Printed Crater Base Plate for Aquazone Set 6190
2024-12-02, 3:28 (This post was last modified: 2024-12-02, 5:27 by Chris Böhnke.)
2024-12-02, 3:28 (This post was last modified: 2024-12-02, 5:27 by Chris Böhnke.)
Hello everyone,
following the discussion here
https://library.ldraw.org/parts/42115
I couldn't resist trying to do this part (best regards to Rene
).
Whilst it turned out the print isn't as complicated as I initially thought, there are still a lot of issues. Also given the rather complicated nature of the base part, I thought it best to make a forum post before refining things further and put in on the Parts Tracker.
1) Sub-File Structure:
One of the main goals was to keep the original crater plate as is.
Both the main file and the sub-files can only be used by this part anyways, so I assume this will not become an issue?
Should this keep it's current 4 sub-files, or should they be merged into a single monolithic file like the base part?
I also might need to do some local triangle splits to make the ridge less 'blocky' I guess...
2) Pattern Inconsistency:
I used both my own plate and some photos mostly sourced from Ebay as reference. Unfortunately I only have one of these plates, so I couldn't test how they align to each other in reality.
I assumed that ideally these should be able to form a continuous 'river' when put alongside each other. The small colour spots on the edge however seem to be problematic here, as some don't seem to be aligned to the edge on the opposing side.
For the current pattern I 'idealised' the orientation of the spots, so that they do align, assuming this issue is caused by print mis-alignment.
I am not sure if I overdid this, so I would like to get some feedback before I refine the pattern further.
3) 'Mountain' Foot:
On the real part, the darker blue of the mountain print bleeds a bit onto the flat base. Yet again, it looks a lot like this was unintentional. Currently I assumed the dark colour ends right were the sculpted mountain ends. I also assumed that the lighter colour follows the ridge of the mountain as close as possible.
Do you think is correct or should the colour extend more on the floor?
4) Unknown Blue Ink:
This plate's base colour is Light Blue (which is a VERY rare colour on real parts). However, almost the entire top surface of this part is covered in paint, so not much of this is actually visible.
There is a total of 3 ink colours present on the part: Black, Blue and a shade of blue I was unable to identify (it's definitely not Medium Blue). Please keep in mind, that this part was released in 1996 where there were not that many shades of blue available. I am suspecting it could be Maersk Blue, but I don't have parts in that colour to compare. On screen, Medium Azure looks very close, but of cause that wasn't available in 1996.
Does anyone here have both this plate and a Maersk Blue part to compare?
5) Approximating Dithered Colours:
A lot of this part is actually covered in dithered colour blends, which I would usually approach by tiny triangles like in https://library.ldraw.org/parts/37577. However since this part is already quite huge, I am a bit reluctant to increase it's polygon count even further. Everything that is currently coloured as 9 Light Blue is actually a dithered blend of the Light Blue base and the unknown medium blue ink (creating a colour I am not sure how to approximate). The dark blue areas are a color gradient between Black and Blue. I kind of dislike using colours that are definitely not present on the real part, but in this case I see little alternatives.
I also considered direct colour values or Texmaps, but I am a bit afraid of compatibility issues (Stud.io wasn't happy with this approach). Should I keep the current approach?
following the discussion here
https://library.ldraw.org/parts/42115
I couldn't resist trying to do this part (best regards to Rene
).Whilst it turned out the print isn't as complicated as I initially thought, there are still a lot of issues. Also given the rather complicated nature of the base part, I thought it best to make a forum post before refining things further and put in on the Parts Tracker.
1) Sub-File Structure:
One of the main goals was to keep the original crater plate as is.
Both the main file and the sub-files can only be used by this part anyways, so I assume this will not become an issue?
Should this keep it's current 4 sub-files, or should they be merged into a single monolithic file like the base part?
I also might need to do some local triangle splits to make the ridge less 'blocky' I guess...
2) Pattern Inconsistency:
I used both my own plate and some photos mostly sourced from Ebay as reference. Unfortunately I only have one of these plates, so I couldn't test how they align to each other in reality.
I assumed that ideally these should be able to form a continuous 'river' when put alongside each other. The small colour spots on the edge however seem to be problematic here, as some don't seem to be aligned to the edge on the opposing side.
For the current pattern I 'idealised' the orientation of the spots, so that they do align, assuming this issue is caused by print mis-alignment.
I am not sure if I overdid this, so I would like to get some feedback before I refine the pattern further.
3) 'Mountain' Foot:
On the real part, the darker blue of the mountain print bleeds a bit onto the flat base. Yet again, it looks a lot like this was unintentional. Currently I assumed the dark colour ends right were the sculpted mountain ends. I also assumed that the lighter colour follows the ridge of the mountain as close as possible.
Do you think is correct or should the colour extend more on the floor?
4) Unknown Blue Ink:
This plate's base colour is Light Blue (which is a VERY rare colour on real parts). However, almost the entire top surface of this part is covered in paint, so not much of this is actually visible.
There is a total of 3 ink colours present on the part: Black, Blue and a shade of blue I was unable to identify (it's definitely not Medium Blue). Please keep in mind, that this part was released in 1996 where there were not that many shades of blue available. I am suspecting it could be Maersk Blue, but I don't have parts in that colour to compare. On screen, Medium Azure looks very close, but of cause that wasn't available in 1996.
Does anyone here have both this plate and a Maersk Blue part to compare?
5) Approximating Dithered Colours:
A lot of this part is actually covered in dithered colour blends, which I would usually approach by tiny triangles like in https://library.ldraw.org/parts/37577. However since this part is already quite huge, I am a bit reluctant to increase it's polygon count even further. Everything that is currently coloured as 9 Light Blue is actually a dithered blend of the Light Blue base and the unknown medium blue ink (creating a colour I am not sure how to approximate). The dark blue areas are a color gradient between Black and Blue. I kind of dislike using colours that are definitely not present on the real part, but in this case I see little alternatives.
I also considered direct colour values or Texmaps, but I am a bit afraid of compatibility issues (Stud.io wasn't happy with this approach). Should I keep the current approach?
