US Thunderbolt from Battlezone

3dprinting videogames airbrushing painting bzpgen3

Here's a look at the third generation of the US's 'Thunderbird' print. I've been working on this 80mm range for my 'Battlezone Project' that you can read about here. It's based on the redux mesh but with lots of detail from the textures modelled and sculpted into the mesh for printing.

Here's a quick look at the initial print:

Thumbnail

Pretty much all of the detail from the normal map has been implemented into the mesh. Some of it feels a bit small for the scale, but there's no reason it couldn't be resized larger to retain more detail:

Thumbnail

A work in progress

It successfully printed and I'm pretty happy with the details so I'm posting a WIP here and the model to my MyMiniFactory profile. I'll hopefully get around to painting this unit soon and post some more pictures.

As with the others, I'm happy with how the details came out on this one, though some of it may be a bit too small for the 80mm scale, it can be re-scaled easy enough. Everything printed okay but it feels like it could do with a little beefing up in places, which I'll get round to eventually and post an updated STL.

Until then, here are some promo-style-shots:

  • The US 'Thunderbird' unit
  • The US 'Thunderbird' unit
  • The US 'Thunderbird' unit
Print it yourself

You can find the STL for this model over in my MyMiniFactory page here if you want to try printing this yourself. There's a pre-arranged STL for printing off something quickly, or you can take each part of the STL and combine how you see fit (there's also a full-combined STL in case you're a glutton for support-punishment).

Updates to this entry

Early August '24

An STL of the 'Thunderbird' has been added to my MyMiniFactory page. You can grab the STL from here.

The Battlezone Project


Part of the 'The Battlezone Project' series. A project to create action figures of each ship from Activision's 1998 Battlezone reboot.

Recommended articles

Here's a few articles I recommend if you're looking for things similar to this one.

US APC from Battlezone
US Tug from Battlezone
US Scavenger from Battlezone
US Constructor from Battlezone

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Who I am

I'm Blake and I like to tinker with things and make stuff. When I'm not programming or developing random systems, I'm playing with electronics, doodling bits of art, 3D modelling or sculpting and painting things or nerding out watching sci-fi or horror TV.

From 2001 I worked in the games industry, eventually specialising in tools to aid in the development of video games and their engines. In 2011 I left the industry and teamed up with a few other talented composers to utilise my knowledge to help build the company 'Spitfire Audio'.

I also periodically compose soundtracks for video-games and have worked on titles such as The Stanley Parable and Portal Knights. You've probably also heard my music in random TV commercials at some point.

What I'm using to create

I use various bits and bobs to craft my shiz.

  • Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra, Mars 5 Ultra, Mars 4 Ultra,
  • 3x Mars 3 Pro backup printers for speed,
  • Elegoo ABS-like Resin 3.0,
  • Sunla Water-washable grey,
  • Elegoo Resin Space Grey 8k,
  • Phrozen Luna curing station,
  • Vallejo Model Color, Game Air, various sets,
  • Iwata Eclipse HP-CS & Studio Smart Jet Pro Compressor,
  • Random cheapo airbrushes for base coats,
  • 3D Studio Max, ZBrush and Chitubox Pro.