Descent Miniatures!

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Thu May 22, 2014 8:38 pm

So, ever since I was a little kid, I've wanted Descent toys. I've looked and looked and looked, and never found anything remotely like this. I even had a friend way back who claimed he saw Descent Micro Machines, but like a lot of things, he was lying. Every few years, I'd go on the hunt online, searching for anybody or any company that maybe decided to sell even a model Pyro-GX, but of course I always came up empty-handed. That is, until I randomly decided to search eBay about a year ago, and stumbled upon a little modeling company selling a Pyro-GX model! I paid a good chunk of change for it, since I'd been searching for most of my life for this, and as you can see:

The paint left a lot to be desired. Colors were wonky, details were simply airbrushed, and there was a weird brick pattern all over. So, I decided to risk the money I'd spent, and sand it all down to re-paint it. Worth it, it was!:

Now, I wasn't satisfied to stop here, no sir! With the modern miracles of 3D printing, I wanted to start a nice little collection. The first test was the Class 1 Drone. All models were from archive.org and Descent2.com, which is no longer technically hosting the files. A few were also downloaded from Thingiverse.

Here's the model fresh from Shapeways. Not bad!

And here it is, all painted up! I love how it came out. The concept had been proven, now was time to expand the fleet.

Class 2 Drone:

I realized after that the model was a bit wonky on proportions, and have since corrected the digital file.

Medium Lifter, this time with a stand:

Small Hulk (I wasn't very happy with how this came out):

Now, there's the next model in line to be painted:

Of course, this model can go one of two ways, and that's where I need you all to help me decide. Will this be the Medium Hulk, or the dreaded Red Hulk?

Also, here's the links to the image albums, where I've included step-by-step pictures of the painting!
Pyro-GX:
Class 1 Drone:
Class 2 Drone:
Medium Lifter:
Small Hulk:

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sat May 24, 2014 5:36 am

Ok, thats pretty slick stuff. 3D printing FTW.

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Sat May 24, 2014 5:44 am

Krom wrote:Ok, thats pretty slick stuff. 3D printing FTW.

Thanks! But what robot should the latest one be? Red, or Medium?

sigma · Post by **sigma** » Sat May 24, 2014 6:25 am

Very cool, and also realistically painted.
Until recently, the repair of my apartment, in my room under the ceiling hung on a thin fishing line at different heights of more than 50 models of military and civilian aircraft. But I could not find anywhere robot models and fighter Descent.
It is a good idea.
Perhaps I would have painted additionally these models luminophor and fluorescent paint.

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Sat May 24, 2014 7:16 am

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Sat May 24, 2014 9:05 am

Omg... want.

vision · Post by **vision** » Sat May 24, 2014 1:59 pm

Take my money, please.

No seriously, I was just thinking about this last week, how I wouldn't mind owning a 3D-printed Pyro-GX. Actually, I have always preferred the in-game model over the one from the D2 cut-scenes, but whatever. I'll take what I can get!

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Sat May 24, 2014 4:54 pm

vision wrote:Take my money, please.

No seriously, I was just thinking about this last week, how I wouldn't mind owning a 3D-printed Pyro-GX. Actually, I have always preferred the in-game model over the one from the D2 cut-scenes, but whatever. I'll take what I can get!

Well, I HAD an Etsy shop up, but somebody on the DXX-Rebirth forums suggested I contact Interplay about the legality of selling these before I do it, lest they notice and don't take too kindly to it.

Flatlander · Post by **Flatlander** » Sat May 24, 2014 6:32 pm

OOooo, very nice!

My vote is for the red hulk (I always called it the homing hulk).

vision · Post by **vision** » Sat May 24, 2014 9:41 pm

Fnoigy wrote:Well, I HAD an Etsy shop up, but somebody on the DXX-Rebirth forums suggested I contact Interplay about the legality of selling these before I do it, lest they notice and don't take too kindly to it.

Ah, you don't know about business. Here is how it works: you sell them until you get a C&D from Interplay, then bargain with them.

PM me when you get your "shop" running again.

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Sat May 24, 2014 11:47 pm

vision wrote:
Fnoigy wrote:Well, I HAD an Etsy shop up, but somebody on the DXX-Rebirth forums suggested I contact Interplay about the legality of selling these before I do it, lest they notice and don't take too kindly to it.
Ah, you don't know about business. Here is how it works: you sell them until you get a C&D from Interplay, then bargain with them.

PM me when you get your "shop" running again.

I shall, and I figured that's kinda how it worked. I also assumed that Interplay wouldn't really be observant, or care enough about the dealings of one person on Etsy.

Viper1999 · Post by **Viper1999** » Sun May 25, 2014 5:32 am

Holy crap, that's hell cool man!

Viper1999 · Post by **Viper1999** » Sun May 25, 2014 5:40 am

Fnoigy wrote:
Krom wrote:Ok, thats pretty slick stuff. 3D printing FTW.
Thanks! But what robot should the latest one be? Red, or Medium?

Obviously, i'd probably say Medium because of the order from weakest to strongest. You should try doing one of the boss robots once you're finished painting the Medium/Heavy Hulk. (Yes, i always call the red ones heavy hulks)

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Sun May 25, 2014 7:21 pm

Viper1999 wrote:
Fnoigy wrote:
Krom wrote:Ok, thats pretty slick stuff. 3D printing FTW.
Thanks! But what robot should the latest one be? Red, or Medium?
Obviously, i'd probably say Medium because of the order from weakest to strongest. You should try doing one of the boss robots once you're finished painting the Medium/Heavy Hulk. (Yes, i always call the red ones heavy hulks)

Are the game files labeled? I know there's programs like Polytron and such that can look at the game sub-files and possibly see the names. Doesn't DMBII show robot names? I WANT CONSENSUS, DARNIT!!!

sdfgeoff · Post by **sdfgeoff** » Mon May 26, 2014 1:35 am

This is the most official place I could find:
http://descent2.com/goodies/3dmodels/thinman/descent1/

They're the names I know the bots by.
That said there is a Descent Strategy Guide floating around somewhere. (A physical book. I don't have one though)

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Thu May 29, 2014 5:20 pm

UPDATE, Y'ALL!!

I got around to painting the next model, and by popular demand (like 2 vs. 1 vote), I chose the Heavy Hulk, now more properly named thanks to our discussion here!

I liked this one a LOT better than the Small Hulk, but it still could be improved on. I also noticed this one was out of proportion, and too wide, so I corrected the digital model for future copies, or whenever the Medium Hulk comes around.

SPEAKING OF WHICH:
Also by request, I've re-opened my Etsy shop, so you can buy one! I'm hoping you guys are right, and Interplay isn't going to suddenly notice and sue me. I'm not expecting to make huge amounts of money, I just LOVED making these, and I wanna make more without draining my bank account or filling all my shelves. Also, I know I'm not the only one who's wanted these things for a long time.

Here's the link to my shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FnoigyStuff

If you want something, go take a look! If not, hey, I think it's pretty rad that people are checking these creations out, buying or not!

EDIT: and of course, the ever-pressing question, SUGGEST WHAT TO MAKE NEXT!

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Thu May 29, 2014 6:22 pm

Even more than the original models themselves, your paint work is simply stunning.

vision · Post by **vision** » Thu May 29, 2014 6:45 pm

Hey! I want to buy a Pyro-GX. It would even prefer the game model over the cut scene style. And I want it unpainted. Also, your paint jobs are amazing, but I would have more fun painting it myself even though it wouldn't be as good as yours. Can you make an advanced lifter? That's my favorite mech, thus my avatar. Fusion hulks would be my second fav. I would be too afraid to buy a class 1 driller. I don't want to see them in-game so I certainly don't want one in my house!

You know what would be cool? Selling the robots in packs based on the game, like, 3 bots for Mars, three for Saturn, etc... Easy to get crazy with this stuff, haha.

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Thu May 29, 2014 7:07 pm

vision wrote:Hey! I want to buy a Pyro-GX. It would even prefer the game model over the cut scene style. And I want it unpainted. Also, your paint jobs are amazing, but I would have more fun painting it myself even though it wouldn't be as good as yours. Can you make an advanced lifter? That's my favorite mech, thus my avatar. Fusion hulks would be my second fav. I would be too afraid to buy a class 1 driller. I don't want to see them in-game so I certainly don't want one in my house!

You know what would be cool? Selling the robots in packs based on the game, like, 3 bots for Mars, three for Saturn, etc... Easy to get crazy with this stuff, haha.

Sadly, I don't have an in-game Pyro-GX model, and I got all my models from Descent2.com (with various tweaks and fixes to make them printable, or if they didn't survive the conversion process intact). If you want to paint it, yourself, you can just go to my Shapeways profile and download the 3D models, re-upload them to Shapeways, and buy it yourself without any middle-man.

https://www.shapeways.com/model/1839228 ... terialId=6

EDIT: I just remembered that one doesn't have a stand. If you want, I can add that model with a stand sometime soon.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Thu May 29, 2014 9:24 pm

Cool stuff you got going on there Fnoigy.

Well done!

Ferno · Post by **Ferno** » Thu May 29, 2014 10:33 pm

I want to see a Fusion Hulk next.

Flatlander · Post by **Flatlander** » Fri May 30, 2014 5:16 am

That homing hulk looks nice!

Ferno wrote:I want to see a Fusion Hulk next.

Hell yeah! Bring on the Purple People Eater!

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Fri May 30, 2014 7:47 pm

Flatlander wrote:That homing hulk looks nice!

Ferno wrote:I want to see a Fusion Hulk next.
Hell yeah! Bring on the Purple People Eater!

Ferno wrote:I want to see a Fusion Hulk next.

YOUR WISHES HAVE BEEN GRANTED!! I think it's going to be the most expensive model, yet ('cause it's the biggest).

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Sat May 31, 2014 2:10 am

I am wondering what a D2 level 20 boss to the same scale as the rest would go for.

It'd probably still be worth it.

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Sat May 31, 2014 10:45 am

For the most part, I'm not really doing much to scale, but trying to keep things fairly close in size. After the mistake with the enormous Small Hulk, I realized I can use the base model (which is a separate file I import to each model) is a good equalizer. The exceptions would be things that are small, like baby spiders and hornets, being made somewhat smaller, and very large enemies like the fusion hulk and bosses being somewhat larger.

I was never a big fan of the Descent II bosses. They always felt oddly small and lacked intimidation, their weapons were often harmless (like lvl 20) or incredibly annoying (any that shot flash missiles), with the mega missile boss and final boss actually having a real punch. The invincible-with-weak-spot aspect was also irritating, as the hitboxes weren't the best, and only the final boss had any visual indicator of where the weak spot was. The use of wall textures instead of robot textures bugged me, too, since it just made their color no more interesting than the walls I'd been staring at for the last 4 levels.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Sat May 31, 2014 11:10 am

On higher skill levels #20 did come across as "is that it?", yeah... 12/16/24 can pretty much kill you instantly.

It did look cool though. To most people.

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 4:46 pm

UPDATE-TYPE THING!!

I've completed the next model, the Miniboss/Fusion Hulk/Purple Hulk!

I seriously promise, it's purple. It's way too DARK of a purple, but it IS purple, the white balance on the camera just wouldn't cooperate.

Next up, is something I think many have been waiting for. HINT: It's not a robot.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 6:11 pm

The only thing you could add to these is if you made the "D" a button which when you pushed played the appropriate robot sound.

Viper1999 · Post by **Viper1999** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 10:55 pm

Fnoigy wrote:UPDATE-TYPE THING!!

I've completed the next model, the Miniboss/Fusion Hulk/Purple Hulk!

I seriously promise, it's purple. It's way too DARK of a purple, but it IS purple, the white balance on the camera just wouldn't cooperate.

Next up, is something I think many have been waiting for. HINT: It's not a robot.

Holy ★■◆●! that one's my favorite!

Flatlander · Post by **Flatlander** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 5:24 am

Fusion Hulk looks great!

sigma · Post by **sigma** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 2:36 pm

This is really cool

Holographic souvenirs sucks. Perhaps even more cool version could only be a model for the magnetic stand. Something like this.

But even this not have a soul, unlike as your exclusive work.

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 1:05 pm

Flatlander wrote:Fusion Hulk looks great!

Thanks. I'm particularly happy with how this came out, mainly thanks to the guys at the Dxx-Rebirth forums who provided a debug exe file with a model viewer.

vision · Post by **vision** » Fri Jul 11, 2014 6:32 pm

Man, the paint jobs on these are just spectacular. The one on my desk looks so cool. I really need a Pyro now so I can recreate the game with my hands when I'm bored. Pew pew! Crunch! Scrape! Pew!

Someone get this guys a Pyro-GX model so I can buy it!

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Sat Jul 12, 2014 9:43 am

vision wrote:Man, the paint jobs on these are just spectacular. The one on my desk looks so cool. I really need a Pyro now so I can recreate the game with my hands when I'm bored. Pew pew! Crunch! Scrape! Pew!

Someone get this guys a Pyro-GX model so I can buy it!

Awesome! I'm glad it got you to intact!

I'm actually planning to do a Pyro next! I think we've all waited long enough for it. It's a more detailed model, instead of the in-game one since I don't have the low-poly version.

vision · Post by **vision** » Sat Jul 12, 2014 11:13 am

Fnoigy wrote:...I don't have the low-poly version.

We need to get you one of those. I want one. No, I want two actually, one with paint and one without.

Oh, I also thought it would be cool if the letters on the base were not just "D" but spelled out DESCENT. Buy all 7 bots!

sigma · Post by **sigma** » Sat Jul 12, 2014 11:54 am

vision wrote:Oh, I also thought it would be cool if the letters on the base were not just "D" but spelled out DESCENT. Buy all 7 bots!

IMHO, you can not write Descent on a stand. It will look horribly ugly. Better to make an inscription "DESCENT" somewhere on model, along with your personal logo fighter multiplayer and together with the team logo, to which you belong. Of course, if you are a member of any clan, not a fighter - a loner. I think, so it would be much, much cooler

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 5:26 pm

sigma wrote:
vision wrote:Oh, I also thought it would be cool if the letters on the base were not just "D" but spelled out DESCENT. Buy all 7 bots!
IMHO, you can not write Descent on a stand. It will look horribly ugly. Better to make an inscription "DESCENT" somewhere on model, along with your personal logo fighter multiplayer and together with the team logo, to which you belong. Of course, if you are a member of any clan, not a fighter - a loner. I think, so it would be much, much cooler

Yea, the whole title would be way too small, the D is hard enough (hehehehe) to paint on there at that size and still be printed effectively, any smaller and you'd have major problems.

Also, does anybody know of a program that works on modern 64-bit Windows systems that can extract model files from Descent 1 and 2?

Viper1999 · Post by **Viper1999** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 6:07 pm

Fnoigy wrote:
sigma wrote:
vision wrote:Oh, I also thought it would be cool if the letters on the base were not just "D" but spelled out DESCENT. Buy all 7 bots!
IMHO, you can not write Descent on a stand. It will look horribly ugly. Better to make an inscription "DESCENT" somewhere on model, along with your personal logo fighter multiplayer and together with the team logo, to which you belong. Of course, if you are a member of any clan, not a fighter - a loner. I think, so it would be much, much cooler
Yea, the whole title would be way too small, the D is hard enough (hehehehe) to paint on there at that size and still be printed effectively, any smaller and you'd have major problems.

Also, does anybody know of a program that works on modern 64-bit Windows systems that can extract model files from Descent 1 and 2?

I've heard DTX and DTX2 does the job and even though it's old, to get it working on like 64-bit windows you need to run it from a virtual machine (I mostly use Windows 3.1 via DOSBox while using this.

)

Fnoigy · Post by **Fnoigy** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 8:01 pm

Viper1999 wrote:
Fnoigy wrote:
sigma wrote:
vision wrote:Oh, I also thought it would be cool if the letters on the base were not just "D" but spelled out DESCENT. Buy all 7 bots!
IMHO, you can not write Descent on a stand. It will look horribly ugly. Better to make an inscription "DESCENT" somewhere on model, along with your personal logo fighter multiplayer and together with the team logo, to which you belong. Of course, if you are a member of any clan, not a fighter - a loner. I think, so it would be much, much cooler
Yea, the whole title would be way too small, the D is hard enough (hehehehe) to paint on there at that size and still be printed effectively, any smaller and you'd have major problems.

Also, does anybody know of a program that works on modern 64-bit Windows systems that can extract model files from Descent 1 and 2?
I've heard DTX and DTX2 does the job and even though it's old, to get it working on like 64-bit windows you need to run it from a virtual machine (I mostly use Windows 3.1 via DOSBox while using this. )

I was aware of virtual machines, but overall I was hoping to avoid using them, since I don't enjoy learning things that are that technical anymore.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:11 pm

DTX is textures and sound files... I don't think it does models. There are a few ways to export .POL, but converting them to a format readable by contemporary 3d tools is a different story - I can't recall what the options are but it's likely to be a multi-step process.