Star Ranger spaceship

thingiverse

This is the spaceship Star Ranger from the popular Starman book series available on Amazon. The ship serves as the main spaceship throughout the stories and proudly displays its presence on the cover of the 5th book, A Kingdom in Twilight - originally titled The Lost Race of Mars. This scaled model measures 6 inches tall, although the one featured in the image is 9 inches, amplified to 150% for a more dramatic effect. I initially hesitated to print the entire ship as a single piece, so it was divided at the nose to create flat surfaces. As per the books' depiction, the ship sports a vibrant red hue, which is accurately replicated through my printing process. A custom stand for this spaceship features its name and logo, available separately. Here are the print settings used: Printer: LulzBot TAZ 1 Rafts: No supports were utilized during the printing process. Resolution: A precise 0.23mm resolution was maintained throughout the print job. Infill: The infill percentage was set at a moderate 20%. Notes: Due to its impressive size, the model was scaled up to 150% for better visibility. To ensure accuracy, I separated the nozzles (x3) from the main ship since they were too fine to be printed as part of the original design. Although it's never been attempted before, printing the entire ship in one piece would likely yield varying results. The creative process behind this model involved utilizing sketches provided by Bill Baumann, the artist responsible for some of the book illustrations. These top, side, and front views served as background images in Blender, which I then used to recreate the basic shape of the spaceship. Through a series of refinements and smoothing operations, the final design took shape. According to the books, there are indeed nozzles located on the back of the ship; however, they remain invisible in all illustrations. To compensate for this, I added an indentation at the rear of the model and integrated three modified Saturn V rocket nozzles for a more authentic look.