3D-print at low costs - this time a Pitbull

Before I start to print thousands of parts for the complete undercarriage I will relax a little bit and make more simple parts: the car body.

Because the wheelmounts of the rear axles miss one hinge compared to the front axle they are smaller. That means, while keeping the track width of the wheels, I shifted the undercarriage parts outwards and won more than 10 mm:

Good for the passenger cabin (half cabin shown in the pictures):



I will just make it a little bit smaller. Problem solved!

Oh btw ...
Lesson 4:
A srewed model isn't necessary. At least until now. But these metal bolts are unbeatable. For some hinges I need longer bolts. Fortunately I have some ø5 mm steel at the storage:

And I got the right tools for cutting them

 

Again spring tension. I made a test and got the spring characteristic:

Since we have cylindrical coil springs the characteristic will always be linear. The estimated wight of the vehicle cabin will be something between 400 and 600 g. 12 springs. So maximum 50 g/spring = 5 mm spring travel. Possible are 10-15 mm. Cool!

 

Haha! Since you became an accredited member of the crafting section of this forum you should consider to set your own Pitbull-goal and build your own Pitbull with RC. Probably from LEGO bricks? I can help you with very special LEGO bricks wich arn't available from LEGO

 

HA! I pulled out my old GC today and already at the 6th attempt (after 5x Error 72) it spitted out a code. Hoooorahhh! I went to the auction at Fort Troy and bought a Pitbull for 20 PED.

Hopefully my GC will let me in few more times. Good for inspecting the ingame model.
First of all I have to admit, that Wistrel was right: The wheels move vertically up and down. Alas, I will stick with my version now.

 

Everybody must play with LEGO. Even me - and I'm 63:

Right now printer finished a figure of Kristin for the Pitbull (1:25). Without arms so far. But it looks crappy like hell:

 

A busy evening. I made half of the vehicle vat with the nuts for the undercarriage units:

I will print a nut-dummy tomorrow to check out if it works.

And I decided to make the wishbones parallel and changed the suspension. All good now and corresponding to the ingame vehicle.

 

Usually the downside looks better because the printer drives slowly and puts more pressure to the first level. The upper side is often pitted.

 

The car body. I decided to use the original shape as far as possible and copy it with nurbs surfaces:


I made the nuts for the undercarriage again at this body and started with the passenger cabin.
No clue yet how to print all this. The main body (without the shield) is 345 x 240 x 135 mm (LxWxH). Sounds like 6 or 8 big parts for printing.
It is really a battleship:

The model compared to the maximum print volume:

 

1:25 ... so 64,4 mm.
Nothing for print. Even sister Kristin with 200 cm (80 mm) looks crappy (see above).

Splitting a model is not mainly a question of size. It's more important to get "good printable" parts. But I will complete the vehicle body first. I know, that I can print it. So all cool. Later I'll start to think about how to print it.

 

I did it. I agree it's similar to Poser. But since I know and own Poser already it seems there is no need to learn the next software for me.

 

Regarding the Pitbull. I will freeze this project. Meanwhile I know that I could do it if I were in need to. That was the main goal. From now on it would be just a lot of further CAD-work, printer time and material to complete the vehicle. No new knowledge and experiance. Just work and costs. And last but not least I miss a place to put such a big vehicle at.