# 3D printed Saturn V



## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Downloaded a somewhat detailed 4 part Saturn V model from Thingiverse.
Printed it out as large as I could with my printer, in white PLA plastic.
Since you can't use masking tape on raw 3D printed parts (all the little groves and channels wick the paint under) I just did the black paint by hand.
Was going to print the markings on white decal paper but this experiment with gluing regular paper onto the model worked pretty well so I might leave it.
Still need to paint the command module aluminum and add some different color to the F1 engines.
Not as slick looking as a commercial kit but not bad for a nearly free model.

It's just under 2 feet tall, or about 1:185 scale:


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Cool. The 3D modeling bug has gotten me going. I need to make a 1/1 model of a gun sight... I can definitely see this being a big growth area in the future of modelling.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Well, so much for this thing not costing me much. After printing this out and adding the markings I now really want a version with better details...

So I ordered the Revell 1/144 Apollo Saturn V kit....


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Ahhhhhhh you should have gotten the Airfix 1/144 kit. THe Revell one (old Monogram kit) is pretty poor. The Airfix kit was poor too, b ut for the current reissue they overhauled the molds and retooled a lot, especially the CSM section. As built, both the Monogram and Airfix kits represented pre flight mock ups of the rocket and capsues, but AIrfix updated their kit... Monogram never did.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

I did see that kit, $10 more and looking at pictures I didn't see any difference on the outside. The Airfix does seem to have better looking engine areas on the upper stages, but it's just going to sit on a shelf when done....


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## Modlerbob (Feb 10, 2011)

Nice model. I sure wish I could afford a 3D printer.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Modlerbob said:


> Nice model. I sure wish I could afford a 3D printer.


The Printrbot simple metal I have is $600 and makes great prints up to 6x6x6 inches, you can now get 1Kg spools of PLA for less than $20. I started with their simple maker edition kit that is around $300, it's laser cut wood you have to assemble, and only does 4x4x4 inch prints, but is pretty good. I only upgraded because I kept wanting to print stuff just a little bigger.

I've been learning CAD, have gotten decent at it, belt clip broke for my phone's Otter case and in about an hour I had designed a replacement clone part that works exactly like the original.

It's the coolest thing to be able to create something on the computer and then print a physical copy of it...


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## Modlerbob (Feb 10, 2011)

I was a CAD designer for over 20 years until I was forced by health issues to retire seven years ago. Living on SSD makes it almost impossible to make such purchases.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

I am really interested in getting into this. Cost ins't a deciding factor... I just lack any sort of rendering skills. I did download Sketch Up and that seems pretty user friendly. I had wanted to use it to replicate a German MGZ42 optical sight for the MG42 heavy machine gun. I have the real gun and mount, but the optics now are prohibitively expensive. I could 3D print a non working replica and that would be fine for me. Its mostly a bunch of cylinders, blocks, cones... nothing free form.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

I've been learning using FreeCAD, steeper learning curve than SketchUp. And it's a bit buggy (I lost a couple hours work once when all my saves just didn't save for some reason). I have SketchUp but I don't like the interface.  

I'm at the point where I can build just about anything that is based on geometric shapes using FreeCAD. I can sort of due freehand if it's something you can do on a lathe, draw a profile and rotate it around an axis.

I'd like to start doing more real freehand stuff, but to do that I'll probably have to learn Blender, and just casually looking into that I can see the learning curve there is ridiculous....


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Got my Revell kit, why did they not do the stage 2 motors even close to correct? They made a decent J-2 motor for stage 3, it probably would have been less plastic to add 5 more J-2s instead of that crazy thick cup holder plate...

And after hours of searching there don't seem to be any 3D printable J-2 motors available for download anywhere. There is a slightly inaccurate F-1 model out there, so I scaled that down and printed 5 of them, and made a new bottom plate for stage 2.

It's not accurate but it's better than the stock parts:










Comparing the 3D printed F-1 to the Revell one, the turbine exhaust manifold is too low on the 3D model:










The nozzles are correct on the big Saturn V I printed out, but the turbine is barely there so those motors would be worse even if I was able to slice them out of the model and print them separately.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Remember that the 1/144 "Revell" kit is the old Monogram kit that dates back to about 1965. The kit came out before details of the actual Apollo Saturn V were even finalized, and technical details of the motors, etc were just unavailable. Also, what was passable detail wise in 1965 is not the same as what we get now in 2015


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

1965? I didn't know it was that old, thought they started making those in the late 60s.

Trying to create some more accurate motors in FreeCAD, but not sure it's worth the effort, I've had to start over a few times, would probably take another 4 or 5 hours to get something only slightly better looking that those scaled down F1s.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

The problem with pretty much all of the old Revell and Monogram space kits is that they pre date the actual projects. The kit companies got on the band wagon early on, so you see things like Revell's Gemini capsule with landing gear (since the original was supposed to land with a big hang-glider type wing, and Saturn V kits based on mock ups and test rockets versus the real thing. Of the vintage kits, the Revell 1/96 Saturn V had the most and best detailing, although its still based on a pre flight test stack. Only Airfix bothered to rework their 1/144 kit to make it more accurately represent the real thing. Dragon's new 1/72 kit is pretty nice too but has an odd mix of excellent details and totally bogus stuff all in one.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

One drawback of combining 3D printing with modeling is getting caught up in trying to add details that you don't really care about, and most of the time are not going to print well..... 

I keep thinking that since I'm rebuilding the bottom of stage two why not add some pipes and electronics boxes and spheres...... Have to remind myself after it's built it's going to sit on a shelf with all that stuff hidden, I only really got the kit to have a nicer looking outside than the 3D printed one I made.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Printed a better shaped service module motor nozzle and a high gain antenna.

Need to sand the nozzle a bit to smooth it out.

Think I'm done printing parts.










And here they are attached:


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

Well, I thought I was done printing parts, but I wanted to add the "duct" or what ever the part is called that connects the command module to the service module.

Smallest part I've ever printed:










Now I have to print a cover to attach to the escape system shield, and that will end up being the second smallest thing I've printed.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

No way to print a little part for the escape system cover to scale because the plastic is not to scale, it would have to be paper thin...

I've played with the idea of 3D printing different command modules, so you could put on on for launch configuration and one for flight, but the more I work on the Revell kit the less I like it, so not sure how much effort I want to put into it...

I ended up with this, the second smallest part I've 3D printed, gives the general look even if it's too big:


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

I built the Airfix 3/4 years back with extra detailing I got from a guy in the UK, Martin's Models. I have a Revell kit too but as Nick said, the Airfix is definitely better although not perfect. NewWare makes an enhancement kit for 1/144 Saturn 5s and if I managed to sell my kit I would buy another Airfix and the NewWare set and do it up right. I used 3D printed replacement spacecraft from Shapeways and Indycals when I recently did my AMT MIS kit and they were great, particularly the discrete Mercury escape tower structure. I noticed on Shapeways there are other parts available for space related plastic models. Here's a pic of the Airfix Saturn 5 on the display stand.


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## MartyS (Mar 11, 2014)

I've pretty much ground to a halt on the Revell model at stage 2 (been working form the top down), so many inaccurate areas I'm not sure I want to continue...

What I should do is improve my CAD skills and create a better 3D model than the ones that are out there now and 3D print it, the big one I printed that got this all started has as many issues as the Revell kit....

Most of it I could do, but certain things like compound curves and adding details to conical surfaces are beyond me at this point.

I did learn a trick about sealing masking tape to ribbed surfaces that will help me paint future 3D printed models, after masking off the black areas I paint white first, let that dry a bit to seal the tape, then paint the black, been able to get mostly clean edges that way.


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