"3 D Printing" Topic

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The US military is moving 3D printing into the field. They take a 3D printer, some scientists and a big cargo box and drop it in the field. Soldiers visit them and ask for new products or existing spare parts to be made for them.

Mike Bunkermesiter Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Every major base needs bigger versions, able to mass produce needed spares, tools ,and mods as needed…and without sweating the political procurement process.

I can imagine such a fabrication unit onboard Navy support ships, able to make what is needed on the spot.

In my SF setting, something simular is used with workshop units, all hovertruck mounted.

This does not supprise me. My son has started his own SF space fleeets buisness and that has already branched out to 1/144 SF and modern vehicals. In addition he has nowspare parts for Scalextric cars and Silvanion kits toys. All are accurate to about 4 Thou, so it seems reasonable for it to spread every where. I

ts even possible to do it in metal but I'm not sure its as good as a pure cast metal.

I am usually grumpy about the oversold advantages of new technology, but 3-D printing for spares support makes an astonishing amount of good sense. The number of different spares one needs to carry (my background in this is operational availability modelling for helos, but I doubt other complex systems are much different) is forbidding, and while the reliability of modern kit means that you might not need to stock more than one of any item, just carrying 70% of all possible spares to make a 70% fill rate still means a lot of spares (and almost certainly not making the fill rate when two of the same thing break).

I hope they remember to take two 3-D printers, so that one can make a spare for the other when it breaks.

All the best,

John.

UshCha,

it is your son doing those nice BMP-3 and Fennek on Shapeways? Can he be persauded to rescale them at 1:100? <me evil>

'Tis what 3d printing was intended for – recieved funding in the early days to be a mobile repair facility for tanks and deep space missions.

Even better some can print in colour, essential for lazy wargamers!

Arrigo,
Yes that is him. They can be scaled/re-designed. However they would be very expensive like more than twice the cost. That's because Shapeways charge by volume used. Volume goes up by the cube of the scale. It should be 3 times the cost but it could be kept a bit lower say by keeping wall thickness dowm but still at least twicw the cost. How many would you want?

The Real Chris, alas the coloure stuff we have seen is not yet that robust or not very high resolution.

UshCha,

I was thinking along the line of 4 BMP-3 A company for the scale reduction I use and a platoon + 1 spare for 1 to 1 games. At worst I can trim to 3. Considering the current rates are around 6-9 GBP per vehicles if your son can stay under it it could be very good.

1:100 is a popular scale for WW2 and it is branching into more and more cold war and modern stuff right now. Probably if the things are well marketed here your son can even get more business. One thing we really are in need of is upgraded soviet armor, Chinese vehicles and some european stuff, I am dying for Ariete and Centauro!

The colour prints I have seen at work were flat colours from a limited palette. Not startling but on par with a cheap pre-paint. This though is from the solidified dust using lasers printers so not very accessible tot he public as yet… In essence the dust is dyed before being melted on. Still robust but a very pricey proposition only used for fairly advanced concepts.

Arrigo,
I am afriad it will be at least twice the price due to the costs of shapeways as its a much bigger model. On the bright side it wuld be cheaper than some 1:144 models.

oook,

worth a try anyway even in 1/144 the model is still better than the QRF one. Fenneks are the only option now and if your son can bring out something in 1/100 probably worth supporting. I have seen other models in shapeways shops that reduce the cost to manageable proportions. 1:100 is 15mm not 28mm.

Ariggo,
Move to 1:144 its cheaper ;). Plus I figure I may commission some more 1:144 models for my lot.

Believe it or not 1:100 are nearly 3 times the volume of 1:144 (144^3/100^2).

Has anybody got plans for the pbv 302 it would be fun to field S tanks available in 1:144 and the APC from a 3D print. With a plan I can get the APC designed and printed.

Is there anyting else missing in the German set after the Fennek?

uhm can ask around for the S and PBV202… I like 15mm I will not switch… :P