"Earth Empire Battleship 'Lord Trotec'" Topic

Build yourself a space-faring battlewagon.

You will need:

3mm Acrylic sheet
One Laser-cutter
Glue
Paint

Step One:

Step Two:

Step Three:

That didn't turn out too bad, and it cost all of about six bucks. Not bad for a 200mm miniature.

Her name is a nod to her origins, recognised I'm sure by those with access to a laser themselves. ;)

The question is, do I go to the bother of designing carriers, cruisers, etc…?

I'm surprised how nice that turned out for only six layers wide.

How much time on the laser to complete? Compared to the other tools, THAT'S where the real cost is. ;->=

As for your question, only you can answer, but I keep hearing Newt saying, 'Affirmative.'

Doug

Very nice! Great design, too!
I know this Lord Trotec ;-)
Haven't worked with acrylic so far.
Which glue did you use? Did you spray paint it?
Did you have a specific rule set in mind when designing it?

Awesome! Now all I need is a laser cutter.

Ten layers wide, Doug! That's if you include the two shield-things on the sides, and the spacers that separate them from the hull.

As for time on the laser, I think it was about 6 minutes, which isn't too bad. All the detail is vectored, not etched, which does a lot to cut down on time.

As for more designs… The aggro is that down here in Australia, 3mm acrylic is just about the thinnest you can hope to find. If I had a reliable, local source for 2mm and 1mm, I'd draw up everything, from fleet carriers right down to corvettes, but the 3mm thickness is a bit restrictive when designing the little guys.

Joerg – Acrylic is a nice medium to cut, much sharper points and acute angles than MDF will sustain. Having said that, it can be brittle. And yes, she was airbrushed for the hull, but the detailing is all by hand.

Oh, the glue is an acrylic solvent, which you can buy from just about anyone who sells acrylic sheet. Just don't breathe it in, get it on your skin, or feed it after midnight. ;)

I kind of had an idea of using her in Firestore Armada, but she'd work in any big ship SF space game, like Full Thrust, for example.

Brilliant work!

Seriously impressive work!

-Will

You should be able to get 1mm sheet styrene for the little guys easily enough, I buy it in commercial sized sheets in NZ for all my scratch built spaceships. Then it's just a matter of the correct settings for the laser.

Nice ship by the way.

Robert

Ahh, Robert, styrene I can obtain with ease; but acrylic is a whole different beast. Styrene does not laser well, if at all. It's low melting-point means it tends to deform and burn, rather than vaporise the way acrylic does. Trust me, I have experimented with the stuff under a laser.

I'm working up a few more ideas, mostly for some cruiser-sized vessels. Making those from 4-5 layers of 3mm shouldn't look bad, I think.

Never thought of using Acrylic to do spaceships. Neat design, almost 'legend of the galactic heroes' style.

For styrene need to do repeated low power cuts & don't have squared corners use rounded corners to stop the laser dwelling on point below changing direction.

Might be worth getting one of those low power blue diode lasers or more powerful vinyl cutter.

Australian 2mm Acrylic:
link
link

Regards

MMG.

Nice job. I do 3D CAD design on models that are resin or pewter. I also do 2D artwork in CorelDraw for the local pipe maker, Boswell's, that they use a laser to etch pipes and other products. Never thought to consider a layered effect to create models like this. My problem is scale. Weapons are typically more visible on what I do (fighters and gunboats) then on a capital class ship that takes up the same relative space

Have you tried dealing with plastic supply companies down there? I did a quick search: link

There may be a minimum buy, but if you get enough product…

Another material to consider, electronics boards. This is typically called FR4 or G10. It's a epoxy-fiberglass composite. I know the material I have in my lab is pretty thin, but very stiff over a short length.

Cheers, MMG, I have been warned off IPS, they charge like cavalry at Balaclava for shipping.

I can get 2mm from a mob in Brisbane I've used before, I might see what they have in stock.

I have heard of people cutting very thin styrene on a vinyl cutter… that might be worth investigating further.

As for LoGH inspiration… the guns on my ship point the wrong way! These are ranked in broadsides, instead of firing forward. But I did just finish watching all of LoGH, awfully tempted to try this technique with some Reich and Alliance designs.

Stogie – roughly what sizes are the fighters and gunboats? One way around the weapons issue is to give their emitters / launchers flat or square profiles, and etch down the edges to 'round' them off a bit. In a small size, it looks quite effective. Adds quite a bit to the time on the bed though.

I might look into electronic boards, that's certainly something I hadn't considered.

Thanks guys!

Ten layers wide, Doug!

Now, now, you're quibbling about 'details.' ;->=

Of course, I meant the main hull; that's only six, and you've made it very impressive!

As for LoGH inspiration…

Why I picked up some ZandrisIV…

But I did just finish watching all of LoGH,

Oh HELL, that's SO beyond binge viewing!

Doug

MM,
Depends on the model of course, but we are talking roughly 15mm for the smaller models. Larger models get to about 30x70, but they are escort sized. Your method would work great if the fighters were only about a few millimeters like Full Thrust. These also have a level of atmospheric capability too, so they need to look smooth.
Regards,
Stogie

Very nice. I would spend money for one of those.

And I would wheedle endlessly for the chance to spend money for one of these… ;->=

Vinyl cutter? I've heard of crafters using Cricut/Silhouette for vinyl. Like those?

I've used the hand rollers to emboss and cut "very thin styrene" for greebles with some success. Not what you're doing here, mind you…

Doug

Cricut/Silhouette don't have enough force to cut the plasticard, the Silhouettehas enough force to score the thinner plasticard but not enough to cut. Would need a blackcat cutter to do deeper cut as has a lot more cutting force.

Looks Great…
but beside the "I dont have / or begin to know where to find a Laser Cutter". I think I will take the short cut (pardon the pun) and keep to traditional plastic models.

but again..really great finished work.

Thanks for the comments, all.

I have a cruiser-sized design I'm working on at the moment, it might see the light of day, but it's a bit back in the queue, behind a bunch of 1/600 aircraft, 1/100 racing cars, 54mm toy soldiers, and my Last Starfighter project, and… O_o

Mad Mecha Guy: I already got the notion not those in particular, but wanted to make sure the kind of dingus.

I've some really thin sheets that might still be cut, but not thick enough to layer up as above.

Everything I've heard suggests Cricut is damn difficult to make user-programmable, and Silhouette only somewhat less so.

Don't see myself investing in a Black Cat anytime soon, but thanks for the pointers.

Doug