by TheFisherOne

This the "Rapier", a scout class rocket ship from the web comic "Space
Pirates of the Third Empire" by Scott Greig.  The ship was originally
designed in Sketchup by Scott Greig but recreated for printing in
OpenScad by TheFisherOne

About the web comic...

"The pirate king is dead.  Twins Lexi and Xander shrug off their
pampered past as they battle pirates, aliens, assassins and the
occasional amorous ficus, to claim their father’s throne.

Follow the adventures Of the fledgling pirates and their robot butler as
they explore the wonders of the galaxy. See if they have what it takes
to become... 'Pirates of the Third Empire' "

"Hi, I’m Scott Greig.  I invite you to check out my new web comic.  The
weekly comic is currently in development, with the first chapter
scheduled to be posted in July 2019. In the meantime, I will be posting
concept art, sneak peeks and downloadable goodies, so please check it out."

http://www.spacepiratescomic.com

Print Settings

Printer Brand:                          

FlashForge

Printer:                          

Creator Pro

Rafts:                          

No

Supports:                          

Yes

Resolution:                          

0.2

Infill:                          

20%

Notes:

supports are needed, but they are pretty minimal. They are needed under the mid section to support the engine struts and the bottom of the main body.

I scaled all of the pieces to be just big enough to fit onto my printer. If you print it too small the fine details will be lost.

Post-Printing

I scaled each piece by the same amount so that it would just fit on my print bed and then printed all of the pieces at the same time.
Afterwards it is fairly simple to glue the pieces together. You might want to over extrude just a little bit so that the surfaces are smooth enough to glue together. I did find that my print there was just a little bit of space between the extrusions on the surfaces which made the glue not quite stick.

There are 3 little boxes that are used to help align the engines when you glue them together.

How I Designed This

The original version done in SketchUp proved to be too complicated for SketchUp and the resulting stl files were non-manifold so I had to start from scratch.

In order to print it on my printer I had to split it into 3 sections plus the base.
This also helped with the details of the rocket engines as it is easier to print details facing up rather than facing down with the required supports.
Scott was a little particular about the shape and I quickly realized that he didn't want simple cylinders or stretched out spheres, so there are some complicated scaling going on.
Note that even the 3 engines are not equal distant from the center of the ship.