G’day folks, thought I’d try something different in this post. While going through Thingiverse, (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1453274) a website with free 3d models, I happened across the 3d model of the Marauder Battlemech from Mechwarrior Online of the Mechwarrior/Battletech franchise! One of my favorite PC games with my all time favorite subject matter, giant stompy robots!!
The model looked clean enough, so I decided to upload it to shapeways, an online 3d printing service to see how much it would cost to produce. While there, the algorithm detected some weak spots on the model that the 3D printer may not be able to print due to their orientation on the model, or may otherwise break off easily, so I decided to plug the model into Blender; a free 3d modeling program, found here: (https://www.blender.org/ ) to clean up some of the problem areas.
The problem areas on the model are highlighted in yellow. The rest of the model is in green. That means that those parts would be clear to print without major errors.
The problem areas on the model were some of the smaller details such as the ladder rungs on the lower left and right legs, the antenna wires on the Center Torso, and the Cargo(?) rungs on the Left and Right Torso Assemblies.
To begin, I started with the easiest part of the modification process, removing the antenna on the center torso. To do this, I clicked edit mode on the bottom of Blender’s Operating face. I then right clicked the vertices on the model I wanted to delete, and then, logically hit the delete button. Here is the end result… Pretty legit eh?
The editing process will be continued in the next post, and we just might be able to make this thing 3d printable. Thanks for looking, and I’ll see you in the next one.
