What would you ask for if you had a replicator? I suppose people in the 23rd century are beyond needing cash or maybe Jean-Luc would order up some gold bullion instead of tea. While I don’t have a replicator but I do have access to Shapeways 3D printing. As I have mentioned before I have become very interested in Figurehead’s line of 1/6000 scale modern naval miniatures. They pack a very impressive amount of detail into very small packages. To date I have collected a little over 300 of these ships. Sadly I have been a much more diligent collector than painter.
Figurehead Miniatures will be the topic of a future post so I won’t get too far down in the weeds here. What I will say is they have a decent range of models available for the lines they choose to cover. As one example, their Falkland Islands range is probably the most complete range of any manufacturer in any scale. If you want Russian/Soviet kit, Royal Navy or U. S. Navy ships the you’re in luck. If you want Chinese (either one), Japanese, Korean, or even French ships you’re out of luck, so far. I have no insight into Figurehead’s production plans and I have no patience either. Enter Shapeways. I guess I should say once again that Shapeways is actually the print shop the actual designer is afrodri from Objects May Appear…
I have been reluctant to order very many “printed” ships. The pictures on the Shapeways website aren’t always convincing. Other photos I’ve seen on various fora suggest the models come out looking a little fuzzy. Not out of focus but actually fuzzy. My own experience with the JMSDF Hyuga was positive but not overwhelming. But I have needs. I need JMSDF, Korean, Chinese, and Indian naval vessels. Looking through the Shapeways catalog I settled on a one-stop shopping approach for the Indian Navy. While these ships weren’t at the top of my list they had the advantage of being offered all together. The other “fleet packs” for JMSDF and Korea didn’t have the mix of ships I was looking for and there isn’t a set for PRC that I could find.
In terms of what comes in the package this is what the website says. Indian Naval Fleet: 3 Brahmaputra, 3 Godavari, 3 Delhi, 6 Talwar, 8 Kumbhir, 12 Veer, and 1 Vikramaditya. I don’t think I would have left the aircraft carrier last in the list but that is just me. It looked like a pretty solid offering and all that for under $20. I would like to see the Kolkata and Shivalik classes as well but this is good enough for now. I have to say even though it was only an investment of twenty bucks, ordering a bunch of ship models with only the computer generated picture to go by was a bit disturbing. Printing a Veer/Tarantul at this scale seemed unlikely to be successful. In fact at one point I received an email from Shapeways informing me there was a delay with the shipment of my order “Each and every product is made to order at Shapeways, so sometimes we experience delays during the complex 3D printing process”. And I felt sure the next email would start “We regret to inform you…”
Of course that didn’t happen. The shipment went out three days later and arrived about a week after that. Right out of the box I was impressed with the ships. The level of detail is on par with the Figurehead ships I think, although the semi-translucence of the material makes it hard to judge for sure. If I can figure out how to base them in a manner similar to the rest of my 1/6000 fleet I will definitely call this experiment a success. Here are some pictures…
1/6000 INS Naval Fleet Pack. Models Designed by afrodri from Objects May Appear… 3D Printed by Shapeways.
Detail of 1/6000 Vikramaditya. Model by Objects May Appear…
1/6000 INS Destroyers, Frigates, Missile Craft, and Amphibious ships.
Detail of 1/6000 INS Delhi Class.
If I can get my hands on a digital calipers I’ll take some measurements to see how close the models are to true 1/6000 scale but that will be the subject for another day.
Table Top Gaming 