Hello Everyone
I had owned a 3D printer since several months and couldn't find a good use for it in scale modeling until I came across a brilliant 3D design on the internet of one of these bomb dismantling robots by "Nemanja Pektov" and I decided to try and print this design and transform it into a scale model. The subject was really interesting and I had never seen any scale models about these robots before.
The model was separated into 30 pieces (similar to a scale model kit) and each part printed separately with a total print time of 8 hours for the entire kit.
The surface required a lot of effort to remove the printing lines but eventually the kit came to a smooth surface finish.
I used and applied all the usual airbrushing, painting and weathering techniques used for normal kits and it worked the same.
I believe once 3D printers develop in quality and speed a little bit more, they will become an essential tool for every scale modeler.
You can see the making video on youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow2De5rqhWs

And here are the photos of the making steps:
Here are some photos of Military robots in action:




The 3D Design:

separating the pieces:

Loading the parts on the printer software:

Parts of the Printing Process:
Printing a Track:

One of the side panels:

One of the arm joints:


The top panel:

The hand clamps:


The Finished Kit parts:

Assembly and preparation:


Surface Priming:

Base preparation:



The Finished Model:

I think that is pretty awesome.

Great work, Hussein.. that looks awesome!

Hiham

That's really cool. It does, however, illustrate both how far the technology has come and how far it has to go.

The fact you can do this at all at home is pretty cool, but the clean-up of the parts is also pretty significant and would be much nmore of an issue on a 1/35 scale model than the 1/6 scale unit you've built.

The machines with the really thin layer thickensses are what is needed for the smaller scales in the hobby and these are still too expensive for home use. And, no matter what machine you use, they still need significant build line cleanup on every part.

It's getting much better, but these parts are still not at the point where we can print out kits that equal resin in terms of buildability without significant clean-up time.

Paul

Absolutely true Paul, it's impossible to build anything in 1/35 scale except maybe some accessories for dioramas. I had some limited success with barrels and road block printed in 1/35 scale.
Still we have to wait for the technology to progress.
I can dream of a day when "Verlinden" for example would be selling 3D files of figures that you can adjust their posture and details, maybe even choose heads and clothes and stuff and print it all according to your needs. But that will be in the far future

Hussein: If I understood the E-mail you sent you are looking to sell copies of this model and as such I have handed it to Kevin who will be in touch soon.

Pretty amazing Hussein! Thanks for sharing!

—mike

Thanks Mike