I am fascinated by the prospect of "sculpting" in CAD and making food quality miniatures via a home printer. Since my 3D cad skills are, ummm, nonexistent, that may be awhile but there are a growing number of file vendors to choose from to get started.
There will be lots of mistakes made along this journey which I'll post here for all of you to ridicule mercilessly.
One of my inspirations for getting on this new journey is Aaron over at the Project Wargaming You-Tube channel. All of the buildings on his fabulous Berlin board we used in the LWTV Berlin episode were 3D printed. I really excited about the prospects for adding details to the Stalingrad board and my next secret project once that's done.
I'm compiling a list of 3D miniature file vendors so any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
8 comments:
Let us know how this goes. Over at Wyloch's Armory YouTube channel, he always got terrible results from filament printers but then he got an AnyCubic Photon Mono and "he has seen the light" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMWLTgzUcgw). Also, do you actually need the cleaning & curing station or is it just a "nice to have"? I thought the monochrome LCD lights in the prnter cured the resin..
Nice new toys! I'm sure you will have great fun with them. :)
I got a 3D printer last November and I have to say that Thingiverse and Cults 3D have provided me with more files than I’ve had time to print yet! It’s well worth digging through all the free files on offer and working out how far your printer can go before prints start to fail. No point spending lots of money on Patreons, Kickstarters and more if you find you don’t actually want/need or have the ability to print (or time to print) what they offer. Try some generic searches on Thingiverse for things like “Star Wars Legion” or whatever your current interest may be, find some models you like, then see what else those particular sculptors have produced.
Don’t restrict yourself to a certain scale, remember that most things can be scaled up or down by quite a large amount. I print 6mm models at 300% for 15mm gaming and the really detailed ones still look great. Similarly, I scale down 28mm or 40mm models to 15mm scale and although some fine detail may vanish, they’re still excellent once painted.
Ha, you have stepped onto the slippery road of 3D printing! Great! There are zillions of files available, but here's a few: you are no doubt a listenener to the God's Own Scale Podcast, so you will have heard of the Union Asunder, Europe Asunder and Hannibal vs Rome Kickstarters. For historicals, I like the Napoleonic figures of David Vazquez Fernandez at https://napoleonicstlfiles.com/en/. And 3d breed (https://www.3dbreed.es/) make Celts, Germans and Romans etc., and a very nice 6mm 1066 pack. Finally, Forest Dragon (https://gumroad.com/forestdragon) make great 10mm fantasy. I look forward to following your exploits!
Thanks for the comments:
Emjenic - I’m a big fan of the God’s Own Scale podcast and actually been a guest! And yes, because of that episode i have joined the Europe asunder kickstarter.
Dave - I’ve really struggled with FDM printers so hoping the resin is a lot easier to use, once one learns how to handle the resins and production process
Looking forward to making brand new mistakes with this new tech
Congrats on what I am sure you will find will open so many new opportunities for the enjoyment of the hobby! I picked up an FDM printer during a Black Friday sale, then a resin one during the early part of the Pandemic lockdowns.
There are a lot of Patreons out there & depending on the areas/era of interest you can cater your choices to ones that suit you. Also sign up for MMF (my miniature factory) to often get info on sales by various 3d miniature artists. Will be watching to see your progress. I am still learning myself!
Welcome to your new hobby Miles because 3D printing is a hobby in it's own right! If you like to tinker you will have fun, but if your a luddite like me it's quite a challenge!
Christopher
Very exciting times we live in!
What do you have in mine to print? Should be able to make some pretty high quality 15mm stuff for Stalingrad...
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