My efforts so far only reduced the FUD price by $2.61. I still might be able to chip off a few dollars, but I highly doubt this piece can go $10 or lower without ending up with a weaker structure.

Reality Hits

From day 1 I've been dying to find out how much this model would cost once it gets printed. I had to resize the scale and convert the pieces in .stl format before uploading them to get some pricing estimates. And here's what I got.....

This part measures 4cm wide and costs $12-$16 with the FD/FUD material. The price will go down once I hollow out the area circled in red. I will also reduce the wall thickness down to 1mm because at the moment they average from 1.5mm to 2mm.

A couple more parts and it's nearly reaching the $40 mark. I'm considering using other materials like the WSF-polished for less detailed parts to lower the cost.

LT01-BOAR Upper hull

The tank will be divided in two sections(upper and lower hull) with the upper hull getting printed first. I'm trying to avoid printing large pieces to avoid any warping or breaking that might occur.

Here's the upper hull with the pieces in different colors It is broken down to 12 pieces:

This piece which looks like a heat sink/ air intake/ exhahaust will act as a brace to hold the upper and lower hull.

And here's a further breakdown of the other parts. They all need to be interlocking, hollowed out, and be suitable for casting. Things will get messy.

LT01-BOAR Recap

Here's what the model looks like in assembled form and as separate parts. I just finished working on the all important waist a.k.a. the polycap holder. By taking measurements form the actual polycap and then creating a 3D ruler in Blender(can't be bothered using blender units) I was able to recreate the same measurements in the 3D model. The waist ended up a bit narrower, around 1.5cm wide when it should be around 2cm, but I don't really see it becoming an issue. I'll be using Netfabb to get the final measurements for printing . Overall this should be around 19cm from the front skirt to the back hatch.

What concerns me right now is the amount of polygons required for the smooth areas. I need to find out if those areas really need more polygons or if I can simply get away with a low poly version and still get a "passable" smooth surface.