Dalek Spaceship - Remembrance of the Daleks

Started by d33j r093r5, Jun 03, 2018, 06:12 am

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d33j r093r5

Jun 03, 2018, 06:12 am Last Edit: Jun 03, 2018, 07:17 am by d33j r093r5
Ok, how to begin. I began this project a looooong time ago - about the same time I was doing my first 80's Console Room, probably just after - and I stopped. I even got as far as printing a few pieces (well, one piece in particular, over and over again). I had other things that needed my attention at the time, and the print / printer just did not want to cooperate with me. I told myself I'd get back to it, but as is the way of these things, it sort of fell by the wayside. I'm coming up on the mid-year, semester break and I was feeling like I needed a new project. Finishing an old one works just as well too, and my modelling and printing skills have come a ways since I first embarked on this. And, as much as I enjoy making them, I felt like I needed something besides a TARDIS interior to work on...

... that being said, I need to go over the model first. See what I can improve, see what can be done better in general, see what should be done differently, see what stays the same, etc...


Dalek Ship Assembly 1.2_001.JPG


... Looks reasonably good. But, it's been a long time since I looked at this; it needs to be "disassembled" so I can see what it was I was doing / thinking...  ??? First off pretty much everything you see in this image is made up of lots of smaller parts; nothing here will be printed as-is. The scale of this ship fits in with the 1/13th scale CO figures (I'll be able to put actual Rememberance Daleks inside it when it's done), and so in order to print it so that pieces fit on my printer, it needed to be chopped up!...


Module 2 FULL Assembly_002.JPG


... this is the base-central module. It's longer than the others, but they all contain pretty much the same elements, and go together more or less the same way. The three holes in the top are to connect it to the module above, and the four holes on the angled side is to connect it to the 2 other modules (with dowels, the same as I use for the TARDIS models) on that side, as seen in the first image. Will need to check and make sure all those holes are designed the way they should be. You can also see patterned faces in a few spots where other modules don't touch in the previous image...


Module 2 FULL Assembly_001.JPG


... and this image. These panels are all modular as well and are also to be printed separately. I THINK they way they join to the main body modules may need to be re-thought.

The interior of the ship is hollow. This is to save on print time and materials, and also means I can put Daleks inside  ;D ... well, it NEEDS to!!! ;)  Anyway, you can see the bottom half below...


Module 2 Bottom Sub-Assembly_002.JPG


Module 2 Bottom Sub-Assembly_001.JPG


... the holes you see on the interior are obviously for joining it to the top half. This is still too long for the print bed however, so it needed to be sub-divided further...


Module 2 Bottom_Rear_001.JPG


... and here you can see the holes for joining it to the front quarter...


Module 2 Bottom_Rear_002.JPG


... and here you can see (just barely) the methodology I was going to use to affix those patterned panels, those small, embossed "dots". However, I think they're far too small to the purpose. I'll need to re-do those.


The rest of the modules are essentially of the same design, just smaller, and with holes in different spots to join to the main body in different ways. Modules 1 & 3 are identical, while Module 2 and 4 are mirror images, with some minor alterations to the panel alignments and positions. The top module is essentially of the same design as Modules 1, 2, 3 & 4, minus the large, round boss on the base, and the black thrusters.

... Anyway, I think that's enough to get this thread started. I'll be back once I've made some headway! :)

D.
ERROR READING DRIVE C: (A)BORT, (R)ETRY, (F)AIL (I)GNORE?

Davros Skaro

I think I'm going to love seeing this come together, I've always wanted to build on of these, but didn't get around to doing it.  :-\

I wouldn't know where to begin if I did build one, so instead, I'll enjoy watching yours come together.

All the best with it, & I hope your printer behaves its self for you.  :) ;) :D

Chris.
Chris.

d33j r093r5

Thanks Davros. Pretty sure the printer will be ok, it's actually the white filament I have that will probably cause me the most grief. It's not the best stuff, and can be quite temperamental. We'll see how we go... :)
ERROR READING DRIVE C: (A)BORT, (R)ETRY, (F)AIL (I)GNORE?

d33j r093r5

Jun 04, 2018, 04:05 am #3 Last Edit: Jun 04, 2018, 04:38 am by d33j r093r5
Haven't done any work on the model yet per-se; just been going over the design elements and wondering what I was doing / thinking at the time. When programming, you're supposed to annotate and document everything, just in case you have to leave it and come back to it at a later date. That way, you won't be wondering what the hell you were doing. I guess it must be the same for anybody involved in a design process. Makes sense, 6 months down the track you're not going to remember the minutiae of why you did certain things or what you were thinking. Of course, that doesn't help me NOW, so I'm going to have to work some of it out...

For starters, there are the 4 modules that surround the main structure...


Module 1_D FULL Assembly_001.JPG


... they all look identical, more or less. However, when I open them up...


Module 1_A Bottom_Front_001.JPG


... this is the front-base from Module A...


Module 1_D Bottom_Front_001.JPG


... and this is the same on Module D. And, when I crack open Modules B & C, they have the same design as Module D. One of these things is not like the others... ;)

Fortunately, the answer was relatively straight-forward in this instance. I mentioned that I had started printing this a few years ago, but that it was the same section a number of times. That was due to failed prints, and me thinking that there was something inherently wrong with my design. There really wasn't, subsequent experience has taught me that Module A or D, both should have been perfectly acceptable to print. I thought that perhaps I hadn't left enough "meat" in the shell I was printing for the model to have proper adhesion to the print bed, or for the design to build accurately. Hence, why Module A (my first test piece) kept getting chunkier and chunkier. One mystery solved...

The only other puzzler I've come across thus far has been in the Rocket thruster section. Well, 2 puzzlers...


Rocket Booster_001.JPG


... you can see the holes in the thruster line up with the boss sections in the floor of the module, and the hole in the middle of the floor. Here's the question: the three holes arranged in a triangular pattern for both the module floor and rocket thruster will be enough to join them together and keep them locked in position. Whyyyyyyy did I put an extra hole straight through the middle??  ??? ???

Also...


Rocket Booster_002.JPG    Rocket Booster_003.JPG


... I included the wireframe image so you can see them better; there are 3 circular slots that I included in the rocket thruster, on the INSIDE. like they're supposed to align to something, or lock something in place. What?!?  ???  ??? They don't extent out to any surface that this piece would join to, and it has adjoining hole anyway. More deconstruction required. And, actually, if anyone has any ideas, feel free to let me know. It's entirely possible I had an epiphany during the design process that led me to include what appear to be completely redundant features, and I have no memory of what that might have been. Until I figure it out (or someone else does), I shall keep working... :)

D.
ERROR READING DRIVE C: (A)BORT, (R)ETRY, (F)AIL (I)GNORE?

d33j r093r5

Jun 05, 2018, 05:15 am #4 Last Edit: Jun 05, 2018, 06:30 am by d33j r093r5
Just a quick update, no pictures. Well, seeing as the overall nett effect is that it looks EXACTLY the same I didn't really see the point...

In playing around with the model, I DID discover the reason I left those holes / slots where I did; they're for wiring / lights! The slots and holes were added LAST, so they weren't left over as guides for construction, which means they were an afterthought. So adding them was intentional to the design. And the nail in that particular coffin came when I was re watching clips from ROTD Ep4 with the ship and watching land / take off. The glow(s) on the ground matched the positioning of the holes and slots I had created. So, they shall remain! :) They're positioned in such a way it doesn't matter whether I end up doing the lighting or not. But it will be there, if I decide that I will...  ;D

I was actually a lot more methodical with the design than I thought I had been initially. Once I worked my head around my own logic, it was easy enough to follow. Win for experience, both past and present. I went back over my initial dimensioning to see what scale I had used (this was still early days in terms of DW model-making for me). And found I had made it pretty spot on! It was a few mm short in terms of overall height on the inside. At this scale the current height is 125mm; that's enough to clear the top of a CO Remembrance Dalek, but Sylvester would be scraping his head. In the show, the ceiling clears his head well and truly. Captain Gilmore, played by Simon Williams is 6' 3" (about 1905mm) which, when scaled down to 1/13th is 146.5mm, and he needed to slightly stoop to to pass through the ships corridor  So, an extra 15mm (making the internal height 140mm) would make it exact. This works out to be about 20cm in ceiling height, which sounds like a lot. Overall, if I scaled the model to allow for it, it means a 12% increase in size. Which is absolutely fine. EXCEPT that at the new size, the width of each module now hangs over the sides of the printer bed! At the original scaling I had it JUST fits inside it, which is probably why I stopped at the initial size that I did. Would have been a good idea if I had check that FIRST...  :P :-X ... fortunately, I only altered one module before realising, and it was easy enough to take the module from the opposite side and swap out the alteration without too much fuss, but getting it to the stage where it was larger was a fair amount of work...

So, at that point, I'm kind of back where I started from! I still wanted a little extra height in there, so the ceiling would at least clear Sylvester's head. So I reduced the wall / floor / ceiling thickness from 4mm to 2mm, all around. This gives an extra 4mm height internally. It also increased the floor width from 65mm to 69mm. The added bonus in this is that the overall width of the Dalek base is about 63.5mm. At the old size it just cleared it, now there's some wiggle room. It probably wasn't necessary, but it's nice to know the Daleks are going to fit without any dramas... :)

Checking the overall dimensions, when completed this model will be 360mm W x 562mm L x 270mm H !!  :o  :o ... for all of you out there who haven't gone metric yet, that's 14.2" x 22.1" x 10.6". The model is over a foot wide, and almost 2 feet long! It's as big as the biggest TARDIS interior I've modelled, and it's not even full size! Deceptively large, for something that looks really cramped. Mind you, they fit a whole universe inside a Police Box, so... ;)

Aside from that, there wasn't a lot else. You may remember those protuberances from the floor(s) of the modules...


http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?action=dlattach;k=-752;topic=8789.0;attach=185388;image


... these are the boss-sections for the holes that dowels will slide into to connect the modules to the rocket sections (ok! 1 (re-used) image). I reduced these so that they only stick up 5mm from the floor instead of 20! I do want Daleks to be able to fit inside. It meant I had to extend the holes deeper into the rocket flue section, so I had to change some dimensioning in there a bit, effectively moving all that internal work down. But nobody is really going to look in there. And, even if they do, it's not going to look wrong. If anything, it actually brings the lighting (which still exists only in potentia) closer to the ground as well, which should intensify the effect. Actually it will; Intensity, or brightness, diminishes by the distance squared, so bringing it closer will have a greater effect.

After thinning up the walls, some of the dowel hole positions had moved around. All the modules were suddenly all over the place in an attempt to fit their alignments. That was fairly easily corrected, however I am a little puzzled as to my logic in positioning the holes the first time around. It seemed really arbitrary, and was a large part of the reason they weren't where they were supposed to be. That's been corrected as well.

There's really only one last thing that I want to incorporate before starting to print: the door...


http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?action=dlattach;k=-752;topic=8789.0;attach=185334;image


(ok, 2 (re-used) images!) ... that blank panel on the underside of the main central module is actually the main entrance to the craft (it opens in the show). I hadn't included it to open when I designed this model, but I really think that it should. So, I'm going to get to work on that. See you at the next update ;)

D.
ERROR READING DRIVE C: (A)BORT, (R)ETRY, (F)AIL (I)GNORE?

d33j r093r5

Jun 05, 2018, 02:42 pm #5 Last Edit: Jun 05, 2018, 03:36 pm by d33j r093r5
Another small update. Well, an update in which there haven't really been any major developments. I have started working on the door opening mechanism(s) (plural, coz the top door has to open too. Forgot to mention that last time around), but I'll post an update on that when i have something finished / viable...

I was just browsing my files. The model I'm working on now has a sub-category of version 1.3 (I started working on this back in 2015, although the date stamps say 2016. Long story), and for new versions I usually copy the old iteration, rename it, and proceed to modify it. Apparently when I started version 1.2 I didn't copy ALL the folders over from 1.1. Lo and behold, there already IS a folder in there called "Images". And, it's reasonably stocked. Apparently I was thinking ahead. So I thought I'd share... :)


Dalek Panel.JPG   Door Top Panel 1.JPG   Level Panel.JPG   Rondel Panel.JPG


... the various panels that adorn the hull. I decided early on to print these separately and affix them afterwards. They will print better if they're printed flat...


Door Top Bar 1.JPG


... the same with these bars that go on the front/rear/top/bottom. Boring, but thorough ;) ...


Module 1 Support Top.JPG   Module 1 Support Bottom.JPG


... the bit between the main Rocket flue and the underside of the surrounding modules. I just call it the Rocket Support; I don't see what use it has on the ship other than decorative. Odd for Daleks. Actually, you can say the same thing about the panels on the hull as well. Don't really see the purpose of them...


Module 1_A Bottom_Exterior View.JPG


Module 1_A Bottom_Interior View.JPG


... you've already seen (more or less) how the interiors are designed, this is just how they fit together. The point of having the attachment holes for the Rocket parts cross the divide is that, in attaching the rocket parts, it also helps hold the 2 halves together. Mind you, the piece in these images hasn't been split yet, but you get the idea. Actually, at this stage in the development I don't think I had yet realised that it WOULD need to be split further (into quarters, not just halves) because the attachment extrusions and accompanying holes are not in evidence. Going through all these images I couldn't find them either. So, bear that in mind. You can see how it has been further split in the images I used earlier...


Module 1_A Bottom Assembly_Projected View 001.JPG


Module 1_A Bottom Assembly_Projected View 002.JPG


... ok, getting more toward a completed module...


Module 1_A FULL Assembly_Projected View 001.JPG


... oh, that was quick! All in all, the design is actually REALLY simple. The most complex parts are probably those hull panel adornments, but they will be amongst the easiest to print given how they will sit on the printer. All the modules are essentially like this, with some variation. 2 modules essentially look like this, and another 2 have those 2 holes in that large blank space on the front, rather than the rear, given how they are to attach to the main module (Module 2). For the sake of simplicity, all these modules are Module 1 (A, B, C & D), the main, large module is Module 2, and the final module which sits on top Module 2 is, of course Module 3, and it is pretty much identical to Modules 1A, B, C & D, with obvious differences...


Module 2 FULL Assembly_Projected View 001.JPG


... now, this is interesting! I was obviously thinking about those doors early on, but it seems I scrapped the idea. Probably at the time I dumped it into the "too hard" basket. Not feeling that way about it now...  ;D  ;D  ;)  ... other than that, this is essentially what Module 2 looks like. You can see the attachment holes for 2 x Module 1 on the RHS there, on top for Module 3, and the hull panels. Obviously, the places they are missing is because there will be a module in the way at those points...

That's pretty much it. There are a fair few other images I seemed to think necessary to create, but they're more or less repeats of what you've already seen. Module 2, though it is longer, will actually still fit on the printer bed in the same number of sections as Modules 1 & 3, so it's divided up the same way. So, I'm gonna get back to it :)

...
...
...

... ok... 1 final image ;)


Dalek Ship Assembly_004.jpg


Cheers,

D.
ERROR READING DRIVE C: (A)BORT, (R)ETRY, (F)AIL (I)GNORE?

elkad

Idea:

If you put red LED's in the jets & a small cup inside for dry ice, it will look like its ready to touch down.
Maybe a small syringe hole to inject water into the dry ice cup. It will fog up & shoot up the top the cup & out the jets.

d33j r093r5

Jun 06, 2018, 02:33 am #7 Last Edit: Jun 06, 2018, 03:54 am by d33j r093r5
... Hi elkad, thanks for the great ideas, thinking along similar lines. The serial had green and yellow lights, so I was thinking that's what I'd use, but essentially yes. As to the dry ice, I like it! And with the way I've designed it, it COULD work. Unfortunately, the material I'm using to build the ship (PLA - Poly Lactic Acid) has a target brittle transition temperature of between -20 and -40C, and frozen CO2 sublimes to gas at -78 C. However, PLA has melting point of about 200 C, and you can get those little smoke emitters for model trains that will produce the same effect at much lower temperature than that. Essentially the same process as a fog machine. So, that's a potential solution. Not sure I want to build in that level of complexity at this stage, but there's plenty of room inside if I ever decide that's what I'm going to do. Thanks again for the great ideas. :)

D.

EDIT:

... On the smoke / fog machine comment I made an error. I assumed the temperature to produce the fog/smoke was not that high, ie less than 60 C, which is the glass temperature for PLA; turns out, the temperature setting for producing it is somewhere between 210 C and 240 C, which is well above the melting point of PLA. So, no smoke production either it seems...
ERROR READING DRIVE C: (A)BORT, (R)ETRY, (F)AIL (I)GNORE?

Davros Skaro

This is looking really great, you've been very cleaver with this.
Those round parts between "the main Rocket flue and the underside of the surrounding modules" could possibly be where the rocket flue retracts up into the module for in flight, to make it more stream lined for space travel, other-wise they would cause space drag. So in effect you could have the flues removable if you decided to suspend the model from the ceiling as if in flight. Just a thought. It's something I would do myself.

Chris.
Chris.

d33j r093r5

Thanks for the comment Chris, much appreciated. We'll see how it turns out as to whether I've actually been clever or not though... ;)

It's probably going to be a bit too heavy to suspend from any of my ceilings (they're all gyprock / plasterboard, and I don't fancy putting a hole in them); I don't have any wooden rafters either. I think the best I can manage will be a glass shelf for it to stand on. Got plenty of those! ;)

The idea of the rocket flues retracting is appealing, largely because it would look a lot sleeker and so a lot cooler, but unless those supports are dimensionally transcendental, they ain't gonna fit! ;) As to the drag, I can understand that in the atmosphere, although I imagine this thing just goes up and down like a rocket. Or, if it flies, then it's based on some tech that's not based on aerodynamics, or the need to account for it. However, once in space it's not going to matter. There's nothing to create drag except gravity, and that only works on mass, not on size and shape, and you counter it with thrust. The mass of the ship will be the same regardless of whether the flues are extended or retracted. I would have said that Daleks probably don't care about the aesthetics of extended or retracted flues, but then we come back to those hull panel adornments and... you know, there's always going to be SOMETHING, lol... ;)  ;D

Keep the ideas coming. They help keep the creative juices flowing... :)

Cheers,

D.
ERROR READING DRIVE C: (A)BORT, (R)ETRY, (F)AIL (I)GNORE?

Davros Skaro

Quote from: d33j r093r5 on Jun 06, 2018, 02:33 am
EDIT:

... On the smoke / fog machine comment I made an error. I assumed the temperature to produce the fog/smoke was not that high, ie less than 60 C, which is the glass temperature for PLA; turns out, the temperature setting for producing it is somewhere between 210 C and 240 C, which is well above the melting point of PLA. So, no smoke production either it seems...


You could always simulate smoke using some cotton wool frayed out or the stuff they use for making spider webs which stretches out a fair bit.

Quote from: d33j r093r5 on Jun 06, 2018, 04:09 am
It's probably going to be a bit too heavy to suspend from any of my ceilings (they're all gyprock / plasterboard, and I don't fancy putting a hole in them); I don't have any wooden rafters either.

Keep the ideas coming. They help keep the creative juices flowing... :)

Cheers,

D.


You'll find that almost ceilings have support beams holding the gyprock / plasterboard up as its own weight couldn't hold it, it would collapse. I have some hooks screwed in to mine holding a net up with bits hanging from it. But we own this house, renting is much different barrel of aliens.

Chris.
Chris.

galacticprobe

Jun 07, 2018, 05:15 am #11 Last Edit: Jun 07, 2018, 05:38 am by galacticprobe
The dry ice could work for the smoke/steam spewing from the exhaust cones. Elkad mentioned putting the dry ice in a small cup. Considering how large this replica is going to be, one of those plastic drinks cups you can get on the cheap at places like Dollar Store (US) or Poundland (UK) should be a good holding vessel (or "fuel tank") for the dry ice. Most of those plastic cups have a recessed bottom, so only the rim of the bottom will touch the PLA the replica is made from. The actual cup's bottom will be roughly 1/8th inch above the bottom rim so the dry ice will never come in contact with the PLA. Then you can inject the water into the cup and the dry ice will do its thing. (It's a thought.)

Quote from: Davros Skaro on Jun 06, 2018, 06:51 am
You'll find that almost ceilings have support beams holding the gyprock / plasterboard up as its own weight couldn't hold it, it would collapse.

I had a sheet of this collapse in one of my rooms a few years ago. Thankfully it was my son's old room and empty after he'd moved out. But I have support beams in my ceilings (16-inch on center). Over the years the weight of this stuff pulled the nails out. (Old building codes of the time let them use plain nails, and not the ribbed nails, or screws, they use today.)

Quote from: Davros Skaro on Jun 06, 2018, 06:51 am
I have some hooks screwed in to mine holding a net up with bits hanging from it. But we own this house, renting is much different barrel of aliens.

Well, if this amazing replica can hang from just 3 or 4 lines, those small holes from the eye screws can always be filled in with Spackle (or whatever the UK name for it is), and with a quick coat of paint no one would ever know those holes were there. (Just another thought to play with.)

Hopefully some of this is helpful.

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

Davros Skaro

Quote from: galacticprobe on Jun 07, 2018, 05:15 am
Quote from: Davros Skaro on Jun 06, 2018, 06:51 am
I have some hooks screwed in to mine holding a net up with bits hanging from it. But we own this house, renting is much different barrel of aliens.

Well, if this amazing replica can hang from just 3 or 4 lines, those small holes from the eye screws can always be filled in with Spackle (or whatever the UK name for it is), and with a quick coat of paint no one would ever know those holes were there. (Just another thought to play with.)

Dino.


Sorry for got to mention my hooks are 3/16' dia. 3' long over all with 1 1/2' screw thread to go through the gyprock into the timber, but still repairable. Gan put up a pick if you like?

Just an option.

Chris.
Chris.

d33j r093r5

Jun 07, 2018, 11:59 am #13 Last Edit: Jun 07, 2018, 12:01 pm by d33j r093r5
Hi all...! :)

Chris, I can't say I'm a fan of the cotton wool idea, though it's a good suggestion. Dino, what cups are you referring to? Do you mean like those red Solo drinking cups? I honestly don't know, I'm from Australia, where we don't have half the stuff that you can get in Europe or UK or the US, and I'm specifically from Perth, where we don't have half the things they can get in the Eastern States, lol. If you can post a link or an image it might be helpful. There isn't a great deal of room inside those modules, the cups would have to be reasonably small, and I may even need an insulating layer for it if the wall thickness isn't too great. You're right elkad did mention using a cup in his initial suggestion, but I figured it wouldn't really insulate well enough. Maybe it could work...

As to my ceiling, yeah it is supported by a wood frame, which is also the support for the roof. And it's my house, so any holes I drill in it are at my discretion ;) ... I just... don't really want to drill holes in my ceiling  ;D :D ;D ... well, it's just me being picky. It's also a new house, I haven't even been here 2 years yet... seems a bit soon to already be putting holes in things... anyway, it's a good idea, and if I overcome my compulsion to not put holes in my ceiling then I'll consider it... as it is, I don't reeaaaaaally have a room I could do that in where it would be appropriate... again, at the moment... ;)

... I do realise I can always fill the holes in later, but it would still feel like ruining it while it was still new...  :-\

... the final build will be about 3.5kg all up, give or take... so, not really a load-bearing problem for my rafters, especially if the weight is distributed over a few hooks and lines. Will keep it in the "future possibility" pile for the moment... :)

... ok, I have an update in the making... will post shortly... :)

D.
ERROR READING DRIVE C: (A)BORT, (R)ETRY, (F)AIL (I)GNORE?

d33j r093r5

Jun 07, 2018, 12:06 pm #14 Last Edit: Jun 07, 2018, 01:49 pm by d33j r093r5
In a nutshell, I've finished designing my door-opening hinges / levers / things. It took longer than I expected it to, but once I sorted out exactly how I was going to do it it flowed on fairly smoothly. There were only a couple of small trial-and-error goes, and I didn't save any of them, so I won't bore you with them, and just give you what I finally worked out...


Dalek Ship Assembly 1.3_001.JPG


... ok, this is the front section of Module 2, the bit where the doors are supposed to go... looks more or less as it did before. You can barely notice the hinges *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*. Actually, with all the other modules and panels in place you don't actually notice them that much; maybe it's just me, but in these images they stand out like dog's b***s. However, that's the trade-off if I want functional doors. They need to have hinges. I've tried to make them as incognito as possible. In any case, I made those last when it became clear that, no matter what else I did, it was going to have to have hinges. And that's about as small as I can make 'em... I'll come back to those. The point of the image was to show that, hinges aside, the model still looks pretty much the same...


Dalek Ship Assembly 1.3_002.JPG


... but, as you can see, there is now a mechanism in play. The challenge of the door opening mechanism is that it has to keep the doors closed when it's supposed to be closed (don't want that bottom door falling open all the time), keep them open when it's supposed to be open (don't want the top door falling closed when it's not supposed to), be functional AND practical, AAAAND actually fit in with the model, AAAAND still allow Daleks in and out without getting in the way. This was my solution...


Dalek Ship Assembly 1.3_003.JPG


.. when fully extended, the lever-support-arms which control each door act together as a support column, so the top door stays open. When closed, the slotted lever-arm used to link the support-arms and provide a fulcrum, acts similarly to a cantilever, which helps to keep the door closed, along with the contra-acting force of the closed upper-door. The hinges obviously are the door pivot points, but having them there means that there is a support point for the doors as they swing, and keeps them in place in general. The design also lends itself to be motorised (potentially) at a later date if I think that's something that should happen. At the moment, I'm happy with the way that will function on its own... :) ... plus, I'm a lazy model-maker... ;)


Dalek Ship Assembly 1.3_004.JPG


... a hangover form my engineering days. I can't tell you how many times we had to design / produce / utilise lugs that looked pretty much like this. It didn't need to be, given the scale and the relatively low-mass, but it just looked better engineered. It's unlikely to break! ;)


Dalek Ship Assembly 1.3_005.JPG


... ok, this bit was fun to conceptualise, design and then see come together. Actually, the whole process is, but I'm also rather proud of the way this worked out. It's essentially the fulcrum point of the 3-lever system. You can see that all 3 perform a dog-leg turn shortly after the fulcrum. For the door support levers, it puts the force back in the centre, as the main sections of those arms line up centrally. For the cantilever arm it wouldn't have been necessary, except to get the majority of the arm out of the way as quickly as possible. The forces on the arm will almost all be in the horizontal, so even if this were full sized, it should take the load... anyone would think I was designing an actual space-ship! Aaaaarggghhh, it's just a model! ;)


Dalek Ship Assembly 1.3_006.JPG


... the other end of the cantilever... errr... lever    :-\ ... anyway, again the over-engineered centralising lugs, and at full extension the door support arms will be completely vertical. It could have potentially been longer, but then the problem is OVER-extending, and the arms bending out the other way... come to think of it, I REALLY should have put stops into those door lugs to prevent that from happening. Mental note: go back and add those. Just an extra precaution...

... you can also see that there are 2 lugs there. It really only needs one for control, the second one is there to keep it horizontal. This will also mean that when the doors are closed, the cantilever won't have a tendency to twist and allow the bottom door to fall open. It also means that the doors must necessarily open and close at the same time; you won't be able to open one or the other in this arrangement, only both together...


Dalek Ship Assembly 1.3_007.JPG


... close up of the lower hinge. Adding these came with its own set of problems. Firstly, the pivot point is right on the bottom corner between the doors edge and the base of the hull. In order to pivot properly and not have any interference, that's where it needed to go. The pin (which I will make out a straightened paperclip) is 1mm in diameter. It's pretty small, but it still means that half the hinge protrudes below the base of the ship. Given that you also need a housing for the pin, it's sticks down even further. On the top section, this doesn't matter a great deal, but I do want the model to sit flat once it's finished. So, I made the base a little thicker to accommodate it. You can't really tell. Oh, I mean you can still see the bl***y hinge, I mean you can't see that the base is about a millimetre thicker ;) It also means that the base is still flat, and it will sit on the printer bed without needing any support-material. Always a plus...

... speaking of supports, in making the base thicker, it made it so that it now sat lower than modules 1A, B, C and D, which looked like they were now hovering. So I made the rocket supports 1mm thicker as well to compensate. This made the dowel holes 1mm longer as well. You change one little thing...!  :P ;) ... anyway, they were simple enough to correct. I hope there wasn't anything else that I missed...


Dalek Ship Assembly 1.3_008.JPG


... doors starting to close. I know you can add video to this forum, albeit via Youtube, but the size of the videos produced by Solidworks tend to be exhorbitantly large, even for a few seconds. Can you post animated gifs? Anyway, I wanted to give you an idea of how the mechanism worked, hence the gratuitous images of the door slowly being closed... ;)


Dalek Ship Assembly 1.3_009.JPG


... I think you get the idea...


Module 2 Bottom Door_1_001.JPG


... this is how the design for the bottom door currently looks. Unfortunately, due to that lug and the hinge, this will now need to be printed with support material. But, I'm fairly confident, especially since the success I had with printing the War Doctor Console Room floor cabling with support material...


Module 2 Top Door_1_001.JPG


... and the top door... same deal...


Lever Bar 1_001.JPG


Lever Bar 2_001.JPG


... the 2 lever bar designs; the first is the design for the door supports, the second is the cantilever. Again, these will be printed flat, with support for the bent-up sections...

... and now for the irony. After working out the design and playing around with it for a while (nearing completion), I suddenly had the bright idea to go and see how they did it on the show... y'know, the thing I should have done in the first place to make my life easier...  ::)


ROTD_180607_001.jpg   ROTD_180607_002.jpg   ROTD_180607_003.jpg


... and it turns out that they pretty much did it the way I did! Their version isn't as chunky as mine, and doesn't extend all the way to vertical, but the arms that they have are sturdy enough (and they have 2 sets, one for each side in their design, so it's doubled up the strength essentially), and theirs is also motorised, so that when the motor isn't running, the arms (and hence the doors) are locked in place. So, I feel pretty good about my outcome, all things considered. :) I also think that they don't get their support arms to vertical because it's a small step from there to the arms bending the other way, and on a model THAT size you really wouldn't want to be fixing the ensuing problems...

... well, that's pretty much it for the moment... A couple of final images to leave you with...


Dalek Ship Assembly 1.3_010.JPG


Dalek Ship Assembly 1.3_011.JPG


Cheers,

D.
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