3D Printed Kerbal Rocket

[MadChris48]

I'm fortunate enough to have access to a 3D printer at my job. I've recently started doing some 3D modeling and thought it would be really fun to model a Kerbal ship. The first time we printed it we tried it vertically. It was the first time we'd tried to print anything that tall the first print fell over about half way through (lesson learned, moar legs!). Second time we printed it horizontally. Consequently, the model suffered some detail loss and isn't quite as clean of a print as it could be, but it's still nice to be holding it in my hands. It's not a perfect model, but I may get another go at printing it; at which time it could get some revisions. It was modeled in 123D Design from Autodesk (free app), in 4 parts (engine, fuel tank, decoupler, command pod/parachute), all parts were imported and snapped together, and then printed in one piece. It now lives in the office as example for visitors (and my viewing pleasure).

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Edited August 26, 2014 by MadChris48

[OrbitusII]

Awesome! Just a tip, you can make imgur albums show up by using the

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[/noparse]

Do you ever plan on coloring it? That would make it a whole lot cooler.

[MadChris48]

Yeah, I've thought about coloring it (I've got some model painting skills under my belt). I think if we were to print it again it would be in its individual pieces, and I'd design some interlocking mechanism to snap the parts together.

[Thomas988]

This is great!

I wish I had a 3D printer.

[B787_300]

I wish I had a 3D printer.

Dont we all... i want a sterolithography printer

[JDCollie]

Yeah, I've thought about coloring it (I've got some model painting skills under my belt). I think if we were to print it again it would be in its individual pieces, and I'd design some interlocking mechanism to snap the parts together.

Just drill a shallow hole in the middle of each connecting surface, and then superglue in some small magnets like the

when they want their little troops to be modular.

[ZodiaK]

OR FORGET REPRINTING! TAKE A HACKSAW TO IT

yeah

hacksaws

[MadChris48]

Just drill a shallow hole in the middle of each connecting surface, and then superglue in some small magnets like the

when they want their little troops to be modular.

That's an awesome idea, thanks!

[longbyte1]

You should add a decoupler so that you can slide in other stages.

[MadChris48]

You should add a decoupler so that you can slide in other stages.

I modeled a decoupler with this ship. It's just that since we printed it horizontally a lot of the detail was lost (I even went so far as to model the triangle and caution lines in the decoupler but those details never came out in the horizontal print). The next go round will definitely be individual pieces that can snap together. Eventually I want to model more parts and have them all be modular so I can build any type of ship I want.

[DeMatt]

Did you do it hollow or solid? I imagine a solid piece of that size would have some weight to it.

[MadChris48]

it's mostly solid. Since I modeled the pieces individually there is empty space inside the decoupler. Other than that, its a solid piece (engine nozzle is shelled as well). We used a fairly large fill hatch for it, so it isn't heavy at all. In fact, it's surprisingly light.