Thank you for sticking your head up over the parapet to answer my questions. I had hoped that some of the producers of the models in Harald's photographs might be encouraged to say what they had learned from their failures and I would be happy to share my fixes.
If you would like to email me at roger@coastlinesmodels.co.uk, I am sure that we could establish ground rules for information exchange. 
Previous Message
Hi Roger,
I can answer some of those questions as I design and print 3D resin ship models too; I can't speak for all printing companies, but I've got a fair amount of experience!
Fails can happen for a myriad of reasons: bad build plate adhesion, resin mixture is bad, table gets bumped as it's printing, too hot, too cold...etc. I've had things fail one day and print fine the next with no changes.
Personally, when I make a ship I do it full scale in meters and then shrink it down, but creating it digitally doesn't matter too much as working with a 2 centimeter cube is the same as a 2 meter cube. Then you can use software to scale it to whatever you desire.
I will leave off masts if someone doesn't want them...I can't hand make them like some of the great work I've seen on this board, but they can be fragile for sure.
Printing ships flat to waterline doesn't work out as the first few layers of printing are for the bed adhesion, then they transition to the actual print, so you can get compression of the model and it gets really hard to scrape off a model without potentially breaking it. It's best to try to print as vertical as possible and that gives you the most detail, hence the lattice structures.
I hope that helps!
Matt Previous Message
Thank you for publishing your photographs of the Ship Collectors Meeting. I spent a coulpe of hours going through the photographs and did spot a Coastlines model among a tray of models that were offered for sale! More importantly for me was the number of 3D-prints at the meeting. Those on the shelf marked "Tragedies" were particularly revealing.... Why so many failures? Why not design in a larger scale and shrink to print? Why print masts when they can be fabricated? Why not have internalbracing rather than external cages and why not usethe printer base to define a waterline?
This hobby needs to have these discussions.
Previous Message
The thermometer showed 99 at 1:00PM. But Tyler's office in the Roseville train station was cool and pleasant.
For this meeting about 2 - 21/2 hours east of the Bay Area, we had 9 participants. Due to health and transportation reasons, some of our regulars were not able to attend. However, we gained Randy Short, Eric Goggans and Bill Piva from this part of California.
Tyler and his CEO Jenna have reorganized the office that they took over from Eric. They have added a lot of 3D printed models to the display shelves.
Tyler is working with various 3D designers and he is ready to start on new projects. On their website tentwenty3D.com, there is a spot marked: "Model Requests". Here you can enter your wishlist of 3D models. Tyler will combine these wishlists and discuss with his designers the feasibility of producing the wished for models.
Tyler had his first production run of 1250 planes, both with folded and open wings. You can see Kevin check them out on the first photo.
Our last SMSC meeting was in 2018 at Kingsport, the Merchant Marine Academy. The planning for our 2020 meeting in San Diego was cut short because of Covid. Peter Gottschalk has been in discussions with the Charles W Morgan in Mystic Seaport, CT. The museum was contemplating an event in the fall of this year and Peter was trying to add our SMSC meeting to the timing of this event. Unfortunately, the event on the Morgan has been pushed back to next year. Peter is checking on the possibility of doing our SMSC meeting as a stand alone event in the second half of October, 2025. Stay tuned for more updates soon.
Since our San Jose members did not attend our meeting on Saturday, we did not get an update on what they are planning for the "Spirit of'45" on August 16 in San Jose. As soon as the information becomes available, we will post it here.
Next years Kassel show is scheduled for May 16, 2026. The show will be as usual in the Philippe-Scheidemann Haus. However, the event organizers have contracted with a hotel in downtown Kassel for the overnight guests and the Friday evening dinner. Details have been posted further down.
Here are my photos of our Saturday meeting: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B2eGZGDDBGjRB1l
We picked October 25, 2025, for our next meeting at Paul's house. If Peter can still organize an SMSC meeting on the Morgan in later October, then we will revise our next meeting date.
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