There is a New 3D Printer in the Shipyard

 My new Creality Ender 5 Pro 3D printer arrived s week ago and I have spent every day since playing with it. I haven't painted or rigged a thing. 

It was packed extremely well and went together fast. The wiring was a cinch, made easy by wire labels and color coding.

Once I had it in place I watched a few YouTube videos  to get familiar with it and started playing. The biggest hurdle was all the prints would break away from the bed before they were finished. I kept leveling and releveling. I used copious amounts of glue stick. I used matting tape. I even tried hair spray. Nothing worked. But I finally figured out I wasn't adjusting the nozzle close enough to the bed, and I was set at too high a speed with too much cooling for the first couple of layers, and my lines were too thin for those first couple of layers. Once I fixed all of that, I haven't had a failure since!

This thing produces beautiful quality prints. I downloaded the free Cura 4.8.8 slicer program and using the Super quality setting, the prints are close to resin quality. The downside is that at this setting the prints take much longer to complete, like hours longer! But it's worth it for the result. The Standard setting is darned good too!

The picture above is the Swedish 40 gun Bellona class frigate Venus by Henry Turner. The gray one on top was printed at Standard line setting of 0.2 MM. The black one on the bottom was printed at the Super line setting of 0.12 MM.

There really isn't that much noticeable  difference. There is a bit more pronounced stepping on the quarter deck and the stem and stern details aren't quite as crisp. I would be satisfied with Standard if that was the best it could do, and it IS much faster. But...

Now that I have the method down I can set the print, watch it through the first few layers, raise the speed and cooling back up, then go off and do something else for however many hours and come back to a beautifully printed ship, or two. These two Elizabeth class 74s came off after 5 hours this evening. (Also by Henry Turner).

Then yesterday I stopped at the post office and there was a package waiting for me. It was a ship order I had placed with Simon Mann for six of his resin ships. Keep in mind I placed this order before I decided to order a printer, and with all the excitement, I had completely forgotten about it.  When I opened it up there were nine additional "misprint" ships Simon threw in. He says he figured I could fix them. (I looked and I can)

These are the "misprints"

And then my friend Pete in the UK informs me today that he posted another package of FDM prints to me as well. What have I created?

My 1/700 3D printed ship pile is fast approaching the size of my metal 1/1200 ship lead pile. There is no way I will live long enough to complete the ships I have, and here I am with a new printer, printing more ships. This would kind of be a nightmare, if it wasn't so much fun!

I don't know when I will do anymore rigging!

More 3D Prints Arrived

 My friend Pete Lowe sent me some more FDM prints he produced on his Ender 3 printer: three more Temeraire class 74's (that makes 5 now), two Montanes class 74-80's, and a Santa Ana 112 (all Simon Mann designs).

I also received an order of resin hulls from Simon Mann in the UK. Three ships: the Purisima Conception 112 (post 1791 refit), San Jose 112, and a Tonnant class 80.

So many ships! I started painting!

I used the 1/1200 version of each ship as a paint guide since I previously did the research on each ship when I painted the little guys.

Le Timoleon

Le Fougueux

Le Algesiras

Le Mont Blanc

Le Duguay Trouin

All five Temeraire class 74's 

El Neptuno

I made the lanterns using styrene rod

This is the resin Purisima Conception. Even though Simon's resin prints are relatively sturdy, they can still be broken. I don't know when this happened. I was well into the hull painting process before I noticed it.  The hole is drilled to take the new rail, made of a staple.

Staple fitted and superglued in place

A couple of shots of my work space

I still have the rest of the Spaniards to finish painting. Then comes the fun part. Marking,  cutting and filing all of the mast parts for all of them and putting them together. Then all of the sails and spars.

What I don't have are measurements for 1st rate masts to use. If I could get a photo of a set of Black Seas 1st rate masts laid down flat against a ruler with a milimeter scale, that would be a great help. Or just measurements of each mast section fore, main and mizzen: the mast from base to top of the cap, the top mast from crosstree platform to top of the next cap, and the top gallant mast from crosstree platform to top of the mast.

The weather is getting nice outside now and all the spring cleanup chores are calling. Not to mention the winter's accumulated list of "Honey-Do's"! And it looks like the state is moving to Phase 3 soon as well. So less time available for the dungeon shipyard. Strangely I have mixed emotions about that. On the one hand I am anxious to be able to get out and do stuff again. But on the other hand I will miss waking up with nothing on my plate but piddling around in the shop! A whole year it has been like that, wow!

Thanks for stopping by to look!