I've been agonizing over picking up an easy snap-in grill from Shapeways, or just going for it and just picking up some more radiators form Reade. Looking over just now, though, I see the only options listed for your listing are "White Processed Versatile Plastic" and "Black Natural Versatile Plastic", plus the "Smooth Fine Detail Plastic" that you seem to recommend against?
My main beef with 3D printed parts are print lines and lack of sharp detail. The latest models seem to do surprisingly well with detail, but I still see print lines even in your example parts. Is there one that can be ordered that does NOT have print lines? (or at least they can be sanded out reasonably easily)
Short answer is yes. Just order the “processed” in white or “SFDP” and I think you will be surprised. The black for what ever reason can’t be “processed” so it’s not as “smooth” as the others. But I did use the black on my AWC conversion above. I started with two coats of primer. Applied about 5 minutes apart from each other. Krylon is the best IMHO as it dries super fast. You can see from the photo below even after just two coats it’s already pretty smooth and I haven’t even touched the sandpaper yet..
Then after about 10/15 minutes I lightly sand with 400 sand paper. (Don’t use any coarse sandpaper, the finer the better). Zoom in on the picture below and you can see just how smooth it is..
I’ll do a full build thread on this as well and link it here once I get it underway..
I’m not against the “smooth fine detail plastic” at all. Sorry if I came across that way. It’s a great resource! I personally find for parts like this (Heat Sink grille) that you don’t need the SFDP and the WPVP is more than adequate. I’ve yet to order this grille in SFDP but I’m sure it will be perfect for what you are looking for.
I think you have the same misconception with regards to 3D printing as most do if you don’t mind me saying so. I believe you are lumping all 3D prints into one category. Most people sell inexpensive prints that they make on there home 3D printer using the same generic inaccurate files you can get pretty much anywhere for free. These home printers can be had for as little as $200 and the high end printers cost upwards of 3K. These are the printers that leave print lines and use PLA mostly. Which leaves a lot to be desired and unfortunately gives 3D printing an unfair reputation..
What I’m using here is mostly SLS printing technology which doesn’t have any real print lines at all. I’m curious as to where you see them? The process is layered yes but it’s a heating bed of nylon and once painted you can’t tell the difference between these parts and metal parts. That because these SLS machines cost upwards of 200k each. I like to use cars as the analogy. You can drive either a pinto or a Lamborghini. Same goes for these printers..
I know for most it’s metal or nothing so that’s why I designed these parts so these SLS replacements would be as minimal as possible. That and hopefully it will also open the door to just how amazing this technology actually is. The grille, Mystery Disk, Bull Barrel and left side replacement. Otherwise you keep all the metal parts that came with the AWC itself [emoji106]
Here for example so you can see how well these Shapeways parts can come out is a DAGOBAH, GREEDO KILLER & HERO. Each are built with a metal denix Mauser using metal screws but ALL the parts/kits are WPVP (the scope wheel on the HERO is SFDP because of the small detailed number’s).
On this HERO below is a grille I actually designed directly off a set of those vintage “Reade model cylinders” in fact. I cut each cylinder up into shape first then made STL files out of them. But those cylinders might look a little awkward on an airsoft as the airsoft is bigger up front than a denix or a real c96 for that matter..
And here is a BESPIN in natural light. Same with this build, only metal parts are the screws and denix (and the ring around the light port is a metal wire)..
Last edited: