There are already a few Thunderbird 2 models on Thingiverse, but none of them suited my needs. So I used This model from Andre Bellato as a basis to create a new one divided into parts in such a way it could be printed close to the original coloring, without too much of a hassle (for me that is).

I also added lettering and dowels to make gluing the model together is very precise and easy. The dowels are 0,2 mm smaller than the holes they go in, so they should fit easily.

The letters are sticking a little bit out of the surface so they are easily colored with a white (alcohol based) marker. (Not done yet in the pictures.)

I thickened the tail wings a bit because they became very fragile when shrinking the original model, and made the hydraulic legs and feet a little stronger and made the pen on top fit the hole you have to stick them in.

All of the parts will print without supports if placed correctly. Only the tail and stabilizer section need supports under the stabilizer when put on it's rear end. (Tip: put the wing sections straight up with the wingtips pointing upwards.

If you are afraid the model is knocked over during printing you have a few options:

• You can use some glue on the printbed.
• You can make the nozzle make a "Z-hop" when it retracts.
• You can create a raft.

I printed the engine room, the cockpit details and the main jet parts with a SLA (resin) printer because most FDM (filament) printers won't print all the fine details. The rest is printed on a FDM printer.

The names of the STL files contain the color and the amount to print.

I also added a small Thunderbird 4 to fit with the pod.

I used an SLA printer (Creality LD-001) for small detailed parts, and a FDM printer (Creality CR-6 SE, with lots of modifications) for the rest.