We are looking for someone to create one or more spaceship designs. The designs will need to be designed with 3D Printing in mind as they will be used for prototyping for a miniatures game. We would like the design to be created in multiple pieces and/or parts and not just one solid piece. This will let the pieces be moved, resized, combined, mirrored to create different versions of the same ship but retain similar look and feel of a fleet ship.
The spaceships can be influenced by Star Wars, Firefly, Babylon 5, Star Trek. For anime references you can look at Macross, Star Blazers, Captain Harlock. We aren’t looking for exact designs or replicas of those ships but they are a good reference to give you an idea of the feel and size of the ships. If you want to look at miniature references you can also look at Firestorm Armada. There is a lot of room for leeway.
Since these will be 3D Printed the detail will have to be in the design and embossing of the sections, not through rendering or textures. If you haven’t designed with 3D Printing in mind before there is more information about specifics below.
Offer: This is a paid offer depending on experience. A link to a portfolio or examples of work would be appreciated.
As a caveat these designs will be used in the creation of a miniatures based space combat game. If you are also interested in 3D Printing we can work on access to a 3D Printer in exchange for reduction of pay. We are also open to trades and/or giveaways of the miniatures and game once completed with a reduction of pay. We still want to pay you but we are flexible as well for those that are interested.
Examples of Ship Sections: bridge, forward bulkhead, fuselage, side sections, engines, rear sections, wing sections (if aerodynamic, doesn’t need to be aerodynamic as most of them are space only ships not designed to go in the atmosphere), hanger bay sections.
3D Design for 3D Printing
If you do not have experience with designing for 3D printing, minimum wall thickness is an often encountered error. In the virtual world of a rendering your model can have any dimension or be as thick or thin as you want. If you would like to make a model in the real world though, for 3D printing, there are some constraints though.
Thin equals delicate
Even though you could use a minimum wall thickness of 1mm we recommend that you stick to 2mm. We would also would not recommend making large portions of the model this thin because this would make it excessively delicate.
Min Supported Wall Thickness : A supported wall is one connected to other walls on two or more sides.
1 mm thick, safest to use 2 mm thick walls.
Min Unsupported Wall Thickness : An unsupported wall is one connected to other walls on less than two sides.
1 mm thickness, safest to use 2 mm thick walls.
Min Supported Wires : A wire is a feature whose length is greater than five times its width. A supported wire is connected to walls on both sides.
1 mm thickness.
Min Unsupported Wires : A wire is a feature whose length is greater than five times its width. An unsupported wire is connected to walls on less than two sides.
1 mm thick.
Min Embossed Detail : A detail is a feature whose length is less than twice its width. Embossed details stick out from a surface. With small details, this can rub away sharp corners and make them look less crisp. This is because polishing will remove about 0.1 mm material from the surface of the model.
0.5 mm high & wide.
Min Escape Holes : Escape holes allow unbuilt material inside hollow products to be removed.
4.00 mm diameter for one escape hole.
2.00 mm diameter when there are two or more escape holes.
Clearance - Clearance is the space between any two parts, walls or wires.
0.5 mm clearance.