Torrent Model Kit

Discussion in 'My Work In Progress' started by CybranKNight, Nov 1, 2014.

  1. CybranKNight
    CybranKNight Well-Known Member
    Alright, proper impressions are ready so here we go!

    First some nice pictures!

    [​IMG]

    So all in all, it turned out pretty good considering it was my first attempt at something like this, I was honestly expecting something much less workable on the first attempt honestly. Not everything was perfect and going forward I will be aiming to do things a bit differently compared to how I did this one but lets go over all that now.

    Sprue and Materials
    The Sprue was mostly functional, it could have stood to be thicker and stronger and over the 4 prints I received there were 5 breaks in the sprues and one more break that cause the loss of some parts before the prints were packaged for shipping. overall it still worked but could be better and will be something I'll improve on.

    For materials, I had 4 prints made, 2 in each of Shapeway's Strong and Flexible White and Strong and Flexible White Polished. With the only real difference being that one set got polished while the other didn't they overall quality was roughly the same but the Polished prints were clearly superior compared to the unpolished ones.

    [​IMG]
    Non-Polished on the Left, Polished on the Right

    The Polished Material is even available in a number of Colors applied in a dying process as well. As long as I'm careful about where I connect the parts to the Sprue you won't even notice any discoloration in the assembled model so if you were interested in doing something for a board game or something you can color code things pretty easily or whatever, maybe you guys just really like <insert color here>!

    It's All in the Details
    One thing I was concerned about throughout the entire design process was making sure that the details I designed could actually be printed. Luckily I paid a lot of attention to Shapeway's guidelines for the Material and aside from the cockpit frame all the details showed up, some need some tweaking to show up a bit better but overall it worked out pretty well. I'm very pleased with the Gatling barrels actually, they turned out really well. Even the 6 small thrusters turned out really well but I did realize that I actually messed up the geometry a bit and I've fixed that now! xD

    [​IMG]

    Success as a Model Kit?
    So the intention with this right from the beginning was to design something akin to a "traditional" model kit and overall I think I've done it, the "problem" is that the Torrent, while it was designed with as large a range of movement as possible, even way back during the original design process three years ago, is that the torrent is really only "appealing" in a small range of poses, making a lot of the posability I built into the current kit into places like the knees quite superfluous. On top of that point at this scale the pins used in some areas like the arms in particular just aren't really suitable for the size/scale going on here. If you're picking a pose and gluing it together like I did it's not a big deal because the glue really strengthens the joints up, of course at that point they aren't really joints anymore right? ;p

    So where to go from here?
    [​IMG]

    I think what I'll be doing is making two Torrent Variants. A Figure variant at the same scale as this, all the same details(some tweaked of course) but no assembly needed. This would be about the same/slightly cheaper cost as it is now. I will also do a Kit variant that is larger(currently aiming at about 50% bigger) and still comes in multiple parts but with fewer parts in areas that don't need them(knees for example) but keeping the ball socket joints in the hips and ankles and letting the 'torso' twist and what not.

    I will of course be designing other things as well to come, especially now that I've got a better grasp of how things go throughout the printing process. Until then!
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2014
  2. stop4stuff
    stop4stuff Well-Known Member
  3. CybranKNight
    CybranKNight Well-Known Member
    Oh yeah, the T-bars are probably the single most useful part for smaller scale Mecha builds, I use them a LOT. Each of those has at least 13 for the basic articulation and some have more for the assorted gimmicks.

    As for the Torrent, I've been working on revamping the design for the Kit Variant;

    [​IMG]
    https://flic.kr/p/oYXfRV][​IMG]

    As I said, I think I had a fair amount of superfluous articulation so I've been looking to simplify things a bit, reduce the number of parts a bit without unduly hurting the articulation.

    Mike