May 9May 9 Hi all,Just purchased the Aladdin Models 1/32 Avro Anson. A lot has been said on Facebook and LSP about the accuracy. I won't dwell on that too much, since this topic deals with the technical side of getting a proper and buildable print.Clear partsMy biggest fear are the clear parts. I've never been able to print proper clear parts. I've tried Anycubic transparent resin with sad results. Now I tried Elegoo transparent resin. I thought it made sense since I print in an Elegoo printer now as well. First I checked all the settings. Mostly Anti Aliasing. I set this to the max (8). That makes the print time a bit longer. 2 hours and 20 minutes.For slicing I use Chitubox. By far the best in my opinion, after trying several programs. Aladdin Models slices the parts for you. This means you are not able to change the angle of the parts yourself. That is a big downfall, but I understand their reasons.My first results is not very encouraging. Yellowed clear resin. Cloudy, milky. Judge for yourself. I might use these to Vacform my own parts. We'll see!
May 9May 9 Author 12 minutes ago, Schwalbe said:So what next? Another try using more info or different materials?No. First i’ll try and polish these with the tool From the video. Then dip them in Future Klear.
May 10May 10 Author For now i will try vacforming. The Anson was able to open a lot of sliding windows. This will be easier with a vacform canopy.Sprayed mr Surfacer but will seal it in with Klear. My experience is that the heat from vacforming attacks mr Surfacer…
May 12May 12 On 5/9/2026 at 8:37 PM, Martinnfb said:@FG2Si Carl was able to polish 3D printed F-16 canopy to perfection.This is the canopy that @Martinnfb mentioned. The one on the left is as it came in the kit, the right one is after I polished it using various grit sanding sponges and then a dip in Looks Like Glass. Carl
May 12May 12 On 5/10/2026 at 2:13 PM, Jeroen Peters said:My experience is that the heat from vacforming attacks mr Surfacer…Indeed it does with most paint, though you could try spraying a very light coat of mold release on it before vaccing. I've had some success with that lately, but it's sketchy at best. The best vac results I've had have been by making a solid mold of the master, then casting a copy in resin, then using that as the vac form. The resin does not stick to the clear poly as bad, especially with a light coat of mold release. I have a couple of test shots I did for the early P-38 conversion I'll be posting soon.I have not had good results with printing clear parts. Way too much post processing for me. I will soon try casting in clear and let you know how that goes.I am learning a lot from watching your threads lately!! Edited May 12May 12 by biggtim
May 12May 12 Author 1 hour ago, biggtim said:Indeed it does with most paint, though you could try spraying a very light coat of mold release on it before vaccing. I've had some success with that lately, but it's sketchy at best. The best vac results I've had have been by making a solid mold of the master, then casting a copy in resin, then using that as the vac form. The resin does not stick to the clear poly as bad, especially with a light coat of mold release. I have a couple of test shots I did for the early P-38 conversion I'll be posting soon.I have not had good results with printing clear parts. Way too much post processing for me. I will soon try casting in clear and let you know how that goes.I am learning a lot from watching your threads lately!!I was thinking dipping the whole part in Future. That becomes pretty hard and non stick.
May 12May 12 Alternatively, you can try to do a female vac-form mold, by pouring resin, or plaster, ON TOP of the part …You can then vac-form the part by sucking it in the mold. Plus this allows you the keep a crisp surface detail where it counts: on the « outside » of the vac-formed part. Vac-forming in female molds is initially more complex than vac-forming on male molds, but the quality of the end product is infinitely better, to the point where the molded parts are equivalent to IM ones.The question is then « Yeah, but how do I manage to have holes in the mold to suck in the air and the heated plastic ? » Easy-peasy : drill some tiny holes in the frames of the master, insert monofilament in the hole, pour your mold material making sure your monofilament sticks out of the outside of the mold, then remove the monofilament when the mold material is set. You end up with a tiny hole though the mold. A 0.5 mm hole is most of the time enough for sucking-in all the air of the cavity and molding the part. You will end up with a small « pip » on the molded part where the hole is, but, if you put the monofilament on a frame, that is easy to get rid of, without adverse optical effect.HTHHubert
May 12May 12 Author 3 hours of printing and we have the cockpit. The whole nose section with all internal detail. I must say: the surface detail is crisp and complete! And so is the interior. The Elegoo 4 Ultra 16 K has a very strong UV lamp. You can easily drop the lighting time to 1.8 seconds for 0,05 layers.
May 13May 13 Author Ok. This is annoying. For some reason Aladdin models sends you the files mirrored!! I could have known, since the Stuka engine i bought from them was mirrored too. This costs me a lot of resin… and time….
May 14May 14 14 hours ago, Jeroen Peters said:For some reason Aladdin models sends you the files mirrored!Reversed?
May 14May 14 Author 2 minutes ago, Schwalbe said:Reversed?Ofcourse! Mirrored would mean it was identical on both sides :)))
May 14May 14 Just now, Jeroen Peters said:Ofcourse! Mirrored would mean it was identical on both sides :)))Yes. This is correct 🙉
May 14May 14 Author After almost 5 hours of printing we have a center section. This includes interior and bombs.
May 14May 14 Author The fit is perfect. Nose section to mid section.Really small bomb bay:And lovely surface texture:
May 16May 16 Author Another 12 hours of printing and we have the tail and left wing. The detail keeps amazing me. I’ll do some proper shots ater cleanup of the parts.
May 17May 17 This is superb. A whole other level of modelling. Thank you for all you give to this hobby. Is that the right term? Sounds a little undernourished considering what you're doing.
May 17May 17 Author The more i print and free of the supports, the more impressed i am with the details.You are bound to break parts and snip off knobs, but if need be you can always print another one!
May 17May 17 Yes, I am really impressed by the work done on the design. I am (more and more) thoroughly tempted …(But then, it would be another excuse to upgrade to an Uniformation Gk3 Pro, whose 385 nm UV light is said to be much better for printing cristal-clear transparencies 😇)Hubert
May 17May 17 Author 12 minutes ago, HuberB said:Yes, I am really impressed by the work done on the design.I am (more and more) thoroughly tempted …(But then, it would be another excuse to upgrade to an Uniformation Gk3 Pro, whose 385 nm UV light is said to be much better for printing cristal-clear transparencies 😇)HubertWell. The elegoo ultra 4 16K should be able to print crystal clear, but so far i havent managed to. Vacform will be my weapon of choice.
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