3d printed ship models
Original Post: 5/28/2018
This is the Imperial Japanese Navy Light Cruiser Sendai
She was my third try at 3D printing a WW2 warship and my most ambitious 3D printing project yet. Size wise she’s the longest, the full hull at 1/450 scale just fits in XYZmaker’s grid.
The printed parts and XYZmaker design.
Gluing the larger hull pieces was giving me a heck of a time until I thought of the Mummy Wrap approach (below). This worked great and I’ve since used it on two smaller ships: Allen M. Sumner V2 & Yugumo V2. The rubber bands are no-longer needed, now I just use string, wrapping it tighter and tighter on each wrap.
I also took advantage of lessons learned on this project, using metal rods/wire of various thicknesses for guns, masts, prop shafts and AA barrels. I built as much onto the hull pieces as possible and avoided printing small details if they could be better scratch built.
Two pieces pushed the printer to its limits, the float plane catapult and crane boom – I may replace the boom as I may have pushed XYZ DaVinci a bit too far on that piece!
In an earlier post on my original Allen M. Sumner build I asked what people thought of the PE rails and rigging on these printed models. I still kind of like it and still kind’a don’t… On this project and on the V2 Sumner & V2 Yugumo I decided to forgo the extra details – at least for now.
All in all this is my favorite 3D printing project to date and Sendai is a great addition to my 1/450 Japanese fleet.
Update: 7/7/2018
Sendai may still be my favorite but she is no longer the largest or most ambitious of my 3D projects. That title now belongs to: USS Omaha.