The Ship Model Forum

rjleake, I provided drawings to Yacare Scale Models for a Dutch missile frigate & suggested corrections to the prop shafts on 1 of their frigates they were working on.

I here you about age, I'm 67 I have never liked photo etch parts. I have the Nebraska, and Duncan in 1/700 and they are very nice and an easy builds. I like 3d printed for the unusual subjects especially the small combatants like the German Sebel the Brown Water Navy Zippo, Italian frigate and US subchaser all in 1/144. The second is price so much cheaper than the same kit in plastic. Speaking of new subjects there is a new somewhat new company on Ebay from Chile Yacare Scale Models. I picked up their 1/144 SAAR beautiful kit with crew members! They offer a 1/72 SAAR but I already had the old Baxmod Strikecraft kit. I has the hull assembled but gave up after trying to work with everything else, but I kept the hull I asked them if I could buy everything but the hul in 1/72 and now you can. Both arrived at the same time for a very reasonable price and very quickly. They said they will be doing the Hua'scar and other Chilian fleet assets.

What you say is mostly true. However, there are different qualities of 3D print. The kits sold on ebay by different suppliers, but all from the same factory, and easily recognisable because they are orange, are more expensive that SS Model kits, which are grey, but of better quality and much finer. I am very happy with their quality.
For me, I see two interests in 3D :
1. they deliver kits that nobody will deliver in plastic because the market is too small. Example : the French WW2 cruisers, Italian light cruisers of the same period, HMS Malta, BB Andrea Doria, not to speak about the never weres of WOW ...
2. Aged 70 and with shaking hands, I have now difficulties to continue with the very small pieces in plastic. I already abandoned 1/700, and sometimes, I have to simplify , especially avoiding too small photoetch. 3D kits are much easier to build.

I have bought several of their smaller kits in 1/1250 , and one in 1/350 so far and that's why i stopped buying more in larger scales..Their initial idea or releasing kits in these scales and up to 1/200 or more was and is refreshing as it uses the current 3d technology to its max potential and flexibility , BUT ....their implementation specially on the larger scale kits seems hasty to say the least.Given the resin is not the easiest medium to work with , having to fill, sand, and cut too often it makes the whole experience troublesome and necessary only to those who either don't care about finesse of the finished model , or, must have the said model in the said scale at all costs. For example just to improve the planking on the Rodney kit you will need to scrape off all the detail on deck, sand,re-scribe, and assuming you have successfully completed these steps , then reattached all the detail that now is destroyed (so aftermarket parts or scratch built needed) , and that's just for the deck detail , something relatively very simple for any manufacturer to get it right or at least within acceptable error limits for any scale.Being the only kit of that class in 1/350 i can see the attraction but given the vast variety of the kits in existence today i would personally give it for the time being a pass.But if you have to have it ..

Sorry about the upside down and large images

Well it took 3 months but my 1/350 Rodney finally arrived. I have included some photos so you can hopefully see what I mean when I talk about the Rodney. First I have bought at least 24 different 3d printed ships, and a couple of armor pieces so I knew what to expect before I got it. I bought this kit from MRY-SFW's website directly not Ebay. This kit overall is what you expect from a 3d printed kit that is the majority of 3d printed large scale ship kits. There are two different types one where you see the actual ship printed in a "pink" resin and those that are CAD drawings or images of the ship in gray, Those that are in pink are to me superior in detail and fit then those in gray. The Rodney is no exception. I got the full hull version and as you can see the hull is in 3 pieces with those annoying excess resin on the end. The pink kits are usually 2 pieces that fit snuggly with almost no seem (see my Sverdlov) as an example. The Rodney is like I said in three pieces, thy look nice with the exception of the massive gaps between the deck planking. The bow section has the submerged torpedo tube, I don't know how close it is to the actual tube but it's there, The superstructure is one LARGE piece and from my scant documentation look accurate. The all the guns look good and the B turret has the catapult printed on it. The Walrus is included as a single piece but I will be very concerned when I try and remove the access "spider web" Everything else looks good, gun directors, range fingers, etc, except I will be hitting Simon at MicroMaster, up for info and probable replacements for a couple of parts. The pros are attached to the shafts that are separate pieces. The props look too thick. Overall I am happy with the kit, I will have to proceed very slowly to make sure I don't want to break small parts. Since the images are so large I will add some in another post. Last comments on shipping, the Rodney cam in a box shape you would normally expect for an armor pice, a large square box with all the parts very tightly wrapped in individual bubble wrap with packing tape sewing them up. I keep suggesting the use of painters tape since getting the tape off the bubble wrap is no fun. None of the parts were damaged when I opened the wrapping. I also cut off the large resin boxes that surround the 3d pieces. There are no instructions as usual. I will continue my 3d addiction as new stuff comes out.