Wakanda Forever

Not only did we get to see “Black Panther” this month, we also found out that some important parts of the magic of Wakanda were 3D printed. Working with 3D designer Julia Koerner, legendary costume designer Ruth Carter incorporated 3D printed elements into the film’s regal fashions. Watch the Racked feature on it here.

A still from Racked’s feature on the costumes of “Black Panther”

So many feels

In medical news, we’re going to pull a “This Is Us” and start with… well, you’ll see. That would be this ugly-cry-inducing story from the BBC about rescue doggo Duke, who needed a paw. Luckily, 3D printing was there to give him just that. And in other touching, adorable news, 3D printing is helping visually impaired children in the classroom. Watch the video and feel nothing, we dare you:

But, we’re not done yet with your heart just yet. Ten years ago, professional snowboarder Mike Schultz had an accident that led to the amputation of his left leg. He turned his injury to his advantage, creating a company, BioDapt, that makes the specialty prosthetics sported by this year’s Paralympians — including Mike Schultz himself. Read more about how 3D printing powers his creations at Engadget, and see what adaptive athletes have done with BioDapt’s prostheses, below:

There were a lot of other astounding medical 3D printing accomplishments announced in February. This beautiful brace (the UNYQ Align by Francis Butonti) was displayed this month at the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in NYC. Meanwhile, UK researchers made progress toward creating 3D printed cell tissues, and one startup, BioLife4D, announced that it plans to focus on “building” hearts. Godspeed, BioLife4D.

PROTOTYPE YOUR BIG IDEA

Style is ageless

In up-and-coming style icon news, this month we met incredible teenager Shami Oshun, who taught herself 3D printing for apparel design, which is so much cooler than what I was doing as a teen. See her tweets and bow down:

Hi Twitter, my name is Shami Oshun. I am 18. I taught myself how to 3D print in August 2017. As of today I am the youngest person and first black person to 3D print fashion. I hope this inspires other black girls to pursue careers in tech and fashion #BlackHistoryMonth pic.twitter.com/OST0ScgttM

— Oshun (@bluexheeta) February 8, 2018

And if you follow car news, you’ll know that Porsche has figured out what you have known for so long: 3D printing is great for replacing parts that don’t exist anymore for the classic things that you love. The iconic, stylish carmaker is 3D printing things like a clutch release lever for the 959. Sounds… like a car thing!

Medtech won’t quit

Thanks to scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne, we are now closer than ever before to something you might not have even dreamed about, which is printing microscopic devices inside the body. And, in the meantime, their technique could simply deliver super-ultra-high-res 3D prints. Merci, y’all.

In Australia, the excellently named Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics has created something equally excellent: a clip-on smartphone microscope that can help people in remote locations analyze water cleanliness, test blood samples, and detect disease at an early stage. So… our iPhone addictions could save our lives? Right?

It’s 2018. Stop watching ‘Encino Man.’

Brits learned this month that their ancient ancestors looked different than many had imagined. With the help of DNA analysis and 3D printing, a team from London’s Natural History Museum and University College London revealed the face of a 10,000-year-old Cheddar Grove, Somerset man. With dark skin, blue eyes, and curly hair, “Cheddar Man” most surprised people who’d seen “Encino Man” too many times.

If we build it…

A Long Island company has proven that they can 3D print a home that’s 70% cheaper and 200% stronger than traditionally constructed homes. While that company’s paperwork clears, Chinese manufacturer WinSun continues to forge ahead with large-scale 3D printed construction, this month unveiling these Shanghai-area bus shelters.

Not to be outdone, Made in Space printed out the world’s longest single 3D printed piece (a beam) in the world — in their terrestrial offices. Next up: condos on the moon (dibs).

See you in March! And in the meantime…

PRINT SOMETHING

The post The (ALL-NEW) Month in 3D Printing: February Amazed Us appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Kenny and his ORB Racing FF210

Over the summer, community manager Ruud van den Muijzenberg and I traveled across Europe visiting RC car events. One of the best things about these trips was the incredibly cool people we met along the way. To our delight, many of them were already using Shapeways 3D printed parts on their RC cars.

In this second of our Driver Profiles, we talk to Kenny Mok, whom we met at the IconicRC Revival meeting in Grantham, England in July. Kenny has been a Shapeways customer for a while and runs 3D printed parts on multiple cars in his fleet.

Kenny prepares to race at the IconicRC Revival

Name: Kenny Mok
Age: 39
From: London, UK
Profession: IT Consultant
Hobbies: 1:1 cars, Fishkeeping, Football, Karaoke and Eating
Years in RC: 2
First RC Car: Tamiya TA01 Alfa-Romeo 155 DTM

IconicRC 4WD car line-up

A couple of weeks before we went to England for IconicRC Revival, we announced that we were going to join the event on IconicRC’s Facebook group. We were welcomed with lots of replies of people showing off their 3D printed RC car parts.

One of those people was Kenny, who showed us his ORB Racing FF210, a very unique and almost fully 3D printed front wheel drive buggy that we actually featured in the magazine earlier this year. He was clearly very excited to show off the cars he had built, and even challenged our community manager Ruud van den Muijzenberg to a race!

When we finally met at IconicRC, Kenny told us he has only been in the RC car racing hobby for about 2 years. After looking up information on drones and quadcopters, he stumbled across a group of RC-car-loving enthusiasts, IconicRC. Kenny initially thought that racing RC cars was a dead hobby, but soon realized it is very much alive and active. He found a group of great people in IconicRC, who race from club level to pro.

Kenny added, “When I was a kid, I was never able to afford hobby RC cars. But being older, like the most of us, I am now able to relive my childhood once again and buy the cars I dreamed of as a kid.”

Kenny racing in one of the Revival heats

When we asked Kenny about his experience at the event, he told us,

“Revival 2017 was my first ever Revival. It was simply awesome! From the smell of fried bacon and grilled onions emanating from the campsite to the enthusiastic chattering of conversation with fellow racers, I soon forgot that there was actually racing involved. I met people from all over the world. Some had travelled quite far (Holland, Germany) and it was great to share views and experiences with everyone. The show of beautiful vintage cars was just simply sublime. Oh, and the racing was fun! This will surely be a regular event for me and a lot of other fellow enthusiasts. I thoroughly recommend this to all RC vintage enthusiasts, I would even go so far to class this as the vintage racing event of the year!”

A special commemorative edition FF210, Kenny’s second FF210

Kenny races a very special 3D printed buggy. The ORB Racing FF210 is an almost fully custom-made front -wheel-drive buggy that features many parts 3D printed at Shapeways. In the picture above you can see the special commemorative edition FF210 that was built by Paul Dijkstra, ORB Racing’s designer and Shapeways community member. Paul created this model to celebrate the FF210’s racing success in 2017.

Kenny likes the FF210 so much this is actually his second one. The FF210 is special because it is the only modern front-wheel-drive buggy in existence. And being front-wheel-drive makes it very competitive on low-grip and wet surfaces compared to regular buggies. With England being a very rainy and wet country, Kenny’s FF210 should feel right at home.

Kenny’s Tamiya Top Force

As cool as it is, the FF210 is of no use at the vintage-focused Revival as it’s too modern. Luckily Kenny brought a whole fleet of cars (painted his signature white) to race at the Revival in multiple classes. Just like the car we raced on sunday at the same event, Kenny also races a vintage Tamiya Top Force featuring 3D printed parts designed by ORB Racing. Besides developing their own FF car, ORB Racing also offer a lot of 3D printed replacement parts that are otherwise very hard to find and often expensive if available at all.

“The fact that I can now have 3D printed replacement parts which feel just as strong as the originals is a real lifesaver for collectors and racers of now obsolete cars,” Kenny told us, reflecting the driving force behind many RC car drivers’ use of 3D printed parts.

Kenny’s Yokomo YZ2 with JConcepts front wing mount

He continued,

“I also use Shapeways printed parts from JConcepts on my modern Yokomo YZ2 buggies. Shapeways really opens the world up to designers where beforehand, production costs would have meant it was impossible for their designs to become a reality. Now it’s just a matter of uploading your file and having the design 3D printed at a very reasonable price. The public’s trust in 3D parts is growing as the materials used have become stronger. At the moment, only replacement parts are made for certain cars. I would love to see a whole car built from 3D printing, i.e. a Shapeways-branded car package!”

IconicRC Wheelie race line-up

2017 was a great year of racing for Kenny, who even organized, for the first time, his own event: Super Off Roader at Surrey and Hants Radio Controlled Car Club. Kenny has big plans for next year too, with the IconicRC Revival being the main event. But there are plenty more races on the calendar, like the IconicRC Cup and the highly anticipated Schumacher Challenge.

Kenny told us that even though he will try to better his race performance at upcoming events, meeting fellow RC enthusiasts means more than the results. So if you happen to go out to a race next year, look out for Kenny and his fleet of white RC cars and go have a chat!

The post Meet Kenny Mok’s Winning RC Car Fleet appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

At Recon G6 Belgium, a RC scaler and crawler event in the Belgian Ardennes, we were lucky enough to meet Christian Lorenz. He has been using Shapeways to develop his own design of a rock crawler chassis.

Christian and his crawler

Name: Christian Lorenz
Age: 35
From: Karlsruhe, Germany
Profession: Process Operator
Hobbies: Mountain biking, BMX, Running, Swimming
Years in RC: 8
First RC Car: Tamiya Manta Ray

One of the steep, rocky trails at ReconG6 Belgium

Christian made his way from his home in Karlsruhe, Germany to the Belgian forest for Recon G6. He brought multiple cars to the event, but the one we were most interested in is his Prototype Rock Crawler, designed by Christian himself from scratch.

After being out of the RC car hobby for some years, Christian caught the bug again and started with an Axial SCX10 scale truck. While working at a mold-making company, his access to CAD software and milling machines meant that it didn’t take long for him to start making custom parts for his trucks.

Christian’s unnamed Prototype Rock Crawler

The Prototype Rock Crawler is Christian’s second custom build truck. His first project, the Spilux, was a scale rock crawler truck with Pure Spider axles, a custom carbon chassis and a bunch of handmade milled metal parts, all covered by a bobbed Toyota Hilux body. The new crawler was designed to compete in the prototype class in the German Yeti Trial Challenge. Almost every single part on the car was designed by Christian himself and is either 3D printed at Shapeways or milled from carbon fiber plates or brass. It took about three months of development and designing in Cimatron to complete the crawler. It’s an amazing feat of engineering from just one man, one that looks like it’s from a big manufacturer.

The main chassis is a skeleton construction featuring many extra supports to make sure the chassis is strong and stiff enough to handle the abuse the car will go through. Christian told us he guessed how much support was really needed, and then doubled it just to be safe.

Inside the chassis is a completely custom-made drivetrain. The transmission housing is 3D printed and has steel gears handmade by Christian himself. It also contains a full interior complete with 3D printed racing seat, dashboard, fire extinguisher, and NOS bottle. Even the hood scoop on the front is functional — it has an electric fan inside forcing air onto the motor to keep it cool! Most competition crawlers don’t have any scale details like an interior, but 3D printing makes it possible to fit these components inside the compact chassis and still keep it lightweight.

The car features a fully 3D printed interior

This hood scoop is actually functional and cools the motor

Both front and rear axles are also completely custom-made. They are portal axles, again with steel gears handmade by Christian. He also machined some brass weights for each corner of the car to keep the tires planted on any obstacle. Both front and rear axles have 3D printed housings, but the rear axle is beefed up with a carbon fibre tube inside. This car really is designed to be bulletproof!

Fully custom axles, hubs and even the wheels

The chassis is unnamed at the moment, but at ReconG6 we joked about how it should be called “Skeleton Screamer” because of the way it looks and sounds. Christian powered the crawler with quite an unusual setup combining a regular car’s electronic speed controller with an outrunner brushless motor that’s normally only used in RC airplanes. The result is a small motor with a ton of torque on low RPM and a loud, high-pitched whine, making it sound almost like a turbine engine. The noise is unique to Christian’s car, and really gives it character.

The crawler after conquering the muddy Belgian trails

Now, with the Prototype Crawler (AKA Skeleton Screamer) finished — and even taking a podium spot at the Yeti Trial Challenge — we asked Christian what’s next. His current project is even crazier than the crawler: Christian is designing a fully custom-built racing machine on track plates, like a tank, but FAST.

Christian’s new project; A race vehicle on tracks

To follow Christian’s progress, get the first look at his new developments, and keep track of race results, check out his Yoyoyotapilot RC page on Facebook and @Yoyoyotapilot on Instagram.

What’s the craziest car you’ve ever designed?

The post Lighter, Faster, Stronger: Christian Lorenz’s Incredible RC Crawler With No Name appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Hetmanski Hobbies is an incredible place to discover parts and mods for your RC monster trucks and scale vehicles. Kevin Hetmanski, the shop owner and designer, is no stranger to the RC hobby, having spent 31 years in the RC world — and working at Horizon Hobby as a product developer. You might also recognize the name Hetmanski from his work for RC Car Action magazine, where he’s the Sr. Editor. Needless to say, the man knows his stuff.

Over the past year, Kevin has been adding a lot of new designs to his Shapeways shop, and as amazing as they are on their own, the best way to discover them is to see them in action. So we asked Kevin to show us a few of his personal trucks that use many of the shop’s goodies.

KOC 2.0

Kevin has been passionate about solid-axle monster trucks since the release of the Tamiya Clod Buster in 1987. It’s the truck considered by most to be the original RC monster truck, and it was the beginning of a journey that would start with project trucks. After building and modding several existing trucks, he decided that he needed to take things to the next level. Hetmanski then decided to design and build his own truck to get the performance he was looking for. In 2007, he created the King Of Crushers — using several poorly handmade parts. Still, despite its hand-hewn roughness, the truck’s performance was fantastic when compared to what was available at the time.

In November of 2015, Kevin was invited to the Monster Jam World Finals in Las Vegas to be a part of their very first RC monster truck race. For years, he had wanted to build a new and improved version of the KOC. This was the perfect time to make the KOC 2.0 monster truck a reality.

After 40 hours of computer time, the result was a truck that performed above and beyond the original KOC. This time, Kevin used a 3D CAD program to make the design come to life, enabling Kevin to cycle things like the suspension and steering to make sure they worked — before actually making a single part.

Unfortunately, the truck wasn’t finished in time for the Vegas event. Issues around getting the more complex aluminum parts made for the drivetrain meant that the build could not be completed. That’s when Kevin discovered Shapeways. After tweaking the design of some of parts, he had them printed through Shapeways. Finally, the truck came together.

3D printed pieces on the KOC 2.0 include axle caps, bearing blocks, and the transmission housing in the chassis, as well as exhaust headers and a rollcage for scale looks. With less than a month before another big race, the 4-link Nationals in Ohio, Kevin was a bit worried about the printed parts holding up. But, after some test runs, he was happy to find that everything was sound. The KOC 2.0 was ready to race!

The 4-link Nationals race weekend arrived, and with barely any time behind the wheel, Kevin got ready for the qualifying round. Thankfully, the truck performed well, qualifying at 11th place out of a total of 56 trucks in the class. With 3D printing still new to Kevin, his confidence in the printed parts only grew during race day.

Round after round, the KOC 2.0 proved its mettle. At the end of the day, Kevin had placed fourth overall. The performance and potential of the KOC 2.0 were now battle-tested — and proven.

Now, Kevin will work out the rest of the kinks, make a few tweaks, print more parts, and make sure that the monster truck can handle whatever his backyard (at least) can throw its way.

Yeti MT 3.0

Kevin embarked on his second big project after seeing the Axial Yeti rock racer for the first time. The rear end of the Yeti, with its tubular chassis, reminded him of a monster truck. And just like that, the Yeti MT idea was born. First, he put two rear sections of a Yeti together to create a solid-axle monster truck that performed very well when bashing, but needed some upgrades for racing. Version 2.0 featured a much stiffer carbon fiber chassis and a few other aftermarket parts to improve performance. That version worked much better, but after racing it at the RC Monster Jam World Finals, more updates were made to create version 3.0.

Kevin took the Yeti MT 3.0 to the 4-Link Nationals in Ohio to compete in the new 2.2-inch tire class. The truck obviously needed 2.2-inch wheels and tires to run this class. Kevin wanted to take the truck’s looks to the next level with a new set of wheels, so he turned to Shapeways again, this time designing a full set of 3D printed wheels and caps. These new wheels have a lot of detail and look exactly like those on full-sized monster trucks. Kevin added a little paint to bring out the detail and bolted them on after gluing up some Pro-Line Destroyer tires. The Yeti MT 3.0 also sports a 3D printed roll bar (painted to match the body paint), as well as a set of 3D printed exhaust headers.

At the 4-Link Nationals, the scale accessories did their job, and Kevin managed to win Show-N-Shine in the 2.2-inch class. Score!

What’s next?

Kevin is always designing parts for projects that are featured in RC Car Action magazine. Designs for his personal vehicles also find their way onto Hetmanski’s Shapeways shop. He’s always working on something, and he tells us that his next big project will most likely be a 1/10-scale Grave Digger monster truck using 3D printed parts to make it look as close to the real truck as possible. The chassis will be handmade, the axles will look just like the ones on real Monster Jam trucks, it will have larger versions of his 2.2-inch wheels, and much more. And of course, after the truck is done, all 3D printed parts will be available on Shapeways.

Make sure you also follow the Hetmanski Hobbies Facebook page to keep up with future parts, projects and race results!

Kevin Hetmanski and his KOC 2.0 truck

The post Monsters of Scale — Hetmanski Hobbies RC Monster Trucks appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

RC Nerds is a name you might have heard before. The Polish designer behind the brand, Pawel Krupecki, has one of the bigger RC scaler and crawler accessories shops on Shapeways, and we recently shared a model featuring RC Nerds parts on an incredible “Back to the Future” replica truck.

Now Pawel has built a new project car, and it’s a truly amazing transformation of, essentially, a toy into a hyperrealistic scale re-creation of a legendary classic truck. What’s more, it proves that 3D printing can help you achieve details that were once only possible for highly skilled scratchbuilders.

After releasing a bunch of upgrade parts for the Pro-Line Toyota SR5 HiLux body, Krupecki’s new project is again a body by Pro-Line. But, this time he chose the new 1966 Chevrolet C-10 truck body and the got busy drawing up tons of detailed parts to give the C-10 a more realistic look.

Pro-Line body shells are known for their durability, but unfortunately also for their lack of detail. Lights are usually just stickers, and the front and rear-end of the truck are pretty flat. Pawel has addressed this by creating a detailed, 3-dimensional grille with a mesh insert, Chevy badge, and working lights — with an additional bumper that matches the grille’s contours perfectly.

There’s a lot more detail added to the rest of the truck, too. The side mirrors, window wipers, rear lights, door handles and latches, B-pillar trim, badges, and even the fully detailed dashboard and steering wheel are all 3D printed and designed based on many detailed photos of a real 1966 Chevrolet C-10.

Krupecki is not only a 3D designer, but also a talented scale modeler, so he knows how to combine materials very effectively. He used a mix of different Shapeways materials for his parts, to make sure the parts are cost effective, yes, but most importantly, that they have the right surface finish and level of detail. After printing, all of the detail pieces have been carefully prepped and painted. Tamiya’s Fine Surface primer and some light sanding was used to create a smooth surface for further painting, which is a great trick, especially for Strong & Flexible plastic prints.

Since this truck is based on a model from the 1960s, a lot of the trim pieces needed to be chrome. This is where BHDA is the perfect material choice for the smaller pieces such as the lights, door handles and mirrors. As BHDA not only has great detail, it also has a very smooth surface perfect for painting chrome.

The body was painted in a metallic blue colour close to an original Chevrolet paint shade, and finished with a matte clear coat on the outside to make it look less like plastic, and give the car some patina.

Real balsa wood was used in the bed to add to the realism. You can also spot RC Nerds‘ 3D printed rear lights and door latch in the above picture. The lights use a lens printed in Frosted Ultra Detail finished off with a red clear coat to keep it nice and transparent.

The Alclad II chrome paint doesn’t work for the smaller pieces, so fine-tip pens were used to color in the badges.

Alclad II was also the paint of choice for the clear light lenses. A clear lacquer was used after some light polishing to make the Frosted Ultra Detail prints extra-transparent.

The body sits on an Axial SCX10 II chassis, just like Pawel’s previous builds. The chassis fits perfectly under the Pro-Line body, and combined with the small Tamiya tires, it has just the right stance. With all the added details, it’s easily mistaken for a real classic truck.

The photos were taken on the beach by the Baltic Sea. Despite being far from its American roots, the Chevy looks right at home!

Even though this truck was only just finished, Krupecki is already working on his next project: a Toyota 4Runner. Follow RC Nerds on Facebook to keep up with his progress as he develops the new 4Runner parts.

If this car has inspired you to build one as well, all items used in this build are now available in RC Nerds shop. What will you build next?

Pictures by RC Nerds

The post RC Nerds’ Unbelievably Realistic 1966 Chevrolet C-10 RC Truck appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

RCEveryday

The best part? You can buy everything featured in the video.

EXTREME SCALE PERFORMANCE RC

Featuring RC giant James Knight of Knight Customs! Learn more about his inspirations and insights in his Designer Spotlight.

Scale Builder’s Guild

Featured parts are available through Knight Customs and BowHouse RC.

Check out our full coverage of the Shapeways RC car community. Have you spotted any Shapeways 3D printed RC gear in the wild?

The post Congrats! Your RC Car Designs Are Getting HUGE appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Michael Vollmer is a freelance designer from Hamburg, Germany, who specializes in RC cars. In between his assignments for well-known RC car manufacturers, Vollmer works on his own innovative ideas and cool projects, and he sells them at the 3DRC Shapeways shop.

3DRC makes high performance parts — on-road parts, off-road parts, tools, and even vintage car upgrades — for top-level RC car racing. There’s a lot of buzz lately about 3DRC in the professional RC racing community, with publications, big RC news websites, factory-backed drivers getting on the 3DRC team, and new product releases. So we thought it was a good time to sit down with Michael and see what 3DRC is all about.

3D Printing and Industry 4.0

So we asked Vollmer: Why Shapeways? He said:

“As a RC car designer, I have often used 3D printing to check the function and feeling of new parts.

Ten years ago, they came in very brittle, sometimes breaking quickly while I trying to assemble the parts. Today the material precision and quality is much better.

I had my first contact with Shapeways a few years ago, when I had to check some parts that would later become plastic parts for traditional injection-molding machines. I was really surprised by the quality and the material. The precision was excellent! So it really helped me to make prototypes for pre-production RC Cars.

Apart from the great quality, the fast manufacturing and the fantastic service, I learned to understand the Shapeways shop system, which is absolutely amazing! After Amazon, eBay, PayPal, it might be the most important platform for Industry 4.0.”

Shapeways allows Vollmer to create, upload, and sell new products within a very short timeframe: only a few days from prototype to the 3DRC shop. With traditional manufacturing methods, this process can take months.

3DRC’s most popular product: Fan Boosters

The electric motor on a RC car can get very hot, especially when being pushed to its absolute limit in the professional racing series, so most racers use a cooling fan to prevent overheating and permanently damaging the motor.

3DRC Fan Booster on Michael’s Awesomatix

3RDC Fan Boosters are designed to channel air from the fan to the motor covering more surface area and with less loss of airflow, therefore cooling more efficiently.

Maximized airflow around the motor with a Fan Booster

They are very easy to install, and come in different shapes and sizes to match any cooling fan to any chassis type. Fan boosters are especially popular for stock-class touring car racing, but 3DRC is developing models for other racing classes as well.

3DRC Aero Wing on team driver Max Mächler’s car

3DRC’s Latest: Aero Wings

The Aero Wing series from 3DRC are spoilers for RC touring cars inspired by full-size Formula 1 cars. Compared to the traditional one-piece vacuum-formed polycarbonate spoilers, 3DRC’s Aero Wings create more downforce while having less drag.

The wings weigh only 10 grams, come pre-drilled to fit most current bodyshells, and are compatible with the rules of international organizations including EFRA, IFMAR, and DMC.

3DRC’s Aero Wing weighs only 10 grams

Some of the best RC car drivers on the planet are testing multiple wing profiles for the Aero Wing, and initial feedback has been great. Drivers say that they love the Shapeways Black Strong and Flexible Plastic. We are looking forward to see the results from the 3DRC team drivers and hope they can win some races.

You can find many more 3DRC products on the 3DRC Shapeways shop.

The post Michael Vollmer of 3DRC: From Zero to Selling in Record Time appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

If this is your first time using Vectary, here’s a quick guide to get you started and learn the tool’s basics.

We worked with a Revell RC Police Car. So if you can get your hands on one of those or something like it, sign in to Vectary, then open this chassis template. Vectary is meant for remixing open-source models, so we all can build on one another’s creations.

If you can’t find a Revell RC Police Car or a similar Revell car, pick another RC car, strip it down, and measure the undercarriage.

To draw an outline of the chassis, set up your scene in Vectary: On the bottom row, you’ll see Snapping. Enable Snapping. Then Open the Snapping options menu and enable Keep Buttons in Dock, Snap to End, and Snap to Grid. Go to Settings, also at the bottom. Enable Grid, and set your Square Size to 1mm and the Grid Size to 200mm. Enable Dimensions also.

Rotate the grid to see it from above. If you’re using the Revell RC Police Car, these are the dimensions, in mm.

Otherwise, draw an outline of the RC car’s undercarriage, based on the measurements you took.

In either case, set your scene in side view and draw your diagram along the x axis — the green one.

Select the lines. Then select the Extrude button, hold the shift key, and drag to pull the edge to the desired width.

Select the line you created. You will see a semicircle and a set of arrows. This is Vectary’s transformation tool, aka the gizmo. You can use the gizmo to move, scale, or rotate your selection.

Move the green arrow on the gizmo to adjust the shape.

Now that you’ve created a base, you can move to designing the cabin. Click on the + icon to create a new layer. Turn off Snap to Grid. Using Draw Lines, draw the outline of the car’s cabin.

Again, use the Extrude function to turn the outline into a face. Adjust the shape of outline by using the gizmo to move, scale, or rotate the face while switching between points, lines, and faces.

You can also add faces to your model by holding the shift key while using the Extrude function and dragging the magenta arrow on the gizmo.

Turn on Snap to End. Use Draw Lines to create as many more faces as you like.

Select several points on the extruded faces and join them together with the Collapse button in the left toolbar.

Make sure you select only the points that you want to join. If you select all the points and click Collapse, it will collapse the whole shape.

Select Draw Lines and add in any missing faces. Using the Move arrows on the gizmo to adjust the shape.

Select +Add Plugin at the bottom right of the screen to open My Plugins. Choose the Mirroring plugin. Select the layers and axis that you want to mirror. When you are satisfied with your shape, select Bake from the dropdown menu at the top right of the Mirroring 1 panel.

The Bake command creates a new layer. Hide the old layers. At bottom left, switch the render view to Shaded to see the geometry.

Select the center line. Find Bevel in the left toolbar to create an additional faces. You can enlarge them with the cube on the gizmo.

Select the new faces and bevel repeatedly inwards. More lines will create a more angular look after smoothing.

Move the selected faces, then Select Delete Selection in the top toolbar.

Repeat Bevel, Move, and Delete on both sides of the car.

Use the Marquee tool at the top of the screen to select all the faces. Click on the white gizmo circle and switch the jog to Local. Extrude inward (by dragging the arrow while holding the shift key) to add thickness.

Choose the Select Lines button, then use Marquee to select the whole object. Select Bevel to create more edges.

In the left toolbar, turn on Smoothing and use the Colorpicker to choose the desired shade. (Note: the color of your rendering has no bearing on the color of your 3D print.)

Next, click +Add Plugin, and in My Plugins, select the Shapeways plugin and Check Geometry. We chose Shapeways Strong and Flexible Plastic from the materials dropdown because it is durable and relatively inexpensive; printed in white, the car cost about €39 (or $45).

Once ready, click the Send to Shapeways button.

Shapeways will send a confirmation link via email. (It may take a few minutes for the message to reach your inbox.) Confirm your order on the Shapeways site.

Give Vectary a shot and get your car ready for racing.

The post Vectary Tutorial 2: Make a New Body for an RC Car appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

“Back to the Future” RC fandom goes deeper than DeLoreans, however. Mike Lohmann, better known at TamiyaClub as Ihaveabruiser, made a model of Marty McFly’s Toyota SR5.

At the beginning of “Back to the Future,” the off-road-ready 4×4 was just a fantasy for Marty. As his adventures in the past end up affecting the present, however, he changes his family’s fortunes. Marty’s father becomes a famous author; Biff ends up working for the McFlys: and Marty’s dream truck is sitting in the garage, waiting for his “camping trip” with Jennifer.

Turns out that Mike has been collecting and making RC cars since he was 9. Over his 23-year “addiction,” as he calls it, he’s made great friends from around the globe.

Mike also worked as a Toyota technician for many years, so when it came to creating something from “Back to the Future,” he decided on the SR5:

They are great vehicles.The BTTF truck in my opinion is not only iconic for the movie but is iconic in world of Toyota enthusiasts.

Mike posted the SR5 to TamiyaClub on July 4, a day after the anniversary of the premiere of the first “Back to the Future.”

His SR5 would not exist without Shapeways. He used pieces from BowHouse RC, purveyors of all kinds of cool RC car parts. They provided the battery case and chassis-mounted steering system, and RC Nerds made the door panels, windshield wipers, taillight assemblies, and the ridiculously detailed dashboard.

“I’ve had nothing but great results with Shapeways,” he says. “The printing quality is very very good and the print and shipping time is great as well. I will actually be doing another order shortly, as James from Knight Customs just released the interior parts that work with his engine bay on the BTTF truck.”

I’m usually talking about board games in Shapeways Magazine, but the Toyota SR5, accurate down to even the KC lights on the front grille and the cab, was too good not to share.

via TamiyaClub

RC cars and modifications are a huge part of the Shapeways community, and people like Mike, a guy who calls normal-size cars “1:1 vehicles,” are what keeps it vital and relevant. This truck is a great example of just what we can do, not only as a 3D printing community, but as creative people and passionate fans trying to make the world a little cooler.

Emphasis on little… in a big way.

The post Take a Ride in Marty McFly’s Toyota SR5, RC Car Edition appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

We ordered door handles, a fuel cap, and hood vents from Knight Customs to start since they’re the perfect replacements for the stickers that come on the stock body. Because I’m relatively new to the hobby, I decided to fit the fuel cap and the hood vents from the outside. Because we also filmed our experience at Conquer the Giant, we thought it would be great to snag the GoPro Mount from Ennotech Designs LLC — allowing us to get an immersive camera perspective that we haven’t had before.

Once I take the time to install the door handle, the license plate is the only remaining stock sticker. As I’ll cover in my next Out Of Shape column, I decided to test my 3D modeling skills on a custom license plate. In a nod to Zoolander, I made one that says CR4ANTS — I just need to prime and paint it before installing it!

Own a Traxxas Defender too? Check out our new Traxxas TRX4 category on the marketplace for all the parts I’d mentioned and more — like a front servo winch mount from ADW Design and a low CG battery tray from BowHouse RC. Because the Traxxas TRX4 rolls easily, tapping into some of these 3D printed parts can help lower the center of gravity — essential for maximizing your rock crawling performance.

What 3D printed RC car parts have you found useful (or just… cool) on your crawlers?

The post Customizing the Traxxas TRX4 with 3D Printed RC Car Parts appeared first on Shapeways Blog.