[BLENDER] Toy soldiers

Hello,

[EDIT] Here's the progress



I'm currently working on a toy soldier with Blender. It will be my first 3D printable project. So I wanna start with a proper mesh, etc.


I have different questions, such as :
-1) Do I need to create the body and the clothes in a single mesh? Or can I just create the body in one object, create the clothes in another object then join them together? (Actually they're 2 different object that can move independently)

-2) Can we have a polished plastic finish? It seems plastic materials are grainy.

-3) Do the proportions are correct. If the height = 5 cm, so the tiniest part of the model, the fingers are :
x=2.166mm
y=0.631mm
z=0.607mm

Also, the volume = 1.8851 cubic cm. Didn't found any prices about materials... (Like this I could calculate it to have an idea)

-4) What material would you recommend me to have a glossy plastic finish? (With or without colors)?

-5) When I'll send you the finished 3D file, I need to delete the cameras, lights, etc. only keep the object I'll print, right?
Do I need to rotate the object in a specific position? (When I press1 I have the front view in Blender)


Thanks, sorry if some questions were already asked, I searched but found nothing except for question 5 but I want to be sure.

Several of your questions are directly tied to what material you want the item printed in. You need to review the Material Pages to see which one would be best for you.

1) If you want to print it as a single item, you need one mesh. If you want parts to assemble later, you'd use multiple meshes. If you upload two overlapping meshes, then the upload software will merge them. If you want an interlocking mechanism, then you'll upload multiple meshes, but you must pay attention to the minimum clearances between parts.
2) A polished finish on Strong&Flexible (S&F) is available
3a) 0.6mm is too thin for S&F. The minimum is 0.7mm for unpolished, 1.0mm for polished
3b) Prices are listed on each of the material pages. The tricky part is that some prices like S&F are dependent upon geometry.
4) S&F can be polished, but it's still a bit rough.. to get a "slick" surface, you will likely have to do some fill work.
5a) You can usually leave the cameras and lights in the file.. they will be ignored.
5b) At this time, you can't specify print orientation. Shapeways will include your item with hundreds of others in a single build, and the orientation of each object is set to minimize the blank space between them.

Thanks for your answer!
By the way I should have found this before :

https://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/prepping_blender_files_fo r_3d_printing

"Cleaning up: join meshes using Booleans

The Shapeways servers are usually able to handle so-called 'multiple shell' objects and intersecting or overlapping objects. If your object is not accepted, you can try to manually 'fuse' the parts together using Boolean operations."

I'll do the Booleans operations, but if I don't do that, the result will be the same. A single peace of a soldier, with the clothes, helmet, etc. And everything will be created in one single material. So it won't be possible to take of the helmet or clothes, that's excactly what I want for this project.

about the booleans; if you upload your model, you can rotate the 3d preview en zoom in. If all the parts are visible you don't need to do destructive boolean operations, but if some parts (mostly small details) are missing you should use a boolean.

Thanks!

Because I never use Booleans... I once try with a simple cube and tube, it worked. But with my complex model, with "Union" nothing change... I tried with other options but the entire helmet take the shape of the body. (I just created an helmet).

So I won't use Booleans. The only thing I'll do, I'll delete all the faces not visible. For example, inside the clothes, though I'll close the holes.
I don't know if I'm understand. ^^'

Hi,

my project has progressed, I read whole a lot of different things but I might forgot something, so if you have any tips/advice, you are welcome.
It will be my first printed model. During the printing process I might lose some details, I'll see it when it will be printed. I'm almost sure I have to improve the laces (othewise during the smoothing process it will be erase), so I don't know if I'll had laces or just let the boots like this? I almso might improve the wrinkles.

Sometimes images are better than words :




There's 608 866 triangles.

Thanks!