I designed this add-on hot staging ring (HSR) for the fantastic 1:144 scale Starship 24 and Booster 7 model posted by AstroNot. I had tried to print the other HSR models available on the site, but was not able to obtain acceptable results due to the fine structure of the sidewalls when printing vertically. Therefore, I designed a version of the HSR that has two primary parts to print. The first is the central core of the HSR including the plume deflector and support structure. The second is the outer wall which is printed as a single part lying flat on the build plate. The outer wall is thin and can then be easily wrapped around the central core and glued in place.
I have also provided models to rework the booster-to-ship interconnection to accommodate the HSR. The interconnect models include three booster tab sockets, three tabs with shoulders to install into the sockets, and three tabls to insert into the top of the HSR so that it mates with the existing slots on the bottom of the ship model. I have provided a model for a jig that can be printed in order to accurately drill holes (4 mm or 5/32 in diameter) to receive the tab sockets. Once you have carefully removed the existing tabs on top of the booster, the jig is placed on top of the booster and the three holes are drilled. The sockets are then glued into place by pressing them into the holes until they are snug. The sockets are flared, thus they should not fall through the holes and still protrude slightly. They can then be sanded flush with the top of the booster quite easily. The shouldered tabs are then glued into the slots of the sockets. The HSR should now fit snugly on the top of the booster. The final step is to glue the remaining tabs into the top of the HSR leaving them protrude just enough to fully engage with the slots on the bottom of the ship. Since all six of the tabs are printed flat on the build plate, they are much sturdier than those that are printed on the booster.
I printed the HSR and parts shown in the photos using a 0.2 mm nozzle in order to get as much detail as possible. The parts should be able to be printed using a 0.4 mm nozzle, but will have slightly less detail.
I have also included STEP files for the primary models so that they can be modified as you may prefer.
| Booster_Mating_Hole_Jig-Bin.stl | 250.5KB | |
| HSR-Assembly-Bin.stl | 6.0MB | |
| HSR-to-Booster-Sockets-Studs-Bin.stl | 6.2MB | |
| HSR-v4-Bin.stl | 1.7MB | |
| HSR-v4.stp | 5.2MB | |
| HSR-v5-Outer-Wall-One-Piece-No-Extra-Bin.stl | 4.3MB | |
| HSR-v5-Outer-Wall-One-Piece-No-Extra.stp | 2.7MB |
