Home Racing World

So what about scanners? No..not the 5000+ outfits.

Any advice? I need something large enough for a 1/25th model kit body. Under $500? Possible?

Hi Harry,

One inexpensive way is to use your mobile phone, I think it was Autodesk that had an app.
By taking multiple pictures it created a 3D image, but usually needs a lot of cleaning up with Blender and such.

cheers
Nimrod

I think Nimrod is right. You can certainly use an inexpensive system to get a scan....but they really are "point clouds" and aren't very useful. It takes a ton of clean up.
A high fidelity scanner takes high def video and very accurate motion control to reduce the fuzz in the cloud. If I am not mistaken, Doc has some experience with a high end scanner and even that needed clean up. Lasers are still the best, I believe.

Maybe someone else has better insight? I would love one if it made a decent image....

Harry - I still haven't seen one I like. Theres a service near me that is happy to use the $10k scanner, but I have enough projects already...
A little above your price range is the Matter and Form V2.....

Something to think about if you are going to scan a body. It can't be raw injected white plastic - you will need to prime it so the laser doesn't reflect off... Scanners don't like reflective surfaces.

The software with scanners these days can turn the point data into a surface and that surface will resemble the object...... But on the low end scanners the surface is paper thin - it can't be printed right away (usually).
If you scan a door stop for example - The scanner picks up all the surfaces except the one it's sitting on. This means you have an open volume of 4 surfaces - not a water tight solid object with 5 faces. That needs to be cleaned up in either the scanning or CAD software - the surfaces turned into a thickness the printer can manage - or the volume closed with an estimated surface... I think where you see the prices skyrocket for scanners is what will the software with the scanner do...

Whatever you are going to consider - make sure the scanning software has some bells and whistles - otherwise its an activity in frustration

Thank you all for the advice.

Somehow...someway...someday...I will get these 1/25 model kits reproduced in 1/32. Either DIY or pay-per-view :)

See the related question about shells from solid models....that is an alternative path, perhaps....??

Hi Harry,

With so many 3D printers purchased by members and with the great spirit of helping each other on this forum,
You should consider commissioning a 3D model specifically for printing for the car/s your after.
To make it cost effective, you can divi up the cost with whom ever wants a copy.
For the people that don't have a 3D printer I'm sure we could all print an extra body or two as well.

This would deliver the best possible model for 3D printing by the people that know what their doing.
You could have any car you ever dreamed about, in perfect show room condition, or they could add dents too. :music-rockout:

What are your thoughts?

Cheers
NimROD

Sounds interesting to me. I will post the first car later in a new post.

Gonna necro an old thread. I'm going to give Meshroom a shot this weekend and I will let you know how it goes. It's a freeware application if you happen to have an nVidia GPU.

https://alicevision.github.io/

https://www.prusaprinters.org/photogram ... than-ever/

It's dream to all of us to just scan something and then print it out in whatever scale you would want. I'm sure it will be fairly cheap in a few years. Great technology. I see it as an easy way to make a prototype body or part for resin casting.

I am leaving it all to you guys, though!!

Yet another reason to upgrade my graphics card!

Interesting comment about putting the object on a turntable with a white background - that was my first thought for a model...
Hmmm...

Turntable scanning with phone aka.... the $30 dollar 3d scanner.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1762299

almost 180k downloads.

The Meshroom software uses a bit different method, short version is you take 50+ photos and walk around the object, keep camera settings the same and it finds common elements in the photo based on relation to the subject, figures in the camera lens details and magically comes up with the data points to generate a model. Long version... a whole lotta maths but I am just a simple man and understand not these things.