A Visit With GasPatch Models

by Fotios Rouch

During my last visit to Greece my friend Alex arranged for us to visit with GasPatch Models and meet with the owner and his lead CAD designer. It was very nice of GasPatch to receive us on a Saturday and spend time with us, talk about his vision for his company and the hobby industry in general. It was especially nice for him to show us 3D printed samples of various modeling subjects he has created that demonstrate the state of the art of the technology he is using. The photos that I am showing demonstrate the unbelievable fine detail that is possible with the specific technology he is using that can provide printed resolution down to 25 nanometers!

There is a number of aftermarket hobby companies that use 3D printing to create the masters for their detail sets but the reproduction is done in resin. In many of these products you can discern the fine ridges on curved surfaces that are the result of the printer head stepper motor movement. Not so with GasPatch as all of his products are individually printed and are not resin reproductions. Additionally, the technology he is using can create the smoothest curved surfaces and the finest pipes and tubing that would never survive extracting out of rubber molds.

Some notable subjects that came up in our discussion were that GasPatch sees the resin aftermarket product industry dwindling down as more shops learn and start to use 3D printing. GasPatch is more focused as a company in producing detail sets and models that will remain in demand due to the subject matter selected as opposed to opportunistic decisions to jump in and make the next cockpit for the next brand-new model aircraft with quick sales up front and trickling thereafter. So when GasPatch comes out with a nice set of machine guns or engines in all the popular scales (since scaling 3D CAD is easy), he will have sales forever so to speak as long as modelers want that something special to dress up their model.

So while we were talking and were looking at the fine printed samples, the Graphics designer was firing up his computers in order to show us an upcoming model that is being done with great love and dedication to perfection and is very dear to me as a modeler and aviation enthusiast. The SR-71! I fully expect the level of perfection that are evident in the Me 163, Hs-123, Salmson etc. Also, there is great potential for aftermarket goodies like what GasPatch is providing and will provide for the Komet for example.

In the product line images included in this article there is an example of a future release that will go great with one of his aircraft models.

Unfortunately, time flew bye and our visit had to come to an end. This was a very refreshing experience that left me with all kinds of thoughts about where the hobby is going as an industry but also to the potential that individual modelers can have access to. Whatever am I going to do with the hundreds and hundreds of models I have in the stash then?!