I just joined the 3D printing club

[modlerbob]

I recently purchased (with a partner) a Monoprice Delta Pro 3D printer. While I'm training myself how to use freecad to create 100% my own component design parts I have been downloading objects from thingiverse and modifying them using Tinkercad. That involves so far mainly scaling up or down components I want to use on my models. I doubt that I will ever get to the point where I will draft and print out all the components to build a sailing ship frame by frame. For one thing I don't think I have enough time left to complete such a task. So I will remain content to create add-ons to kits I am building to improve the overall look. So far I have downloaded several Civil War Ironclads that are in thingiverse and have plotted out 2 of them. The USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia at the scale of 1:250. It will take a lot of additional parts and work to get them to an acceptable level of detail. One piece of reference material I have is the 1:250 scale card model of the CSS Virginia from the Paper Shipwright. I don't anticipate reaching anywhere near the level of detail seen on the Ironclads from Cottage Industries models as they are 1:96 scale.

 

[Moxis]

Nice start modlerbob!

For a long time I have planned to join this 3D brotherhood too and start producing details for my models. There are many 3D printers available with reasonable prices and acceptable quality of prints, but what still prevents me to do so is to learn a 3D CAD so well that I could design and print parts which I could be happy with. I have a hobbyist's licence for Fusion360 software which I have tried to learn for a couple of months now, but am still far from the skills needed to produce some parts which I could be satisfied. The more I learn, the more I feel that I can never reach such a level.

When planning what to build next, I have thought to start something big, like a WW2 warship in a big scale. For this kind of project there would be need for a ton of details with greatest accuracy, where 3D prints would greatly help building, like guns of different calibre. But after having researched them more I have noticed that it will be more and more clear that I could never achieve such skills which are necessary to design all the details.
So my conclusion is not to jump into the 3D printing world (yet) but continue fabricating the parts with old school methods. Attached are photos of Bofors 40 mm and 105 mm naval guns which show the level of details needed.

 

[modlerbob]

The 3D printer that I purchased is fairly big but it can still create small parts but I discovered that the 0.4mm nozzle it came with can't produce small parts under about 5mm. New nozzles aren't expensive but it appears a bit difficult to swap them out. I won't know until I try. I wanted to make a ship's wheel for the revenue cutter I'm working on but so far I have been unable to create one small enough for a model that is 1/96th scale. The artillery you have shown will need to make both large and small parts but they don't have to all be 3D printed.

 

[paulv1958]

Hi Bob, the only way t get small scale is to use a resin 3d printer.
A resin base for small parts could be something like this.

Unfortunately due to the nature of the hot head versions it not possible.
However You will have a lot of run with it. I have a Flash forge Creator pro and print lots of sand paper holders, mini clamps etc.

 

[danielsje]

I recently got an Ender 5 Direct Drive 3D printer and also learning how to use it. Challenging. I am using Prusa slicer software to build the objects. There are a lot of online libraries but few are helpful for ship modeling without a lot of modifications. The learning curve is steep but I can see benefits for parts such as deck furniture, cannons, and maybe decorations as I get better on the slicer program.