Like some others have said, please familiarize yourself with the limits of 3D printing before putting up your wish list items. Some already exist in resin and/or plastic ( fuel drums, armored ventilator domes) and would be too costly to 3D print. Would you pay $5 for a 1/35 Jerry can or $12 for a single 55 gallon drum?

Cigarette pack? It's a squarish blob. Slat armor-- PE or evergreen would be better than 3D printed resin.

It's a flexible tool but it has to be cost effective and an improvement, too

3D printers are just coming into mainstream usage, are they out of subject material already?...!

With the rising of 1/32 scale kits the past few years subject material in a size large enough for one of those things is plentiful.
My suggestions would be as follows:
Pilot & navigator gear: gloves , goggles , scarves ,oxygen and suit heater detail , etc.
P & N tools: Compass's , slide rules , dividers , map case's , etc. Personal items for the figs in 1/32 . These can be used for relaxed or in-flight builds
Airfield tools for armourer's and mechanics. Don't be shy, steal the ideas from other manufacturer's , lots of this has been done in 1/48.

These suggestions apply to WW1 & WW2 kits , WNW and HK come to mind. !/32 is where the buying dollar is now , |I just bought almost $200.00 of figs and accy's for my WNW Gotha.

Right off the top of my head, the WNW Gotha liquid oxygen tanks are bereft of a very visual detail. Have a look at that to start.

Yes, exactly. In terms of actual limitation, the printers that Shapeways uses have limited fidelity. If it's best done in PE, like exhaust shrouds or locks or mesh skirts or stuff of that nature, then it's best done in PE and probably can't be printed. In terms of numbers I'll just copy what Shapeways has as the limitations for one of their materials, Frosted Detail Plastic (which is what I will have set to print):

Min. Supported wall thickness: 0.3mm
Min. Unsupported wall thickness: 0.6mm
Min. Supported wire thickness: 0.6mm
Min. Unsupported wire thickness: 0.8mm or 1.0mm if bearing weight
Min. Embossed detail: 0.1mm high and wide
Min. Engraved detail: 0.1mm high and wide
Clearance (between 2 parts): 0.05mm.

These are some of the restrictions I have to keep in mind when designing parts. These numbers are tiny, very small measurements, but much of these detail we work with actually turns out to be around this size and smaller. Recently I was designing some 1/700 life rafts to upload. I wanted the ribs on the bottom visible such as on the plastic piece I was basing my digital model off of. Unfortunately the ribs were too small to be able to printed so I had to leave the floor bare unless I wanted over scale details.

Like I had mentioned before, if you want something 3D printed that you have one a PE sheet, take a look at it and how it's assembled. If it results in a 3D feature such as a tool box or something like it, it can be done. If it results in just a flat detail feature like a vane sight on a M4 Sherman or an exhaust shroud or mesh, it can't be printed. And sometimes it's not cost effective to be printed. Cigarette boxes in 1/35, for example. To be cost effective to be printed, there would have to be over a hundred or more of them on a sheet. Yes, it can be printed, easily. If you want it printed message me and I'll get it done but it isn't very cost effective unless you want hundreds of these little things.

I would like to see 1/48 M240 and L7A4 modern 7.62mm machine guns with scopes and folded bipods. If you do a Google search, there are no 7.62mm modern machine guns for 1/48 modern armor with the most modern machine gun being a 1/48 .50cal M2HB.

A lot of the 1/48 modern armored vehicles, such as Special Forces and transport trucks, use 7.62mm, not 12.7mm machine guns.

Most of the 1/48 modern machine guns look pretty lousy, just a rectangle for the gun and a tube for the barrel. The bipod is molded on so the entire machine gun looks toyish.

There are quite a few 1/48 modern military vehicles, but a total lack of 5.56mm and 7.62mm modern guns to support them.

The barrels on those guns might be incredibly fragile and prone to breaking. 3D Printing "prints" by whats known as additive manufacturing. The "printer" lays down a thin layer of material which is then cured. Then another layer, cured, layer, cured, etc. until the entire part is built up. It's built up in a waxy substrate that holds are parts together. The substrate is then melted away revealing the part. If the piece is too thin, it could break at any time during the process.

I think you're correct. OK, scratch the 1/48 modern machine gun idea.

I think a lot of people are overly optimistic about what 3D printers can do! Not sure we need M60 road wheels, aren't the ones from Legend, PanzerArt, DEF, Armorscale etc. enough? (and the AFV Club ones aren't bad...)

Me, I'd like to see the type of LAV wheel that's on (our) left side of this LAV-L, it's never been done before:




And the middle attachment to the Abrams plow seen here:



Jim

How about a series of grab handles for engine hatches and such. I always to have to make them out of wire to replace kit ones. I think nice plastic ones would be easier to glue especially if you didn't have to cut them from a sprue and then clean mold lines, I always seem to break a lot of them doing that.

Like Mike stated thin wires are INCREDIBLY fragile in the FUD and FXD materials, I've accidentally snapped several parts that were .35mm in diameter, without much force being applied.

Wires like this can't be done. They are too thin and would break too readily. You also can not use regular model cement to glue them, you'd still be using CA glue. The plastic used is a type of acrylic and not polystyrene. You would still need to cut the part from a sprue or, more likely, a wafer. And remember what I said about layers? Depending on the shape, you would still get pieces with visible layers. Sometimes you'd be able to clean them, sometimes not but there may still be layers visible.


And like I said earlier. I can't do tires. Limitations of the program. I can't draw on curved surfaces so the side wall detail and the tread would be missing. It can definitely be printed, I just can't make the design right now.

Interior parts for armored vehicles that do not come with interiors or the missing parts from those that do.

YES! small little part, not in any kit, very visible right inside the ramp.

There are some PE sets that have the pulley present. If you want the pulley I'll do it if I can be provided with some detail pictures with some measurements.

MAS 36 rifles and CR39 (carbine).
Those are hard to find and in limited numbers (two per set in Academy, Tamiya...)
Having in mind that there are a number of french figures following recently produced french tanks, one could convert figures, but without weapons. Also, Indochina war is in a growing demand for conversion.

I think those guns would be better rendered in resin rather than 3D printed.

I think I just found a new project: M103A2/M88 drive sprockets.

I replied to your PM Michael...I think the correct sized gun crutch for the M103A2 would also make a great 3D printed project.

Thanks. If you also modified that part to make it accurate could you also send me the details on that?

I also started thinking about another project, albeit this time much more ambitious. I'm thinking about attempting the turret and then the hull of a T71 light tank and then possibly some more oscillating turrets.

I never modified my gun crutch. Check your messages for info about who did.

Heh, yeah I read your message after I made the post. Thanks.

What about 1/35 emergency vehicle light bar

The issue with shapeways is a lack of Clarity with the current materials. It would work for making a master and casting with clear resin though.

Yeah. Really the only material worth using for the hobby stuff is Frosted Ultra or Extreme Detail plastic which, like the name says, is frosted. But the only problem with making it for a master, who would buy it?

I would like to build one of the vehicles that was at the Amphibious Vehicle Test Branch while I was there. The vehicle was a hybrid LVTP7 and while the HobbyBoss kit is a good start, it lacks the early style hatches I need. The early style hatches had a “lip” that the later style did not.
I used kit part D37 and scale drawings of an early LVTP7 for the measurements. I would need two pieces; one is the driver’s hatch and the second is the troop commander’s hatch. They differ in that the driver’s hatch has provision to mount the night vision device. I am not concerned with the mounting brackets or latches, those I can transfer from the kit parts. Mostly it was due to the measuring proving a royal pain in the butt.
The photo is one of the few I have come across that shows clearly enough the visible difference of the earlier style hatches. The vehicle close-in is the precursor to the LVTR7 but the hatches were also mounted on the LVTP7 and LVTC7 vehicles.





I don’t know how much of a challenge you are looking for but have a doozy if there is demand for the parts. I have mechanical drawings for the AAV7 RAM/RS, primarily the hull, engine, transmission and cooling tower. It has all the measurements on the drawings. Each sheet is somewhere near 4’ x 1.5’ so scanning is out of the question. I have a wand scanner that may do the trick. While there are minor differences in the RAM and pre-RAM engines they are both Cummins 903s and would require little effort to tweak to produce. I have the TMs – without measurements but with drawings decent enough to gleam the differences from. This powerpack (engine/transmission/cooling tower & air pre-cleaner) is applicable to all of HobbyBoss’ 7A1 and 7A1 RAM/RS kits.

Bailey bridge components? The Bronco kit is so wrong! You could do the support bits it is missing (rollers, M1 transoms, ramp sections, etc) or just the panels which Bronco got completely wrong.