"Greeblies Ever Done Moulded Into Polysterene Sheets?" Topic

Instead of having to laboriously score details like this fella here . . .

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. . . I wonder if anyone will ever come up with spaceship hull greeblies (at least the geometric panels) that already molded (3-D, not color-printed paper) into thin and semi-flexible polystyrene sheets (like those done by Plastruct and Evergreen).

Or is that already available and I just don't know about it?

I'm sure there must be a more time-saving option than scoring plain sheets or cutting up loads of little styrene sheets or even cutting other models for parts. Right?

Dan
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Dunno, but I'd buy 'em.

The scoring could be done with a cnc laser cutter. Still pretty expensive at the moment. I had uploaded an sheet of palm fronds to Ponoko to be done on .5mm card and the quote was around $24 USD for each 180x180 mm sheet.

Not that I have seen, and I try to pay attention. I have considered Vacuforming some, but that is a whole 'nother kettle-o-fish…

The basic detail doesn't have to bee too deep either.

If these two sections did not have the panels in a wheel spoke pattern, I would probably have started chopping them up already:

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Even though I brought 2 of those NX-01 models (the 1/100 scale ones) for around $20, I would very much like to exhaust all other options before cutting them to pieces.

Dan

Have you considered making you own?

Get some .01 which cuts well with Exacto Knife. cut your shapes then glue them on to another sheet of .01. Use a liquid solvent type cement. And make sure your second sheet is flat while it dries.

You end with a sheet with a detail sheet that is 0.02 thick and still quite flexible.

To be honest this method is easier than scribing.

A tool that helps is a Nibbler link especially for cutting notches.

Infojunky: "Get some .01 which cuts well with Exacto Knife. cut your shapes then glue them on to another sheet of .01. Use a liquid solvent type cement. And make sure your second sheet is flat while it dries.
You end with a sheet with a detail sheet that is 0.02 thick and still quite flexible."

That is very similar to all the work this fella suggests here:

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Dan

Sort of a tough one to figure out. Even with injection molding, large flat areas can be a bit of a pain. Vacuum forming doesn't generally lend itself to the sharp details that people like on panels and extrusions won't let you make the funky shapes.

You can stamp it fairly easily – and while the details are slightly sharper than those from vacu-forming, they are still softer than a lot of gamers would like to see. Depending on your time/money equation, you could print the panels easily enough.

Might also drop a line to a company like this one:
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Bug them enough to get a new sheet design for starship/sci-fi detailing. They have several specialty sheets, but nothing that is sci-fi. I seem to recall another company that had similar products that were tailored for sci-fi as well…though IIRC they have long since gone out of business and I do not think they sold their tooling before they did.

Possibly a one sided mold and use resin for multiple casts?
This way you could create several patterns with styrene and make perfect copies, rivets (etc.) and all.

get roobo-cutter and 010 sheet and produce as many as you want cheap.

Or just use Nibbler, very easy works up to 080 thick too.

or scribe using template

When I was working on Starship Troopers the model makers would make up loads of nurneys with styrene, mold them in silicone, then cast them in resin.

If someone made some, they would sell if the price was right.

Hot-Stamping.

It produces very crisp detail.

The only problem:

You need to have the stamp made of a metal that can be heated.

Other than that, laser cutting/etching is the best option.

Also, Styrene sheets up to .5mm can be molded pretty easily with a heat gun. You spot glue the styrene sheet to be molded to the highest point (or "a" high point) and then hold that point "up" and point the heat gun at the section of styrene you wish to mold until it droops over the body of the material.

Continue this process until the entire section is in the proper shape.

OH! And as has been said… A Nibbler is invaluable for detail work.

You can even get them in different widths.

ScoutII: "Might also drop a line to a company like this one:
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Bug them enough to get a new sheet design for starship/sci-fi detailing. They have several specialty sheets, but nothing that is sci-fi."

Well, I've just sent Aiii a quick email, asking that they look at this thread. They are under new ownership, so we'll see what happens.

As you can see, the idea proposed here, of sheets stamped/moulded with thin grooves, dimples and geometric lines of this sort, is certainly a much simpler concept:

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However, creating specifically-measured moulded corridor sections is a lot more complex a concept, and was the old idea I had passed by John Hutt of Aiii a long while back:

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Dan
PS. There are people in lots of other groups that would buy this up too, as simple as it may look:
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Aside from being excessively laborious, stamping/etching/cutting, etc. your own patterns by hand can leave a lot of over-extended lines (from user error):

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I guess that's ok from a distance but, if one is gaming with 15mm figures (and taking close-up shots of them in action), those little mistakes can become a major problem.

Dan

Guys,

If Aiii comes to the rescue on this, I think it's only natural that they start with items suitable for HO (15mm) scale.

Don't you think?

Just imagine using some of those panels to line up the walls of your starship corridors too:

Dan
PS. Here are some of the HO scale sheets Aiii/Precision Products produces already (their 1700 series):
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Guys,

Check out these cool tutorials:

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Dan

Where are the paper punches?

Doug

Just ran across this; and I say I can NEVER find anything in Shapeways. Only took me how many weeks?

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And, no, not PS.

Doug

Careful with that one. If you read the description, understand the materials and than look closely at the actual design…it becomes a lot less cool.

I would be surprised if anything other than the Ultra-detail material actually printed those without significant loos of detail (look at the 3rd picture and then you could actually use that to determine detail size based on the 1 cm and 6 mm square stated dimensions).

With the FUD, you end up paying a bit over $10 to cover a bit under 12 square cm. Those are some pricey tiles.

Guys, I think I have come up with a better and much simpler idea that affords more freedom to the individual model-maker:

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Dan

Is this awesome or what!

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His TMP thread here:

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Dan
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