"3d printing and large scale ships" Topic

Hi, I am generally a 15mm historical wargamer and as many gamers do I have several projects on the go and some in the 'would love to do that one day' category.
I have an FDM 3d printer that I have had for a couple of year and find it an incredibly useful tool.

Prior to getting this I spent a lot of time using card modelling to build planes and ships in the scale I wanted ie 1/100, or on some of the bigger ships I used 1/150 with a slightly taller superstructure. I found this gave the right shape and feel of a proper ship, but allowed for the 15mm crew not to look to giant.

I have a few projects I want to make ships for, Mesopotamia, Russian Civil War gunboats, ww1, ww2 etc but am finding a real lack of 3d models. So far the majority of ships are for 1/350 or smaller. They tend to be devoid of detail when rescaled up to 1/100 etc.

I feel I am going to have to spend some time learning how to to better use 3d modelling software to add detail, however, I would like to ask if anyone has a recommended sites to find any resources that would help. By that I mean detailed 1900 onwards ships of at least 1/200 scale or component STLs eg guns, door etc that I can buy and graft onto my models.

My searching hasn't been that successful so far, so it's time to ask the experienced out there for help,

Lot depends on size of your print bed.

You've probably already checked all the usual STL sites, thingiverse.com. and so on.

wargaming3d.com has some good stuff. Some is free, some is cheap, some is overpriced. But at least it's all warmers, so the models are designed for our types of uses, as opposed to video game models.

Wargame vault also has a lot of STLs meant for games, of varying quality and price.

What 3D modeling software are you using?

I have done a lot with TinkerCAD. It's basic, really basic, but a lot of the time it's all you need, especially when you get good with it. I started to learn Blender, but didn't get very far. Someday.

Yes. Have had a good look at the usual search sites and wargaming 3d.

I was hoping there was some untapped naval website I haven't found as yet.

I designed 3d card models in skethcup previously, but I also would like to learn soemthing like blender one day.

Suggest checking with the Virtual Armchair General link (they have 15mm colonial line of boats as well as ship guns etc.

Patrick or designer Chris Ferree might have a few ideas

There used to be a guy on ebay selling 15mm WWII Russian gunboats and monitors.

Skethcup!

Ref print bed, just a standard 200 by 200, but size isn't important….!! Can slice away :)

3D printing ships works very well. If you have a small print bed, the hull has to be of course be divided. Of course there is another way. I have the Creality Printmill, a printer that can print endlessly. As an example, I'm showing the Nile gunboat Melik from my Africa series, which I printed as a 28mm model. The hull is printed in one piece and is 80cm long.

wow

The gunboat swung me to back that kickstarter!

Those are some beautiful models!

Not 3d printed, but John McEwan at reverisco/tin-soldier (WA State) used to make metal cast ship pieces in larger scale…. Vents, ladders, hatches, doors etc. as well as a range io guns as well.

If you have drawings I can cut hull and superstructure blanks out of insulation foam it is very light and rigid and very cheap. Take a look here at some of the projects that I have done (scroll down a bit) link

Contact me at daftrica89@yahoo.com if you are interested