Model Monkey

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Model Monkey

[[File:|frameless]]
Type	sole proprietorship
ISIN	🆔
Industry	Hobbies
Founded 📆	2015
Founder 👔
Headquarters 🏙️	North Carolina, USA
Area served 🗺️
Key people	Steve Larsen
Products 📟	Model kits
Members
Number of employees
🌐 Website	https://www.model-monkey.com/
📇 Address
📞 telephone

Model Monkey is a veteran-owned, family-run manufacturer of 3D-printed plastic scale models located in North Carolina, USA.

Early history

What would become a pioneer company in 3D-printed scale modeling, Model Monkey grew out of the part-time hobby of Stephen C. Larsen, a former, decorated US Army officer and Civil Engineer. About 2003, Mr. Larsen began resin casting detailed and accurate parts for his own scale models while serving as the Facilities Engineer at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Other modelers took note of the accuracy and quality of his work and began buying resin copies of his models. At first, masters for the models cast in resin were made by hand from sheet polystyrene plastic. The process to create the masters and cast models was slow, difficult, expensive, and inefficient. At that time, 3D-printing technology was still in its infancy. The few existent 3D-printers and resins of the requisite capability and performance were prohibitively costly.

By the time Mr. Larsen retired from active duty in 2006, the potential of 3D printing technology to reproduce precisely scaled and detailed models was becoming clear. Within the next decade, affordable, reliable 3D-printing had become a reality. Abandoning hand-made masters and resin casting in 2014, Mr. Larsen began designing models for 3D printing using sophisticated computer-aided design (CAD) software. He established Model Monkey under that name in North Carolina as a full-time, professional 3D design business and began selling models made from his designs 3D-printed by a separate 3D printing company called Shapeways in 2015. The catalog of Model Monkey designs sold by Shapeways quickly grew to include over 1500 scale models.

The popular Wall Street Journal-recognized modeling website SteelNavy was the first American website to publish an independent review of a Model Monkey-designed 3D-printed product.

First models

The first Model Monkey 3D-printed products offered were aftermarket parts intended to improve the accuracy of injection-molded ship models made by model companies like Revell, Monogram, Airfix, Tamiya, Fujimi, Hasegawa, Heller, Lindberg, and Trumpeter, including turrets, superstructures and fire control directors. These models were followed by 3D-printed nameplates for scale models, then expanded further to include parts for model armored vehicles and model aircraft.

International notability

Model Monkey products printed by Shapeways, originally a Netherlands-based company, gained the attention of European modeling communities especially in the UK and Germany. The well-known German modeling website ModellMarine.de was the first site anywhere to publish an independent review of a Model Monkey product.

Products for classic model aircraft kits, especially the 1960s-era Airfix 1/24 scale P-51D Mustang and 1970s Revell 1/32 scale Bristol Beaufighter, gained the attention of British, Irish, Australian, New Zealand and South African modelers. The popular Australian modeling website HyperScale.com was the first Pacific-based site to publish independent reviews of Model Monkey products.

3D-printed plastics had gained a reputation for being incompatible with enamel-based hobby paints. A chemical component within some 3D-printed resins was believed to prevent enamel paint from hardening on models. Scottish enamel paint manufacturer James Duff of Sovereign Hobbies in Aberdeenshire, UK, tested enamel paints on Model Monkey 3D-printed gray resin and found enamel paint and gray resin to be fully compatible. Mr. Duff published his findings on ModelWarships.com.

In-house 3D-printing

By 2017, Model Monkey had become mature enough as a business that it became desirable to expand by adding its own in-house printing capability. Over 1500 models had been designed, Model Monkey had gained significant international notability within modeling communities, and commercial-grade 3D printers had become affordable. These three factors together were sufficient for Model Monkey to transition from 3D design company to 3D manufacturing company.

In early 2018, Model Monkey acquired its first commercial-grade Formlabs SLA-based resin 3D-printer becoming one of the first commercial, additive manufacturers catering specifically to scale modelers. In order to achieve the print quality demanded by scale modelers, it was decided to buy suitable 3D-printers based on SLA technology. With the purchase of additional 3D-printers, Model Monkey grew well beyond 3D design, printing and selling scale models directly to hobbyists world-wide. Models that could be 3D-printed in-house were removed from Shapeways. The Model Monkey Shapeways shop remains open, but only those products intended to be printed in metal or are otherwise unsuitable for in-house printing continue to be sold through Shapeways. The present catalog, together with designs sold by Shapeways, includes over 2500 models.

The popular modeling websites ModelWarships.com and SteelNavy.net, and aviation publication Detail & Scale, were the first to publish independent American reviews of products printed in-house by Model Monkey.

Company name

The name "Model Monkey" was chosen from two potential business name finalists, each including the name of an animal to help make the business name easily recognizable and memorable. The other potential name considered but ultimately rejected, "Snot Otter Hobbies", reflected the nickname of the mucous-covered, giant Hellbender aquatic salamander common in western North Carolina. Although "Snot Otter Hobbies" was thought to have a good sound to it, be clever and memorable, family members decided a furry monkey would have better public appeal than a local amphibian covered with mucous.

See also

• 3D printing
• Scale model
• Ship model
• Formlabs
• Airfix
• AMT
• Aurora
• ESCI
• FROG
• Fujimi
• Hasegawa
• Heller
• Italeri
• Jo-Han
• Matchbox
• Model Products Corporation
• Monogram
• Tamiya
• Trumpeter
• Zvezda

Sources

• SteelNavy Aftermarket Product Reviews
• Detail & Scale Military Aviation Archives, Aftermarket Product Reviews
• ModelWarships Aftermarket Product Reviews

External links

• Model Monkey company website
• Model Monkey Shop on Shapeways
• SteelNavy website
• ModelWarships website
• Hyperscale website
• LargeScalePlanes website
• Scalemates website
• Detail and Scale Military Aviation Archives
• Modellmarine German ship modeling website

This article "Model Monkey" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Model Monkey. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one. {{{{⚠️🚨COPIED from EverybodyWiki ❗❕⚠️😡😤Please respect Licence CC-BY-SA ❗}}}}

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