SE5a (1/200)

[Fitz]

I built this 1/200 scale model of a RAF* SE5a in Blender, and printed it on my Elegoo Mars Pro.
The wingspan is about 40mm.

The Lewis gun is much too large in scale, but I feared that if I made it smaller it would become insignificant, and possibly not print. However, I now think it could be shrunk a bit.

There has got to be an easier way of doing the RFC roundels. In spite of my distaste for decals, I'd even go so far as that, if it didn't cost an arm and a leg to buy decals from across the seas.

• * In this case, RAF stands for Royal Aircraft Factory, not Royal Air Force. Though in 1918 it could also stand for Royal Air Force, in which case it would be a RAF RAF SE5a.

[Forays]

Very pretty!

Roundels look great.

[marianas_gamer]

Nice model, nice painting

[Westfalia Chris]

I built this 1/200 scale model of a RAF* SE5a in Blender, and printed it on my Elegoo Mars Pro.
The wingspan is about 40mm.
(...)

The Lewis gun is much too large in scale, but I feared that if I made it smaller it would become insignificant, and possibly not print. However, I now think it could be shrunk a bit.

Honestly, for what seems to be a gaming piece, I think it is great and a bit of exaggeration won't hurt when it comes to this kind of detail.

There has got to be an easier way of doing the RFC roundels. In spite of my distaste for decals, I'd even go so far as that, if it didn't cost an arm and a leg to buy decals from across the seas.

Have you considered having some very finely raised detail to "outline" the roundel areas? I built a couple of old plastic kits (Aurora DH.10, Smêr DH.2) which among other raised details (per for the time of their initial release) had fine ridges outlining the three areas, and since the decals had long gone beyond being usable, it helped quite a bit with painting them on. Stenciling using masking foil won't work at your scale, I suspect.

They are looking worse in the pictures than in real size, I suspect.

[monk2002uk]

Excellent work. The Lewis gun has been exaggerated appropriately, both from a printing perspective (for the reasons you outlined) and for appearance of the model on the table.

Robert

[Driscoles]

Good choice with the Lewis Gun.
It looks right to me!

[Fitz]

Have you considered having some very finely raised detail to "outline" the roundel areas? I built a couple of old plastic kits (Aurora DH.10, Smêr DH.2) which among other raised details (per for the time of their initial release) had fine ridges outlining the three areas, and since the decals had long gone beyond being usable, it helped quite a bit with painting them on.

I was considering that as a possibility. It's not entirely straightforward in Blender, but it's doable.