A few more parts arrived in the mail... still need washing and surface prep. You can see that even the finest process available leaves lots of "lines" from the build process, which will require sanding and filling.

The three sizes of fire monitors, micro-fettled and loosely assembled.

This particular plastic is delivered with a waxy/greasy support matrix that needs to be washed off with solvent... I use mineral spirits. But afterwards, it has a hard chalky deposit which can be scraped off the bigger parts, but leaves the smaller more fragile parts a little fuzzy. Working on that...

This was in WIRED this morning and I thought it was kind of cool, scale it down and have custom crew members for our boats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=_7QtCmOpDHw#!
Foo

Not unlike:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1651882

I started to try it using Autocad's 123D service... no good luck yet, need more time to work on it...

wow. interesting stuff and the results are great as well.

Truly amazing work but be prepared for the bill.

Roscodude (see related thread https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1681599) was kind enough to upload his 1:72 scale drawings to Shapeways for a quote on 6 pieces that came to just under $158 & this was after he removed all detail & had them quote with the least expensive material. I'm getting the turret decks & possibly pilothouse to save some time.

Um, be prepared for disappointment!
The least expensive materials are very coarse and/or grainy.
You get no choice in how the parts are oriented in the printer, so the layers can be oriented in any direction.
And even flat parts have no guarantee... the top surface prints differently from the bottom... one can be rough, the other fairly smooth.

At Shapeways, the inexpensive "white/strong & flexible" is sintered nylon powder... like fine sand glued together, and just as porous...

Thanks Pat. I stand corrected after being reminded that he's using some of the best material, Frosted Detail or Ultra Frosted Detail, for these parts.

Got my Shapeways parts in, for the cabin walls. These are smallish, in HO scale.

The material ("white detail") seems different from a sample I got a couple years ago... very liquidy looking on one side, and with much more striation than expected. The "frosted detail" used on parts like the 12" water main (above) is much finer in resolution, but also pricier.

Some of these flat walls were warped upon delivery... the stuff has a low deflection temperature, it might even have deformed in the delivery truck! But a dip in hot water and then flattening on the counter top worked... more complex shapes could be an issue.

Next step: Degrease (they use a waxy support matrix in the process), wash, and sand. If the parts are still usable, they may even need to be coated with 0.005" styrene for a decent surface.

This is really cool stuff! Unfortunately my skills are limited in AutoCAD... but i would like to explore this some day.....
Have you guys considered a PE service for the larger flatter services? I know in Solidworks they have a sheet metal feature but any vector drawing will do.

It looks like you may be further ahead laser cutting developed shapes in 1/32 ply or an acrilyc plastic for the walls. The areas around the openings look pretty deformed.

Compared with the other stuff you've had done, these must be a little disappointing. Still, looking forward to seeing the build!

Actually, with some sanding, they're cleaning up nicely.

These parts are SMALL... 0.040" (1mm) thick walls, and the door openings are about 3/4" high. And there are rounded corners and keying features where the walls come together... it's nice to be able to print all that detail.

I have hope yet...

The 3-D printers that can produce ABS models have better surfaces with less finishing. There are printers that can produce jewelers' lost wax models. These models can then be used to make RTV molds for production casting in either plastic our metal.

So, the parts cleaned up nicely (I was scared at first!)... but still required a bit of fitting and reshaping, due to being warped upon delivery. But it's coming along.

This is prolly the worlds first "printed boat"?

The future of buying model sets? Just download them and print the parts at your local 3d-printer service? I hope so