Where do you get your STL files?

In keeping with parts for ship modeling there are dozens of cannon STL drawings available for free on line. These include British guns from 1625 through the Blomefield era as well as a number of Spanish patterns and calibers. https://thenrg.org/page-1075420 These can be used on home printers or sent to any number of commercial printers. I have never paid the printer I use more than about US $0.80 per gun including shipping, for guns at scales of 1:48 or smaller, although it has been over a year since I last ordered any. Please feel free to PM me if you would like his contact information.
Allan
PS: Borgard (1716-1724) is misspelled in the list of guns on the link but the drawings are correct :)
 
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That kind of goes back to my original idea of only selling printed parts. I have no intention of giving away my IP. It makes no sense, in my opinion, to give stuff away. This is the best way to stifle progress. Who would develop kits when the competitive price is "zero"?

OK, thank you all for your interesting comments. I will take them into consideration.

Cheers!

Rick
 
rshousha said:
That kind of goes back to my original idea of only selling printed parts. I have no intention of giving away my IP. It makes no sense, in my opinion, to give stuff away. This is the best way to stifle progress. Who would develop kits when the competitive price is "zero"?

OK, thank you all for your interesting comments. I will take them into consideration.

Cheers!

Rick
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there is a market for .OBJ and .STL 3D files all these file site have free files and files you buy. i actually thought of 3D printed kits of old marine engines for engine room dioramas. I know first hand in creating such a kit and no way would i give IP away nor do i think anyone else would. There is a market for unique projects and kits. There is a huge community in historic steam engines and building working engines run on compressed air. I can see the give away for general maritime things like cannons and anchors rigging blocks but not the unique stuff.
 
Yup, so we are pretty well on the same page. I would not mind selling bits and pieces for a couple of dollars here and there but I do think there is a market for complete engines and stuff.

OK, thanks! Let me dig in and see which of those sites suits me best. In the end, it may be best to rebuild my website to sell .STLs as well as actual parts.

Cheers,

Rick
 
rshousha said:
I've heard of all three. Have you used them all? Which did you prefer and why?
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Good 3-D models are where you fund them. Yeggi searches other model sites based on what you are asking for. Many models are free. I occasionally buy models to modify, especially of a mode will save me lots of time because it is very specific to what I am looking for. You want to lurk on all the model sites and hand pick what you need.
 
DARIVS ARCHITECTVS said:
Many models are free.
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Not sure why people give away stuff. How does that promote innovation?

I have no intention of giving away any of my designs. It takes a lot of effort to design cool stuff and there is no reason to give the work away.

I am still thinking about this and, for now, I have decided I will continue to sell just the actual printed parts through my website. I am working on redesigning that so it is easier to create sections and add parts.
 
Not sure why people give away stuff. How does that promote innovation?

it is like the Carnival Barker-who stands outside the sideshow showing the crowd peeks of what's inside. The peek is free the show cost. Perhaps giving away a file by an artist is to lure you to his work. So, you like this? come inside to see what else i have to offer.
 
StuWicks said:
I suggest using TurboSquid (https://www.turbosquid.com) to sell your model designs and put a link from your website to the specific model pages on Turbosquid.
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Turbosquid has amazing files but the prices are astronomical in my view. Way out of the range for hobbyist, If you were planning on using these files to manufacture and resell it would be a different story but for single use the are way out there.
 
Hi Rick et al
I’m just about to start the Pavel Nikitini Oserbeg ver 3 and would be very interested in purchasing stls for 1:25 scale Viking figures. Done quite a bit of hunting but figures seem to be mainly 1:24 and or very cartoony….
Regards
Hugh
 
promoting innovation

here is an idea

say you want to produce a wooden ship model kit and you have a full woodworking shop and a laser cutter. The kit requires 3d printing of the carved decorations, figurehead, cannons and fittings. Either you have to expand your operation and invest in 3D printers, software to create the files and the know how to actually do it or hire someone who does know how. OR job the work out to another business OR pay someone to produce the 3D files and offer them for free.
The concept is selling your wooden kit the builder has the option to do all the carvings and fittings themselves, download the print files and either print it themselves or send them to a printing service , have a friend print them for you.

your selling a wooden ship kit and not getting involved in the 3D design or printing operation. But making it available. Its an innovative idea that supports and promoted your wooden kit.
 
Hughie1959 said:
Hi Rick et al
I’m just about to start the Pavel Nikitini Oserbeg ver 3 and would be very interested in purchasing stls for 1:25 scale Viking figures. Done quite a bit of hunting but figures seem to be mainly 1:24 and or very cartoony….
Regards
Hugh
Click to expand...

Thats where selling a file rather than a print. With a file you can scale the figures to anything you want
 
Hughie1959 said:
Hi Rick et al
I’m just about to start the Pavel Nikitini Oserbeg ver 3 and would be very interested in purchasing stls for 1:25 scale Viking figures. Done quite a bit of hunting but figures seem to be mainly 1:24 and or very cartoony….
Regards
Hugh
Click to expand...
I've been searching for stl's of figures for over six month's and have come up empty handed. I've been to every web site I can find and as you say the only one's that show up look like those old plastic toys soldiers that were made back in the 1950's and 60''s.
 
I'm still somewhere between selling files and parts. I have not decided.

However, to answer the question of figures, that is out of the scope of my skills and software. I use manufacturing software and this is not the same as what is needed to make figures. Indeed, there are very few people out there making figures for modelling as there is no money in it. Anyone I know who can draw figures is quite busy working for the gaming industry or for movies. The figure that are out there for the modelling industry are pretty rudimentary, or they are related to huge franchises.

One of the issues I have is the minimum quantity I need to start a print. It is really not efficient to make a small number of parts but, on the other hand, who wants to carry inventory?

So, for the J-class boats I sell, it is quite reasonable to make up eighteen or twenty winches, a couple of dozen air vents, and a few cleats for one order. Total cost is somewhere north of $300 USD. That makes sense to me.

Selling a few cleats for a couple of dollars each doesn't make sense, unless there are zillions of orders, and I can organize them in such a way that it makes sense to print a bunch at a time and keep an inventory. And this is where the idea of selling the .STLs makes sense. Things like cleats and bollards are easy to design and are standard across many subjects. If I sell the .STLs, they can be scaled by the modeller and used in a variety of models.

So, these are my dilemmas.

It's actually great fun to think about this because these are the serious issues that this industry is going through right now; manufacturers and innovators need to make money. The question is how to do it best. My skill is in designing; I can draw up parts in minutes, and complete models in a few weeks. How do I best make enough money to keep me interested in making new and improved models?

Cheers,

Rick
 
If you want requests for original work for 3D printing and/or 3D looking models, join Upwork. For a commission, they put you in front of an online community that can ask for custom jobs. I've asked for some nice brass hook models for some experimenting on a model and got a good designer, good feedback as he put something together for me, and a great final product.
So, if you want to put yourself out there as a 3D designer, Upwork is a great place, at least from my side as a consumer. I think you can self-describe yourself as specializing in ship model parts if you want.

Glenn
 
I will keep you in mind for my next project. Maybe you could post a few of your prints or molded parts from your STL. I had the best luck getting parts made with the lost wax process in brass from a designer's STL

Glenn
 
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