EVA Pod from 2001 A Space Odyssey

youmagine

A while ago, I teamed up with several Hutt City Library Staff members to tackle the massive task of printing the magnificent Discovery Model created by metaform3d. I've mentioned it before, but metaform3d's model is one of the best-designed 3D printing models I've ever encountered. Working on this project taught me a lot about good design. I was eager to print off the EVA pod as a separate project, which also featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010 Odyssey 2. I'd seen several models on Thingiverse, but they were just STL versions of the model that had been circulating online since the internet's early days. Some people have successfully printed them, but the digital model is poor quality and not printable for most slicing programs due to its low polygon count. I went back to the original base model in my archives, carefully making it all manifold before smoothing the mesh. The result was a nice high-poly model with a smooth shape that can be printed with any slicer, even older ones. I also added supporting sections that snap off, ensuring the model prints successfully and tidily without needing the slicer to add support. Unfortunately, the original 3DS format file I based this model on is old and had lost any attribution documents it may have had long before it reached me. Sadly, I have no way of attributing it to the person who first created it. There are a couple of errors in the model, particularly around the HAL port on the front and detailing in the back, but it still looks the part. The model shown here has the rear right top port inset when it should be proud of the surface. This was an error on my part from not checking the original stills from the film. I've corrected this in the STL files I've uploaded. Regarding painting, I took a couple of liberties. The original in the films is white for most manipulators, but I painted some sections silver. I'd primed them in black expecting them to be silver before checking the source images. I figured there were already a few inaccuracies, so why not add another one? It took 11 hours to print the main body and about 12 minutes for each of the arms. The size used was chosen to ensure the manipulator arms were a diameter that could have a standard rod size used in place of the printed lengths. As printed, the arms are strong enough on their own and have sufficient definition that I didn't need to redo them with dowels.