Ship Model Carvings and figureheads - Using AI for for making STL files for 3D printing...things are getting better every day.

[Chuck]

That is a wonderful decision.   Give it a try.   What is the worst thing that could happen?   And yes I hate those white metal castings as well.

 

I remember when I gave them this hand sculpted and carved figurehead and they turned it into the abomination you see in the kit.  Maybe they should read this topic at Model Shipways as well.

 

 

 

They turned it into this....

 

 

So yes you absolutely should.   

 

 

[TJM]

5 hours ago, Chuck said:

That is wonderful.  The lion looks great.  Can you upload that stl here in this topic.  I would like to examine it.  I could just feed the same Drawing into meshy but I dont want to kill any more trees…as my kids keep reminding me.

 

chuck

 

Sure! I ran it a few times, and they are all really good, but all have a few minor issues - some will be easier to fix than others. This one has a little thing sitting on the hands and it has the tail mirrorerd on both sides. 

 

But even with these small shortcommings, I am sure it is workable with a few tweaks! 

 

FYI, this is the figurehead for the Danish 50 gun Ship of the Line Grønland (Greenland) from 1756. 

 

 

 

Grønland Figurehead.stl

[Ronald-V]

1 hour ago, Chuck said:

They turned it into this....

 

 

So yes you absolutely should.   

 

 

Also the fatigue that the figure radiates, not only from the malnutrition, but also how he lets the sword hang next to him...too tired to hold it firmly...😅

Edited Tuesday at 04:07 PM by Ronald-V

[glbarlow]

On 10/27/2025 at 7:50 AM, Chuck said:

Elegoo Saturn 3

Thanks, yes they are on the 4 ultra now but sill around. $300. 
 

I’m looking forward to your tutorial on fittings. 

[Y.T.]

On 10/27/2025 at 4:51 PM, Chuck said:

And what do you think this object will be turned into for me with a little editing so I can sell it to you guys.  If the resulting prints prove effective.  Ten points to whoever can tell me what this will end up being!!

A stay "mouse" of course.

[Gregory]

Here is my go at Meshy for a figurehead for Rattlesnake.

 

Here is the drawing from the lines at NMM

 

My trimmed up submission to Meshy.

 

Here is the result from Meshy.   Amazing how easy it is.  ( Thanks Chuck! )   I can see how I can refine the original drawing to get some better results, like the end of the sash.

I only got one leg, but I see I left a "symmetry"  option on auto, so maybe switching it to full "ON " would have given me another leg.  But I also think this is something I can remedy in a CAD program.

My goal will be to do some CNC carving with a program like Meshcam, rather than 3D printing. But, I'm a long way from that.

 

If anyone building Rattlesnake from Model Shipways or Mamoli would be interested in a refined version of this for 3D printing, let me know and I will give it a shot..  Or feel free to use my line drawing above to make your own.

 

 

The trail boards and transom carvings will be another project and that will involve creating a base relief such as Chuck discussed above.

Again, this has been a great eye-opener and a priceless contribution from Chuck.

 

[KennyH78]

Here is my first attempt at using meshy.  I decided to start with the sash pieces that will go under the QGs.  I took a picture of them from the plans and cleaned it up.

Then inputted it into meshy and hit generate and this is what it came up with

Not bad, but also not quite like the drawing.  I need to figure out how to refine that.  I will play with it some more for sure.

[Chuck]

Kenny you picked one of the parts that is really tough for AI to do

properly.  I am afraid that wont work .  The drop is very complex and its shape can not replicated with meshy.  My guess is that you rendering is completely flat rather than shaped to fit the hull curvature.  Thicker and rounded at the top and narrower at the bottom in the other direction.

 

 

[KennyH78]

31 minutes ago, Chuck said:

you picked one of the parts that is really tough for AI to do

That makes a lot of sense now, guess I will have to try something different for those.  I might try using sculpty clay to remake them.  I will keep playing with meshy though for the rest of the stern carvings; maybe even the figure head.

[Chuck]

13 hours ago, Gregory said:

I only got one leg,

Gregory...try getting a little creative with your thinking here.  Even if you click symmetry it really doesnt work well.  One solution is to split your original drawing into two pieces and run them through meshy separately.  The top bust....named properly in meshy before you hit generate.

 

 

Then the bottom leg where it would need to be split by the stem anyway....

 

 

Take both of these and put them together in your slicer actually.  Use the duplication feature and mirror feature of your slicer to create an identical right and left leg.   Then put them together...

 

 

 

 

STL attached

 

indianstatue1.stl

 

Chuck

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chuck]

Now is this American Indian figurehead perfect....No.  But its pretty darned good.  This figurehead can be printed to the size you need.   Wash it and clean it good after it prints.  But then dont put it in the curing station yet.   

 

All of the funky details the AI created can then be altered using some some sharp micro chisels.   You have most of the hard work done for you....the face is wonderful...the hands and some of the clothes features need some work.    So while the printed figurehead is still somewhat soft and not fully  cured, you can finish it up with your chisels.  This also helps the figurehead actually look like a carved piece rather than a "soft 3D printed" looking figurehead.   It really is the best way to utilize this technology and really slip in there a little bit of hand carving.   Once you finish your carved alterations, then you can stick it in the curing station to finish it off.

 

Does this make sense?   Please feel free to discuss this approach.   Its the approach I prefer especially since you are not mass producing these commercially and just looking for a way to create a fantastic and unique personal ship model project.

 

Chuck

[Gregory]

Thanks..  I'm really new at this..

[Chuck]

Me too...everybody is!!!

[Dziadeczek]

I played a little with this software and, for the experiment's sake I uploaded a drawing of a French naval officer from Mr. Boudriot's book on the 74 gun ship to see, what would develop...

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that their 3D rendition turned out sooo good! - see the pic (it is only a 2D screenshot from a full 3D conversion, which turned out nearly perfectly, certainly good enough for me! 

I am thinking about 3D printing of a dozen or so small figurines (about 3.5 - 4 cm long, which is about 1.5 in.) to populate my 74 gun ship model I recently finished building.

The problem with this free version of Meshy 6, I see, is that you can only upload your pic (photo or drawing) and convert it into a 3D sculpture, but you cannot further download this 3D sculpture elsewhere, to print it. To do that, you'd have to sign in for it and pay a minimum 8 dollars/month for a subscription (despite the statement from Meshy, that you can do it for a free trial - just to see how it goes (and if it satisfies you, then you can pay them and do your projects).

So, that is this limitation..., unless I missed something..   🤔

[Chuck]

Lovely rendering.  Yes I Broke down and paid.  I thought they gave you a bunch of free downloads.  Maybe they changed that.  
 

There are other sites that do this but Meshy 6 is the best out there.  
 

Chuck

[druxey]

Chuck; you make a very good point that has otherwise bothered me; the output looks too perfect! For figures such as the captain above, it's great, but for carved work on a ship, the surface lacks the markings of actual tools. Your concept of hand carving the output before hardening addresses this issue.

[Chuck]

That is what I prefer to do for my own models if I wasnt commercially making a kit of course.   The folks who buy the kit get the perfect one but I will go in a rework it a bit before I glue it in position.  I like to make the print look like it has a few carved faces and I do some undercutting to make it look better when the light hits your finished carving.   Some careful cutting around the softer details makes them crisper as well.

 

OK folks....you can also try HITEM3D

 

This still has a free option and its also returning high quality and resolution prints....This is the only other site that I like the resolution and print quality.  They also have the ability to upload multiple images of different views to make your rendering more accurate.   The results are actually slightly different as this algorithm returns a slightly more stylized rendering.   But they look great and you can download them.

 

 

Here are 3 views in the Chitbox slicer...and yes for a figurehead you still have to bring it into another program like blender and cut a slot for the stem.   Or you could do this by hand and just file out a slot after printing.   I hate Blender and other CAD programs and just cant get the hang of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chuck]

I am just going to keep adding tips and tricks I have learned along the way.   Remember that we are all pretty much new to this.  The more good images with any background you have the better your results.   I can not vouch for the accuracy of this drawing but I wanted to document the method I used.

 

In many of these image to 3D AI programs you can upload multiple images of an object from different views.   Side , back, front etc.   But it is hard enough finding one view of an image that is any good.  

 

So lets say you want to make a 3d printed figure of a midshipmen for your model.

 

You can go up to any generic AI program like ChatGTP and ask them for it.  But you must be very descriptive.   For example I wrote this in ChatGPT.

 

Create a highly detailed image of standing figure of a typical sailor midshipman on frigate in the British Royal navy in the period of about the year 1800. Can you create 4 differnt views of this standing figure with no background.   Make each view separated by space so none of the views overlap.  Leave some space between each view.   

 

I may have been able to make this request more detailed but I just wrote this on the fly.

 

The image it made for me is this.

 

 

Now is it correct to the period....I dont know, I would have to research that.   But anyway...

 

Next you take this into any photo program like photoshop and split it into 4 individual images.

 

Load it into Meshy or any other image to 3D program.  If I had time I would prob ask Chatgtp to redo this image without the hat and make him look a bit scruffier.   But I really only wanted to demonstrate another tip or method.   For those of you more experienced than me at this please feel free to post your tips here as well.  

 

Also for us neophytes....If anyone knows how to easily do this...If someone could create a step by step for how to create the slot for a figurhead so it can be slipped onto a stem I would appreciate it.   Hopefully using free software.   Maybe Blender or freeCad.   I would like to give folks as many tools and tips for creating viable carvings and figureheads using this technology.   But my knowledge is limited.   So I am hoping those with the knowledge would be willing to share.   

 

 

 

Scruffier with no hat...

 

 

And these are a few 3D conversions from meshy and hitem3D to show how very different the results are after using the same image from chatgtp.  The free retries were used in each program to make two figures from each platform.

 

The two center figures are from hitem3D.   A very different result and I will leave it up to you which one is better.   I know what my preference is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TJM]

3 hours ago, Chuck said:

 

Here are 3 views in the Chitbox slicer...and yes for a figurehead you still have to bring it into another program like blender and cut a slot for the stem.   Or you could do this by hand and just file out a slot after printing.   I hate Blender and other CAD programs and just cant get the hang of it.

 

 

I also don't have any skills with the likes of Blender and Z-brush, but I have found a workaround that makes it easy to make the slot it the figurehead:

 

I draw the shape of the prow and extrude it to the correct depth:

 

I then import it into my slicer (Lychee) along with the figurehead and position them. I find it is much easier to work in the slicer than in a 3D CAD progam when manipulating the part positions:

 

I then merge the parts and export a combined stl. The file actually still contain the seperate parts, which is detected by the next program, Onshape, a free online 3D CAD program. The prow is then subtracted from the figurehead with a boolean operation:

 

and the final slotted figurehead can then be exported and re-imported into the slicer for printing:

 

This all takes 10 min total - except that the original file produced by meshy has topological errors. They are fixable to a sufficient extend in the slicer for the purpose of printing, but that is not good enough for the high tolerances of the Onshape program, so it is nessecary to repair and re-mesh the original figurehead file before this simple workflow can be completed. And that took me a bit of time to work out! I used a free Autodesk program called Meshmixer to repair and re-mesh the model here. So provided that you have 'water-tight' stl files, making the simple geometric subtraction to get a slotted figure is relatively simple, but it took some work to get there! 

 

I have attached the slotted file here as well.

 

BR

TJM

 

 

 

Grønland figurehead cut.stl

Edited 22 hours ago by TJM

[Chuck]

Wonderful....how do you create the boolean function...Can you do a step by step or point to a youtube video for us knuckleheads...screen shots would be great if you have the time.

 

That I believe is the missing piece.  At least for me to create what I need.   I just have to find time to figure out how to master that boolean step by step in onshape.  With these tools mentioned in this topic I think it is a complete introduction for anyone to make these stl files and refine them.   It should prove to be a valuable resource without getting to technical ....I hope.

 

Chuck

[TJM]

Yes! I will do a step by step with more detailed screenshots. Stay tuned!

[brunnels]

28 minutes ago, Chuck said:

Wonderful....how do you create the boolean function...Can you do a step by step or point to a youtube video for us knuckleheads...screen shots would be great if you have the time.

 

That I believe is the missing piece.  At least for me to create what I need.   I just have to find time to figure out how to master that boolean step by step in onshape.  With these tools mentioned in this topic I think it is a complete introduction for anyone to make these stl files and refine them.   It should prove to be a valuable resource without getting to technical ....I hope.

 

Chuck

Chuck since I noticed you use Chitubox, that software has a boolean function built in as well.  

-Import a stl of the figurehead, and a stl of the shape you want cut out. Im using the Pegasus head piece I used blender to trace.
-Align the pieces to how you want them to sit on the model

- Up top select the "Boolean" option and then select the configuration of which piece you want to cut.
-Hit apply and it will give you a new "Cut" piece.

Edited 21 hours ago by brunnels

[Chuck]

I might have to update my chitbox, LOL

 

I have only been using the free version.   I should have looked at the other levels especially with the amount of 3D printing I have been doing.   That really solves a lot of my heartaches.  Thank You!!!

[TJM]

If Chitubox can do this with non-perfect stl's, that might be easier! The repair was the biggest challenge for me. I will still post the step by step using Onshape though 🙂

[TJM]

Alright, here's a detailed walkthrough of how to make the slot in the figure using Onshape:

 

 

1: make the prow template

I am sure there are many ways to do this, but this is how I do it. 

 

I draw the shape in QCAD, using the scaled drawing as reference:

You can do this in any CAD program. Make sure all the endpoints touch - it needs to be a closed shape to enable the extrude operation.

 

Then I make a new project en Onshape and create a 'Sketch':

You have to pick the plane to sketch on (I pick the front, it dosn't matter)

Then, before completing the sketch operation, click the DXF function at the top right:

Import your prow 2D CAD file:

click the tick mark on the sketch function to complete this:

Choose the central shape (not the lines) and use the extrude function (top left):

Here you pick the depth to extrude, the thickness of your keel, but give it a bit extra, othewise bleeding of the pixels during 3D printing will likely make the cut to shallow to fit. You must experiment with the correct thickness.

 

Then export this 3D keel shape as an stl:

 

Import this and your figure into the slicer (you can do it in onshape as well, but I am not good at moving things around in that program, so I prefer the slicer).

Adjust the position of the parts to fit and combine the parts (at least in Lychee, you have to do this to export both in the correct relative positions):

 

Export the object to an stl:

 

2: make the slot with the boolean function in Onshape

Now we need to import this model into Onshape. From the main menu, click the create>import

Import your stl - the progress will appear in the notifications tab (a bit counterintuitive):

 

When it is done, you get a link to your imported file:

 

Now we are redy to do the boolean. It is at the top bar, two intersection circles icon: 

As it says, you can do three types of boolean operations, union, subtraction and intersection - we need to subtract.

 

The prow is the 'tool' and the lion is the target. You can have several tools operating on several targets, if needed.

 

 

In my case, three lion parts appear - this is because I have two small, free floating bits of mane - normally you would just be left with one slotted figurehead part:

 

Then you just export the part(s):

 

I have seen instances where the boolean function fails - this happens if there are very extreme topologies as a result of the subtraction, but mostly, if you have so-called water-tight stl files, this just works like a charm. 

 

Let me know if there are any points that need clarification!

 

BR

TJM

 

 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by TJM

[druxey]

So far, so good. But the knee also tapers in two directions. That also needs to be taken care of.

[TJM]

1 hour ago, druxey said:

So far, so good. But the knee also tapers in two directions. That also needs to be taken care of.

 

It is not a problem to make a taper like that, it is just two mirrored planar cuts to the 'tool' part. You can see an example from the slicer below and that there is around a 1 degree taper in two directions:

 

 

Then you can get something like this:

 

I am sure this is not completely accurate either, reality was likely more complicated. The accuracy will of course depend on how good your model knee is, but the procedure for the slot remains the same. I think it should be possible to make something that is good enough for a model with an aproximate 'tool' shape.

 

 

Edited 18 hours ago by TJM