G.I. Joe Classified Trouble Bubble

thingiverse

The G.I.Joe Classified series needs more vehicles...figured I'd start with this one. This design is, more or less, a scaled-up version of the original 1980's Trouble Bubble toy. It features a canopy that can flip up and down, a main cannon that rotates left and right and a control stand (the "tower" the cannon and the controls attach to) that can rotate left and right...if you want it to. I tried to minimize the need for supports during printing, so, there are a number of parts that will need to be glued together to complete the assembly. Each part that needs to be glued to another part (with the exception of the interior skin) features a series of holes that can accept a short length of 1.75mm printer filament to serve as alignment pins during assembly. The interior skin simply gets glued to the inside of the vehicle body...nothing fancy. And, as previously stated, you can glue the connection between the control stand and the seat in case you don't want the control stand to rotate left and right. The most challenging part of the build is going to be the canopy. I included a model of the bubble canopy that you can print and use directly or use to produce a 2-part mold to cast a canopy out of clear resin. I also included a model for a mold buck that can be used to vacuum form a canopy. I will add a third option in the near future that can be used directly and will not require casting or vacuum forming...however, it will not be a 100% clear bubble. It will look more like the nose of a B-29 bomber...or maybe R2D2's head...lol... The finished model pictured was printed using a layer height of 0.1mm exclusively.