Designer 3D Prints Various Mountain Cross-Sections

[Brian_Krassenstein]

Mountains are universally embraced for their overwhelming, majestic presence: beautiful to look at and challenging to climb in many instances. Shapeways 3D printing service and marketplace has made Mountain Shapes' high-resolution 3D printed mountain models available at an average of $25-$35 per model for mountain climbers, budding geologists, science teachers, and collectors. Mountain Shapes is London-based and therefore it offers Standard reliefs (using Ordnance Survey OpenData) of English, Scottish, and Welsh Peaks and a Superior relief of the National Peaks (Ben Navis, Scafell Pike, and Snowden.) Models are available in appearance as photographed or including elevation data, making excellent commemorative items or science class educational tools. Check out more details: http://3dprint.com/29648/mountain-shapes-uk-peaks/ ‎


Below is a photo of Ben Nevis:

[MountainShaper]

Thank you Michelle for writing this post and all the publicity from tweets. A lot of people seem to have tweeted the link to this post, but rather strangely it didn't result in any increased visits to my web shop on Shapeways. Only 12 yesterday, which is fairly typical of a quiet day. Normally when there has been a lot of twitter activity it goes up to 20 or 30 and sometimes even 60. But thanks for helping me get some more exposure on Twitter anyway.

Pleased to find another mountain enthusiast, especially someone interested in 3D printing as well. Colorado sounds a great place to study. I have never been there, but would love to some time.

Just want to correct a couple of things. Firstly, there was one small typo in one place "Nevis" was spelt as "Navis". Secondly there was a mistake regarding Ordnance Survey OpenData which I thought I ought to correct in case someone buys a model that doesn't meet their expectations.

All of my elevation data for both Standard and Superior models comes from Ordnance Survey Open Data which is free. It samples elevations at 50m intervals. There is another higher resolution OS product that you have to pay for that samples data at 5m intervals. But I have not used this for the Superior models, so the 3D resolution is the same for both types of model.

The difference is only in the textures draped over the surfaces. The superior models have licensed images (OS walking maps, aerial photos or geological maps) that I have had to pay an acquisition charge and royalties on sales. The standard models use maps that I have designed myself from OS OpenData and I can use these without having to pay anything.

This is why the Standard models are quite a bit cheaper than the Superior models, although the Superior models actually seem to sell better than the Standard models. I guess people are keen to pay a bit extra to have a surface that they are more familiar with.

Also, the prices you quoted aren't right for anyone based in Europe. The Euro prices converted to Dollars come in at about $30 for a Standard Model and about $42 over here. Are they listed at lower prices by Shapeways in the USA?

Thanks again for what you have done to help publicise these models. It is much appreciated.