3D Printed Sleeve Honors The Life Of A Fallen Soldier

June 5, 2014 by Cedric Lizotte 3D Printing

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Liam Nevins was an American soldier who was deployed to Afghanistan. He loved both his country and his work in the military. One of his passions was design: he designed equipment and wanted to prototype but needed a way to do so. This is where Shapeways came into the picture. Shapeways is an e-shop specializing in 3D-printing of designs made by anybody who wishes to “bring products to life”.

Liam H. Nevins

Nevins was a dedicated soldier. According to his mother Victoria, her son, while on active duty, got shot in the arm “and was supposed to be sent home, she wrote in a forum post on the Shapeways website. But as a Green Beret, he would not let a little thing like a giant chunk out of his arm send him home. So he checked himself out of the hospital and went back to base.” This is where he got the bloody sleeve that was cut off by the medics when he got shot.

Nevins was killed a month later in a separate incident. He was one of three soldiers killed by a gunman dressed in the National Afghani Security Forces uniform who opened fire towards Americans during a routine exercise.

Since then, his torn, bloody sleeve became an important keepsake and memento for his family. Victoria Nevins asked the Shapeways community if anyone could create a 3D-printed version of this sleeve that could be printed at will and framed, as a reminder of Liam’s life, so that friends and family could have something by which to remember Liam by.

Michael Williams, a builder and moderator of the Shapeways forum, found Liam’s mother’s post while going through browsing the nest forum thread like he normally does.

“As the forum moderator I don’t search through the forums for modeling work, but I often find posts from people looking for work posted in the wrong section,” explained Williams in a blog post on the Shapeways website. “That’s how I found Victoria’s post in the General Discussion section. I let her know I’d be honored to help her with her project.”

Williams built a 3D model of the sleeve. Victoria Nevins sent Williams many pictures of the sleeve and wanted it to be a full-sized model. Using Autodesk’s 123D Catch, Blender and Glaze Coat, Williams came up with a full-sized, full color, sandstone piece, which you can see below. The sleeve was called “The Sleeve of Destiny”, and it’s now the name for the 3D printed piece as well. Take part is the community discussion around this article at the ‘3D printed Sleeve‘ forum thread at 3DPB.com.