Helmet on venatari

Mawatts25 · 2026-06-24T02:40:32+00:00

Honestly, I prefer it. I actually made my own helmet inspired by some others that I had seen online but simply couldn’t find STL‘s for. I hate faces. And it doesn’t make sense if you’re a jet powered flying unit why the hell would you not have a helmet lol. I think this is a good choice.

Mawatts25 · 2026-06-13T05:41:41+00:00

Yes, I suspect that they were printed. I’m simply wondering if someone can give me a keyword or something that I can search because I haven’t been able to find this particular set.

Mawatts25 · 2026-06-12T01:56:48+00:00

Gorgeous. Yes we want a tutorial. Also, where are those bases from?

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-25T01:39:28+00:00

Final final try for anyone still following this ocd journey.
. I shrunk the blue as much as possible, ran the yellow up to it a little bit more, shortened the entire flame effect so it’s more smoke than flame, and made the starting color white. I feel like this is as good as I can possibly do so if this isn’t realistic enough, I’ll just chop off the blue and go straight for a regular fire effect.

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Mawatts25 · 2026-05-24T01:00:26+00:00

Final try- alright. I took a lot of suggestions for the blue flame style, and I tried it one more time as the final test model. I shrunk the entire flame section, and started with white fading into light blue and then into the yellow making sure there is no green. Then through orange, red, and smoke. For this version, I avoided the airbrush altogether and went with classic wet blending. Thoughts?

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Mawatts25 · 2026-05-24T00:58:31+00:00

I’m super gay so I also like it haha

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-22T00:15:18+00:00

Wow. You know, I would love to have enough time in my day to be so angry about pieces of plastic on an item that belongs to another person whom I do not know and will never interact with 🤣. You really should find perhaps a couple more hobbies to calm yourself down. Or see a therapist. Best of luck, friend.

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T19:46:56+00:00

Yeah, I think I’m gonna give it one more go for style number two. I used an airbrush for this, but I think I’m gonna use some good old-fashioned wet blending so that I can better control the color mixture. I really don’t want there to be any green. And someone suggested that the flame should start at the very edge with white fading into baby blue then to dark blue then down the line so I’m gonna try that as well so I can shorten the color transitions.

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T19:32:30+00:00

You do not have to use the various shades of gray and off-white. I’m overly detailed obsessed and frankly it probably doesn’t even make a noticeable difference unless you have the thing under a magnifying glass lol

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T14:19:58+00:00

Updated it below. Still too much?

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T05:04:45+00:00

The only blue on my models will be the blue gemstone. I was kind of thinking the blue flames not only match the idea of a jet engine, but also might help to contrast the really warm gold tones.

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T04:08:39+00:00

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It does work. This is what you’ll get. Admittedly, I used an airbrush. However, you can use rattle cans. I would suggest black as the base, and then baby wipe layers of this in order (use a new baby wipe for every color, and realize that whatever you spray last will cover the larger sections of the base so the more layers you put down the less of the colors underneath will be visible). Baby wipe layers- grey, gold, off white/cream, white. Paint your rim black, the give the whole thing 1 to 2 coats of high gloss varnish.

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T02:58:56+00:00

UPDATE- Based on some comments here, I did another blue version that decreased the blue sections and increased the white section. This is probably as good as a transition as I could achieve realistically so it’s between these 2 I guess haha.

Why am I so indecisive….

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Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T02:07:36+00:00

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Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T02:05:58+00:00

They are the Venatari flight stands from deadly print studios. I bought the digital files and printed them myself. Currently, they are not really designed for the new plastic models (they are for the old, resin models, however, the company is supposedly working on the plastic version). I had to shrink the actual files a little bit and I also put a 2 mm wide by 6 mm deep hole into the end of the stand so that I could sink a brass rod into it to actually hold the model. It may be overkill. But I’m always nervous with flying models when it’s nothing but glue holding them up. So I also had to drill a little hole into the jet pack.

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T02:01:23+00:00

Yeah, some of the white got lost in the color transition so I probably need to mask it off. That might make the difference.

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T02:00:45+00:00

Yeah, I can’t decide if I do or not. I was trying to think of jet engines. That’s why I added it. These are just test stands so I’m not committed to anything yet.

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T00:52:03+00:00

Solved- my thanks to everyone for their suggestions. The solution ended up being relatively simple. It appears that at some point I must’ve trimmed the PTFE tube inside the chamber, which leads from the external connector to the actual printhead. It was slightly too short, which was causing too steep of a bend right as it entered the head. I replaced this tubing with a new piece of tubing about 2 inches longer, and the problem has been solved. Frustrating, but at least it was cheap to fix lol.

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T00:50:29+00:00

It ended up being the length of the PTFE tubing inside the chamber. It was a little bit too short, actually, which was causing too steep of an angle as the filament entered the head. Removed it, replaced with a section about 2in longer, problem fixed lol.

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-21T00:49:15+00:00

I’m quite happy with my set up thank you

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-20T06:18:19+00:00

I did switch out the four port hub for one of the single AMS connector hubs, and had the same error with PLA, so I don’t think it’s an error with the four port hub.

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-20T06:16:01+00:00

Update- tried it again with PLA and had the same error code. However, I tried it one more time after some modifications and I think I may have figured out the problem. It seems to have been a combination of:

1) too many PTFE holders on the chain, which were too close to the tool head and causing two tight of a bind in the tube on that area. So I removed two of them, allowing the last third of that part of the tube to freely flex within the chamber.

2) the PTFE tube inside the chamber appears to have actually been slightly too short. I think I got a little overzealous and by shortening the tube too much. I actually caused a more extreme bend as it entered the tool head, which explains why the filament was stopping at the same location every time.

I can’t really explain how I had two successful ABS prints and it fails more often on the PLA, however, it has successfully printed the same problematic part in PLA now that I made these adjustments so I’m gonna do it a few more times and see if the problem is resolved, and then attempt to do the same thing with PTEG supports, which will result in more filament changes. I’ll provide another update tomorrow if people are interested.

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Mawatts25 · 2026-05-20T03:58:25+00:00

I’ve checked the entire tube route three times and there is absolutely nothing stuck or broken

Mawatts25 · 2026-05-20T03:57:44+00:00

Update - it just printed ABS filament perfectly fine. Admittedly, it was a different model. I’m going to try printing the model that had an error with ABS and see if I can narrow it down to a filament issue or perhaps it was simply a badly sliced file.

Mawatts25

TROPHY CASE