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Hi all, first post on this forum so take it easy with me. I currently have a shop on Shapeways where I sell over a 100+ items each month. The model parts I sell are small highly detailed parts for model ships, yes believe it or not there are lots of people out there that still make real models. It is actually quite a large business as most of the large model manufacturers kits are either inaccurate or not very detailed. Basically I’m looking to try to move away from the Shapeways business model and start to release my own ship kits using a variety of printed materials. These kits would comprise of one large hull piece (maybe 40-50cm) which would be able to have quite thick walls but have high quality surface detail (.1mm to .2mm). The rest of the pieces would be made up of either resin or another material similar in detail to Shapeways FXD. WIth maybe one or 2 even smaller resin parts. Ideally I’m looking for a printer that can offer all of this service whilst maintaining the highest possible quality control (unlike Shapeways). If there are any manufacturers/printers out there that think they can meet these requirements then please let me know. It could be a nice bit of business for someone :slight_smile: many thanks Simon (Micro Master) https://www.shapeways.com/shops/micro-master

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Hey. Welcome to the forum.

I’m able to print both in resin and filament plastic. Drop me a line at Gary@plastiprint3d.com with some examples of the kind of thing you’d be looking to print. I am based in the UK so that may be a bit of an issue but it’s certainly not insurmountable.

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Hi Simon,

That sounds perfect! I was working with a 3D modeller and have adapted two of his 3D ship models, a FCS3307 and a sailing yacht for 3D printing. Unfortunatly this modeller decided last minute he did not wanted to go ‘commercial’. I’m was busy starting a 3D modelship kit ‘factory’. I have two FDM printers for large pieces and two highres resin printers for the details. The domainnames and shop, marketing concepts are ready to go. But ofcourse adaptable.

I have developed a number of techniques to make ship models printable on a wide variety of 3D printers. On the FCS we even printed walls of .2mm with FDM. With the resin printer we can go as detailed as 50 micron xy.

You can reach me at rolf@movingbits.nl