Since my eventual layout will build on a nostalgic scene from my own life, I wanted to see if I could populate it with figures of people I know. So instead of working on my White Castle building or my R36 WF subway car, for the last few months I’ve put together a 3D-scanning system based around an XBox 360 Kinect video game sensor and 3D printer.
Over the weekend I had the first test flight of the system and printed out a 1:18 scale figure. And last night I did a quick-and-dirty test to see if one could even be printed in 1:87 scale. It came out way rough, but I do have a finer-bore printer nozzle that I will be experimenting with in the days to come. And someday I’ll learn how to paint.
But I’m curious to see if anyone else has either a) built a similar scanning system, or b) found other suppliers of such a service for their own layouts. And just to gauge if there’s any interest in this sort of thing beyond my own obsessions.
edit 1/11/18 - hopefully these pictures show up now
Sounds like a logical use for 3D printing. With the right software you could design your own figures to be posed exactly the way you want them. I can see particular opportunities for hard to find figures like car or truck drivers. It would also be nice to not have every engineer posed exactly the same way, although that can be accomplished with a #11 blade too.
There is no punishment so you are safe. I did see someone’s google pics once. Maybe they were Mel’s. I use gmail all the time, but I don’t know why I could see them once and only once.
Links to HOSeeker.com are the same way. You can see them but no one else can. Dunno why, not my pay grade. [:O]
Shahomy,
There seem to be a lot of support for 3D scanning with the Kinect sensor. I had the game system lying around gathering dust and thought I’d try. There’s a gentleman known as The Great Fredini from the Coney Island Sideshows that has shared his turntable and vertical-motion scanner platform designs on the web. There are a couple of software packages available (I’ve been using Skanect).
I modified Fredini’s hand-cranked platform by adding a motorized belt-drive for the Kinect sensor and some software for sending it up/down/pause/speed and a self timer so I could do 3D selfies.
I’m not expecting to suddenly make kitbashing go the way of the dinosaur or anything. I just thought it’d be fun to be able to make figures of my friends with the costuming and poses I want without going blind in the process.
MB, you’re not far from me. I’m going to try to do some fine tuning on my scan rig for a few hours on Saturday at the makerspace I belong to in Lowell. Let me know if you wanna give it a whirl (literally).
“What’ll they think of next.” That’s really neat, especially the 1:18 figure, & I dig the get-up. The possibilities for 3D scanning must be endless, like doing a holiday scene with the entire family, that is if one could get them all to sit still for a scan.
Here’s a couple I printed this weekend in 1:12 (gifts for the victi…cough…models) after i got back from the scan party I hosted in NYC. Seventeen folks volunteered to get turned into ones and zeroes.
I’m not sure that even swapping to a 0.15mm nozzle on my printer will work well for 1:87, so once I’ve processed all the scans I’ll probably group them together for Shapeways to print out in frosted extreme detail.
This is one of the more imaginative uses I’ve seen of 3D printing for model railroad purposes.
Got any engineer/fireman-looking friends with Kromer caps and bib overalls that would model for steam locomotive crews? Some seated poses for both engineer and fireman and perhaps a couple standing or leaning out of the cab windows?
I’d certainly be interested if the cost weren’t outrageous, and I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only taker, either.
Thanks, Wayne. Once I conveniently ignore the costs of the hardware and electonics to build the turntable and scan rail, scan software, driving to and from NY and getting a hotel room for the night, then renting a photo studio and buying pizza and drinks to bribe a few dozen friends to pose, followed by a couple of hours editing each scan, then the plastic filament and about 10 hours apiece for 3D printing the freebies in 1/12 scale, then shipping said freebies, then a few hours more editing to make Shapeways happy at 1/87, they cost about two bucks and change a pop if you bundle 8-10 together.[:D]
