Something unusual , Printed plastic models

Very nice ! If 3D printing becomes more widespread, perhaps simply printing instructions for a wide variety of cars/trucks could be brought or obtained for a whole bunch of  cars in many scales.

The Entz link above shows an exceptionally large range of plastic or resin (?) bodies apparently done with 3D printing. A very interesting development.  Items are in many scales 64th 43rd, 32nd, and 24th.  I Would like to know more.  Car bodies are shown but one would need wheels, tires, chrome bits, and vacformed glazing to complete a model construction.   Anyone know more about this?

@mikedetorrice, what we'll see is enterprising companies selling the program to print a model on your printer at home. The software will allow printing in a variety of scales.

3D printed parts have become very big in my preferred 1/24th and 1/25th scales. Spend a minute or two scrolling through this Facebook group:

Resin/3D Model Car Kits & Parts on Facebook

Myself, I'm not completely on board. What ultimately gets printed is dependent on the software, the talent of the person developing the printable "file" in that software and the size and quality of the printer itself. I'm seeing overall odd proportions and heavy handed or missing details (moldings, emblems, scripts, etc.). They might be printed in 3D - but they're developed on a 2D computer monitor (I think modern 1:1 car designs are afflicted in this same manner).

However, I'm all in for 3D developed and printed small parts that are unavailable otherwise. Here's an image of 1/25 scale 1958-1960 Edsel small "dog-dish" hubcaps that I had developed:

Home - 3D Printable Shop

The second company sells the plans, they can be adjusted for scale. Unfortunately they print as a solid piece making it hard for painting.

Cameras for 3d printing are being sold now. I would certainly like to learn more about this. It would be great for making parts and things like convertible tops or roofs. Where I live most public libraries have printers available for patrons.

The problem I see for 3D printing, at least for me, is that as I understand it, you can not just pop a model part or complete model into a printer and have it duplicated by the machine.  It is not that simple,  as I believe a program has to be created for the printer to duplicate an item.   That is what my library, which has a printer, told me a year or so ago.  I get requests from time to time for duplicates of some of the one off custom models I create but currently 3d printing is not going to create a clone  of what I built, at least not currently.  Does anyone know differently?

@john-quilter, that's the state of the art as I understand it. Of course, it will continue to develop. with the advent of new technologies like Ai Art, we may soon see the day when a printed 3D piece can be made from an image.

We will undoubtedly be seeing much more of this in the future, as 3D printing technology improves. As far as source material, you need to start with a very accurate DIGITAL 3D model, and translate that into a format that the printer can recognize, like .stl. There is no shortage of digital 3D models that can be converted for printing, but it takes specialized software and a lot of skill to do it correctly. Check out this beautiful digital model of a Porsche Taycan, available at TurboSquid.com - https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-2022-porsche-taycan-cross-turismo-1728234

This digital model is $199, which is a steal considering the skill and time it took to create it. Of course, it would take a high-end resin printer hundreds of hours to print it with today's technology, which is why we don't see printed models mass produced....yet. It is still far more economical to produce models in more traditional ways, but as soon as there is a breakthrough that increases printing speed, I think (and hope) that our hobby will experience a renaissance. 

Interestingly, back in 2015 Ford was selling digital models of some of its vehicles for printing at home: https://3dprint.com/72827/ford-3d-store-printed-cars/

@john-quilter There is no machine that I know of that will replicate a 3D object like a photocopy machine, but there are 3D scanners that will create a "point cloud" of physical objects consisting of millions or billions of coordinates in space, and from that data a digital 3D model can be reconstructed in a computer. Here is more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_scanning and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_cloud.

After the 2020 Christmas Day bombing in Nashville, our firm was hired (among others) to use that very same technology to 3D scan the area to document the devastation, and to accurately capture what was left of some of the historical structures that were going to have to be demolished: https://www.faro.com/en/Resource-Library/Article/Preserving-and-rebuilding-in-Nashville

@john-sharisky You are correct about the final design being dependent on the talent of the person operating the computer. Garbage in, Garbage Out. It takes a very high level of both artistic and technical expertise to get it right, and not everyone is up to the task. However, the flat monitors are gradually being replaced by virtual reality and augmented reality headsets that give the designer a much better spatial understanding of what they are designing. The architecture firm where I work adopted virtual reality in 2016, and it has since become an indispensable design tool.

And in 1:1, the Strati, made by Local Motors in cahoots with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was the first 3D printed car. This pic from a Knoxville Cars and Coffee meet a few years ago.

Posted by: @daveg

 to 3D scan the area to document the devastation, and to accurately capture what was left of some of the historical structures that were going to have to be demolished...

I did not know y'all did that or that anyone did, in fact!  Thank you so much for saving the 3D images of part of my hometown, Nashville, TN! I can't wait to see the results of the re-build/restore.

@karl And will those historic 2nd Ave. N. structures get solid brick walls and heavy timber framing? Some things cannot be replaced these days.

@daveg Hi 

Several years ago I bought the STL files Ford was selling.  Attached is a pic of the printed models (Mustang and Pickup) in small scale with the supports attached.  We used the resin models as a master to make Z scale models in white metal.  The yellow model is in "Z" scale cast in white metal with decals for the windows, grille, tail lights etc. We put the resin master directly in a mold that was vulcanize at 350 degrees, this did not work very well and my train friend kind of lost interest.  Would have had to take another step in the process to make a metal master to use to make a spin casting mold.  The STL files were printed on a Form Labs printer.

JD