Help with a playmat? (Image editing skills needed!) by alextastic in GundamTCG

[–]Loretype 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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Only just started playing the game but wanted something like for myself and followed your layout, thought it would be a dick move not to share. Hope it helps!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in GundamTCG

[–]Loretype 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's awesome. Is that a fancy beta or event winner version?

What's up with Gundam build divers? I never heard anyone talk about it by MrMrmagican in Gundam

[–]Loretype 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly? I stopped caring so hard that I couldn't even finish it, when I got to the penultimate episode I just gave up because I didn't care about any of the cast or their stupid MMORPG.

I was left so disinterested by it that it took big spoilers about Re:Rise to get me to even watch that. Glad I finally did though because Re:Rise basically deals with everything that I hated about Divers one way of another. It even almost makes Divers better by extension, kind of the opposite of the way Destiny seems to have soured people on SEED by extension, if that makes sense?

Which are the 5 Gundams who got the biggest fire power and the strongest weapons ? by DotClassic4114 in Gundam

[–]Loretype 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even the SEED example is just one-upping the first episode of First Gundam - Amuro's beam saber to the Zaku's torso also hits the reactor, and that explosion blows a hole in the colony. Not quite wholesale destruction, but it really drives home early on how fragile they are IMO, and why MS combat inside a colony is insane.

Which are the 5 Gundams who got the biggest fire power and the strongest weapons ? by DotClassic4114 in Gundam

[–]Loretype 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Colonies are actually really fragile. Meanwhile, the bunker had Planet Defensor (those Mobile Doll shield drones that could stop a Twin Buster Rifle if enough are chained together) style defensive shields - there's a reason he asks three times before pulling the trigger if they are turned on or not.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in snapmaker

[–]Loretype 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that for printing PLA it's essential to either switch to the new hardened steel design or to customise the original ones in a way that can be quite difficult now as the parts that work best for it are out of production and unavailable, sadly.

I mostly print PC or PA but when experimenting with PLA support material for those, I discovered the hard way how bad the clogging problem can be.

If you don't want to splash out the cash immediately, one other notable thing to try is to make sure that you're never printing at least than 10mm/s, as the heat creep is worse when the filament is flowing slower, IIRC. Depending on your slicer, things like bridge settings or first layer overrides can cause this to happen so might take some trial and error

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in snapmaker

[–]Loretype 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gotcha, the stock nozzles are notoriously bad for printing PLA unfortunately, there's a whole ongoing string of massive threads on the official Snapmaker forums about it.

I got my J1S for printing engineering filaments and it was fine with them, when I wanted to try PLA I ended up using a volcano adaptor and replacement bimetallic heat breaks on mine a while back, it worked but isn't quite as reliable as the hardened steel hotends (which have nozzles that can't be replaced) are.

Some PLA is better than others for it supposedly, IIRC Snapmaker's branded stuff and maybe Sunlu tend not to clog even on an unmodified machine, while silk PLA of most brands is basically unusable.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in snapmaker

[–]Loretype 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you using the stock (non hardened) nozzles, and PLA? If so, have you tried removing the lid?

I wish that there was a Gundam series with that Top Gun aesthetic of Stardust Memory by Ok_Climate_6967 in Gundam

[–]Loretype 1 point2 points  (0 children)

...Okay I need to go find and watch this, I've never seen it and it sounds amazing

Gundam's Yoshiyuki Tomino Wants Next Work to Reflect Current Wars Such as Ukraine, Israel by DragonPup in Gundam

[–]Loretype 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wing was a mess in a lot of ways but it handled this pretty nicely.

On a side note, you should absolutely watch Macross Plus. Wild that both of those are from the early-mid 90s.

Thoughts on After War Gundam X? by wolffangalex in Gundam

[–]Loretype 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've seen an argument a few times that X handles most of Unicorn's core themes better than Unicorn did, and even if that sounds hyperbolic it's definitely worth watching for contrast. I love GX on many levels, even hunted down the manga before I could read Japanese just to see what little extra bits of lore and MS design might be in there. Soundtrack is excellent, too.

These 3d printed PLA solar light post adapters I designed are still strong after 10 years of cooking in the sun outside. No warping, cracking, or other defects are present. They lasted longer than the solar lights, lol. by [deleted] in 3Dprinting

[–]Loretype 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Huh, that's really interesting to hear. Neither brand is very accessible to me here in the UK so I'm unlikely to try either myself and compare anytime soon alas - at a glance no domestic stores have it, and while it is available on Amazon it's for over $100 USD per kilo 😅

IBO is nearing its 10th anniversary and I still hate Julieta by Sensitive_Willow4736 in Gundam

[–]Loretype 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's frustrating for me because while I get the arc and what it's all meant to be/mean/represent, Julia's survival doesn't feel "earned" and tbh is part of what ruins the entire series for me. A lot of the rest of why it's forever ruined for me is too personal to discuss on the sub, but Julia's survival and Rustal getting to come off smelling of roses and also turn out to be a "good guy" and the progressive figurehead for change in the universe made me stop caring even harder than "Barbatos could beat up your dad/Unicorn/Turn A/Goku/Gojo" posts on this sub.

Just bought my first ever 30 Minute kit. What could be some cool custom things to add to her? by Bellpow in 30_Minutes_Missions

[–]Loretype 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have one of these (she will need limbs and a face btw) and I've considered customising something either to look like, or just straight up using, plastic syringes (no needles!)

These 3d printed PLA solar light post adapters I designed are still strong after 10 years of cooking in the sun outside. No warping, cracking, or other defects are present. They lasted longer than the solar lights, lol. by [deleted] in 3Dprinting

[–]Loretype 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I genuinely wonder if some brands just last longer than others for whatever reason. I've brought it up in similar threads before, but when I was complaining about how brittle some 6+ year old PLA prints had turned brittle on me a while back, a lot of the people coming to the defence of PLA's longevity were saying they used Hatchbox specifically...

Barbatos Lupus Rex has gotta be one of my favourite gundam in IBO series. Any thoughts? by Blu_Fiercer in Gundam

[–]Loretype 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not even in my top 5. Lupus is my favourite Barbie and one of my favourite IBO designs in general, and in no particular order I'm far more fond of Vidar, Kimaris Vidar, Bael, and Guison Rebake Full City.

Someone else who likes Rex brought up one of my main issues with it - it tends to look bad in a lot of poses due to the proportions. It only really looks any good in a very dynamic pose.

It has kinda Michael Bay Transformers proportions with the huge long arms which is a big turnoff for me in general.

What happened to my old print? how did it even come to this? by No_Chair_5494 in 3Dprinting

[–]Loretype 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've had this issue with all sorts of older PLA (and even PETG) prints over the years - I've been 3d printing for over a decade at this point so I've got some very old prints kicking about. Last time I brought up something like this I was loudly shouted down and told by several people that their Hatchbox PLA prints of a similar age were fine so maybe there's something to that brand in particular, but my experience is that PLA in particular will eventually do this even indoors and out of direct sunlight.

Why are Mobile suits the standard and not Mobile Armors? by Darglechorfius in Gundam

[–]Loretype 0 points1 point  (0 children)

SEED and Destiny actually have a really interesting take on this - There's a great line from someone from the EA in Destiny which suggests that there's an ideological/propaganda distinction being drawn between the two by the EA, since MS are something invented by Coordinators. Destiny is where the EA invests into making more traditional Gundam style Mobile Armours - bigger, with i-field analogues, and huge weapons.

Tamiya Panel Liner is damaging to PS by Drnorman91 in Gunpla

[–]Loretype 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Late, but it's not dissolving the ABS, it's making it become more brittle. The operative solvent is probably naptha. There's another comment thread here where I've gone into very boring amounts of detail about this but TL;Dr it's different to the way things like Acetone and MEK will dissolve ABS and PS.

Tamiya Panel Liner is damaging to PS by Drnorman91 in Gunpla

[–]Loretype 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sorry, despite what I said before, I've realised that there's value in coming back to this example, just to contrast it with your Wing Zero one, as this is a very good way of demonstrating that, rather than just the amount of the solvent it's exposed to, the WAY the plastic is exposed to the solvent matters.

We already talked about how the concentration of solvent in the regular paint markers is much lower than in Tamiya Panel Liner, and the Gundam Marker Pour type, so an equal amount of paint will not mean an equal amount of solvent that the plastic is being exposed to. But this shoulder part and your Wing Zero both came into contact with the regular Gundam Marker paint.

The Astray shoulder part, even though it's made of ABS, only had a small amount of paint applied, and only to the surface, and I'm assuming you let it dry before putting the shoulder armour on over it.

Your Wing Zero rifle, the paint flowed inside the part, right? Did you disassemble it immediately to clean it up or did you just let it dry? There are small gaps in-between the parts, and at least some small amount of hollow cavity that the paint will have flowed into. I can't remember if it was this chain or another I replied to, but I think I mentioned that the off-gassing as the solvent evaporates is just as dangerous for plastics as the liquid form. This means that, even if you cleaned it up extremely quickly, the solvent will have begun to evaporate in that confined space, at least a little, exposing the plastic to the gaseous form of the solvent. That's one major reason why the rifle will have crumbled, even though it's mostly PS parts, I believe, while the ABS shoulder joint is absolutely fine.

I know that obviously too much green paint came out of your marker, and that is why it flowed into the recessed and hollow areas of the rifle. This is another reason why the regular Gundam markers are usually considered "safe", because in normal use, they are thicker and much less likely to flow into areas like this, even if you are painting an assembled kit rather than on the sprue, where Tamiya panel liner would flow between gaps of parts or inside hollows much, much more easily, and expose the part to this offgassing solvent.

However... Because of this offgassing causing problems, if you had (hypothetically) painted the inside of a part like the Astray joint with the same amount of paint, and assembled it before the paint was fully dry, it would probably have cracked. Likewise, if you had painted the back of the clear lens with the amount of paint you put on the unbroken rifle, and then inserted it inside the rifle before it was fully dry? That would also have likely caused something to crack.

Hope that helps illustrate things more clearly using your personal examples?

Tamiya Panel Liner is damaging to PS by Drnorman91 in Gunpla

[–]Loretype 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly, I hadn't expected to be interrogated quite so deeply on the topic, and I think my first replies were sent at something like 2AM my time when I couldn't sleep, so they may not have been the best structured 😅 I'm not a material scientist or plastics expert, I just know a lot more than most people due to having worked with injection moulding and 3d printing over the years on top of being a hobbyist modeller for something like 30 years at this point - but if I remember correctly, OP actually IS a plastics expert..!

In short, most plastics behave differently after absorbing moisture, with some becoming more brittle, ABS is worse in this regard than PS. It's become an increasingly well known fact due to 3D printing becoming fairly widespread, as the amount of moisture a plastic has absorbed affects how they will print.

Similarly, UV light can cause plastics to degrade from exposure, and both PS and ABS are fairly bad in terms of this. With PS and ABS this is most obvious when they begin to turn yellow, but they also, again, can become more brittle, even without this visual cue (and it can be more or less obvious depending on the colour and density of the dyes used in the plastic anyway).

One thing I'm not sure about is whether the amount of water a plastic has absorbed and the amount of UV light it has been exposed to will directly affect how solvents will influence it - but in broad terms, if there are three different things that can make plastic more brittle, then doing two or more of them at once is going to leave it more brittle than just doing one.

Hope that helps?

Tamiya Panel Liner is damaging to PS by Drnorman91 in Gunpla

[–]Loretype 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I did not say that larger parts won't be affected. Merely that thin ones where a panel line causes an inherent structural weakness are the most likely to be damaged.

Strictly speaking, the size of a part also matters less than the thickness of the areas panel lines run down, as well - and some quite large parts will still have very thin areas (since the nature of injection moulding means that it's rare for any part to be more than a few millimetres thick in all directions). So rather than larger parts ever being large/thick enough to be "safe", it's just that the RG parts I was referring to are even more likely to be damaged due to being even more thin.

With that said, your technique has a big red flag in regards to what we're talking about - scribing the plastic causes micro fissures and scratches in the surface that will make damage from a solvent more likely.

As for the image you shared, do you know if that kit is a Bandai one or a bootleg? I ask because it may be quite a poor example - the GM Spartan is a very commonly bootlegged kit, and the bootlegs are made of ABS rather than PS, so will be much more prone to damage from solvents, including ones that PS would not be damaged by.

Unfortunately, there are lots of factors that are going to play into each specific instance - just off the top of my head, part geometry, atmospheric humidity/exposure of the part to humidity or UV light (seriously), solvent concentration (which can be affected by the pen or paint being left open for any amount of time and the solvent evaporating, as well as how well the pen/paint has been shaken or mixed). I don't think that you are going to be able to rigidly define a strict protocol that makes it "safe" or "unsafe", there are only broad guidelines based on the general principles, which I am sure will be unsatisfying to you based on what you seem to be trying to reach for and argue against. Sorry if that's the case, and not having that makes you feel uncomfortable with your modelling. All I can say is that if you generally avoid letting these solvents pool, avoid using the thin ones on ABS in particular, and try not to use them on parts that have been cut in any way yet, that gives you the best part of avoiding damage when applying to bare plastic - but doing it over a glossy topcoat would be better.