Aotrs Shipyards is a webstore on Shapeways.com, a 3D print house which had production and shipping facilities located in the USA and the Netherlands.
This month, we have the YW-531 (aka Type 63, aka K63) APC on 144th!
Hammerhead's unfortunate postponement did have one benefit – we used the excuse to buy Simplify3D some new slicing software for the Replicator 2 and do some tests instead!
YW-531
link
(I may do an amphibious version at a later date, or if there is interest in it!)
Photo of the Replicator 2 prototype. However, as mentioned, the big innovation this month is that this was printed using Simplify3D instead of MakerBot's own. Simplify has given a remarkable boost in quality, and had allowed us to print things that were just not possible before, such as 144th infantry. For comparison, here's a photo of the YW-531 printed on the old software.
And as a further example, the T-72AV printed in the old and new prototypes:
As a second point of interest (excuse the scifi Chieftains!):
One the left is off our Replicator 2 with the new software, and on the right is off my mate's friend's Wanhao Duplicator. (Not sure which exact model, we haven't gotten that information yet.) Said machine was £200.00 GBP on ebay, and came with Cura slicing software.
As you can see, there's not much in it, and what there is we suspect might be related to Wanhao print is using a different material (i.e. the proprietary stuff you get with the printer, as opposed to the cheaper stuff we use (and the difference in quality is only margin, but the price difference is not!)
Basically, you can see that you can get solid quality now, even out of your £200.00 GBP-£300 home printer.
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Next month is likely to be the ZDB-03 airborne IFV (the FV432 is on hold for the moment) – CAD time is mostly going on the scifi/starship aide of the Shipyards for a bit!
We will be going to Hammerhead still (after the postponement due to weather) at the end of April.
