Back in February of 2019, we shared some really cool 3-D print files from Isotelus featuring unreleased 3.75" droids that appeared throughout the Star Wars saga. We loved his offerings and as a result, we heavily modified one of his prints to create our Professor Huyang action figure back in July. For that action figure we had to use a third-party to produce the print and ship it to us so Dad could get to work on adding articulation and sculpt in some details missing from the design. It was just one of many figures that we wanted to add to our collection from the ones that were available. The major roadblock that we faced when adding more of these droids to our collection was the high cost of using third-party printing companies to achieve our goals. Huyang alone ran us almost $30+ dollars to print and ship. Much too expensive for us to keep making more!
Well this holiday, we saw our biggest impediment to reaching our goal of making these droids removed when my grandmother bought me and Dad a 3-D LONGER Orange 30 SLA Printer for Christmas. Originally, when asked what we wanted, Dad just said a tube of Green Stuff, 90 grams of ProCreate putty, and a 1/4 lb. of Aves Fixit to replenish all of our sculpting mediums. Getting the printer as a gift was way beyond anything we could have ever imagined.
While we had absolutely no experience with 3-D printing, Dad got to work on learning various software like Meshmixer, Meshroom, and CHITUBOX in preparation for making our dreams a reality. For our first print, Dad picked Isotelus' JV-P12 droid that appeared at the Kessel mines in the film Solo: A Star Wars Story. Dad is a huge fan of the movie and we both thought the HVAC droid was just adorable. The first print that we attempted had some imperfections, but at just 35 cents a print compared to more than $30, we were fine with a little trial and error. We are still trying to nail down what went wrong the first go round, but have since had a successful run on our second try. Once the print was cured under a UV light, Dad set to painting the droid and used the metal handle from a Chinese food container and two strips of gift wrapping tape to manufacture the bar that protrudes from the front of the droid that was absent in the original design. By the time Dad was finished we were able to add JV-P12 to our Kessel Mine Escape Playset display in my room!
We are blown away by the possibilities this new machine will offer to our craft. We hope you were all stick around in 2020 to see what the New Year brings to our blog.
"JV-P12"
modified and painted by Darth Daddy
