Examine the scans of Adam's Y-Wing molds here: www.lumafield.com/article/recovering-star-wars-history-with-adam-savage Check out Lumafield's scan of the month exploring 3D printing here: www.scanofthemonth.com/scans/3d-printing
@@Daniel-Strain Because the mold needs to be a single piece for dimensional stability. The two halves support each other. A better solution is to fill the mold with a contrast agent. This is already done in some industries. I've seen iodine infused gelatin suggested. You could also dust the inside with a high-density powder to increase contrast. Or paint on a powder infused soft-wax.
Watching two professionals in different fields collaborate like this really gets me hyped. I'm certain that the pair of them forgot about the camera after the first couple of questions to each other. You big nerds. I freaking love you all.
@@tested Not at all. Thank you for continually raising the bar on yourselves and this kind of content. You're a continual service to not only entertainment, but makers around the world. Thanks to everyone at Tested for being such a huge inspiration. 💚
I've worked with molds of dinosaur bones in a museum of which the originals weren't accessible anymore. But the molds were old and very brittle. This is such a clever way to apply CT scanning and reuse the molds!
I used to make those! I worked as a moldmaker and wax-prepper for a year. After the place closed down there was a charity sale and I got my hands on some museum grade stuff. Replicas of ancient egyptian and japanese art as well as a pterodactyl fossil replica. They were so good that it even fools experts.
Holy shit, after looking up the exact toy, this was my Star Wars toy growing up. I loved the pull out engine and droid. I can’t believe it was sculpted by Adam, who was also one of my favorite personalities growing up.
This kind of video is exactly why I love Tested. The combination of technique & historical process education, paired with the modern tech of CT scanning and 3D printing, is beautifully eye opening to how humans learn/design/build and share information.
as an action fleet collector myself, it's amazing to see this unreleased piece being archived in such a detailed way! especially one sculpted by yourself!
So, I used to do this (the CT work). It's tremendously cool, and here's some further technical explanation for anyone who wants it: If you notice, he puts the mold inside the uCT at an angle. The reason for this is that rather than a medical CT (which uses a fan-beam and scans a 2D stack), micro-CT's use a cone-beam(CBCT). When you use a cone beam, the X-rays actually have to travel through marginally more air the farther away from the center of the cone you are, which can introduce geometric artifact in cylindrical or symmetric samples because the image processing algorithm does not know the path the x-rays took to the detector panel, only that they arrived with a certain energy. To avoid this, you tilt those samples so that there aren't "invisible" regions that the X-rays have to travel through.
Savage conserving his "this sucks" feeling for the replica is obvious.ä and shows what a fine person he is and how new tech has a way to go still to catch up.
I love how this isn't as much of an interview as it is a conversation. Both these men revere the other for their skills, and they each ask questions, comment, explain processes and thought processes, and are actively interested and both learning from the other. They have skill sets that are complimentary, but divergent, and it's beautiful for me to watch these two opposing minds bridge the gaps for one another.
I have this toy - it was so cool to discover WHO was making these things, years later. I always wondered, as a kid, about how the details were studied, how accurate they were to the ships in the movies, etc.
So cool! As a former kit-bashing modelmaker of Star Wars vehicles for my own mini-movies, I love Adam's insights and enthusiasm as a modelmaker. Thank you Adam for revealing more tricks of the trade!
Adam you need to get studios to take the molds and have them scanned. I would love to see foam latex items that have been lost to time and remade with scans from the old molds.
This was a fantastic video, so well explained and I loved the rapport between Adam and Jon was so engaging and full of infectious enthusiasm! Not long ago I had to bring an old mould out of retirement and sacrifice it for one last casting, definitely gave me pause
the fact that he keeps a Mythbusters sign on the wall makes me happy to have been around for those days! and this model making process has changed so much over the past 2 decades that its hard to believe that it went from custom silicon molds to 3D printing so fast
I had a Galoob Y-Wing when I was younger. It was probably my favorite toy growing up, and it was lost during a move from one house to another. It's awesome to know you had a hand in making it.
I still haven't finished the video but I wanted to exclaim how cool this is! Thank you for sharing - I haven't learned to 3D model, and only just started to teach myself casting with some help from a friend in AU who worked on Ep 2 and 3.... this is so cool to see. The wrap around pour is genius!
I find myself looking at my model kit molds, thinking about how they go about creating the gates, yet filling everything, and how it has to seperate into 2+ pieces. It's always interesting to see the compromises that have to be made after thinking about how things are made. Especially with model kits where certain molds are designed to be reusued by multiple SKUs. Gunpla!
At about 7:46 you're talking about the densities of the silicone, and now I'm really curious what a fresh casting would look like, and how it would differ from this casting... devoid the various passage of time and entropy.
wow! just imagine how many "lost forever, we just can't make any more casts from this" molds of... well, all kinds of things.... that could be restored if this became quite widely known.
It's awesome to see Adam discovering something that I work with in my lab! Micro CT is such an amazing technology for both basic science and engineering.
As someone who very recently made 3D prints of STLs he extracted from his own abdominal CT scan, I'm laughing my ass off that that's the method which was used to scan the molds. 😂 With all the available methods of 3D scanning I never would've guessed, but it's such an obvious choice!
Fab Video, on my current project i’ve actually gone back to hand sculpting/ texturing the sculpt, moulding & resin casting, after relying on 3d printing for past 4yrs or so, i got to the point of where i got fed up on waiting of people 3d modelling, time for prints to arrive, just to find they wouldn’t work or were broken or wrong etc i’ve really enjoyed the little parts i’m working on, using the old methods. right now.
NPR had a new spot today called Weekly Dose of Wonder, saying that experiencing wonder is good for mental health. I saw that wonder in Adam as he was explained how 3d scanning and printing are used in the dental industry.
Didn't expect a physics lesson today. Always grateful when the Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements enters the chat! The resolution and the subtlety of the scans was amazing! I would have liked to hear more about why the scanned images have different colors and aren't monochrome.
I'm just realizing that friends and family of Adam Savage could potentially, on a birthday or at Christmas, receive a one of a kind Star Wars toy or replica that's film quality and really special. I don't know if he's ever done that or not but it's cool to just think about!
That was amazing. For the record the Y-Wing is one of my favourite Star Wars ships and I have one of your Galoob Y-Wings, proudly on my shelf. Thanks Adam!
This is just incredible and I really hope that we see this tech used ASAP in preservation efforts. We as a society are far to casual about loosing things that play such a huge part of our culture and this could really make quite an impact in the preservation field.
Thank you for that video! I'm an old- school mold maker, too and seeing your molds for the Y Wing is great! I used a straight blade when I cut the silicone, making V shapes. I always wanted to build for movies.
Are you sure of the year you made this? The galoob y-wing, tie interceptor and snowspeeder all came out in 1996…time flies I guess! (Edit: oh wow, just realised this is one of the lost prototypes that never made it to production isn’t it! Shame as it looks much more accurate than the 96 version it was going to replace!) As a professional modelmaker that’s worked on similar toy prototyping projects myself (Star Trek, Doctor Who, Red Dwarf etc etc) I can relate to everything you said about never getting around to finishing the ones for yourself, I do have a lot of very similar old silicone moulds in my garage though!
You can definitely see the genesis between the prototype that Adam made to the final Action Fleet (Pretty sure it'd be action fleet, scale is right, and that canopy is pretty much the final look of it) It's just a bit more bulky on the final model because they had to cut out sections for play, such as the R4 unit, screw holes, cockpit, the pop out engine section and the landing gear.
This was such an interesting conversation. Adam should definitely pursue this and have Jon back... two great communicators and thinkers just checking out scans of cool stuff... I'd watch
I was a TSA baggage scanner way back in 2002. Even then we had CT scanners (at least at the SLC airport). Top-down 2D Xrays were used at the checkpoints for carry-on, but larger baggage went through the CT scanner before it went into the belly of the aircraft.
As a Cat scan tech... I wonder what the voxel fidelity is.... This is stuff I do everyday. but with the human body... this so fun.... btw think of these 3d scans like a stack of transparent paper... the photo is printed on each sheet x and Y. then those sheets are stacked to form the z axis or height.
There's a bit of effort involved in orthodontic aligners between the impression to the 3d print of your next set of teeth, in that they have to take the CT scanned point cloud, identify individual teeth, and separate them out of the entire model so that each individual tooth can move to it's final destination, sometimes over a few hundred steps.
Very interesting. I just saw my doctors office had one of these small CT scanners. According to them, the shots that they need to take would take about 30 seconds. It was amazing and seeing this is really impressive.
That was really cool! One question though Adam, Since you still have an Original casting from that mold, that has not been taken apart from its sprue, could you not use that as a "New master" to make a new mold from?
I recall the first time I played with silicone RTV and resin for replicating model parts, which was 1994-95. Indeed the molds did have a bit of a use life and shelf life. Now some might ask why not just scan the resin part and not the mold. As I understand it, there is about a 1 to 2% shrinkage rate of the casted part versus the original. So scanning the mold instead of a casting from it would preserve as close to full size as possible. As far as dentistry goes, two crowns in my mouth were created thanks to 3D topographic scans of the teeth capped, both before the grinding and after. That ensured a perfect fit of the temporary crown while the permanent one was being made. Not cheap, but cool to see and do. Thanks Adam!
Thanks. I always liked the Star Wars Galoob Action Fleet line for the scale/detail/features and sturdiness. After seeing this video, I appreciate them more.
Some of the most difficult things in making a complicated object to make a mould out of is how to allow allow the air inside to move out as the resin moves in and not create bubbles. I made a studio scale y-wing decades ago, but would be very hesitant to even try to cast mould of it. I wish I had the time and space to scratch build.
Every vid featuring those scanners is amazing, very interesting to see :) I did some mold making back 20 or so years ago, then putting a model into silicone, now im experimenting with doing the "reverse" using 3d printing. I have the model i want to get out and designing the two mold halves with half the model sticking out of each, pouring gates, vents, keys and an outline/mold box integrated, hoping i can just pouring silicone into those in order to get finished mold halves that in theory should line up. Im hoping it works because if it does ill have cut down some of the messy, fiddly and time consuming part of the mold making process a bit Doing it in 3d, printing, pouring in silicone, wating a bit and it should be ready for mold release and casting, in pewter for this experiment.
I had to look up esoteric!... and I agree as a machinist approaching 40 years of experience in automation and injection molding fields, I feel esoteric. This "esoteric" methodology would be a great one day build. nothing to detailed so as to be timely but starting from a block of raw material, including the shrinkage issues and parting line determinations, materials used and sources for. etc... and if you have already done so, please point me to that video I agree with the guy below, Adam Savage with his generosities of methodologies, deserves a museum of sorts. Ya think TH-cam videos are museumish of sorts??
I was stunned the last time I needed a crown at the dentist - they used a scanner in my mouth to map out the tooth before and after the removal, then tehy used a 3D mill machine to carve out the new tooth and put it in place.
Is there any way we can have the STLs? Or will Adam use them as masters for new molds? I am MAD for Y wings and having an Adam Savage one would be the pinnacle I could reach tbh (I could never get a studio one lol)😊
Duuuude I got the Y wing and my brother got the snow speeder one christmas growing up. This Y wing is super recognizable! Also this method of object scanning is crazy detailed & awesome
This is so cool. I've made these molds before from a hand modeled master and yes they are really only good for so many casts. That being said even the master modeled object pending on it's material is only good to make so many molds from it. I now also have moved to 3d modeling and have both a FDM and Resin printer at home. This is a fantastic way to revive old model molds if you no longer have a master anymore. And on the flip side we have the lidar to make a model of masters. Once in the computer you can clean things up and modify. I love it!!!
Just FWIW, since it's not really necessary at this point for these molds.... but I find my old, fragile molds can still cast well with a generous coating of Mann EaseRealease 205. It's not super greasy and doesn't affect the finish much at all, but molds release parts so much better with it. I've used that with some of my ancient molds that, if I flexed them enough, would literally shear in half... and gotten several nice parts out of them. And actually I use it on my fresh molds as well. Great stuff! I mean, for those of us without a friend with an industrial CT scanner ;)
Doesn't this mean you can also 3D print the entire negative mold, correct any issues and you now have a perfect mold to recast from without affecting the original? Or you could even translate the mold into a metal by 3d printing it to have a more stable negative master to create more master positives from that you can use to create new silicon negatives
I can see that with artists who were part of the original field of model making for the industry, like Adam Savage, that as they age and then pass away, the art will go from an esoteric art to an fully extinct, but because of how simple it really is it could actually be revived by anyone who wants to do it in the old way. But honestly, apart from the originals made by these artists like Adam Savage, will always be precious because of what it represents and who the men were who made them, and the skill they had, but ultimately the 3D printing way is the next evolutionary step in that field, so it is better because then the artistry goes not from the mind to the hands but from the mind to the computer that replaces the hands in a more precise and efficient way. So for all of us people out there who want to move with the field and stay current with the next evolution of the model making field, needs to become skilled with using the CAD programs that allow a person to create a model in it's entirety, from scratch, without having to go out and buy all kinds of kits from the models stores so they can use the little greeblies from the kits to create their model. This most definitely makes the industry a lot more efficient, less expensive and less time consuming. Because an artist who has any kind of free time can create a database of all kinds of extra models from his own imagination and keep them in escrow for when he might need them for future model building jobs. I have recently take the first steps to move into this field but have not yet mastered any CAD program to be able to create my own models yet, but I have bought several artist's work for 3D printing so I can print and build them to satisfy that need to create things with my hands! Thanks so much for showing this to us Adam. I am so happy that you are documenting all of your work because eventually we all must go the way of all the earth and pass from this world to the next and I think that as you document all of your work from the past you are, in essence, ensuring that your art does not die with you, like so many artist have done before. the one thing that will ensure your art remains alive is you passing on your knowledge, skills and excitement/drive to keep this knowledge of yours alive well past your life span. You have inspired me so much and it makes me happy to no end to know that you are doing this to so many others as well. your passion is part of your artistic skill and it is evident in everything you do on your Channel. None of this will be lost! I wish more of the men you worked with would do the same. I wish that men like George Lucas would also do this to keep the passion alive and to show to subsequent generations how it is accomplished and how it can be done for those who want to take up the torch and carry on the work you and so many others began in the 1970's!
Looking at this makes me think that this is where they got the idea for the Cantwell class Arrestor cruiser, in Andor. It had been designed for Solo, but the "radar dishes" totally remind me of the flashing on this model.
I had a few of these ships when I was a kid, hanging from my ceiling off of clear fishing line. Very exciting to know that before Mythbusters Adam was already molding me into a nerd.
Hey I recognize that Y-wing mold! That looks like the old action fleet ones from the mid-late 90s! The nacelles terminated at about the same point and simulated the wireframe bits with clear plastic molding, the cockpit had a tiny ion cannon turret plugged into it, and it usually came with an R5 miniature that plugs in behind the cockpit! I recall having two or three of these growing up
That story about every Y wing being different sounds interesting, is there more story to explore? This also brought to mind a TH-cam channel named E.C. Henry where there are a number of videos where the channel owner looks at footage from the movies, often tries to do a bit of research into the origin of the model used for filming, then tries to sort of recreate a high fidelity model that generally fits the design ascetic of the movie/period.
I’m a big Star Wars fa, but it still took me a minute he was referring to Nite Gunray and Rune Haako by their first names at 16:50. I didn’t know he was on a first name basis with them!
I can't stop thinking of the potential of this... Imagine if we could get model mold accurate ships in film today, taken from the exact same mold that cast miniatures for the original.
If your original silicone molds are beginning to deteriorate, make a new resin mold of them (a resin mold of the entire silicone mold). That way you can make new/multiple duplicate silicone molds from the resin casts.
Examine the scans of Adam's Y-Wing molds here: www.lumafield.com/article/recovering-star-wars-history-with-adam-savage
Check out Lumafield's scan of the month exploring 3D printing here: www.scanofthemonth.com/scans/3d-printing
Too combat the density issue, why not scan an opened mold?
@@Daniel-Strain Because the mold needs to be a single piece for dimensional stability. The two halves support each other.
A better solution is to fill the mold with a contrast agent.
This is already done in some industries. I've seen iodine infused gelatin suggested.
You could also dust the inside with a high-density powder to increase contrast. Or paint on a powder infused soft-wax.
if i fit yes indeed.
Adam have you ever seen the videos from ec Henry. Trying to recreate old star wars back ground ships?
I’m watching how he whorls the program without a mouse!!
Watching two professionals in different fields collaborate like this really gets me hyped. I'm certain that the pair of them forgot about the camera after the first couple of questions to each other.
You big nerds. I freaking love you all.
Thank you for this comment. We really appreciate your taking the time!
@@tested Not at all. Thank you for continually raising the bar on yourselves and this kind of content.
You're a continual service to not only entertainment, but makers around the world. Thanks to everyone at Tested for being such a huge inspiration. 💚
I've worked with molds of dinosaur bones in a museum of which the originals weren't accessible anymore. But the molds were old and very brittle. This is such a clever way to apply CT scanning and reuse the molds!
Thanks! We'd love to try scanning a dinosaur bone.
@@lumafield Ammonite/nautilus fossils with all the chambers inside would be pretty cool. Probably a lot easier to get a hold of.
I used to make those! I worked as a moldmaker and wax-prepper for a year. After the place closed down there was a charity sale and I got my hands on some museum grade stuff. Replicas of ancient egyptian and japanese art as well as a pterodactyl fossil replica. They were so good that it even fools experts.
All I remember was the smell 😅
@@lumafield I love that y'all are just some nerds in a lab, playing with cool tech :D
Holy shit, after looking up the exact toy, this was my Star Wars toy growing up. I loved the pull out engine and droid. I can’t believe it was sculpted by Adam, who was also one of my favorite personalities growing up.
Can you share the model number or info? I would absolutely love to own one of these, knowing exactly who made it
Jon is a great communicator not only of his own craft, but also asking interesting questions of Adam too. Such an enjoyable video - many thanks!
You're very kind; we'll pass along your comment!
I love how they are both educating each other in their respective fields. This was a cool look into history :)
This kind of video is exactly why I love Tested. The combination of technique & historical process education, paired with the modern tech of CT scanning and 3D printing, is beautifully eye opening to how humans learn/design/build and share information.
as an action fleet collector myself, it's amazing to see this unreleased piece being archived in such a detailed way! especially one sculpted by yourself!
So, I used to do this (the CT work). It's tremendously cool, and here's some further technical explanation for anyone who wants it:
If you notice, he puts the mold inside the uCT at an angle. The reason for this is that rather than a medical CT (which uses a fan-beam and scans a 2D stack), micro-CT's use a cone-beam(CBCT). When you use a cone beam, the X-rays actually have to travel through marginally more air the farther away from the center of the cone you are, which can introduce geometric artifact in cylindrical or symmetric samples because the image processing algorithm does not know the path the x-rays took to the detector panel, only that they arrived with a certain energy. To avoid this, you tilt those samples so that there aren't "invisible" regions that the X-rays have to travel through.
Savage conserving his "this sucks" feeling for the replica is obvious.ä and shows what a fine person he is and how new tech has a way to go still to catch up.
This video made a left turn about 5 minutes in and I would have never expected it. So cool!
That's wild. The Action Fleet Y-wing is to this day one of my favorite star wars toys. Thanks, Adam!
I love how this isn't as much of an interview as it is a conversation. Both these men revere the other for their skills, and they each ask questions, comment, explain processes and thought processes, and are actively interested and both learning from the other. They have skill sets that are complimentary, but divergent, and it's beautiful for me to watch these two opposing minds bridge the gaps for one another.
It’s so enjoyable watching two knowledgeable people learning from each other. This is the way.
It's always fun to learn from Adam!
I have this toy - it was so cool to discover WHO was making these things, years later. I always wondered, as a kid, about how the details were studied, how accurate they were to the ships in the movies, etc.
Do you have a link to a photo of it? I can't seem to find it on Google.
Sounds like Adam just gave them an Absorbent amount of new work!!! GJ ADAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow. The ability to make new positives off of a scan of an otherwise-too-old original mold. Incredible.
So cool! As a former kit-bashing modelmaker of Star Wars vehicles for my own mini-movies, I love Adam's insights and enthusiasm as a modelmaker. Thank you Adam for revealing more tricks of the trade!
I'm a Paleontologist, and we use this same technology to image fossils (or parts of fossils) that we can't safely extract from the surrounding rock!
Adam is so humble. He downplays how brilliant he is not to intimidate. ❤
Adam you need to get studios to take the molds and have them scanned. I would love to see foam latex items that have been lost to time and remade with scans from the old molds.
This was a fantastic video, so well explained and I loved the rapport between Adam and Jon was so engaging and full of infectious enthusiasm! Not long ago I had to bring an old mould out of retirement and sacrifice it for one last casting, definitely gave me pause
the fact that he keeps a Mythbusters sign on the wall makes me happy to have been around for those days! and this model making process has changed so much over the past 2 decades that its hard to believe that it went from custom silicon molds to 3D printing so fast
I had a Galoob Y-Wing when I was younger. It was probably my favorite toy growing up, and it was lost during a move from one house to another.
It's awesome to know you had a hand in making it.
I had that Galoob Y-Wing when I was a kid! I always loved looking at all the greebles and details on it. Had no idea Adam was a part of that toy!
Great show and tell interview, and I love that the guest asked really interesting questions to Adam too.
I still haven't finished the video but I wanted to exclaim how cool this is! Thank you for sharing - I haven't learned to 3D model, and only just started to teach myself casting with some help from a friend in AU who worked on Ep 2 and 3.... this is so cool to see. The wrap around pour is genius!
I find myself looking at my model kit molds, thinking about how they go about creating the gates, yet filling everything, and how it has to seperate into 2+ pieces. It's always interesting to see the compromises that have to be made after thinking about how things are made. Especially with model kits where certain molds are designed to be reusued by multiple SKUs. Gunpla!
these Lumafield videos are always great.
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying them.
"scanned from the void" magic.
Love checking this stuff out. The Y-wing is my favorite Star Wars ship so getting to see this was really neat.
This is exciting as it takes preservation to a whole new level!
REALLY interesting topic and I love to hear you talking about it spontaneously with someone.
It's always a joy to se Adam get excited over technology or art.
At about 7:46 you're talking about the densities of the silicone, and now I'm really curious what a fresh casting would look like, and how it would differ from this casting... devoid the various passage of time and entropy.
seeing two professionals in their fields talking shop is a marvelous thing.
I love how Jon seems just as excited as Adam
wow! just imagine how many "lost forever, we just can't make any more casts from this" molds of... well, all kinds of things.... that could be restored if this became quite widely known.
It's awesome to see Adam discovering something that I work with in my lab! Micro CT is such an amazing technology for both basic science and engineering.
This was awesome to see. Especially because the Y-Wing is my favorite ship from Star Wars
Loving these collaborations with Lumafield!
Thank you! We’re having a whole lot of fun with them!
As someone who very recently made 3D prints of STLs he extracted from his own abdominal CT scan, I'm laughing my ass off that that's the method which was used to scan the molds. 😂 With all the available methods of 3D scanning I never would've guessed, but it's such an obvious choice!
This is absolutely insane, I'm blown away by this technology.
Fascinating to see the inside of the the mold when it's closed up
It’s kind of tripping me out that Adam Savage made the Y-Wing I’ve had since I was a kid. I love it.
Fab Video, on my current project i’ve actually gone back to hand sculpting/ texturing the sculpt, moulding & resin casting, after relying on 3d printing for past 4yrs or so, i got to the point of where i got fed up on waiting of people 3d modelling, time for prints to arrive, just to find they wouldn’t work or were broken or wrong etc i’ve really enjoyed the little parts i’m working on, using the old methods. right now.
NPR had a new spot today called Weekly Dose of Wonder, saying that experiencing wonder is good for mental health. I saw that wonder in Adam as he was explained how 3d scanning and printing are used in the dental industry.
Didn't expect a physics lesson today. Always grateful when the Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements enters the chat!
The resolution and the subtlety of the scans was amazing! I would have liked to hear more about why the scanned images have different colors and aren't monochrome.
I'm just realizing that friends and family of Adam Savage could potentially, on a birthday or at Christmas, receive a one of a kind Star Wars toy or replica that's film quality and really special. I don't know if he's ever done that or not but it's cool to just think about!
That was amazing. For the record the Y-Wing is one of my favourite Star Wars ships and I have one of your Galoob Y-Wings, proudly on my shelf. Thanks Adam!
They didn't use his prototypes
I owned one of these as a kid! Wild to think that something I used to play with came from something that came out of this very mold!
You missed the bit where he explained his moulds were never produced
This is just incredible and I really hope that we see this tech used ASAP in preservation efforts. We as a society are far to casual about loosing things that play such a huge part of our culture and this could really make quite an impact in the preservation field.
Thank you for that video! I'm an old- school mold maker, too and seeing your molds for the Y Wing is great! I used a straight blade when I cut the silicone, making V shapes. I always wanted to build for movies.
Are you sure of the year you made this? The galoob y-wing, tie interceptor and snowspeeder all came out in 1996…time flies I guess! (Edit: oh wow, just realised this is one of the lost prototypes that never made it to production isn’t it! Shame as it looks much more accurate than the 96 version it was going to replace!) As a professional modelmaker that’s worked on similar toy prototyping projects myself (Star Trek, Doctor Who, Red Dwarf etc etc) I can relate to everything you said about never getting around to finishing the ones for yourself, I do have a lot of very similar old silicone moulds in my garage though!
You can definitely see the genesis between the prototype that Adam made to the final Action Fleet (Pretty sure it'd be action fleet, scale is right, and that canopy is pretty much the final look of it) It's just a bit more bulky on the final model because they had to cut out sections for play, such as the R4 unit, screw holes, cockpit, the pop out engine section and the landing gear.
Loved this episode. Excellent explanations of what happened, and love to see your models. Now I want to 3D print your Y wing.
Ah the action fleet Y wing. I loved this toy as a kid! Thanks for making it
This was such an interesting conversation. Adam should definitely pursue this and have Jon back... two great communicators and thinkers just checking out scans of cool stuff... I'd watch
I could listen to these two talk for hours
So many possibilities with this tech! And the opportunities to hybridize old model-making with new tech could be interesting, too.
My mind is boggled. Way too much fun.
So cool. I love seeing how tech is changing the world.
I was a TSA baggage scanner way back in 2002. Even then we had CT scanners (at least at the SLC airport). Top-down 2D Xrays were used at the checkpoints for carry-on, but larger baggage went through the CT scanner before it went into the belly of the aircraft.
As a Cat scan tech... I wonder what the voxel fidelity is.... This is stuff I do everyday. but with the human body... this so fun.... btw think of these 3d scans like a stack of transparent paper... the photo is printed on each sheet x and Y. then those sheets are stacked to form the z axis or height.
There's a bit of effort involved in orthodontic aligners between the impression to the 3d print of your next set of teeth, in that they have to take the CT scanned point cloud, identify individual teeth, and separate them out of the entire model so that each individual tooth can move to it's final destination, sometimes over a few hundred steps.
Very interesting. I just saw my doctors office had one of these small CT scanners. According to them, the shots that they need to take would take about 30 seconds. It was amazing and seeing this is really impressive.
That was really cool!
One question though Adam, Since you still have an Original casting from that mold, that has not been taken apart from its sprue, could you not use that as a "New master" to make a new mold from?
I second this
I kept thinking this the whole way, just recast it 🤷♂️
I recall the first time I played with silicone RTV and resin for replicating model parts, which was 1994-95. Indeed the molds did have a bit of a use life and shelf life.
Now some might ask why not just scan the resin part and not the mold. As I understand it, there is about a 1 to 2% shrinkage rate of the casted part versus the original. So scanning the mold instead of a casting from it would preserve as close to full size as possible.
As far as dentistry goes, two crowns in my mouth were created thanks to 3D topographic scans of the teeth capped, both before the grinding and after. That ensured a perfect fit of the temporary crown while the permanent one was being made. Not cheap, but cool to see and do.
Thanks Adam!
This guy sounds like the Ben Clymer of CT scans. I could listen to him speak about his process all day long.
😁Thanks--we'll pass along your feedback!
@@lumafield let him know!
We've worked together for many years. I enjoy listening to him talk about anything.
That’s way to cool. Think of Al those molds from so many props and models that could be brought back to life if you had access to them
Thanks. I always liked the Star Wars Galoob Action Fleet line for the scale/detail/features and sturdiness. After seeing this video, I appreciate them more.
Wow, Jon is so well spoken and knowledgeable. Great video, incredibly engaging
Some of the most difficult things in making a complicated object to make a mould out of is how to allow allow the air inside to move out as the resin moves in and not create bubbles. I made a studio scale y-wing decades ago, but would be very hesitant to even try to cast mould of it. I wish I had the time and space to scratch build.
Every vid featuring those scanners is amazing, very interesting to see :)
I did some mold making back 20 or so years ago, then putting a model into silicone, now im experimenting with doing the "reverse" using 3d printing.
I have the model i want to get out and designing the two mold halves with half the model sticking out of each, pouring gates, vents, keys and an outline/mold box integrated, hoping i can just pouring silicone into those in order to get finished mold halves that in theory should line up.
Im hoping it works because if it does ill have cut down some of the messy, fiddly and time consuming part of the mold making process a bit
Doing it in 3d, printing, pouring in silicone, wating a bit and it should be ready for mold release and casting, in pewter for this experiment.
Wow, I love learning about things like this.
I had to look up esoteric!... and I agree as a machinist approaching 40 years of experience in automation and injection molding fields, I feel esoteric. This "esoteric" methodology would be a great one day build. nothing to detailed so as to be timely but starting from a block of raw material, including the shrinkage issues and parting line determinations, materials used and sources for. etc... and if you have already done so, please point me to that video
I agree with the guy below, Adam Savage with his generosities of methodologies, deserves a museum of sorts. Ya think TH-cam videos are museumish of sorts??
I was stunned the last time I needed a crown at the dentist - they used a scanner in my mouth to map out the tooth before and after the removal, then tehy used a 3D mill machine to carve out the new tooth and put it in place.
Is there any way we can have the STLs? Or will Adam use them as masters for new molds? I am MAD for Y wings and having an Adam Savage one would be the pinnacle I could reach tbh (I could never get a studio one lol)😊
The copyright will be with Galoob!
Duuuude I got the Y wing and my brother got the snow speeder one christmas growing up. This Y wing is super recognizable!
Also this method of object scanning is crazy detailed & awesome
Really surprised those rubber bands survived, if you didn't replace them. Love seeing these scans.
Please do a one day build of the 3D printed Y-Wing!
For molds that separate into two halves, you could try scanning the internal surface with a high-resolution 3d scanner like one of Creality's.
This is so cool. I've made these molds before from a hand modeled master and yes they are really only good for so many casts. That being said even the master modeled object pending on it's material is only good to make so many molds from it. I now also have moved to 3d modeling and have both a FDM and Resin printer at home. This is a fantastic way to revive old model molds if you no longer have a master anymore. And on the flip side we have the lidar to make a model of masters. Once in the computer you can clean things up and modify. I love it!!!
Just FWIW, since it's not really necessary at this point for these molds.... but I find my old, fragile molds can still cast well with a generous coating of Mann EaseRealease 205. It's not super greasy and doesn't affect the finish much at all, but molds release parts so much better with it. I've used that with some of my ancient molds that, if I flexed them enough, would literally shear in half... and gotten several nice parts out of them. And actually I use it on my fresh molds as well. Great stuff! I mean, for those of us without a friend with an industrial CT scanner ;)
It would be so cool if they preserved molds from movies and other things this way and then shared the files online for purchase!
Doesn't this mean you can also 3D print the entire negative mold, correct any issues and you now have a perfect mold to recast from without affecting the original? Or you could even translate the mold into a metal by 3d printing it to have a more stable negative master to create more master positives from that you can use to create new silicon negatives
Awesome, eye opening video!
I still have those galoob fighters. Kinda strange to find out the dude from one of my favorite shows help make my favorite toys as a kid.
This is straight up sci-fi, and I love it!
Excellent job ❤
I can see that with artists who were part of the original field of model making for the industry, like Adam Savage, that as they age and then pass away, the art will go from an esoteric art to an fully extinct, but because of how simple it really is it could actually be revived by anyone who wants to do it in the old way. But honestly, apart from the originals made by these artists like Adam Savage, will always be precious because of what it represents and who the men were who made them, and the skill they had, but ultimately the 3D printing way is the next evolutionary step in that field, so it is better because then the artistry goes not from the mind to the hands but from the mind to the computer that replaces the hands in a more precise and efficient way. So for all of us people out there who want to move with the field and stay current with the next evolution of the model making field, needs to become skilled with using the CAD programs that allow a person to create a model in it's entirety, from scratch, without having to go out and buy all kinds of kits from the models stores so they can use the little greeblies from the kits to create their model. This most definitely makes the industry a lot more efficient, less expensive and less time consuming. Because an artist who has any kind of free time can create a database of all kinds of extra models from his own imagination and keep them in escrow for when he might need them for future model building jobs. I have recently take the first steps to move into this field but have not yet mastered any CAD program to be able to create my own models yet, but I have bought several artist's work for 3D printing so I can print and build them to satisfy that need to create things with my hands! Thanks so much for showing this to us Adam. I am so happy that you are documenting all of your work because eventually we all must go the way of all the earth and pass from this world to the next and I think that as you document all of your work from the past you are, in essence, ensuring that your art does not die with you, like so many artist have done before. the one thing that will ensure your art remains alive is you passing on your knowledge, skills and excitement/drive to keep this knowledge of yours alive well past your life span. You have inspired me so much and it makes me happy to no end to know that you are doing this to so many others as well. your passion is part of your artistic skill and it is evident in everything you do on your Channel. None of this will be lost! I wish more of the men you worked with would do the same. I wish that men like George Lucas would also do this to keep the passion alive and to show to subsequent generations how it is accomplished and how it can be done for those who want to take up the torch and carry on the work you and so many others began in the 1970's!
Looking at this makes me think that this is where they got the idea for the Cantwell class Arrestor cruiser, in Andor. It had been designed for Solo, but the "radar dishes" totally remind me of the flashing on this model.
I had a few of these ships when I was a kid, hanging from my ceiling off of clear fishing line. Very exciting to know that before Mythbusters Adam was already molding me into a nerd.
That noise also appears in ultrasound images. When you turn the gain up or reduce the signal strength you pick up more noise.
Hey I recognize that Y-wing mold! That looks like the old action fleet ones from the mid-late 90s! The nacelles terminated at about the same point and simulated the wireframe bits with clear plastic molding, the cockpit had a tiny ion cannon turret plugged into it, and it usually came with an R5 miniature that plugs in behind the cockpit! I recall having two or three of these growing up
WOW Adam I print 3D so lots of fun here in my workshop in Stoke on Trent but that method of scanning then converting to STL is fabtastic
That story about every Y wing being different sounds interesting, is there more story to explore?
This also brought to mind a TH-cam channel named E.C. Henry where there are a number of videos where the channel owner looks at footage from the movies, often tries to do a bit of research into the origin of the model used for filming, then tries to sort of recreate a high fidelity model that generally fits the design ascetic of the movie/period.
I’m a big Star Wars fa, but it still took me a minute he was referring to Nite Gunray and Rune Haako by their first names at 16:50. I didn’t know he was on a first name basis with them!
I can't stop thinking of the potential of this... Imagine if we could get model mold accurate ships in film today, taken from the exact same mold that cast miniatures for the original.
If your original silicone molds are beginning to deteriorate, make a new resin mold of them (a resin mold of the entire silicone mold). That way you can make new/multiple duplicate silicone molds from the resin casts.