3DLabPrint makes excellent filament, in some wonderful colours.  However, I'm not a big fan of their models.  They use a vase mode design, or a non-infill design that I find lacks the strength a printed part needs for an airplane.  3DLabPrint does expand beyond their own models to include members they call the 3DLabGang.  One of these members is Michael Hammer and he does use an infill design for his planes... one of which is the A7 Corsair II, a 50mm EDF hand launch model.  This is going to be printed in white and red.  I'm going against my general exclusion of extras and I'm printing all the tanks, bombs, and missles and I'm going to print the decals as well.  I swapped in red for the nose during the print.  The Fuselage 1 part comes in 2 versions... a printed canopy that is solid and part of the fuselage... and a cockpit with a pilot, ejection seat and a clear canopy.  I'm going for the clear canopy.

Another 50mm edf to tear up the skies!
Looks great and gonna be a whole lot of fun 

Gorgeous. And very unusual subject. Bravo David!

I can't decide if Wing 2 should be white or red.  The Ailerons and Elevators are going to be red.  There's no rudder so that whole tail structure will be white.  There is a fake aileron on Wing 2 that is outlined but not real.

Red.

Yes, red for visibility as the rest of the plane is white.
IMHO.
Guy

Right then... red it is... thanks guys.

Ordinance is ready.

Pilot

Height approx. 2.25"

He's perfect... thank you Michael... an artist!

Sorry... I could have printed him in black... or would you still need to paint in black first?

He's going to look so good in his little red ejection seat.

The black paint in the second-from-left frame looks shiny because it's wet. It dries matte. This is better for me to paint on.

If you printed in black, I still would have painted it matte black.

He looks great... thanks Michael.  I'll try printing and then finishing the "clear" canopy tomorrow... we'll see.

The canopy is printed in a filament called PVB - Polyvinyl Butyral.  There are 2 interesting filaments... PVB and PVA - Polyvinyl Alchohol.  PVA dissolves in water and PVB dissolves in IPA - Isopropyl Alchohol.

The idea is that you print supports for a part in PVA and then shove the whole thing in a bowl of water and the supports dissolve.

With this canopy and PVB I'll spray IPA over the part, and the layer lines - what makes the canopy look cloudy, will dissolve leaving a "clearer" result.  The process takes a few sprays and a few days and it can be overdone to the point that the part starts to "melt".  Let's find out.

This is my first .8mm nozzle print.  Most prints are done with a .4mm nozzle.  .8mm creates a print with fewer layer lines and is good for PVB and the IPA process.  Changing the nozzle on a BambuLabs P2S takes about 20 seconds and the nozzles are very affordable.

I gave it 2 sprays yesterday with hours of drying in between.  This morning it looked very good.  So I gave it another spray... but I think it now has barely a hint of yellow... I think.  So I'm trying again and I'll stop after 2 sprays.

Quote from: davidk on March 19, 2026, 07:59:33 PMI gave it 2 sprays yesterday with hours of drying in between.  This morning it looked very good.  So I gave it another spray... but I think it now has barely a hint of yellow... I think.  So I'm trying again and I'll stop after 2 sprays.

Looks awesome David!!