I was asked to explain how to do this, and got carried away with the screenshots, so here's a tutorial on how I do it. It's probably the wrong way and you'll have to be creative and patient! Also, this will produce a 1/64 scale, very basic model with no interior (unless it's an open top or you can make the windows with clear plastic). That's not gonna work for bigger, more detailed models. First of all, you need the carname.DAE file. The patch for finding it is on the screenshot. We will make a Le Gran on this example. Now open blender and go to File/Import/Collada(DAE), and select the file you just reserved. Now, the file will load the car with all the acessories, select the ones you don't want and right click/delete untill only the version you want is showing up. Also delete all the suspension bits and everything that protudes inside the wheel wells. Now go to File/Export/Stereolitography(STL), and save your new file. Then open it on 3D Builder, chose mm on the upper bar if you want to keep sane, and click the wrench on the lower right corner to fix the file. When the red outline vanishes, save the file on the upper right corner button and close 3D builder. Now open the file in Meshmixer. It got to be all gray, if there's other collors, go back to 3D builder, as you didn't fixed the file properly. Time for some research. Enter this site: http://www.igcd.net/game.php?id=1000010344, take the model name/year of the real car your car is based, search it's dimensions, take the width or lenght in mm and divide it by 64. In meshmixer go to Edit/Transform, put the car horizontal if it's vertical, and type your result on the axis of your chosen measurement. I recomend doing it that way instead of using the car's size on the game for your model to look right next to real car models in true 1/64 scale, like the M2 Machines, etc. It only backfired on me once, on the Picollina, as I used the Fiat 600 lenght and later noticed it's midsize betwheen a Fiat and a Beetle. Now that your model is properly oriented and dimensioned, click accept, then go to Edit/Make Solid, and use something close to the values on the screenshot. Your play factor is the offset distance, the highter the value, the thicker and stronger the model, but the least detailed it is. I usually use about 0.4. Also remember it will be about 1 or 2 print lines wide, so keep it as multiple of your nozzle size. (Here's a tip I've found out after doing some cars. If your car have tube or thin parts (Picollina's roof cage, Suburst/200bx's drift bumper, hopper's roll cage, etc) you can make a separate file, deleting everyting but this fragile parts, give this parts a bigger offset value, and merging this file with the car file on Tinkercad afterwards.)After clicking updade, it will look like this. Click accept, then File/Export, and save your new file. You don't need to save the project if it's done the right way first time. Now open it with 3D Builder again, say Holy S*** that's a lot of triangles, avoid clicking the wrench now, it will freeze your pc, click the model and Edit/Reduce. Reduce it untill it's lower than 150.000 triangles, than click ok, click on the wrench, and save when it finishes. Now go to tinkercad and import the file (upper right corner button). While it loads, let's talk about the axles. I use 0.8mm welding wire as axles, and wheels removed from other Hot Wheels cars. you can use paperclips, and print your own wheels. The thing is, now it's the time you have to know what wheels and axles you'll use. This is the basic wheel gig. It starts with a model representing your wheel (pink tyre), a axle tube with 4mm diam. and a 1.2mm hole in the center. You'll need to make some tests to discover the correct hole diameter for the axle to spin freely and have almost no play. The cutting cilinder over the pink tyre will be your tool to cut the inside of the wheel well (and the fender arch if you want to change it), it have to be a little bigger than your tyre and can be centralized on the tyre or a little upwards like on my case. You'll also add some triangles fill the space betwheen the car and the axle. Use the ruler to copy this setup to the other end of the car without moving it sideways. You'll position the tyres where you want them to go offset wise and edit the cutting cilinder to always cover the tire. Leave a little wiggle room betwheen the wheel well and the wheel so your axle will not bind. Here how it looks under the car. Now, remember that the car is hollow, and you don't want any interior, so fit some shapes inside the body, when you merge them, they will become empty holes with infill, and this cars require low infill so you'll save material. If your shapes invade the wheel wells, your cutting cilinders will shave them. Also close all the cracks on the windows and thin parts that tends to appear during the Make Solid process. Here's how it will look with everything merged: Print with 3 walls, 4 top and botton walls, 15% infill, 0.12 or 0.08 layer height if you got a Ender 3 or similar. Clean up the axle holes with the cheapest 1mm drill bit you find on China And here's the finished result after some painting! Have fun and post your works here, I wanna see them! Some other cars made with the same technique:
By “shapes inside the body” do you mean just fill the inside of the car with whatever or do they have to be in certain areas? And if I want to use wheels from beam on my model is there a special way that I need to do that? Also just curious as to what you use to paint the cars. Sharpies? (Sorry for all the questions)
Put the model on the slicer, slice it and analyse the layers, you'll see it's empty inside with the interior and engine there. It's bad for roof support and you don't need the increased print time from the interior and engine. Just fill the interior and bay with random shapes the best you can, and this shapes will erase the interior and can receive infill inside, making it less likely to fail when printing the roof and hood. I didn't try converting wheels from beam yet, I use wheels from other cars or print the ones offered by Goodson Hobbies on Thingiverse. The cars are brush painted with craft acrylic paints and sprays, just spray the paint on it's cap and use a brush. Then finished with clear laquer, also brushed.
brown Model looks a little bumpy but for all I know it's supposed to be like that. Still not done placing the axle holders but for the most part it's done unless I did something wrong. Sadly with the way the GM was made the lights and grille don't really exist anymore so I have to freehand those if I decide to draw details in later on.
Nice! Was wondering if anyone would attempt it. Yes, it looks great, the bumps will smooth on the slicer, and you can further file and sand it when printed. The painted details are just pratice, I recomend doing some classics first since their lights are only circle dots of paint you can do with the tip of the handle of the brush or with a toothpick before going to the square light ones. I've painted the Legran yesterday, the headlighs were a nightmare. But turned out nice! I'll post some pics as soon as I borrow a camera. Also I'll like to see if the game's wheels are printable.
I actually found those wheels on Thingiverse, they were part of a Chevy Chevette model. I'll probably try printing some beam wheels later on but for now I just want something that's ready to go.
Should be ready for printing. Hopefully I can find some paper clips or metal wire but if not I have the tubes just in case.
The wheels will not roll with printed pins, I tested it. Find something you can dismantle and use as axles, for your sanity's sake. The underside looks great, should be a fairly easy print. --- Post updated --- Some new pics on the first post. And here's an engine printability test, that's what you can expect if you try to print a car without the bonnet.
I now have the bluebuck and grand marshal in their final stage and ready to print. Hopefully I’ll be able to print both of them by the end of the week but I might just do one if I run out of time.
Still no permanent axles or paint yet but it’s mostly done Gm is missing a bit of its rear bumper but it should be fine.
They look great! Good job! You kept the underside, Looks nice! Will try to keep it on mine from now on. I have a few more to post, just waiting on a better camera. Take some sandpaper and sand the area of the bumper smooth, do the same on the other side to make them equal. Will not be noticiable after paint. Or you can print just the lower part of the bumper, cut the one on the car out and glue the new one. What filament are you using?
Got tired of waiting the new cam, so here's some pics with the old one. Also someting I've avoided doing for pushing you all to try to make the conversion for yourselves, but here it is: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3927836
It is. Just follow the tutorial and scale it to your desired scale before the Make Solid process. Remove the glass and make it with clear plastic. You can slice it on Meshmixer to make it easier to print. Have fun!
