3D Printing

I'm not too familiar with the process myself; however, I also have looked at some of Shapeways stuff and it looks amazing. I am really interested when the first 3D printed, complete kit is available on the market? You have to imagine that it will only be a matter of time.

You will want to go with Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD) or Frosted Extreme Detail (FED) material.   This is a laser process which fuzes a resin material to produce a part.  The parts are produced with a wax carrier.  It is melted from the pieces in post processing.  The waxy residue may make some paint adhesion problems.   The manufacturers say that acrylic paints can be used,  but I have also had some success with spray primer from Tamiya and ModelMaster paints

In the production process, the part is 'grown' out of the media.   The part may have fine lines caused by the deposition process.    These lines persist in the final product and may need to be sanded out by the end-user.    Some aftermarket producers are using 3D technology to produce their product, then hand finish to produce the master for resin pouring.    

Another material used by Shapeways is Flexible white nylon.   The laser fuzes a nylon powder to grow the part.    The resultant part has a pebbly finish.    It can be painted with acrylic paints

http://www.finescale.com/sitefiles/resources/image.aspx?item={D66F2B6B-2CA4-4E34-AD87-326CA4D77902}

This is a 1:148 scale USCG Fast Response boat which Aaron Skinner photographed for FSM at last summer's EagleQuest show in Dallas.   It is flexible white.  I've shown it a few times.  It gets good comments but doesn't pass judging due to the limitations of the material

Thanks Ed for the info. Amazing the things that's are coming out.

If I'm not mistaken, many if not all of items Shapeways sells, are developed by third parties, including potential customers, and then printed by Shapeways.  For example, you can use a computer-assisted design program to create a file for use as a pattern, and send it to Shapeways to print it.  I think they then add it to their catalog as well, but I have not used them, though, so I can't speak more closely at how you proceed with them.

Their quality can be quite good.  A friend of mine in our club has ordered a lot of their "castings", especially the dinosaur models that they sell.  They are nearly as good as the far more expensive solid resin models produced by sculptors and cast in a garage industry, and much, much cheaper.

As Ed mentioned, the process still isn't perfect.  Much 3D printing is done by extrusion, that is, with a nozzle that moves along three axes, directed by the software pattern, laying down a bead of the material.  MakerBot's 3D printer originally used that technology, which was adapted from dentistry, by the way, used to make dental prosthetics.  Their early machine produced objects with definite ribbing, following the line of the extruder as it made a pass and laid down a bead of the material.  I think it's gotten better, in the meantime.  But if you do a web search on "makerbot", you might still find the series of videos they had loaded on YouTube as the user manual for their v2.0 3D printer.

I think we're getting ever closer to a point where the technology becomes cheap enough that many of us might have a 3D printer on our benches, and instead of buying a kit, we buy the pattern from the model company, and print the parts ourselves.

the Baron

If I'm not mistaken, many if not all of items Shapeways sells, are developed by third parties, including potential customers, and then printed by Shapeways.  For example, you can use a computer-assisted design program to create a file for use as a pattern, and send it to Shapeways to print it.  I think they then add it to their catalog as well, but I have not used them, though, so I can't speak more closely at how you proceed with them.

 

Yes that is correct. I read that in one of their emails.

plasticjunkie

 

 

the Baron

If I'm not mistaken, many if not all of items Shapeways sells, are developed by third parties, including potential customers, and then printed by Shapeways.  For example, you can use a computer-assisted design program to create a file for use as a pattern, and send it to Shapeways to print it.  I think they then add it to their catalog as well, but I have not used them, though, so I can't speak more closely at how you proceed with them.

 

 

 

 

Yes that is correct. I read that in one of their emails.

 

Yes, a look at their site pretty much explains it. What is nice is that it obviously will become a "group think", where they keep adding product. I suppose that if an individual sends a file to them to print, that person retains the rights to its production. Interested to see how that works.

But it is a great selection. So far I've bought a number of sets of 1/144 sailors. They market with their CAD drawings, and the product is somewhat less than that. But it certainly is "good enough", certainly better than my painting skills. You can tell if a U-boat sailor has a sailors cap on versus a "fore-and-aft" cap.

As far as the question about the deck gun, I bought mine from WEM as it comes with some PE. 

Thanks GM. WEM doesn't carry the guns any more. Now you have to go thru Atalntic Models in the UK. I contacted them and they are out of the pe for the Oerlikon guns so it will be at least a couple of weeks before they are back in stock.

Yeah, you have to be mindful when looking at products on Shapeway.  The nice looking ones tend to be the 3D rendered work or digital preview as they have it stamped, and not the actual product.

regards,

Jack