Since I'm most familiar with the 3D program Sketchup, I did most of my work for the panels there.
It was fairly quick to make, since most of the shapes are quite regular, and I made a tri panel and a quad panel. Each of the hex faces has a set of smaller hex panel lines inside.
Using my FDM printer, both of these printed out fairly well, although I had some adhesion issues causing some of the corners to curl up slightly. I might have to use a bigger brim to prevent that.
Close up, the surface is a bit rough, since I don't think I made the tops thick enough. However, with a coat of paint, I don't think this matters.
These are only the solar panels themselves, and I still need a base to hold them up. For all that I like Sketchup, it's a bit of a toy in terms of functionality, so I finally transitioned to using Blender for the base. This is a much more powerful tool, but it has quite a steep learning curve. I'm just starting to get the hang of it.
I'm currently just trying to make a fairly standard base with four feet, maybe eventually with some detail bits like control panels. This part of the model is still a work in progress, and I will update as I finish it.
What I have so far, the hex panels, are up on Thingiverse. Anyone is welcome to download and print them for use from the link here:
