Case Study: AWPC Museum recreates historic windmills as accurate, highly detailed 3D‑printed scale models with 3D Systems

Historic Windmills Recreated Using 3D Printing

The American Wind Power Center (AWPC), the world’s largest windmill museum, needed accurate scale models of historic windmills for a 1910–1950 model train exhibit. Many of the windmills had no commercially available replicas, so the museum faced the challenge of recreating faithful, full-scale-accurate models that could still be produced with 3D printing.

WhiteClouds collaborated with AWPC, using reverse engineering from an existing model, old blueprints and photographs, and 3D Systems’ ProJet 3500 HDMax with Multi-Jet Modeling to produce ultra-detailed resin prints (16‑micron layers). The printed parts were assembled, painted, and paired with crafted wooden towers, delivering precise, durable replicas that enabled the museum to display windmills too complex to hand-build.

AWPC Museum

Coy Harris

Executive Director