Model Boats & Ships
A scale model is mostly fittings: bollards, fairleads, cowl vents, davits, stanchions, a deckhouse, a funnel — dozens of small repeated parts that used to mean white metal castings and a six-week wait. Print the fittings. Do not print the hull.
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Get a model boats & ships estimate
Upload your file or describe the part. We review printability before confirming anything.
Common uses
- Deck fittings: bollards, fairleads, cleats, capstans and winch drums
- Cowl and mushroom ventilators, skylights and hatch covers
- Superstructure: deckhouses, bridge fronts, funnels and companionways
- Davits, ship's boats and bulwark stanchions in repeating sets
- Display cradles, stands and plinths cut to the hull's section
- Name plates, builder's plates and case fittings
Fittings and superstructure, not hulls
An FDM hull leaks. That is not a hedge, it is how the process works: the part is built from stacked extrusions, and the bond between one layer and the next is never perfectly continuous, so water finds a path along a layer boundary and weeps through. People do make printed hulls watertight, and it is real work — thick walls, a proper epoxy or resin coating inside and out, sanding, a sealing schedule done patiently — and even then a hairline path through a single layer line ends a session at the lake with a slow list to starboard. We are not going to sell you a hull and let you discover that on the water. Build the hull the way hulls get built: plank on frame, GRP, or a moulded shell. Let us do everything above it, which is the majority of the work and the part that actually takes the hours. If you want a printed hull anyway we will talk about it honestly, print it as a shell, and be clear that the sealing is your job and the watertightness is not something we can promise. One more distinction worth drawing: this page is scale models. For fittings on a real vessel you go out in — a narrowboat vent cover, a dinghy fitting, cabin trim — see our Marine & Boat Parts page instead.
Scale, repeats and what actually resolves
Tell us the scale, because it decides everything. The nozzle lays a line about 0.4mm wide and nothing thinner than that can exist, so a bollard at 1:72 is a solid, satisfying little part, the same bollard at 1:350 is a nub with the detail implied rather than present, and a bulwark stanchion at 1:96 is a half-millimetre post — printable, but fragile enough that you should order spares and expect to lose one to the carpet. Rigging is thread, not plastic, and always will be. Where printing genuinely beats casting is repeats: a deck needs eighteen ventilators and the eighteenth costs the same as the second, because the modelling happened once. Send the plans, the drawing, or photos with a rule and the scale you are working to, and we will tell you which fittings will come out crisp and which are better bought as castings. We would rather say that up front than take the order for a set of 1:350 stanchions that arrive as fuzz.
Cradles, stands and finishing
A display cradle has to match the hull's actual section, not a drawing of it — hulls end up where they end up, especially plank on frame. The reliable way is a tracing: take a card template of the section at two stations, well apart, mark the waterline, and send those with the overall length. We cut the cradle to your hull rather than to a fair curve that nearly fits, and a plinth with a name plate is an easy addition once the file exists. PETG is the pick for a stand carrying a heavy model, PLA is fine for shelf fittings and superstructure indoors, and ASA is worth it if the model lives on a windowsill where the sun will yellow anything else. On finishing: layer lines on a large smooth surface — a funnel, a bridge front — need filler primer and a rub down, and there is no way round that with FDM. On a planked deck, texture or detailed superstructure, they disappear under primer and paint. We supply unpainted and ready to prime, and we will tell you which surfaces will need the filler before we print, not after.
How it works
Send your file or describe the part
Upload an STL, OBJ, 3MF or STEP file, or tell us what you need with photos and a few measurements.
Get a guide price
When we can read the geometry we estimate from it straight away — material, print time, supports and quantity all priced openly.
We check printability, then confirm
A person reviews orientation, wall thickness and supports, flags anything that will not print well, and confirms your final quote before any work starts.
Model Boats & Ships — example prices
Worked examples on real models from our print library, priced by the same calculator that estimates your own part. Sizes span small to large so you can see how cost moves with the part.
| Example part | Size | PLA | PETG | ABS / ASA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display Plinth (small) | 35 × 35 × 8 mm | £2.44 – £3.11 | £2.56 – £3.27 | £2.83 – £3.62 |
| Phone Stand (phone) | 80 × 70 × 90 mm | £14.03 – £17.92 | £14.84 – £18.97 | £16.70 – £21.34 |
| Tablet Stand (tablet) | 110 × 120 × 120 mm | £31.63 – £40.42 | £33.47 – £42.77 | £37.63 – £48.08 |
| Laptop Riser Leg | 80 × 90 × 40 mm | £50.69 – £64.77 | £53.02 – £67.75 | £57.91 – £74 |
Guide prices for a single unit, calculated from the measured geometry of each example model — not fixed quotes. Small parts land at or near the £0 minimum order, and per-unit prices fall with quantity. Your price depends on your own part, its material and its printability. How pricing works.
Example models for model boats & ships
Open-source designs from our print library that show the kind of part this service suits. View any of them for a full material and quantity price breakdown.
Door Wedge
Control Knob (large)
Display Plinth (medium)
Furniture Foot (large)
These are open-source example designs (CC0) we publish to show what the process suits and what it costs — not a record of past jobs. Prices shown are examples in PLA.
Model Boats & Ships — FAQ
Can you print a watertight hull for my RC boat?+
Not one we would call watertight. Layered plastic weeps along the layer lines, and making a printed hull genuinely dry means thick walls, epoxy coating inside and out, and a lot of patient sealing — which becomes your job, not a promise we can make. Build the hull conventionally and let us do the fittings and superstructure.
What is the smallest fitting worth printing?+
It depends on the scale and the part. The nozzle lays a line about 0.4mm wide and nothing finer can exist, so at 1:72 almost everything works, at 1:96 fine posts and stanchions get fragile, and at 1:350 detail becomes suggestion. Tell us the scale and the fitting and we will say honestly whether to print it or buy the casting.
Can you make a display cradle for my hull?+
Yes, and the way to get it right is a card template of the hull section at two stations well apart, with the waterline marked, plus the overall length. We cut to your hull rather than to the drawing, because the two are rarely the same once a model is planked.
Can you print twenty identical ventilators?+
Yes, and that is where this beats casting. The modelling cost lands once and the copies are cheap, so a full set of deck fittings in one go is much better value than the first one suggests. Order a couple of spares — small fittings find the carpet eventually.
How much does model boats & ships cost?+
There is no fixed per-item rate — price comes from how much plastic the part uses, how long it takes to print, how much support and finishing it needs, and how many you want. The example table above shows what real parts of this kind work out at. Upload your file for a guide price on your own part.
How long does it take?+
It depends on the size of the part, the queue and the material. Tell us your deadline when you enquire and we will tell you honestly whether it is achievable before you commit.
Can I order one of the models from your library?+
Yes. Every model in our print library is a design you can have printed — pick one, choose a material and quantity, and the example price on its page is your starting point. You can also download the file and take it elsewhere; they are all CC0.
Are my files kept private?+
Yes. Uploaded files go to private storage, are never made public, and are only used to quote and produce your job.
Worth reading first
Practical guides that help you get a better part and a more accurate quote.
What Is TPU (Flexible Filament)?
TPU is printable rubber. It bends, grips, seals and absorbs shock — and it behaves nothing like PLA, which is the whole point and the whole difficulty.
Nylon and Carbon Fibre Parts
The engineering end of FDM. Nylon is tough and wear-resistant; carbon fibre makes it stiff and stable. Both are harder work — here is when that pays off.
How to Copy a Part Without CAD
No file, no drawing, just a broken part and a pair of calipers. That is a perfectly normal starting point — here is how the process actually works.
Other services
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Upload your file or describe the part. We review printability before confirming anything.