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Lost Proteus Kit

33K views 418 replies 54 participants last post by  starmanmm 
#1 · (Edited)
EDIT... I've ade a Photobucket page I'll be updating from time to time with pics of the project as it progresses

http://s172.photobucket.com/albums/w18/drewid142/


I'm away from home working on a project, so all my model projects are on-hold... but I'm working on something that some of you will like A LOT!

I'm going to try out Print-A-Part with a 1 1/2 inch Proteus kit... a sort of recreation of the one taken by the evil birdie oh so long ago! I've come up with a very cool rig to be included with the kit for folding PhotoEtch windows. I'm thinking it's close enough to 1/350 scale to call it that.

I'm not going to do the molds, though... so I'll be looking for someone to actually cast the Resin parts for me... any leads would be much appreciated. Included here is a collection of images of the digital model in it's present state... LOTS of work left ot do on it, but I hope to send off a test "print" next week!

Price? I have no idea yet. I don't expect to make any real money of it... but it will be pretty expensive to produce. I'm thinking of the following..

Kit 1 - Simple solid one piece kit cast clear with some PE detail parts...

Kit 2 - Fancy kit with Separate top and bottom hull, PE windows and details, full interior, possible crew figures.

Kit 3 - Clear cast miniaturizer base with PE screen of HEX pattern designed for backlighting.
 
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#3 · (Edited)
good suggestion...but...

Thanks Dave... good suggestion... and that may end up happening... Da Sarge rocks, after all... but I kinda want to put a model into a box... y'know... ...make something! even... dare I say... with my name on it! part ego, part ... well... mostly all ego, I guess.

I just need to find someone that does GOOD mold making and parts casting... correct me if I'm wrong... but there's guys out there that do this?

I'm working on the masters... right now, digitally... but some of the really complex compound curves will just be fixed with putty and sanding on the tiny little masters. I'm going to try Print-a-Part, which seems to cater well to "our" market, as well as a more expenive "high end" engineering printer that promises really good resolution and surface quality. I'm curious to see the impact on time to clean up the larger parts, and the possibility of "printing" such small details as 1/350 scale figures.

The Laser rifle on the rear-most table... I'm thinking sillouette photo etched simply foldede at 90 degrees.
 
#7 ·
You'd be surprised how difficult some of these shapes can be! This sounds like a great idea--Randy Cooper just did a beautiful little Proteus diorama with the sub about three inches long, shown inside a section of vein. The Proteus is the best representation of the ship I've seen besides the Lunar Models one--but it is solid cast, all one piece except for the bubble and the engine nozzles. I'd love to see the windows done in etched brass like that!
 
#10 ·
I used the studio drawings posted on Lunadude site as the guide... but the drawings have a few problems... details that simply are impossible in real 3D space. My model, so far, corrects those... but the engines and lower rear bulge still have some work to be done... I need good reference material. I will do screen grabs of the movie if I can find a few shots that show the lower rear of the ship. I figure if I'm going to do this... I'd better do it right. I hope to post 3 views of my model for all you Proteus fans out there next week, and i will send the model to be printed very soon.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Almost Ready For Print-A-Part!

I've worked out the top and bottom hull parts as shown... remember, I'm making a 1 1/2 inch kit! (although I'm dreaming of doing a 1/72 kit as well!)The window frames will be tiny photoetched parts to be built on a little rig to be cast in resin and included with the kit. I've still got some work to do building in the fitting edges for the window frames and the work counter. The middle window ledge shown here will not be part of the cast part, but will be part of the photoetch assembly... it's just too thin to cast.

I was careful to choose the split between top and bottom where it would be easy to putty and sand away the seam.

1/350 scale Proteus!
 
#14 · (Edited)
almost there...

I'm in polygon hell... building out the frames for the photoetched windows... and I had about 2 days of misery finding the geometry problem to get the top hull to render as a solid... 3d tech stuff... but I've got it. I hoped to send away the file for "3d printing" this week... but maybe next week...

I feel a scepticism in the lack of response... I've got a monster 350 refit build with interiors, 1/1000 TOS build with shuttle deck, and a 1/48 apollo build on hold and I've never posted a finished build... but... well.. don't we all... I am compelled to finish this to kit form.

When I was 8 year old, I drew up plans in crayon for a Proteus kit, and asked my mom to mail it to Revell for me, asking them to please make a kit... so I do it myself! I have unbuilt Lunar Model kit and Wilco Kit... but I'm not satisfied... but Carson Dyle's build of the Lunar Models kit is my inspiration.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Funny you should ask... that's exactly what I plan to do... but I want to finish the "lost" one and a half incher first... I just sent the files off to Print-A-Part for the first test print... but I'm having some questions about scale.

I thought about 1/144 and 1/48... but 1/144 is too small for coolness... and 1/48 has already been done by Wilco... although I may work up a replacement part for the upper hull and windows for that kit.

I've got little printouts of the 3 view of my model at scales ranging from 350 to 72 and 72 is looking like it has to be done! ...at about 7.3 inches long.

I'm building in channels for fiber optic lighting into the masters!
 
#17 ·
Don't take lack of responses as lack of interest or doubts, it's just you're venturing into new territory! It looks great so far, I'd definately be interested in one if you produce a kit!
 
#19 · (Edited)
I DID IT!

The Proteus is on it's way! The guy at Print-A-Part was very helpful, as I was having some problem getting things to scale properly on export. She will be 1.6 inches long. I'll post some photos of the parts when they get here, and then will work on polishing the masters and getting the photoetch parts worked up. I suspect I will have to do a second printing of the parts, though... it's my first time so I expect to see some things I hadn't anticipated... also I haven't finished designing the jig to help in building the photoetched window frames yet...

but she will be the most accurate and detailed kit of the Proteus while at the same time, at 1/350 scale, by far the smallest! This is going to be a tweezer-teaser folks! You will DEFINITELY need magnifying goggles to work on this one.

Getting it printed up at 1/72 will cost over $500 bucks... so I'll make sure to polish the geometry fully before doing that one... I'll want to get that one right the first time.

The tiny 1.6 inch parts, HullTop, HullBottom, Kiosk, and a Hatch will cost only 30 bucks to print. Theres a few more parts to work up, but I wanted to see if it was going to work at all before investing any more time in it... I've already logged about 200 hours on creating the 3D model.
 
#20 ·
Someone should do a heart environment for the 1.6 inch kit--you could reallly do an amazing diorama at that scale.

I did a reasonably extensive photographic study of the 5 foot miniature before it was sold by Profiles in History--it's in pretty great shape! I'll be posting them at my flickr site eventually--it's connected to another project that I had to keep under wraps for quite a while but I think it's finally about to see the light of day.
 
#22 · (Edited)
I'm kind of liking this digital to physical stuff... I was thinking about doing a forced perspective diorama kit of the laser in the brain with the proteus in the bg... larger scale figures in the foreground, with the Proteus and the Brain in forced perspective in the background.

dreams dreams dreams... first I better finish something... and that's going to be the 1.6 inch kit, then the 1/72 scale kit.

I would love to see more extensive photos of the filming model, though, before I send off the data to print the larger kit.
 
#23 ·
jbond said:
I did a reasonably extensive photographic study of the 5 foot miniature before it was sold by Profiles in History--it's in pretty great shape! I'll be posting them at my flickr site eventually--it's connected to another project that I had to keep under wraps for quite a while but I think it's finally about to see the light of day.
About bloody time... ;)

I love what you've done, Drew. There are so many cool display possibilities. Can't wait to see the finished product!
 
#24 ·
drewid142 said:
The tiny 1.6 inch parts, HullTop, HullBottom, Kiosk, and a Hatch will cost only 30 bucks to print.
Is the bottom hatch molded in? And by "kiosk," do you mean the launching cradle? Will the lighting ring that the pilot's bubble sits on be separate (because of the undercut)? What about the bubble itself, and the vertical fin?

I'm only being pesky about the details because I can't wait to get my hands on one of these babies!
jbond said:
I did a reasonably extensive photographic study of the 5 foot miniature before it was sold by Profiles in History--it's in pretty great shape!
Thanks to Greg Jein's meticulous restoration job! I have photos of the miniature as it was when he acquired it, and it was in pretty funky condition.
 
#26 ·
I'm doing the test print with separate hatch part... but it's gonna be tiny!

Planning to do the Proteus as it was at miniaturization... they added the ring of lights later... and the actual ring changed shape considerably... I was going to design it to be lightable about the ring... but it's just too darned small... I'll set the 1/72 scale kit up for that... so the ring is planned to be molded into the HullTop object.

I'm hoping, that due the the tiny size of these parts that I can get away with some otherwise difficult casting issues... but the Hull top will have to be a tiny little 3 part mold, I think. I'll do the first few castings... but I'm still looking for someone with GOOD casting skills to hire or partner with on this.

Kiosk is the central object in the interior... the diving room and the map table holding up the pilot station.

The cradle and miniaturization disk will be included... or offered as an easy add-on for those who don't want them.
 
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