Vincent Meens’ Shapeways store is totally out of this world — his designs are all intricately detailed parts for space models. Vincent works for the French Space Agency and has actually given his models to a number of museums, so he definitely knows his stuff (his completed Apollo 11 model is below).
How’d you link your passion for space with 3D design?
To answer your question, the link was not just with 3D printing but rather between space and modeling.
Since childhood (December 1968 actually with the flight of Apollo 8, the first men to orbit the moon) I have always been interested by the exploration of space; the 60’s and 70’s being my favorite years with the culmination of the Apollo flights to the moon. I started building space models when I was a kid and I have continued this hobby until now.
In the 60’s and 70’s there were a few space models available like the Gemini, Vostok or Apollo spacecraft, but if you wanted to build something different (for instance a lunar rover or a large lunar module) you had to scratchbuild these models. I eventually became quite good at it, having now a couple of models displayed in museums. A large part of scratchbuilding is research to design parts with paper, wood or styrene. When 3D printing appeared, I said to myself that maybe all this available research could be used in designing parts in 3D and printing them.
Meens’ A10-FUD-Descent Stage for a 1/32 model of the Lunar Module
Seems like you’ve been very successful with the 3D printing approach to your models.
Scratchbuilding requires a lot of research to find the good measurements but it also takes time. Imagine you designed a tiny thruster which take you about half an hour to build and you have 16 of them. 3D printing comes as a very interesting tool, not only your part will be more precise but you can also reproduce it. It also saves time and frustration if you lose a part.
Your models have been displayed in museums, tell us how that came about.
Monogram released many years ago a model of the Apollo spacecraft at 1/32. Unfortunately the lunar module was never released at that scale. Having previously built a large 1/24 lunar module (scratchbuilt) I used my research to design the missing 1/32 LM. I knew this would certainly be a hit among space modelers and it was, being largely promoted on space modeling fora and on my web site where I explained all the intricacies of this model built. As of today it is the only 1/32 lunar module plastic model available.
For the 1/32 lunar module I already designed a few years earlier a 1/24 model which I gave to a museum. All the research was already done and it was just a matter to design it in 3D and print it. Not only it was fun and quicker to build than the 1/24 one but I could offer it to other space enthusiasts.
Designer Vincent Meens of Space Models
We encourage you to check out Vincent’s Shapeways shop here, he has detailed instructions on assembling his model on his website for any of the models you’re interested in building.