice, snug fit:

 

On to the launchpad.  This is just a smooth part in the Glencoe kit, but I added framework around the edges to match Disney's original.  

 

And even though the jacks pretty much auto-locate, the base has the jack locations marked off for easier assembly:

 

Quick test fit without any glue.  It's tall.  Very tall:

 

In fact, with the shuttle on, it's TOO tall for my photo tent.  About 20" tall for the full stack. 

(as an added bonus: you can see the gear wells on the wings in this shot.  I've done two versions of the shuttle - both gear up and gear down)

 

The mast will add a bit more height, but I'm struggling to figure out the best way to reproduce it.  It's a tall, skinny part, so warpage is an issue with resin.

 

[cruiz]

Very nice work MoFo

 

What printers do you use?, the FDM parts looks very smooth, are you going to add the mast and pathways?

 

Thank you for sharing

Carlos

[shion]

Nice.

 

Is it from a Photon?

It looks like the infamous AC yellow.😏

 

Seems you've got Z wobble.

[Pilotace]

Wow, this is just awesome!

And another nice presentation what is possible in 3D printing, really nice.

[MoFo]

17 hours ago, cruiz said:

What printers do you use?, the FDM parts looks very smooth, are you going to add the mast and pathways?

 

Resin is printed with an Anycubic Photon.  The FDM prints are done on a CR-10.  The smoothness is a combination of low layer heights (.08mm, IIRC) and being run in vase mode, so it's one continuous spiral.  It still needs a decent coat of filler primer to smooth out the layer lines, but yes, it's pretty good as-is.

 

The pathways are already printed.  I *have* printed the mast as well, but because of its geometry, it's prone to warping, so I'm not really happy with it.  Have to figure out another solution for it.  Maybe bump up the thickness a bit and try it on the FDM printer...

 

4 hours ago, shion said:

It looks like the infamous AC yellow.😏

 

Seems you've got Z wobble.

 

Orange, actually.  Which looks *exactly* like the processed cheese sauce from Kraft Dinner.  🤮   Though I might re-print the fuselage in clear, to give a sense of translucence to the windows.

 

No Z-wobble.  I'm running the printer with anti-aliasing, so I'm pretty sure the surface on the jack stands is a product of that, plus the pixel-stepping from the shallow angles.  Instead of having a hard step between each pixel, it has a softer break, which looks a little like wobble.  You can see that the other parts, like the exhausts, don't suffer the same effect.

[shion]

4 hours ago, MoFo said:

Orange, actually.  Which looks *exactly* like the processed cheese sauce from Kraft Dinner.  🤮   Though I might re-print the fuselage in clear, to give a sense of translucence to the windows.

 

No Z-wobble.  I'm running the printer with anti-aliasing, so I'm pretty sure the surface on the jack stands is a product of that, plus the pixel-stepping from the shallow angles.  Instead of having a hard step between each pixel, it has a softer break, which looks a little like wobble.  You can see that the other parts, like the exhausts, don't suffer the same effect.

 

It's pretty strange, the design is pretty coherent, there's no big section change, you're not supposed to have this pattern.

 

 

[Brett M]

That's some very cool work you're doing! This is giving more and more reason to rationalize picking up a printer myself and creating models of stuff we don't see often. 

 

Thanks for sharing, looking forward to seeing more as you progress!

Edited April 22, 2020 by Brett M

[cruiz]

On 7/21/2019 at 12:31 PM, MoFo said:

Resin is printed with an Anycubic Photon.  The FDM prints are done on a CR-10.  The smoothness is a combination of low layer heights (.08mm, IIRC) and being run in vase mode, so it's one continuous spiral.  It still needs a decent coat of filler primer to smooth out the layer lines, but yes, it's pretty good as-is.

 

The pathways are already printed.  I *have* printed the mast as well, but because of its geometry, it's prone to warping, so I'm not really happy with it.  Have to figure out another solution for it.  Maybe bump up the thickness a bit and try it on the FDM printer...

 

I've read nice things about the Anycubic Photon and seeing your work here I'm tempted to get one soon; the FDM parts are made of PLA or ABS? I'm wondering which one is better in terms of compatibility with modeling materials (putty, primers, paint, glues, etc.)

 

Carlos

[southwestforests]

Hey, this is an impressive project!

😎 Coolness to the max.
1/144 scale, eh ...

... hmmm ...

... might need to get that Revell ISS finished and get one of this to dock to it!

😁

[MoFo]

19 hours ago, cruiz said:

the FDM parts are made of PLA or ABS? I'm wondering which one is better in terms of compatibility with modeling materials (putty, primers, paint, glues, etc.)

 

I've printed them in both HIPS and PLA.  HIPS is pretty much standard modelling styrene, so it handles the same way, and it's more temperature resistant and holds up to handling better, but the prints aren't quite as strong (the layers don't stick as well) and details on the base aren't as sharp, since it can't be cooled while printing (or else it warps).  PLA is easier to print and prints cleaner (it can be heavily cooled while printing, for crisper detail), but it starts to deform at 60`C and it's a little brittle so it can crack if it gets dropped.  PLA is mostly impervious to solvent glues (apparently it melts with chloroform), but it glues nicely with CA and epoxy.  Standard putties, paints and primers work fine with either material, but I've taken to giving prints a coat of the UV resin from the Photon, as it goes on thin, self levels, cures instantly on UV exposure, and sands really, really nicely.

[MoFo]

Finally figured out how to make the mast.

 

My initial attempt was to pin together SLA printed sections, but I found that this warped over the length, which looked terrible:

 

I tried an FDM print, which would have allowed me to do it in fewer sections, but the layers looked even worse, and the experiment turned out to be unusable garbage.  It was also pretty brittle, and snapped during sanding.  It occurred to me that I could (theoretically) beef it up with some sire or tubing inside to make it more rigid.  THEN it occurred to me that I could do the same with the SLA print.  So I re-worked the CAD to fit length of 2mm music wire, and ran a test print of that...

 

...which is pretty much perfectly straight:

 

Another length of 3mm music wire gets glued to the back to simulate the conduit(?) there and to add more rigidity:

 

Now I just have to tweak the gantries and everything will be ready for production printing.  I have no idea how this was supposed to work in 'real life' since the top-most gantry is less than 18" wide (432mm), but hey, it looks cool!

 

I'm also thinking of re-printing the fuselage in clear resin, so the windows can be masked off and given a smoke tint to add some depth and realism.  Black-painted windows never seem to look as good.

 

[Aurora Mark]

Very impressive! More and more I'm thinking we are going to see model "kits" become available as purchase/download for 3D printers and we assemble them ourselves. But that's for another time. 

 

This is one really impressive bit of work! Can't wait to see more progress. The 'grooves' for the jack posts are a very smart touch. 

 

Cheers,
Mark.

[MoFo]

I'm still working on a thing!  😆

 

Based on a request, I've been playing around with a few modifications to the fuselage.  One is to print it in solid clear, so the windows can be polished/Future-ed out for a proper glazed look, rather than just painting them black.  The second is to actually open the windows up, so they can be made from clear acetate or styrene so they're actually see-through.  And the last is a cargo version of the rocket with just a simple, ogival, err, rocket... rather than the proper space-plane of the ferry:

 

I kinda prefer the space plane, but it'd make a cool diorama with a couple of cargo rockets nearby.

 

Anyway, onto the pics:

 

 

 

 

The three new fuselages, with a reasonably accurate depiction of the colour.  Interestingly, they're 'more clear' before the excess resin is rinsed off - partly that's because the liquid resin fills all the surface imperfections from the individual pixels in the print (sort of like a coat of Future), but they also don't have the yellowish tint before they're rinsed, either.  Unfortunately, that coat of liquid resin also fills in the panel line details so it HAS to be rinsed off, but still, kinda weird.  The hollow fuselage and cargo pod look worse because they've got this slightly rough surface inside and out, whereas the solid fuselage obviously just has it on the outside.   Hence doing the solid fuselage solid rather than hollow, to maximize translucency.

 

 

Close-up of the 'windows open' fuselage, showing the damaged pillars and stepped window recesses.  The shiny surface is a bit of resin that's oozed out from somewhere.  I didn't spend a ton of time cleaning this up since it's a failed print anyway, but the frosted interior makes it look pretty rough.

 

 

Did a very quick polish of a spare fuselage to give a rough feeling for transparency.  This was just 5 - 10 minutes with micromesh, just on the top half of the fuselage, with the bottom left untouched (and heavily distorted - it was a failed print).  So it's a little scratchy, and a coat of Future would definitely help, but it's remarkably transparent, albeit with that slight tint.  Although the tint is 100% accurate for 1950's gold-impregnated Space Glass.  😄  (also, cameo for another 3D printed project that I totally haven't abandoned...)

 

 

And an un-sanded fuselage next to the (quickly) polished one.  Pretty big difference, and it would be even more significant if I'd smoothed out the bottom, too.

 

Note, you can see a faint, sort of woodgrain-like texture on the un-sanded fuselage.  These are from the individual pixels on the printer's screen.  All the parts have them (you can see them on the cargo pod in the top pic, too), but they're *extremely* fine, so they'll completely disappear under a coat of primer, or with a quick rub with fine grit sandpaper.  (interesting aside: I've used anti-aliasing to minimize these lines, which basically blinks adjacent pixels on the screen off and on each layer, to sort of feather out the edges of each pixel.  so the steps are, like, .02 mm or .0008" high) 

 

 

[MoFo]

Had a fit of inspiration this morning, so hit the CAD:

 

 

This is the second WvB shuttle design, based on an article in Collier's magazine.  The rocket itself is largely similar in overall shape, but the shuttle itself is significantly different, with swept canards and wings and a tailless design, vs. the delta shape of the original.  Apparently there is speculation that this is closer to his 'intended' shape, and the original was 'massaged' by Disney for aesthetics.

 

It's big though.  Significantly bigger than the Disney version:

 

 

Still needs a ton of work done - adding the canopy bulge and windows, launch pad and supports, rocket motors, and breaking it all down for printing, but it's a start.  Biggest problem is, I'm not sure I *can* print it - the whole thing is almost 2' tall, and many of the 'detailed' components are too big to fit in the Photon's modest build envelope.  Theoretically, I could FDM print everything, but the prints are just nowhere near as nice.  

 

 

Quick render showing the two shuttle side by side.  I'm not sure if I'll copy the whole set-up; I might just do a launch pad and supports, but skip the tower (which would be physically impossible to use, anyway)

[MoFo]

Wow, I'm overwhelmed by the response from everybody.

 

Here's another update:

 

 

Not a whole lot visually different, but I've re-built the entire model.  Most of my horizontal dimensions were slightly out, so I had to revise... pretty much everything.  I also added the cockpit and observer's windows and landing gear wells, and proper rounded wing tips.  With the basic structure more or less done (though I'll probably add panel lines, eventually), I could start adding proper details:

 

 

Kind of hard to show everything in one shot, so hopefully the blueprint view will work.  First up were the rockets, which involved an interesting mix of eyeballing and math.  Since I'll have to print the rocket body itself in three separate stages (it's a little too tall to print the 1st and 2nd stages together), I figured I might as well add the 2nd stage rockets, and that if I was going to add those, I might as well add the tops of the fuel tanks as well, to make it a fully detailed shuttle.  😃

 

 

...and a render of the current status.  Next job is to start adding panel line detail.  I'll probably add spars inside the various wings and fins, too, so I can print them hollow to save resin (if/when I get a big enough printer).

[crackerjazz]

Wow, some great stuff you got going here, MoFo.  I'm trying to catch up on 3D printing posts and found yours.  The prints are beautiful!  Hey, I recognize that render -- is it in Solidworks?

[Peter Browne]

What CAD program are you using?  I'm just starting to learn SolidWorks 2020, having come from 3D Max.  Just bought Matt Lombard's tome Mastering SolidWorks @ 1200 pages...

Edited May 26, 2020 by Peter Browne

[MoFo]

Thanks guys.  And it is indeed Solidworks, though Fusion360 should do much the same things if you're looking for free software.

 

Oh, and Peter, I found the single biggest hurdle was just thinking through the sequence of operations needed to produce something.  I'm entirely self taught, through a combination of experimenting and Googling, and my first few models involved a lot of deleting-once-I-was-halfway-through-because-I'd-done-things-out-of-sequence.  The models above are all done with simple operations (revolve, extrude, loft, chamfer/fillet), so the only 'trick' is being able to think through the best order to design the parts.  That, and math; I've had to remember all those old geometry lessons I was never going to have any use for.  😃

[taneal1]

Hey MoFo,

Excellent job on this original WvB space "Shuttle" design! IIRC this is his original design which was much larger than the delta-winged 2nd version that appeared on the Disney series. This original design was a manned rocket with cargo-carrying capability. It was pointed out to von braun that he could split the final stage design into two separate vehicles, one for the men, and the other type for cargo only. This allowed much smaller orbital vehicles, and both vehicles would use the same smaller booster rocket. Without wings, canards, landing gear, the crew, and life support for the crew, the cargo vehicles would carry more weight than the original much larger design. Therefore, despite the size reduction in the overall vehicles, fewer launches were required to assemble the orbital station.

 

Despite the sleeker booster and the delta-winged crew vehicle on the 2nd version, I have always found the original version to be more visually interesting.

 

BTW, were you able to find any diagrams of the wing aerodynamic shapes for the 1st and 3rd stages? I've never found anything from WvB describing the airfoil cross-sections. I'm curious what he came up with to allow for the slow landing speed, and for re-entry under the underestimated heating conditions that were expected back when he made this design. 

 

Tom

[MoFo]

Tom,

 

How's your build going?

 

I didn't find any info on airfoils, so they're simple oblongs (as with the Disney version).  I guess I could use a NACA profile - it'd be period correct(ish) at least, but it's more, "Out of the pages of Colliers", so I wasn't super concerned correct aerodynamics and more just matching the overall aesthetics.

[taneal1]

1 hour ago, MoFo said:

MoFo: I didn't find any info on airfoils, so they're simple oblongs (as with the Disney version).  I guess I could use a NACA profile - it'd be period correct(ish) at least, but it's more, "Out of the pages of Colliers", so I wasn't super concerned correct aerodynamics and more just matching the overall aesthetics.

Tom: It certainly wouldn't have been necessary, or probably even noticeable if you had the "correct" airfoils incorporated. Never having actually existed, you're modeling a sketch, and drawings, and doing so with great accuracy.

I was hoping you might have found some drawings or data for the simple reason that I'm personally curious what airfoil he chose. Given his figures in regard to heating at various altitudes during re-entry, he must have had at east a semi-defined shape. Although he only had incorrect heating data to work with, he was quite confident that his craft would not only survive re-entry heating but could be re-used. He could only arrive at this conclusion with some pecific airfoil shape in mind. However, I've never found any info, not even speculation as to their shape.  😒

Unfortunately, I build kits in the order I purchase them, so this particular vehicle is still waiting in line...

Tom