[sdg4wheels]

However, I was very disheartened to find out that my family's newest car, the Honda Amaze, had no miniature model available to buy! I knew I had to do something.

Hi,

I would love to get to know the details as I wish to do the same things for my Chevrolet Tavera. I was frantically looking for a scale model of Tavera or Isuzu Panther ideally the same car. But I could not find any. Can you help?

[CaptainRudy]

Firstly, I want to thank everybody who took the time to reply with their kind and appreciative words! Never did I imagine my first post here would win so many hearts.

Originally Posted by Turbojc

Your model looks pretty accurate. Could you walk us through how you measured your car and translated the dimensions to that of your model?

Great job, and keep up the good work!

Cheers!

I am so glad to see that I have been able to spark an interest in this field within so many fellow BHPians! I would absolutely love to share the process I followed in this endeavor.

First, I began with this wonderful tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkg7Ol2jEjs

This does a very good job of explaining the process.
Simply put, one begins by tracing over 2D images of the required model (car blueprints) from different angles. Beyond that, it is entirely using estimation to make sure it looks proportional from all angles. Here, the CarWale 360° image helped a lot (https://www.carwale.com/honda-cars/amaze/360-view/).

Below you can see a comparison between an intermediate stage and the final 3D model that I built:



The vast difference in the complexity between the two models is the result of regular incremental updates to the basic design over a span of ~2 weeks until it was exactly to my liking.
Initially, I even thought of getting the basic design printed (I was that desperate). However, I figured that I had traveled so far on this unprecedented path, I might as well perfect it. Should be easy once you go through the above video.

As for the size and measurements, the proportions should be fine as long as you follow the same blueprint for all sides. The final printed model's measurement can be adjusted by locking the x/y/z ratios and changing any one value, to maintain proportion, on Blender itself, or something more simple such as Windows 3D Builder (my choice) which is present by default on Windows PCs.

Lastly,

Originally Posted by superguy282

Also any other tips or suggestions before the printing?

As a novice myself, the only advice I would like to give: Don't forget, 3D printing is a very physical process. Simply creating a model following the linked video won't yield fruitful results (notice how my wheels and ORVMs are separately placed). You must take into consideration that the 3D printer prints against gravity and thus your model must be well balanced, and most importantly, have a solid base on the print-bed, lest you want to end up with some 3D filament spaghetti :P

Once again, thanks a lot to everybody for your words of encouragement, I hope this little walkthrough will be useful to all of you wonderful collectors out there, may you get all the little models you ever desire!

~Rudy.

[fundagenie]

Wow thats cool. Being a 3d artist myself, I very well understand the effort you would have put behind creating this model. Kudos bro.

Btw what is the cost of 3d printing. Is it based on square inch or cm etc. Also pls share a video of your 3d model to see it from all angles.

FundaG

[kiredd1005]

That looks lovely! I so want to get a 3D print here in Bangalore too! I hope I can find someone.

[F138 V8]

Originally Posted by kiredd1005

That looks lovely! I so want to get a 3D print here in Bangalore too! I hope I can find someone.

You can try out these guys: https://makenica.com/

I've used their services a few times for my college projects and they have been excellent handling all my doubts and even giving me suggestions to increase my model's appearance/ strength. Their pricing is very competitive.
Note: Not related to this business in anyway.

[sto_psy]

What a wonderful post Rudy.

If you are comfortable sharing, what was the cost breakup of getting the 3D printing and what were the metrics of the costing?