"The Gutenberg Bible" - this name may not say much to you, but it was the first major book printed back in 1455 using a movable metal type by Johannes Gutenberg. Needless to say that things evolved greatly since then, so that in 1840 people were already trying to print the first color photography. What happened from that point up to today, we are pretty sure you all know, but we need to highlight 2012, which is when the first domestic 3D printer captured the attention of the world.

Up to this point, the most interesting 3D printing was a a working plastic gun that folks with a 3D printer could download and print. Next year something even cooler will happen, as NASA will use a 3D printer in space to print components, tools and equipment on demand.

But how about a 3D printed car? We are not talking about an ordinary car or some cruddy small-scale model, but a full-size replica of a 1961 Aston Martin DB4. The idea belongs to New Zealand enthusiast Ivan Sentch who bought a $499 Solidoodle 3D printer and started to work on this project in December 2012.

Of course this is a time consuming process and it will be quite a while before his 3D DB4 will be ready, but we are really interested to see how the final car will look like. To date, he has about 72 percent of the pieces printed and a little over half of them put together, so we may be in for a long wait...

Click past the jump to read more about the Aston Martin DB4.

Aston Martin DB4

The DB4 was a sports car produced by Aston Martin between 1958 and 1963. The DB4 inspired cars like the DB4 GT Zagato, the Lagonda Rapide 4-door saloon and its replacement, the DB5.

A 3.7-liter straight-six engine that delivered a total of 240 horsepower powered the DB4. It was capable of hitting a top speed of 139.3 mph and could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 9.3 seconds.

There were five different versions offered: base DB4, DB4 Convertible, DB4 GT, Vantage and Vantage GT.