On the left is an original Centuri Fighter Fleet missile, complete with an air bubble in the molded nose cone. On the right is one of the new Odd'l missiles. The small 3d printed nose cones and fin units slide into a standard 1/8" launch lug. The kits (with new missiles) are only available through Odd'l Rocket vendors.
These are smooth, SLA printed. The more common PLA printers have the ridges that require filling and sanding.
My Odd'l kits are produced in small batches. The most recent F-16 and upcoming F-18 Hornet kits will include the missiles.
These were designed and printed by David Koo.
David is producing two new 3D printed Russian N1 model kits. To see his website: CLICK HERE
I recently had lunch with David and saw some 3D printed parts from his N-1 kit. His work is clean! We talked rockets and rocket trivia for 1 1/2 hours. David and I agreed we both like the problem solving aspect of rocket design and production.
Just to clarify, what you refer to as PLA printers are actually FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling). PLA is just one type of plastic that can be printed with and FDM printer, and one of the worst for rockets, in my opinion. The SLA printer is perfect for these small parts. Small details is what they excel at printing. I have been looking at getting one, after seeing the quality of the Boyce Saturn V fairings and fins I bought.
ReplyDeleteThese are really cool, by the way. Much more realistic looking than the originals.
Hi Metal,
DeleteYou know more 3D printing acronyms than I do! I am learning as I go.
These missile parts came out great and really add to my fighter jet kits.
Ah yes, I do remember that problem in the nose of the missiles on the Centuri kits. The problem could be very easy to miss since those parts were molded in clear. I lucked out and noticed early so I could deal with it. Some options available:
ReplyDelete1. be particularly lazy and simply omit the missile detail
2. be a bit less lazy and hide the flaw by turning the missile nose so that the bubble was facing the wing surface -- taking advantage of the fact that the front of the missile usually didn't protrude past the front edge of the wing.
3. take time to fill in the hole with putty (the type used for plastic models).
4. replace the missile nose with a piece of a dowel and then sharpen to a point and faired in with wood putty.
5. replace the missile with a length of dowel with the front sharpened to a point. Glue tiny pieces of card for the fins (or conveniently "forget" to add them).
6. use missiles from a plastic model kit.
(options 3 and 6 were available to me because I also built plastic models at the time)
Hi Naoto,
DeleteI never had any of the Centuri Fighter Fleet kits. The missile shown above came from some finished models given to me by Lonnie B. The originals were used as a model for the new 3D printed parts. David Koo's SLA work is so much better than the original injection molded parts.
I had the F-15 and F-4 models, and both kits had the same sort of "undershot" (where the plastic didn't fill the mold completely) flaw of the missile nosecone parts (the size of the depression varied, and the nosecone part looked a bit misshapen). As I'd stated earlier those parts were molded in clear (they were on the same sprue as the canopy), and thus the flaws in those parts might not be immediately obvious. I built the F-15 model (mostly) stock -- I omitted the missile and drop tank parts as I wasn't pleased with how they looked. The F-4 ended up as a source of parts for a kitbash -- turned it into a fighter plane with forward-swept wings and dorsal intake.
DeleteIt appears that the Estes F-61 Starfighter re-used the canopy/droptank/missle parts from the Centuri Figther Fleet kits along with the Alien Invader nosecone. Although the body tube sizes are close enough, I do remember that the underside of the canopy had a ridge that would be used to help locate it on the nosecone (the bit of the back end would overhang the back of the nosecone) and I'd guess you'd want to sand that slight ridge down when gluing the canopy to the nosecone.
http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/nostalgia/81est032.html
Mr. Koo’s N1s are amazing! Thanks for sharing his site with us Chris!
ReplyDeleteYou bet, Openroad. I'm glad to share the link.
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