14 DAY TRIAL // A little advertised fact is that most special effects in older days, those that involved aircraft and starship battles in science fiction, were actually very close-up recordings of toy-like miniature figurines.
One such figurine has been created by a person who chose to share the success via their YouTube user account.
The figurine isn't an original invention though. Instead, it is a replica of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek. A very, very accurate replica.
The final model had to be painted and given some finishing touches, not to mention polished. Nevertheless, the Enterprise looks just like it did in the TV series. Trekkies everywhere will probably give approving nods if they ever lay eyes on it.
You can find the video on the account called “Printing the Revolution” or you can just watch it below.
The model was downloaded from Thingiverse, sliced with Cura, and then 3D printed using an Ultimaker 2 3D printer. Any 3D printer should be good enough to repeat the feat though, so long as the layer thickness isn't set above 200 microns or so. Unless you're willing to sacrifice more of the clean look anyhow.
The user in the video used PLA plastic and a layer thickness of 150 microns. Since most 3D printers today can do better than that, go thinner, that's good news.
