Recently I've had issues with the larger scale FC director body parts not curing properly and liquid resin still remaining trapped inside (due to poor or unthought out desisgn on my part!). So, I am going back and redesigning the director body as well as the barbette or director tower that the director resides on. In doing so, I'm trying to make these parts as hollow as possible to allow for drainage of liquid resin from the interiors of these parts.
Mk. 38 director - this worked out fairly well as I had designed the body hollow from the start. At 1/96 scale or thereabouts, I think 1mm to 1.5 mm in thickness is enough to make the part strong while using internal bracing for structural strength. The only real issues with this director were in the arms and I've since gone back and hollowed them out and after curing/drying, etc. will fill those in with putty or other material to close up the bottom of the arms.
Mk. 34 director - I've had drying/curing issues with this part as well as the supporting barbette - since then I've corrected the barbette and now only have minor issues with the external handrails printing and will make adjustments to those next -
Attachment:
1-96 scaled Fwd FC Barbette CL-63_2.JPG [ 48.43 KiB | Viewed 829 times ]
This shows the barbette with a basically hollowed out interior. The director body is another story - I have the outer mounting ring corrected, but still have to work on the body of the director without losing any of the details I've already created. This may require a new file and starting with the body of the director, getting it corrected (hollowed out) and then adding back the detailed parts from the original design. Time consuming, but doable and probably the better way to address this. Here's the underside of the director body at present -
Attachment:
Mk. 34 FCD (CL-63) Mod 1_ Underside.JPG [ 81.63 KiB | Viewed 829 times ]
This will probably be a two or three stage process to ensure I don't lose anything in the rebuild. Proper drainage during printing is essential to leave the part without any uncured resin inside and this was something that somehow I had forgotten to follow in the design process.
As for the drying/curing end of things my current small turntable and lamp may need upgrading. The lamp works fine, but without an enclosure, UV light is not concentrated in one direction. I'm considering one of the commercial curing boxes w/UV lites & timer. Still under review.
Hank
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FAQ
- the free version works ok, so why tinker with the unknown?
Of course, I had already downloaded v.6 so I'm using that version now. Just so you are aware... 
