Is this runabout tiny enough?

Kitty

New Member
Joined
May 6, 2009
Messages
43
This runabout i made about 1 year ago.
It's 24.2 mm long and made of thin styrene sheet layers.
I was going for 1:1000, but this handmade one turned out about 1:950.
I made transparent castings of this one with a led cast inside.
After lightproofing the little ships they only had light coming out of the front and side cockpit windows and a faint blue from the warp drive and red from the bussard collectors.
The resistors and batteries were in the base.
Unfortunately i haven't got a picture of those anymore and the 3 lit ships were made for a collegue who started a new job abroad.
Later i made a 3D model on the computer and did testshots on a zcorp and later the final printing on an objet.
BTW that grid is 1 cm, not 1"

[attachment deleted by admin]
 
I Still have a few pictures of the light testing i did with different kinds of clear and white resin copies i made.
In the last picture you see the clear epoxy hull that shines so bright in the other pictures. :)


[attachment deleted by admin]
 
ScreamingSamuraiStudio said:
I would love to try something this small...
but I'm a big time mouth breather..so I'm afraid I'd inhale so many great projects.
Don't worry. They come out again, sooner or later. :D
 
Inhale them! Hell I could not see them! I so admire fine precise small work. And lit up as well! Now that's dedication to one's craft. 8)
 
Very cool stuff kitty.

Were those destined for any particular project, or was they more of a "can I do this, this small?" experiment?
 
They were just a "i can make a very small runabout and light it - experiment"
I started with 1:1400 scale ,so i could display it with my AMT enterprise-D
It turned out that was just to small, because i cannot do SMD electonics with my deteriorating eye sight, so i tried a little bigger turned out about 1:950 was just lage enough to cast in a 3mm led so i went for that.
After i pulled that off (the runabouts are a tiny bit to high but still look fine) i made a mesh of a runabout on the computer and printed that in 1/1000 scale on an objet since a lot of startrek fans are into 1:1000 scale.
I had a bag full of those things, i do something to them and give them away as small gifts to friends on occasion.
The handmade lit ones i used in a little hangar bay diorama that fit into a cigarett box for a friend and collegue who went abroad last year.

If you want some, i've put them up on shapeways.com.
They are $ 3.51 a piece atm, but they have a minimum order of $25 of any stuff that is for sale there, that's including shipping.
So if you would want only runabouts, you could order 7 of those for $25, or pick some other stuff to fill the minimum order of $25
Any proceeds of the runabouts go to a foundation to buy materials for a workshop that i'm setting up as therapy for people that lost their fine motorskills after accidents and need to practice those.
I was in that boat 15 years ago and it took me 13 years to be able to use my right hand again.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top