Author Topic: Kits on Shapeways  (Read 62280 times)

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #125 on: September 10, 2017, 03:11:46 AM »
Another Option - this time from Babylon 5:

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Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #126 on: September 10, 2017, 03:14:15 AM »

That's a very nice suggestion GTX, i wasn't aware of this project until now. Definitely on my to-do list.


 :smiley:

As much as I would prefer 1/48, may I suggest you do it as either 1/72 or 1/144 so as to allow mating up with potential launcher kits.
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Offline lippischh

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #127 on: September 10, 2017, 05:17:06 AM »
Wow that kestrel thing is a beast! Makes me realise that sci-fi models may be of interest too.

I scaled the model to 1/144 as advised by GTX, and it is now available at this link : http://shpws.me/OWrv

I made it as cheap as possible as i'm taking a symbolic one dollar margin, so that it stays at a reasonable price for you guys.
« Last Edit: September 11, 2017, 02:10:20 AM by lippischh »

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #128 on: September 10, 2017, 05:22:39 AM »
Please note that my suggestion was focused upon the proposed Kliper spacecraft only.
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Offline lippischh

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #129 on: September 11, 2017, 02:09:03 AM »
I have updated the X15D model (basically hollowed it so that it can be cheaper), its now available here : http://shpws.me/OWrv

@GTX : even tho it started as a misunderstanding, i think i now prefer the 1:144 scale better :))

Offline Ranchoth

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #130 on: September 11, 2017, 07:07:06 AM »
Hell yeah, way more interesting than boom-boom shapes.  ;D :icon_fsm:


Well heck...

...why not both?  ;)

-NOTS-EV-1 "Pilot" (aka "NOTSNIK") Launcher



From the US Navy's Naval Ordnance Test Station's "Project Pilot" of 1958, a five-stage, all off-the-shelf solid-fuel motored, air-dropped space launcher. Designed to be dropped from an F4D Skyray in a climb at 41,000 feet, and deliver a 1.05 kilogram satellite (incorporating a crude IR scanner and a transmitter, potentially intended for ground or weather surveillance) into low Earth orbit. launch platform was used.



Most of the test launches, however, failed. And/or exploded. Two launches may have made it into orbit, according to faint signals believed to have received from a downrange station, but this was never confirmed, and the program would be cancelled by the end of 1958.

By modern standards, this rocket (when not exploding) would be enough to put a Cubesat into orbit—very possibly more than that, if a faster and higher flying aircraft was used as a launch platform.

Currently available in 1/48 and 1/72 scale.

And my personal favorite...

-A "Project Babylon" Supergun barrel segment




A segment of Gerald Bull's 1000mm "Big Babylon" supergun, designed to put 200 kilograms of cargo into Earth orbit at $600 a kilogram...or 600+ kilograms of payload 1000 km downrange.

This segment represents one held in the collection of the Imperial War Museum Duxford, believed to be from near the "breech" of the 156-meter long gun.

Currently available in 1/72 and 1/87 (HO) scales. Good for a curiosity, part of a diorama, or as an impish flatbed cargo (it's a "Petrochemical Pressure Vessel"! Honest!) for a model railroad.  ;D
« Last Edit: September 11, 2017, 07:12:00 AM by Ranchoth »

Offline The Big Gimper

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #131 on: September 11, 2017, 07:54:59 AM »
The NOTS-EV-1 is so cool. Maybe a whif use as a high speed AAM or ABM target.
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Offline The Big Gimper

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #132 on: September 12, 2017, 07:30:18 PM »
I have a question for the 3D experts.

I was looking at Ranchoths (Nick's) AVPRO "EXINT" Transport Pod (Closed) and there are 6 materials choices listed below in order of lowest to highest cost:

White Strong & Flexible
White Strong & Flexible Polished
Black Strong & Flexible
Frosted Ultra Detail
Frosted Extreme Detail
Black Hi-Def Acrylate

In 1/72 scale, and for a builder is not overly anal retentive, what would the best material to select?
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Offline tsrjoe

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #133 on: September 12, 2017, 08:10:37 PM »
I purchased the EXINT (and a few other pieces) in both White Strong & Flexible and Frosted Extreme Detail, the cheaper option has a rather rough porous like texture and to be honest not worth the effort in cleanup, its worth paying the difference to get the frosted detail material which after a quick scoot of primer is ready for finishing :)

cheers, Joe

Offline Ranchoth

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #134 on: September 23, 2017, 07:49:18 PM »

Kind of a new offering, this time. On a whim and a hunch.

Has anyone here ever been in a situation where they find themselves needing an extra pulsejet...


...but just didn't want to buy a whole V-1 to scavenge one from?

"'There's got to be a better way!™'"

To that end, I present...the Argus As-014 Pulsejet, in economical two-pack and quad-pack, in 1/48 and 1/72!



Ideal for strapping onto your miscellaneous V-weapon, Miniaturjäger, crazy "1946" Luftwaffe design, or obscure but real-life postwar experimental prop fighter upgrade!




Also serves as a substitute for the Ford PJ31 or the Chelomey D-3 pulsejets—each being copies of the Argus engine.

Offline Frank3k

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #135 on: September 24, 2017, 12:09:16 AM »
I have a question for the 3D experts.

I was looking at Ranchoths (Nick's) AVPRO "EXINT" Transport Pod (Closed) and there are 6 materials choices listed below in order of lowest to highest cost:

White Strong & Flexible
White Strong & Flexible Polished
Black Strong & Flexible
Frosted Ultra Detail
Frosted Extreme Detail
Black Hi-Def Acrylate

In 1/72 scale, and for a builder is not overly anal retentive, what would the best material to select?


For 1/72 scale models, these three materials are not great, unless you want to spend a great deal of time priming (the material soaks up primer and paint) and sanding. The surface is rough (it's made from sintered nylon particles) and fine details will be lost during printing and later, sanding/priming. It is cheap and strong, though:

White Strong & Flexible -  the surface will look and feel rough. Sanding just removes layers revealing more rough surface.
White Strong & Flexible Polished - same as above but "polished" so the particles sort of melt together. Mildly better but you get a loss of detail.
Black Strong & Flexible - same as the WSF, only dipped in black paint. Sand a bit and you start getting gray particles and eventually reveal the WSF a few layers down.

These are better - they're printed in an extremely brittle acrylic resin:
Frosted Ultra Detail: All around a good trade-off between quality and cost. It will have annoying layer artifacts from the printing that will have to be sanded off.
Frosted Extreme Detail: same material as above, only printed at a higher resolution. More expensive, same printing artifact issues (slightly smaller) but will preserve fine details better.

Black Hi-Def Acrylate: Best resolution - this material is still brittle, but less so than the FUD amd FXD above. Most parts will have small support nibs - you can order the parts with the supports removed or left on. There will be printing artifacts just not as prominent and much easier to deal with. Shapeways will print in any color resin as long as it's black. They may have issues of incomplete printing in small thin parts (like fins) but that may have just been an issue during their beta.

They have a third acrylic plastic that lies between WSF and FUD in detail. It's cheaper mainly because they print at a lower resolution than the FUD and FXD parts. You don't see many models offered in this, since the introduction of the higher resolution parts.

Examples of each:

WSF in black - note the white:


"Dorito" in FUD

WSF detail from my 1/700 three island cargo ship. also here This ship was also printed in Black Hi-Def Acrylate.

My Asteroid of Death was printed in Black Hi-Def Acrylate. This post illustrates the surface finish, straight from Shapeways.





« Last Edit: September 24, 2017, 12:13:24 AM by Frank3k »

Offline Ranchoth

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #136 on: September 28, 2017, 06:24:17 PM »
A few more items at the Arsenal. Suitably weird and wonderful, I hope.


The Ruhrstahl X-4



Famed early German AAM—I trust it needs no more introduction.

The “Velvet Glove” Missile



THIS one might need some introduction…SARH missile, developed in the early 50s by Canada as a potential armament for the CF-100 and, later, the CF-105 Arrow. Technical troubles and the design being surpassed by American designs lead to it’s cancellation.

A fairly simple shape, with a positively crummy amount of visual documentation, but I thought I should make this one for completeness’ sake.

A better documented weapon, with perhaps even more draw, might be the…

AAM-N-3/AIM-7B “Sparrow II”



The only active radar, fire-and-forget variant of the Sparrow missile, this was intended to arm the Avro Arrow, and development was taken up by Canadair after being abandoned by Douglas. However, more technical difficulties with the ambitious project, combined with the cancellation of the Arrow, lead to this missile’s cancellation as well.

But it got further than the…

XAAM-N-9 “Sparrow X” nuclear AAM



Cancelled at a very early stage of development, this would have been a “fractional kiloton” warhead guided missile with a 6 mile (at sea level)/25 mile (at high altitude) range. According to my good friend Nukemap, this would have been perfectly survivable to the launching aircraft at a range of a bit over one mile.

Carrying aircraft unknown; however, according to my calculations, the weapons bay of the F-106 could have accommodated a single one of these weapons.

Last, and even more fanciful, though, is…

The Lockheed “Energy Bomb” kinetic weapon



According to a few works on the Skunk Works and Kelly Johnson’s autobiography, this was the 2500 lb, high-density steel kinetic energy bomb proposed as an armament for a (proposed) bomber variant of the SR-71 in the 1960s. Dropped at Mach 3 from 85,000 feet, it would be calculated to penetrate “33 feet of reinforced concrete” or “300 feet of earth.”

My rough attempt at a very low-drag weapon with the volume of the quoted amount of steel. Assuming my figures were right, this should have a Coefficient of Drag about 0.052.

And, of course, this should fit the weapons bays of a YF-12, or the comparably sized ones for one of the proposed SR-71 attack variants, of which I’ve seen blueprints from as late as the 70s and early 80s.

As for other aircraft—well, I’m having difficulty finding exact dimensions of the weapons bay at the moment, which precludes an exact number, but I’d confidently guess you’d be able to load several of these into a B-70 Valkyrie, as well.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2017, 08:06:18 PM by Ranchoth »

Online Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #137 on: September 29, 2017, 02:50:12 AM »
@Ranchoth/Nick. 

There is a 1:48th scale SR/YF-12 kit available from Testors/Italeri so if you wanted to scale up your bunker buster to 1:48th scale I am sure someone will appreciate that effort :)
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Offline elmayerle

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #138 on: September 29, 2017, 03:31:38 AM »
XAAM-N-9 was also proposed as possible armament for the F8U-3 according to Tommy Thompson's book and I could see it being carried by BARCAP F-4B's or F-4J's.  From your comments, perhaps carried on the proposed naval variant of the F-106?

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #139 on: September 29, 2017, 04:10:00 AM »
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline The Big Gimper

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #140 on: September 29, 2017, 04:41:35 AM »
They will look great on my CF-103 (when I get around to building it).



Work in progress ::

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Offline Ranchoth

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #141 on: September 29, 2017, 02:16:40 PM »
@Ranchoth/Nick. 

There is a 1:48th scale SR/YF-12 kit available from Testors/Italeri so if you wanted to scale up your bunker buster to 1:48th scale I am sure someone will appreciate that effort :)

And...done. :)

Although, alas, it seems it's just too thin in parts to print in actual steel.

Offline Ranchoth

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #142 on: October 06, 2017, 11:53:31 PM »
A few new listings at the Arsenal...and only one of them is a weapon of mass destruction!

-AIM-26 "Nuclear Falcon"



The only guided nuclear AAM to enter service with the United States, between 1961-72.

Most of the data I'm seeing indicates that it was only carried by the F-102, although a proposed (but unbuilt) variant of the F-106 was apparently proposed that would carry this missile—and, very interestingly, it was tested on the 'Six, in a modified form, as part of a ballistic missile defense concept.

The non-nuclear version, the AIM-26B, would be exported to Switzerland for use on the Mirage IIIS, and licence built in Sweden to equip the Saab Draken, each serving at least until the 1990s.

Interestingly, as I've mentioned before, both countries had at least preliminary nuclear weapons programs until just a few years before adopting the (Non)Nuclear Falcon, and Switzerland maintained it's Working Committee for Nuclear Issues active for a few more years studying nuclear acquisition options as an emergency contingency. The Swiss Mirage IIIS, also designed as a multirole strike aircraft which allegedly "had the wiring to carry a Swiss-built or French nuclear bomb," would have (by numbers I'm seeing) have had the range to reach Moscow. Nuclear self-escorting strike mission! :D

After that...

-A 12-Gallon Air Ride Suspension tank!



Not my usual subject, but this one was a special request.

But perhaps most interestingly...

The Bell Aerospace Jet Flying Belt.



From 1969, the first true "jet pack," powered by a WR19 turbojet. Unlike the peroxide-fueled Rocket Belt, this baby had a five minute flight time, and a projected fully-fueled endurance of 15 minutes, with development expected to push that to 25.

As far as I know, this is the first model ever made of the Jet Flying Belt. (It was a tossup between this, or the Williams X-Jet. I was feeling Jonny Quest-y.)

This jet pack currently available in 1/35—I have a few other scales planned, after I give my eyeballs a good rest from squinting at less than detailed photographs and diagrams.

Offline The Big Gimper

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #143 on: October 07, 2017, 12:10:51 AM »
It's been a while (36 years) but I am sure I loaded the AIM-46 on the CF-101B Voodoo. Of course I could not talk about it.  :icon_fsm:
Work in progress ::

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Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #144 on: October 07, 2017, 03:53:21 AM »
Oooooo...that jet pack could have possibilities. :smiley:
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #145 on: October 07, 2017, 03:58:36 AM »
It's been a while (36 years) but I am sure I loaded the AIM-46 on the CF-101B Voodoo. Of course I could not talk about it.  :icon_fsm:

AIM-46 or AIM-26?
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline The Big Gimper

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #146 on: October 07, 2017, 04:13:13 AM »
It's been a while (36 years) but I am sure I loaded the AIM-46 on the CF-101B Voodoo. Of course I could not talk about it.  :icon_fsm:

AIM-46 or AIM-26?

Typo. Should be AIM-26.
Work in progress ::

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Offline Ranchoth

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #147 on: October 18, 2017, 01:13:50 PM »
Well, it's been an exciting few days for me...mostly because of the surprise wildfire that burned about 75 times as much land area as in Hiroshima, including part of a nearby city, and had me pack my bags and sleep in my clothes for a few nights in case the winds shifted and I had to evacuate ahead of the firestorm in a hurry. Needless to say, internet service was a bit spotty for awhile.

But! I managed to get a few new offerings ready at the shop nonetheless. Having something to do in between checking the hourly fire maps also helped. To that end...

The NOTS "Diamondback" Nuclear Sidewinder




Another Atomic Age concept, courtesy of the US Navy, from the late 50s. Extended range, liquid-fueled, high-altitude Mach-3 capable Sidewinder, with a .75 kiloton warhead. Never built or tested.

ASP-500 "Fire-Extinguishing Air System"



From the Russian "Bazalt" armaments firm about ten years ago, a 500kg fire fighting "bomb" loaded with 400 liters of fire retardant, supposedly able to suppress flames within a 1000-square meter area.

Designed to give a fire fighting capability to otherwise unmodified civil or military aircraft, and to serve as a rapid reaction firefighting tool against intense conflagrations...or for fighting fires in radiologically or chemically contaminated areas, while minimizing human exposure on the ground or in the air.

What can I say? I was inspired. Maybe it can be an interesting option for someone wanting to do a "humanitarian" build.

But, of course, on the opposite of that...

X-7 “Rotkäppchen” Anti-Tank Missile



This one's actually a new area for me, and was done on a request...these are for the 6mm wargaming scale. A bit tricky, considering the sheer size involved, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

And a quick question...does anyone suppose there'd be any interest in space habitat models? I'm thinking about modelling an O'Neill Cylinder and/or a Bernal Sphere. I've always loved the concept, and it looks like it'd be a fun project. And curiously undertapped.
« Last Edit: October 19, 2017, 02:07:12 AM by Ranchoth »

Online Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #148 on: October 19, 2017, 01:30:58 AM »
Hi Nick,

Glad you are okay and happy to see your creativity was not stifled.  Is the fire-fighting bomb still under development?  No link to the model at Shapeways with your above post. 
"Every day we hear about new studies 'revealing' what should have been obvious to sentient beings for generations; 'Research shows wolverines don't like to be teased" -- Jonah Goldberg

Offline Ranchoth

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Re: Kits on Shapeways
« Reply #149 on: October 19, 2017, 02:09:19 AM »
Hi Nick,

Glad you are okay and happy to see your creativity was not stifled.  Is the fire-fighting bomb still under development?  No link to the model at Shapeways with your above post.

Thanks for the kind words. :)

re: The Fire-fighting bomb...Huh, that's weird...browser must have hiccuped. Link fixed.