MV Europic Ferry 1967 by Ian_Grant - 1/96 Scale - 3D-Printed - Ferry

[Ian_Grant]

Hello; While finishing final details on my HMS Lion for RC, I was looking around for something different to build and also looking to try a 3D print of an entire ship. I decided to call it a "kit" as I am merely assembling components, albeit components 3d-printed by moi.

 

The website "CGTRADER" has several very nice candidate 3D builds, but I settled on this ferry named "MV Europic Ferry" which was built in 1967 and plied the North Sea initially between Harwich and Rotterdam in the 70's. Her capacity was 60 passengers in cabins, 50 cars and 60 commercial trailers, or 295 metres of cargo.She had all superstructure forward, and two vehicle decks aft; one on the upper deck and one on the deck below. It seems there was a hydraulic ramp between the two vehicle decks. Interestingly, apparently, she only had a stern vehicle door so somehow they had to turn around while aboard......not sure how that worked!

 

As an aside, she was actually expropriated by the UK government in 1982 for the Falklands war, sailing with the fleet carrying stores, troops, and equipment such as helicopters to the south Atlantic. She returned with  grey paint blotted all over her as a home-made camouflage scheme.

 

In 1993 she was sold to a Cypriot company who operated her as "Afrodite II" in the Med for ten years with a large superstructure added from midships to stern.

 

She was beached in India for scrapping and broken up in 2005.

 

Here are a few pics:

In her early days - 

Returned from the Falklands with home-dabbed grey camouflage - 

In later years after being sold, still operating in the Channel.

 

Operating in the Mediterranean Sea -

 

I like the original design with the red hull, and so did the 3D artist who made the files, so that's what I will be building.

 

I've had my Bambu A1 printer for a year now, but up to now I've only printed various small bits for Lion. So far I have printed four hull sections of the eight required, the first three at the bow and the last piece at the stern.; it's a new experience for me as two of them took more than 20 hours each to complete.

 

Here are the three bow sections just dry assembled.

In this second pic the stern section can also be seen, with the opening for the vehicle door.

 The printed surface is pretty good, no large "waviness" but I will be using Bondo spot/glazing putty to fill in the minor ridge line artifacts.

According to the slicer, the finished hull should consume 7 pounds of plastic; that's without the superstructure. She'll have twin motors and twin rudders.

Finished length is 1470mm, beam 200mm, height 400mm (don't tell my wife!).🤫 I plan to illuminate her, and have not yet thought about storage implications. 🤔

Edited Monday at 10:00 PM by Ian_Grant
edited title per guidelines

[72Nova]

Ian I have a feeling you won't be able to hide this one from the wife. Looks like another epic build in the making👍

 

Michael D.

[Ian_Grant]

All eight hull sections printed, consuming over 100 hours of print time. And nearly three reels of filament. I've epoxied together only the first two thus far, using JB Weld which is my new favourite epoxy despite its black colour. I'm waiting for some fiberglass cloth seam tape to arrive to put some more epoxy inside this joint before adding more sections, because the enclosed front half would quickly become unwieldy to access for joint reinforcement.

 

The design is such that the superstructure is not removable if built according to instructions. I'm not sure I like that idea as that's a lot of hull interior that can only be reached by sliding your arm in from the admittedly large opening when the removable upper vehicle deck is removed. The designer's goal was to prevent superstructure damage due to handling, were it removable. I'll have to print some of the superstructure parts before deciding what to perhaps have removable, if only to be able to fiddle with any ballast in her front half.

 

I also had a look at some of the superstructure files. They surprised me with the time and plastic they will take to print too. I was thinking after the hull things would move quickly but there are more 12-hour prints ahead. I also discovered I don't like the lifeboat file; I will try my "Titanic lifeboat" file when I reach that point.

 

Here she is sitting in front of the nearly-completed HMS Lion. That's a 12" ruler sitting in front.

 

Merry Christmas to my so-far zero followers!!!

Edited December 23, 2025 by Ian_Grant

[Javelin]

You've got yourself a follower now. 

Interesting subject, right down my alley! 

 

I do like the dark blue livery as well. But red's fine too, always makes for an eye catcher on the water. 

 

Curious where this will go, but I would indeed try to create some access to the front area. Some cleverly hidden and reinforced handles on that superstructure may help to prevent damage if you make it removable. 

[Landlubber Mike]

Very cool subject - great start!

[72Nova]

Impressive Ian, I hope you have stock in that media you're using...😀. Happy New Year!

 

Michael D. 

[Ian_Grant]

2 hours ago, 72Nova said:

Impressive Ian, I hope you have stock in that media you're using...😀. Happy New Year!

 

Michael D. 

And to you, Michael!

[Ian_Grant]

First six hull sections epoxied together, with so far five reinforced internally with fiberglass cloth seam tape and epoxy resin.

Lesson learned: when printing large hollow pieces with some large flat surfaces, add some "beams" to hold the flat surface, well, flat.

Hull section #3, the 22-hour print, warped as it cooled, making its flat top completely concave. This in turn pulled the corners in slightly as it cooled, warping the joint edges. It was a bit of a bi**h getting section #4 to join to it with proper alignment.

 

I then printed the first two pieces of superstructure, as shown here:

I mentioned before that I want to illuminate this model. I was worried about light leakage at the deck joint so decided to re-print it without the roof.

While I was at it I joined the two files to print in one piece. I add ceiling "joists" to hold it all straight until glued to deck, planning to then put small strips along the inside deck joints and paint the insides until "light tight".  Placing it on the hull I realized that I'd have a hard time getting my fingers in with the "joists" in the way, so the plan now is to glue to deck, cut off the joists, install LEDs/paint inside, then print the ceiling with added beams on the bottom to stiffen it.

 

I printed the aft superstructure too, but I split the single section into an upper and lower section, again to facilitate LED installation and test. 

St

Still pondering creating an access opening near the front. It might turn out be more of  visual access than physical, too small for my hand but at least allowing me to see my hand and what it's doing when thrust forward inside the hull from the car deck access. This second print of the forward superstructure might not be the final version..... Looking head to railings, the files include railings to print in plastic but I might prefer to build in brass in which case I'll need to thicken the decks in the necessary areas to allow secure gluing of brass stanchions. Printed railings sound fragile, but maybe I'll be surprised.

 

Another lesson; I dropped it on the basement floor and cracked up the top of the stem above the deck. Curses! But it was a simple matter to take a copy of the design file for hull section #1 and delete all of it except a portion of the bulwarks near the stem and print the resulting "patch", then cut away a bit more of the broken bulwarks to give clean edges and CA the patch in place.

 

Ian

Edited 49 minutes ago by Ian_Grant