So, You Want to Print Your Own Sailing Ships? Here's What You're in For.

Original post: https://kjworldsong.wordpress.com/2020/01/18/so-you-want-to-print-your-own-sailing-ships-well-heres-what-youre-in-for/

Variations on that title serve as the beginning of every video description in my latest 3D Print Shop episode on BitChute. This is the first episode of this series that is divided into multiple parts, given how much footage I had to work with, and it is mostly unedited. My purpose for doing so was to show just how long post-processing of models takes, especially when they are this intricate. Now, let me be clear, I would never discourage someone from taking up 3D printing as a hobby, and in fact, I encourage it as much as I can. However, even for a moderately experienced model-maker such as myself, sailing ships are not the easiest things to print. Personally, I would suggest either printing them with selective laser sintering (SLS), or making them in multiple pieces, with each mast separate. Of course, at the minuscule scales that I tend to work in, that approach may not be practical, which puts both myself and my customers in something of a pickle.

This entire print job was meant as a test batch for several of my existing models, so that I had printable files and photos to upload to Wargaming 3D. Unfortunately, one of the models didn’t print properly, as you’ll see from part 1, and I broke another one trying to clean it up. I have since made the masts on that one thicker, and I’m running another one while typing this. I suppose I could upload even more footage documenting the replacements, but I think that these four videos are sufficient. Assuming that all goes well with the next print job, I should be able to upload three more ships.

So, to those of you who are new to 3D printing, do you accept the challenge? If so, watch the videos, enjoy some great classical music, and feel free to ask questions about my tools and methods.

Man-of-War: https://www.bitchute.com/video/RBjjTbdv3XWd/

The man-of-war, or “Dutchman-of-war,” as I occasionally refer to it, is one of my earliest, but still one of my best and most popular sailing ship models. Despite my nickname for it, it’s more Swedish than Dutch, though it is still something of a hybrid. While the long beakhead is an obvious characteristic of Swedish fighting galleons, open quarter galleries were unheard of on Scandinavian ships, for reasons that ought to be obvious.

Heavy Bomb Ketch: https://www.bitchute.com/video/BBwZqhuwunrI/

This type of siege ship was used throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, as there was no room for a foremast on a ship that mounted a large siege mortar. After the turn of the 19th century, however, ordinary single-deck frigate hulls became large enough to mount siege mortars without special construction, thus the bomb ketch was replaced by the bomb ship. At the time, a ship was, by definition, a three-masted vessel.

Caravela de Armada: https://www.bitchute.com/video/ranbYLiSNvpA/

This is my favourite type of sailing rig, and this model is my first attempt at making one. I have since made three others, all of which I think are much nicer, yet this one is still the most popular, for some reason. Perhaps it’s because this is the only one with visible gun ports.

Simple galleon game piece: https://www.bitchute.com/video/jkMZQpPAV2pv/

The last two of the four parts are considerably shorter, and I decided to include this last one, rather than another that I had sufficient footage for, because I wanted to show just how much easier it is to process a low-detail game token than a more accurate miniature. This model is still popular, despite the fact that I'm not particularly proud of it. By the way, part one, the man-of-war, would be the longest, but I sped up the first clip in that video by 100%.

As much as I’d like to say “you get the idea,” none of these ships have staysails, so I need to make at least one more video showing the post-processing of a sailing ship. I’ve made one already of the 1812 frigate, but I could probably do better.

Shameless self-promotion:

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