For people living in the United States, at least people living in coastal areas, we are used to checking ships, yachts, and ships frequently. I grew up by the sea, so I may have seen or even ridden on almost all types of boats. At least it seems so.
For a student named Radek Barvíř, who lives in the Czech Republic where there are no oceans or ships in Central Europe, 3D printing enabled him to bring various ships to life in the form of 3D printed models.
“I got in touch with 3D printing at school, it was about one year ago,” Radek tells us. “During [my] studies, I was working for a month in Prusa Research company (probably the most well known Czech company where low-cost 3D printers are invented and manufactured) to get some practice. And now it is one of my best hobbies next to cycling, hiking and traveling by different means of transport.”
He first used 3D printing in school as part of his bachelor thesis, in which he created 3D printed terrain and ground models of various mountains, quarries, cities, etc. However, once this was done, his father asked him why he didn’t use the technology provided by 3D printing to create useful things, such as boats or other kinds of boats.
“I answered that these terrain models are, and they really could be useful, but then I finished my thesis and had a bit of time, so I prepared the first ship – a cargo ship because I like transport and everything around it including ships and boats,” Radek tells us. “It was the first version with several mistakes, which I repaired over time.”
Radek has now completed the fifth version of this initial model, and has also designed and 3D printed two other models. To design these detailed ships, he used SketchUp 8 and some of its extensions, which allow browsing of STL files. He started with the basic shape of the boat, and then gradually added more and more details. After making the universal model, he printed it out and tested it in the bathtub to ensure it had the ability to float. Sometimes, if the walls are too thick, or the boat is too heavy for some reason, it will go back to Radek’s drawing board to ensure that the boat is not only beautiful, but also floatable.
So far, Radek has designed and printed three different boats, all of which have made design files available for download from Thingiverse. These include RS3: research ship, RS2: ferry and RS1: cargo ship. As part of his growing collection of ships, he plans to release more in the future. He hopes to design and create some long-established ships for tugboats in the near future.
“The ships I’ve made have no real pattern,” Radek tells us. “I made them up. I just started with designing and during the process I imagined what to place here and there. In the past, I used to play the Ship Simulator game for a while, so maybe I have some ship shapes in my memory.”
In any case, if you carefully observe the details you see on each ship, they are indeed very attractive. What do you think of Radek’s 3D printable spacecraft? Did you download and print it yourself? Discuss in the 3D printed ship forum topic on 3DPB. com.