Going over to the dark side: 3D printing.

[mattblowers]

Over COVID with a lack of games and supply chain issues for even purchasing new models, I plunged into the 3D printing world. It is a whole hobby all of its own. I have really enjoyed learning this end of the hobby and have been getting better and better results. I now have a FDM Prusa printer and a Anycubic Photon Mono resin printer. My first thought is that it would be for terrain, but as my skills got better I plunged into models. Be forewarned most of what I have printed has been Bolt Action adjacent.

Here is my printer setup:

[mattblowers]

I started about by printing terrain. Here are some stone walls. Very easy to print.



Next up, a brick European row house for Bolt Action. A good bit more complicated and modular. Each section has 3 floors and ruins options to swap out. They are interlocking.





A stone church:



And some Bolt Action Vehicles with a stone/wood stockade for Sons of Mars Gladiator game. The stockade looks brilliant painted up and I have since gotten much better at printing vehicles, but not bad for first try.



Then I got a little braver and printed a horse limber for Bolt Action. This actually painted up pretty nicely and I was surprised at the print quality I was able to achieve from an FMD printer.



And finally a German 88 for Bolt Action. This is close to maxed out settings. I was pretty happy at the time with the level of this print. It still looks pretty good, but I have gotten better at supports that are easier to remove and make a better looking finished product.

[tomb]

That printer looks sexy.

Which one is it and what does it print? What's the difference between FDM and PLA (noob question).

[mattblowers]

Oct 8, 2021 15:58:25 GMT tomb said:

That printer looks sexy.

Which one is it and what does it print? What's the difference between FDM and PLA (noob question).

FDM is a type of printer. PLA is a type of filament for an FDM printer. FDM takes spools of polymer (plastic), melts them to a liquid and then 'prints' them in shapes from little streams of the molten plastic. Resin printers use liquid resin that is reactive to UV light and prints it one layer at a time by solidifying the liquid with a UV light screen, pulling the build plate up, and then putting it back down in the liquid to print the next layer. I hope that makes sense. A badly worded explenation.

Resin is able to print finer detail but the end product is more brittle and the products used to produce it are toxic and much messier to handle.

The printer I have is a Prusa MK3S. I built the inclosure from 3d printed parts and a table from IKEA.

[tomb]

Thanks.

How nasty is the toxic resin one?

Ive seen that they sell cleaners too.

Does it give off fumes, is the water bath also toxic (I assume so)?

I guess the resin ones are not realy kid safe?

[mattblowers]

Here is a printed hut. After painting and putting the roofing material on, I am really happy with this. This is for the pirate game Blood and Plunder.



A 12.5mm building for Warlords ACW range. (Dunkards church from Antietam). My paint job leaves a lot to be desired, but this was a big switch 28mm, especially 40K heroic scale. I have since gotten a bit better.

[mattblowers]

I am a big fan of FAEIT's game Geneysis that he is putting out, and in preparation for the 2nd Age kickstarter being released I have been printing models.

Here is an abhuman in WW1 trench warfare style. This is done on a resin printer, notice how much better the detail is.



Compared to a 40K Bulgryn model for size comparison. I'm impressed for what I was able to churn out.

[tomb]

Oct 8, 2021 16:15:54 GMT mattblowers said:

I am a big fan of FAEIT's game Geneysis that he is putting out, and in preparation for the 2nd Age kickstarter being released I have been printing models.

Here is an abhuman in WW1 trench warfare style. This is done on a resin printer, notice how much better the detail is.



Compared to a 40K Bulgryn model for size comparison. I'm impressed for what I was able to churn out.

These look great.

The burning question - Have you printed any 'not Nids' or tasty Nid terrain?

[mattblowers]

Here is a tank for Genesys. All the files have pockets built in for magnetizing everything. I'll post some pics later of the all the options. This is the tank before the tread guards are attached. This is an FDM print.



A better look at the detail. I'm pretty happy with the result. This tank takes about 24 hours to print with all the options but costs under $5 of material. I printed this one a bit faster but slowed down the next few prints to work on the ghosting I was getting in the prints.



In total I printed over 100 models of the WW1 trench warfare style models. I'll take a post pictures of them as I work on them.

[mattblowers]

Oct 8, 2021 16:21:21 GMT tomb said:

These look great.

The burning question - Have you printed any 'not Nids' or tasty Nid terrain?

I have not. For a couple of reasons: 1 being that I haven't found too many files I like, organic textures are more challenging to print than man made ones; 2 the IP is really more limited on that. I am working on it as an experiment. Once done I will post a picture and have a poll to see if you can spot the printed one. I'm not there yet.

[mattblowers]

Here is a couple of space elves for a jump troop unit for Genesys. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, but the brittleness I mentioned about resin printers shows up here and you have to be careful handling them. Don't try to make a 40K direct comparison as these weapons don't really have a like for like counterpart. The details on the faces are a bit shallow, but otherwise these are excellent models.

[mattblowers]

Oct 8, 2021 16:08:37 GMT tomb said:

Thanks.

How nasty is the toxic resin one?

Ive seen that they sell cleaners too.

Does it give off fumes, is the water bath also toxic (I assume so)?

I guess the resin ones are not realy kid safe?

I would keep the resin away from kids. I won't let my dogs in the room when handling it.

I don't use the water soluble resins. I only use the ones that need an IPA bath. That is fairly easy to recycle in the sun (at least here in Florida). The sludge that is left at the end I spread on trays in the sun and dry. The resulting hardened clumps are totally benign and safe to throw in the trash.

The odor isn't that bad when printing. It gets pretty intense when rinsing in the IPA. I use 99% IPA and the evaporation point is so low that it spreads the smell pretty quickly. It's nothing to be scared of, but you do have to respect it and follow the MSD sheet.

[tomb]

Oct 8, 2021 16:48:47 GMT mattblowers said:

Oct 8, 2021 16:08:37 GMT tomb said:

Thanks.

How nasty is the toxic resin one?

Ive seen that they sell cleaners too.

Does it give off fumes, is the water bath also toxic (I assume so)?

I guess the resin ones are not realy kid safe?

I would keep the resin away from kids. I won't let my dogs in the room when handling it.

I don't use the water soluble resins. I only use the ones that need an IPA bath. That is fairly easy to recycle in the sun (at least here in Florida). The sludge that is left at the end I spread on trays in the sun and dry. The resulting hardened clumps are totally benign and safe to throw in the trash.

The odor isn't that bad when printing. It gets pretty intense when rinsing in the IPA. I use 99% IPA and the evaporation point is so low that it spreads the smell pretty quickly. It's nothing to be scared of, but you do have to respect it and follow the MSD sheet.

Thanks that's good to know. People don't often talk about the 'real' factors in 3D printing. We definitely don't get the same levels of Sun over here in Blighty.

Oh and what is IPA (alchohol I presume)?

My brain can't not read IPA as Indian Pale Ale!

[mattblowers]

Oct 8, 2021 22:09:01 GMT tomb said:

.

Oh and what is IPA (alchohol I presume)?

My brain can't not read IPA as Indian Pale Ale!

IPA is isopropyl alcohol, but having a good pint while 3D printing is a must too.

[garg]

These look good Matt, that tank is very good for an FDM printer. Did you do a lot of moding to your FDM printer?