The Ship Model Forum

Superb model and fascinating process. I need to get myself a CAD course for beginners!

And, done.

I'll forward more pics to the Gallery...

Absolutely fantastic!
she looks awesome!
The hand made Bell should lend a little heart to the computer printed business, the most important piece by many old sailors opinions! the guy who gets this is going to have a hell of a model for display!

Cheers
G-O

She has really turned out great! I have really enjoyed watching her com together.

Thanks Tim, and it's been my pleasure... especially the part where I was given the opportunity to visit ship and crew, and to fill up my camera.
The model is a commission, and it won't be long before it goes to its new home.

BTW, I am compelled to point out that not everything on this model is 3D Printed plastic... I just turned the ship's bell tonight from brass!

Oh it's so good to see her finished! She's glorious. Very happy to see our CG get some love!

Will you be keeping her, or will she be donated/sold?

Almost there!
I goofed on sizing one of the decals for the hull side, have to wait another week or so to get a replacement, drats.

Oh well, gives me time to work on the display base...

Filling up the after deck with printed RHIBs.

WOW! A stunning build of an equally stunning vessel. 3D printing is fun isn't it?

More progress... assembling all the bits, just a bit more to do.

Pat, it's coming along beautifully. Really making progress!

Worked on railings last weekend. Not all things can or should be 3D printed! Railings are best in brass, and I used my custom etched stanchions for the job.

Tinted the window panes and got them installed.. and had to do the CCG shield on front too!

The mast is starting to get there... still need to make and add a few doo-dads that stick out here and there.

Everything is 3D printed, except the ladder (HO scale molded part), the whip antennae, and of course the PE stanchions.

One thing about this boat, there's no shortage of markings!

I've done all the art now in Inkscape -- a good FREE alternative to a $900 copy of Adobe Illustrator, especially if you're just doing text and simple shapes. It's true vector art, and you can precisely scale and place components... much better than trying to do same with something like MS Word.

The white text will be done by a friend on a commercial printer... the color stuff can be done on clear stock on a color laserjet.

Can't wait to start sticking them!

Working on the windows for the pilot house. These were printed in Shapeway's "clear detail" material, which is actually slightly yellowish. The as-printed surface finish is nowhere near optical... so all the windows were roughed flat with 400 grit, then taken to near optical with 6 grades of Micromesh... each pane polished on both sides.

The panes are all precision fit to the matching openings in the pilot house, with the right thickness to make a flush fit outside. A flange on the inside allows for solid location.

We're thinking to NOT do an interior, and since the greenhouse will be so transparent, the windows will need to be dark tinted. The last picture here is the builder's model, which appears to have either painted-on or sticker windows... I'll try to improve on that look!

Art shops also sell pure acrylics primers. Not sure about their self-levelling properties, as they have a rather low viscosity. They are good for priming small parts or where you don't want to blot-out surface details.

wefalck

A few more parts loosely in place...

Big discovery... I've been having trouble with the paint on my smaller fittings. I prefer to use enamel, and it just wasn't curing hard on these parts.

The resin used for Shapeway's "frosted ultra detail" multijet parts is an acrylic. Now I know one doesn't paint enamels over acrylic paint, but acrylic plastic is normally OK, folks paint Plexiglass all the time. But this multijet material perhaps isn't cured as hard, or has other properties more like an acrylic paint. Anyway, I cleaned the parts (they're safe in lacquer thinner, yay), and repainted all the little guys in acrylics... no issue!

Actually, I took some advice and "primed" the parts with Future, which is just a clear acrylic afterall, on the theory that it would nicely self-level and improve the surface a bit. Seems to work.

The hull and houses are different materials and they take enamels just fine.

Another example of the problem of surface finish. SLS (selective laser sintering) fuses dry nylon powder together to make the part. It's more affordable than most multijet processes, but it make porous parts with a larger step dimension. This means lots of filling and sanding, which again means that little surface detail should be included to allow for the sanding. It's also helpful to use a heavy primer-filler for the first coat or two.

My pilot house and pilot house roof are both SLS. The house is nearly done and is looking good, while the roof has only had the first coat of primer filler, and could use another before I go to regular "finish primer"... see the steps in the shallow angles on the roof.