Dummy pilots.

[doctormike]

I've started making my own. For the most part, the ones for sale are too expensive, too heavy, and too ugly. I've made silicone molds of various style and size pilots. I cast the pilots from Alumilite casting foam. They are light as a feather, cost next to nothing, and I have the pleasure of painting them to look like a real human being. Doc

[OV10]

Nice verbal tease Doc...........now show us

[Twowingtj]

+1 with WBC. Let's see some pics and hear some more about it.

[doctormike]

Going to NJ for a while. It may be after Thanksgiving. Be glad to describe the whole process. It's the same way I made my bronze casting silicone rubber molds. Just pouring foam instead of wax. Doc

[wrongroad]

G'day Doc,
For an awful moment I thought you were talking about me!!!
I, too, would like to see some photos.
Regards and respect
Daryl

[doctormike]

Hey!...I should make a self portrait! Doc

[WintrSol]

Hey!...I should make a self portrait! Doc

Are you calling yourself a 'dummy pilot'?LOL:Devil:

[doctormike]

When I wreck a plane, "dummy" isn't exactly what I call myself! Doc:Angry:

[crankestein]

Sounds good in paper, lets see those works of art.

[corsair]

Could a 3 D printer be used to make dummy pilots?

[fhhuber]

Could a 3 D printer be used to make dummy pilots?

Yes.

You could get a 3D photo of yourself and 3D print yourself to scale and put yourself in the airplane. Some 3D printers would even do it in color.

[corsair]

That would be impressive!! So how does one come up with a 3 D photo?

[fhhuber]

They are done with lasers and a camera that is mounted to do a full 360 round you.

Camera picks up the colors and the lasers get the dimensions.

Similar to the laser systems used in analyzing buildings.

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

[corsair]

Thank you for that info and the youtube vid was interesting. If one has it done, would one need to wear some type of glasses for eye protection to prevent any damage from the lasers as they are measuring?

[fhhuber]

I'm not sure of the exact procedure used now. One of the members of our club worked in developing one of the 3D scanning systems and just recently retired from being an Electrical/Electronics/Computer Engineer for AMD.

At a short visit to where he was working on developing the scanner, I got to see them scan someone's head. He just kept his eyes closed. Then a still photo eye's open gets the eye color. and a little editing to open the eyes on the 3D image.

Their 3D printer wasn't nearly as good as what you can buy for your desktop now... but it was a prototype that worked before anyone else was doing 3D printing.

[Boots Whirlygig]

I need a 1/24th scale F-105 pilot. FreeWing forgot mine!