Original Post: 3/17/2018
This is a 3D printed US 40mm Quad Bofors AA gun emplacement in 1/48 scale, created using XYZprinting’s da Vinci Mini Wireless 3D Printer & XYZmaker software.
It was my first large project with my new 3D printer and resulted in my first successful prints. I cut my teeth on this project and by the time I had completed it, felt pretty comfortable with preventing common print issues, and dealing with the XYZmaker file format problems I mention in detail on the USS Compton page. I’m sure many more pitfalls await me in my 3D printing endeavors but at least I no longer feel like a total noob. (said the total noob: 2023 edit)
As much as I enjoyed working on this project, my love of model ship building prevented me from finishing it. I was in a hurry to apply what I had learned on a US Destroy project. This resulted in my Allen M. Sumner class DD project. I’ll finish this up soon though as I’m quite anxious to see how it comes out!
Update: 4/22/2018
I finished my 3D printed, 1/450 scale destroyer distractions and finally got around to assembling and completing this project.
It was kind of a mixed bag.
I like it but…
I’m finding that surfaces that are supported with printer added scaffolding during the print, come out poorly. I had seen this here and there but this project hammered it home. any detail supported is consistently destroyed. There are ways around this – splitting an object in half and placing the split sides down flush for printing but this has its own issue with there being considerable difficulty removing the brim from the split pieces. Not a deal breaker if you plan for the extra thickness or can successfully remove the brim without destroying the parts, but in every case a pain – and I dare not print without a brim.
Still – my Quad Bofors AA mount was a fun, interesting project and looks pretty cool!
Just don’t look too close.
Update: June 17, 2024
The XYZmaker created Quad Bofors AA mount, was another of my favorite, early 3D designs that I knew could benefit from a Blender make over. I’ve been going back to a few of my XYZmaker designs between major efforts or during down time with the intent of re-printing and building them on my newer printers. Below is the new Blender design.
Hi, I really like your 3D model, have you considered uploading it somewhere?
JJ
Thank you very much, I will eventually upload them but likely not for a year or so.
Sorry. I know that info is of zero help…
Hello, I have been searching everywhere for this exact gun in the same scale for a diorama I started about 3 years ago of the flight deck and island for the USS Essex CV9 in 1:48 scale. Can you please let me know a little bit more about the drawings you used for creating your 3d models as I am interested in undertaking a similar project myself.
Hi Mark, this was one of the first projects I completed, I made it from scratch using the simple XYZmaker design software that came with my first DaVinci Mini printer. I used pictures found on the internet, a lot of Alt-Tabs and a bunch of trial and error. If I were to try it today I’d start with a nice ship model from Scketchfab.com, open it up in Blender, copy off a quad 40, then delete the ship! There are no free Quad Bofors mounts right now (I just checked) but there are some amazingly detailed ships.
Good luck!