By Michael Gagne, Record-Journal staff FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail SOUTHINGTON — Nikolas Thomson is just a few weeks into his latest project: making 3-D printed face shields and other protective equipment for health care workers and first responders. Thomson and his friends, fellow Southington residents Evan D'Agostino and Drew Steindl, have set up shop in the building previously occupied by Hop Knot on Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike in Plantsville. They’ve utilized the bar counters and tabletops to set up a makeshift manufacturing plant that includes about a dozen 3-D printers and space to assemble the shields... ...That equipment has been sanitized and distributed, at no charge, to various facilities — including Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford and St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, nursing homes and various ambulance companies throughout the area and beyond — delivering them as far as Danbury and the shoreline.