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Post by: Flinty
New reader note - this blog started out as an3d printer build blog, and is now a repository of some the random stuff I have printed and painted that doesn’t really fit into any of my other threads. Hope it’s useful and/or interesting.
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We're trying to move house. This means l my hobby stuff is packed away to allow for viewings. No fun
So I got myself a Prusa i3 MK3S for christmas
Using this to chronicle my build of the thing and see what random plasticky goodness (or badness) comes out the other end. I've been hoarding things on Thingiverse and picking up a few kickstarters for STLs that have caught my eye. Now to see if any of it was worth the investment!
Thingiverse collections here if anyone is interested
https://www.thingiverse.com/Gflinty/collections
Anyhow. First off is the build. The machine kit is packed impeccably with pre numbered bags with all the bits you need for each step. Also all the electronics are push fit so no soldering required. Yaaay, because I suck at soldering.
So once the kids were off to sugar and adrenaline induced comas, on with the furtling!
Managed to get the frame and y axis sorted tonight.
The pieces are beautifully crafted. Something very satisfying about finely machined metal parts all slotting together (relatively) effortlessly. Just a bit concerned about y belt tension, but let's see what happens when I run a test print.
Anyway, hopefully something useful and/or entertaining for you here.
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Post by: Flinty
X axis done
And z axis motors, rails and gubbinz.
On to the extruder later tonight... it's the hardest bit :(
Automatically Appended Next Post: Aaaand extruder done!
That took 3 hours! A very complicated block of components.
This thing contains 2 fans, the heating element, the filament feed system and a few sensors, plus all the cables to make it all tick.
Tense, but it's done now. The only down side is that I managed to split one of the fan casing mounts. The fan casing are much weaker plastic than the rest of the printed elements. Oh well, its not totally wrecked, and the other mount also seems to hold it in place firmly enough. We shall see.
Also managed to put the LCD screen together and mount that. Much more simple
Starting to look almost finished. Last few bits to be done tomorrow night, and then maybe some test prints... very exciting
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Post by: Flinty
And it's done!
Finished the pre-flight this morning before taking my daughter to see Frozen 2. First prints are now flowing off the build plate
Obligatory Benchy
And a token to.replace the card stock leader indicator for Blackstone fortress.
Currently.printing a 3d version of the grav lift for BSF as it's pretty simple and mostly.flat. updates soon.
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Post by: JNAProductions
How much was the printer? Because that stuff looks high-quality.
Also, any of this stuff custom-made by you? Or is it all premade?
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Post by: Flinty
I splashed out a bit on the printer as I was looking for something reliable with minimum of fuss rather than being a hobby project 3ven to get the thing working halfway reasonably. The kit is £700 and took me.10-12 hours.to.fully assemble and calibrate. The instructions and packaging are first rate however, making it relatively easy, just a bit fiddly and time consuming.
All the stuff I'm printing is pre made. Mostly off Thingiverse so far with the tank.hulls from a commercial kickstsrter. I need to follow up.with some of my Cochin kickstarter scenery, but all of that takes ages and I'm working up to epic long prints
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Post by: Flinty
Bah... spaghetti junction :(
Another try is needed for an industrial a frame.
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Post by: Flinty
Success!
A pair of a frames from the rather awesome Imperial terrain Cochin shipyards kickstarter.
And a section of failed print to test the hycote filler primer out on.
Heavier application on the left compared to the right. Seems to.fill the ridges.quite nicely. Need to get a supply of fine sandpaper next it seems, and some pokey sanding tools.to.get in to narrower gaps
And from the side.
Needs to be a heavier application in the side I think. I'll add another coat and see what happens.
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Post by: Meer_Cat
Looking good, Flinty- congratulations on successful prints!
I saw on a YouTube tutorial how a fellow sprayed his prints with a matt varnish, then applied a primer coat- this seemed to help smooth the printing layer lines without obscuring fine detail. I haven't tried it yet myself- I'm still playing with/tuning/cursing at my Ender-3 Pro. I'm getting some good prints, but not consistently enough to say that I've got the process down completely yet. I'm following this blog very keenly as I have a steep learning curve and an IVI Closed Loop 3d printer from the kickstarter I backed to be prepared to get the most out of when it arrives.
The Ender-3 Pro is a 'learning artifact' as I had zero experience with 3d printing prior. It's the opposite approach from your Prusa, being very inexpensive but correspondingly finicky about how it is treated. I have literally replaced the entire filament feed pathway from spool, through extruder, through Bowdon tube down to the hot end and nozzle. I'm learning a lot, and getting over my fear of breaking something as I try to make it work right, but I'm not sure that I'll add another one to the workbench.
I'm hoping to start a modest 3d printing business as a side hustle- gaming pieces, terrain and minis, and like you, have backed a lot of kickstarters that have affordable commercial licenses (or a are free to sell printed items from), building a library for 'someday'.
Please keep up the excellent monologue as you move forward with your endeavors- I'm getting a lot from your observations. I see myself getting at least one more FDM printer and probably a resin/SLA printer for better figures, and the FDM might be a Prusa like yours.
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks, meer_cat. Glad that my rambling is useful, rather than just mumbling in the void
I had played around a bit with a 3d printer at work, but this was my first real.foray into doing it myself. I have to say that the Prusa kit and software makes it super easy. I haven't had to do anything or print any replacement parts to improve performance. I have had a couple.of failed prints due to loss of stick on the bed, but I think they were mostly down to poor degreasing on my part and small surface areas.
I almost destroyed my hotend thermistor by letting g the really fragile wires hang too far down and rub on the parts being pro red, but managed to save it with a couple of zip ties. Really need to.make sure there are no dangly bits given the amount of movement the print head goes through. I really hope I dont have to rebuild the print head again any time soon. That was hard!
I'll definately give the varnish trick a go and see how it is. Thanks for that. Most of my hobby stuff is packed up for house selling. I wonder where my varnish spray went...
I'm.also.wamting to.venture into the lands of SLA for models, with the FDM for scenery and bigger bits. Just need a new house with space for stinky chemical works ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) Although it sounds like the newer water washable resins that are coming on line will help.on that score.
I can thoroughly recommend the Prusa as reliable and (I think) high quality prints. Automatically Appended Next Post: Currently going for a longer print. 14 hours this time, after a previous longest of about 10 hours.
Updates tomorrow night after work on whether it worked
After that I will need to explore the larger bits I got from Imperial Terrain needing multiple prints of 2 to 3 days! To be honest, I'm still a bit scared of those ones... some simple rectilinear stuff first methinks.
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Post by: Flinty
Hmm... a little longer than "tomorrow night" but I have been diligently printing away. As well.as the blackstone fortress scenery on my other thread, I've been printing some more cochin scenery.
The platform worked and I managed Another pair of a frames (and another failed a frame print). I also.managed to just about get a series of working platforms that alsonclipninto the a frames. These just about failed after one of the platforms came loose, but it was just about topped out when it did so the printer was able to keep going on the little bits left.
One of the support girders hasn't worked properly and is all.squished at one end.
Also printed some liquid tank thingies as scatter
Even used these in a Kill Team game against Graphite recently. Much fun was had, but it took quite a long time as we were both pretty slow with rules uptake.
And for control of paint supplies, I've printed a couple of paint racks for dropper bottles.
The gold filament is pretty stringy, but in really like the colour
Next up are some sd card holders then back to some scenery. I have sliced some much higher things that will.take half a spool.each and take a couple.of days overall to print. Might try to work up the courage to do them soon
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Post by: Flinty
Some more printage has been happening. Also house sale is on the move, so new hobby setup due sometime in April.
Some really nice scatter from a random thingiverse post. The radar is from Imperial Cochin set.
And the piggies... yes, the piggies. And the lucky golden creeper. My son had his 7th birthday and we needed some party bag fillers.
Now printing inserts for ticket to ride. And then maybe I'll wind up for the big bounty hunter ship.
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Post by: Captain Brown
Flinty,
Some great Necromunda and Kill Team terrain you are building there.
Cheers,
CB
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks Cap'n. Necromunda and Kill team are very much my target just now. Looking g forward to being able to paint them as well, but one step.at a time
I have also just started printing a set of necromunda walls off thingiverse. Each build plate of 2 wall pieces and associated tops takes about a day... Just got the first set off and they are super cool and fit the boards almost perfectly.
First pair of sections with my Van Saar for scale
And some close.ups of them on the board. I didn't choose the best board for them actually, but it gets the idea across.
And the 2 walls.separately
The tops need to be glued on, but the details all line up pretty neatly. Might be a bit of a join line visible when painted, but nothing that some heavy weathering cant fix
And a link to one of the sets on thingiverse. If you click the designer then you should be able to easily get to all of his designs and all the wall and topper sets pretty easily.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2803044
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Post by: Flinty
I forgot this pic from the last post. With the top bits off.
And then on to the next set of walls. A corner and a small straight bit. This one uses an alternative top with an awesome cog design.
And then mixed together with the previous walls.
The filament I'm using leaves a bit of light stringing fluff, but it's easy enough to rub off. It might need going over with a toothbrush before priming, but that's about all it should need.
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Post by: Flinty
Next pair of walls are up. A single and double length set
And then all mixed up with the rest.
Next up the Fan Walls
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Post by: Captain Brown
Wow great stuff Flinty.
Cheers,
CB
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Post by: gobert
Cool terrain you’re knocking out. Interesting to read about the build of the printer, I’ve heard that calibration can be a bit of a challenge. Have you had any problems so far?
Best of luck with the house move,
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks guys. I am literally just slicing premade stuff and letting the amazing Prusa deal with it.
Calibration is fiddly. I'm still not sure that I've got my first layer set right, but I rarely get failed prints, especially now I've moved over from window cleaner to proper 99pc IPA for bed cleaning. The window cleaner was doing ok, butni was getting shifted layers and warping. I changed to IPA and all those problems went away immediately.
I checked out some videos.of how problems can occur before finishing things like belt tensioning, so I hope I've bypassed that problem.
The package into came with a textured bed as well but for the life of me I cant get anything to stick to that bugger,.regardless of how close I put the nozzle to the bed. I think it's for ABS and I haven't tried to use that yet. PLA and PETG work perfectly on the flat bed.
After I've fi wished doing a bunch of scenery, I plan on trying out a 0.25mm head compared to the 0.4mm head I'm currently using to see what kind of quality I can get 10mm scale.tanks out at, but I'm having too much fun with bigger stuff just now.
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Post by: Flinty
Some more printing progress.
The detail on the fan wall units isn't as crisp.as.it.could be, but it'll be fine with a dirty coat of paint.
I quite like the wall with the duct tunnel. Intended to.replace the card token allowing access through a wall. I'm printing at least one more of these as I recall.you can get up to.3 of the things to place.
Also I'm still.running off a single.spool of filament. So all of these walls.are a total.cost of about £12 in terms of material and have so far required minimal clean up. Very happy so far
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Post by: Flinty
Filament ran out. Mid print. And it was beeping incessantly so my long suffering wife entirely reasonably cancelled the job to.shut it up.
So I swapped the reel, and started a new print. And this time the filament tangled and pulled the reel off the spool holder, so fail number 2. So I cleared the debris and started a third time., and this time the second reel ran out at almost the same stage as the first one! I need to get better at tracking remaining filament against length requirement for the print...
Oh well, nothing really lost.
Here is a group shot of everything I managed to get out of a single spool, plus a little bit of a second spool.
Not too shabby. And a detail shot of the ruined wall.sections.
And here is the next print on going after running for about 12 hours so far. Due to finish in another 24. A real marathon one this time. Hopefully no spool problems here as it takes an.awful lot of filament for this one.
This is the rear sections of the Cochin Bounty Hunter ship. After this I'll need another day to print the front sections and landing gear before I can glue it up and use it as some hardcore blocking terrain ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) to be honest it's probably too big and may need to be disposed of, but it will be fun to play with at least a bit.
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Post by: JamesY
Very nice. I'll be getting an FDM printer soon, and those walls are very high on the to-print list; great to see how well they have come out.
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Post by: Flinty
I am really happy with the quality of the prints, especially as there are no supports needed. I brimmed them, but I probably didn't need to.
Also after a total of about 34 hours, the first part of the hunter marathon is almost done
Amazing detail. Should finish before I head to bed tonight so I can set up the second file to print ready for assembly on Sunday.
The Prusa is a total workhorse!
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Post by: Flinty
Good.grief this thing is mahousive.
This is just a quarter of ot. The front wing effectively. Imperial terrain really nailed the star wars aesthetic I think. Several of the details are pretty much copied across, but I think it looks really good.
Some of the details may need smoothed a bit
A couple.of slightly stringy undercuts, but nothing too.drastic.
Currently printing the back half and some other bits and pieces. Updates in 24 hours
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Post by: youwashock
Wow! That's got to be a monster of a ship.
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Post by: Flinty
Its huge
And here come the engine sections and cockpit...
Should be done by the morning. Then to.decide if I glue it all together, or leave it in sections for storage... Automatically Appended Next Post: Having said that, the direction of his rocket exhausts indicates that this particular bounty hunter will not be going into space today...
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Post by: Flinty
Within just a few days of getting house sale/purchase sorted and then the whole legal system.was shut down :(
Most of my hobby stuff is properly packed.away and now for an unknown length of time. However, the printer is still available
Mostly printing face masks for the NHS but ran put of petg, allowing a gap for this beauty
I have always loved the awing and this will.sit nicely next to the bounty hunter ship at the mythical future time in which I can build my shipyard/spaceport kill team board
The model came from thingiverse scaled for x-wing, but it scaled up to 28mm really well I think.
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Post by: amazingturtles
Wow, that came out really nice! The a-wing's always been my favorite too
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Post by: Flinty
I would say thanks, but literally the only work I did was scale it in the slicer and then set it going. Prusa and Astrofossil of Thingiverse need to take all the glory
I have another bounty hunter ship from Cochin to go to complete the wet. I was thinking of doing an x-wing but I think it would be too big and unwieldy for kill team... although a parked x-wing would provide a nice intermediate layer with the flat wings... I shall ponder further
Also Imperial terrain still needs to deliver a massive transport with a playable interior. I will need to see what space I have in the future before embarking on that beat though.
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Post by: amazingturtles
Well it's still neat! Ha.
Would a y-wing be workable for anything? I always liked those boxy little guys too
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Post by: Flinty
I think y wings are even bigger than xwings... also I've never like them. Might just be holdover from xwing vs tie fighter where they were horrible to fly.
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Post by: Flinty
3d printers make kitbashing even easier...
Resized some landing gear for a Caestus Ram and I think they fir nicely.
Now I just need to find my pin vice and bits so I can pin them in place. Tried just superglue and it didn't bond very well.
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Post by: Flinty
Hmm... updates... finally.
Got covid. Got better. Burned out a print bed making PETG face masks through April. Almost wrecked my print head shortly afterward. Managed to fix it. Treated myself to a larger bit of scatter terrain form Thingiverse as a larger test.
I really rather like this. I mean it's way too big for a realistic AT missile turret, but its greebly and industrial and fits quite well. Planning on pIring it with the Imperial terrain radar installation as a decent pair of objectives on any board.
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Post by: Flinty
Moved house. Finally. And the family is now embedded, and the box ramparts falling around us. And so the printer gets warmed up again for fun and games.
First off was a metric bumload of light bracket things for my Detolf. Really nice to be able to display some of my previous efforts rather than having them. Languish in foam and my memory alone.
So the Duneden 51st Division sees the light of day again, what little of it I managed to paint. Lots of the vehicles are sitting there with airbrushed camo schemes, but need all the details done.
Terranwing will get a shelf too, but I cant find the case just at the moment.
The next up on the print bed is a big chunk of scenery to use as a stand in the central shelf. From the portals of WOR kickstarter. Just about finished the thing. Here is the main platform
It's quite big
And here is the lower stand and the main portal itself underway. Should be done by the morning, or a horrendous spaghetti mess...
Here is what it should look like from the kickstarter page. I think it's a great piece of uber tech and should work nicely as a display stand for necromunda and kill team stuffs.
I also picked up an Anycubic Photon Mono that arrived a few days ago. However with work and still sorting the last bits of the house out, it will probably be December before I can crank it up. I have Raptors. With ray guns. Waiting g, oh yes, waiting. And I just bought a bunch of Contrast paints to use on them because I would like them to be colourful raptors. Also planning on printing a translucent insert for the portal on the mono so the thing can be maximum stargate
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Post by: Graphite
That display case is looking FINE
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Post by: Ketara
I'm really liking what I'm seeing here Flinty! Have you tried painting any of the terrain pieces yet? How did they turn out? And what other stuff have you got lined up to print?
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks. Still getting up to speed painting wise after the house move. I managed to get the airbrush set up last night for a bit on the Cochin a frames. I used the Hycote filler primer, but I couldn't get it to properly fill the ridges, so I'll just see how well I can paint over it.
Currently on the print bed are some paint racks. After that I need to paint the stuff I've got before doing more scenery.
Working towards getting my Anycubic Mono set up so I can play with resiny goodness.
First up on that will be the Ray Gun Raptors, to get some practice on getting decent prints, and then after that I'm sorting a bunch of 10mm scale.tanks to try out Horizon Wars.
I have a range of Antenocitis Workshop files that ill make a red forehand a blue force from
Red force
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2097161002/antenocitis-workshop-stl-files-for-3d-printing?ref=android_project_share
Blue force
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2097161002/uks-governance-of-technology-3d-printable-vehicles?ref=android_project_share
And then the Prusa will need to pump out some appropriate 10mm scale terrain
Automatically Appended Next Post: Managed to get the airbrush out again today. Turns out I'm not very good with it... However, with a bit of luck I can get a bunch of practice on terrain that's supposed to be grubby and a bit crap looking before I try on something I would like to actually look nice
Yesterday I put some "rust" in the recesses of the a frames. Today i tried spraying around the recesses with... varying success shall we say.
The taped up one will have a simple middle band of green. The other one will.basically be grey. You can just about see the sparkle of the metallic rust in the crevices.
The top of all of the frames will be getting hazard stripes, but the printed texture takes the paint weirdly, and my white is way too thin... and this is after a layer of filler primer and sanding it down a bit.
Learning curves ahoy! Almost certainly this will all end with me sponging rust all over and dry brushing the hell out of it all
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Post by: Graphite
Having painted some stuff from that self same printer ( Plug) some disruption patterning does wonders - even if you want a smooth surface - rather than going down my "Thick rubbish paint" route - having a lot of changes in shade and colour breaks up the print lines a LOT. Once any form of hazard stripes are on, for example, the much bolder pattern tends to make the lines all but invisible unless you're really looking for them.
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Post by: Flinty
Good point. I will not despair quite yet then ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) I did expect more out of the filler primer though. Maybe I'm not using it correctly...
Oh well. No painting progress today because I was doing manly things like building a happy shelf for the Mono to lurk on.
It seems pretty flat and everything, and I managed to build it put of random left overs from other diy projects, so I'm calling it free
So, that gives me a printer, a litre of resin (or 300 velociraptors with a range of entertaining weapons as I like to think of it I a very real sense ![](/s/i/a/baf5f2e54c6b17d5c5d39aecadfa1272.gif) ), a ready supply of IPA, gloves, a mask, shoogly plastic tub things for cleaning... what's left... ah yes, post cure!
In this innocuous Kallax bay, there lurks a secret facility... or a bunch of UV LED tape wrapped around an automatic twirly thingy.
Ended up with a lot shorter string of leds than I thought, so might need to get another set of them, or replace with a longer one. We shall see how effective it ends up being.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I also have a couple of test files to have a go with. Next step is getting a long enough extension lead and then plucking up the courage to actually switch the thing on...
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Post by: Flinty
I made a stencil
And used the stencil
It kinda worked. I need to practice spraying more vertically to reduce the bleed.
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Post by: Boss Salvage
Flinty wrote:a litre of resin (or 300 velociraptors with a range of entertaining weapons as I like to think of it I a very real sense ![](/s/i/a/baf5f2e54c6b17d5c5d39aecadfa1272.gif) )
I printed my first 10 this weekend, and they came out chock-full of cheeky saurian character ![](/s/i/a/5d13fa41280d6fdef786d41bc175d3f6.gif) Good luck with yours, curious to see how you build them - I'm going GSC with mine, so pistols and industrial mining tools for the most part. Obviously excited for the gunslinger and psyker add-ons ![](/s/i/a/6d3c0a908a3861135dfaebde91c0ecf6.gif) , though I'm curious how the admiral shapes up, as I don't love the stock commander ...
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Post by: Flinty
I agree about the commander. The hat just doesnt do anything for me, although the hologram thing is pretty epic.
I'm planning on printing a selection and seeing what I can do with Kill Team. Should be able to proxy pretty much anything. I have a range of Contrast paints in a vain attempt to actually finish painting a project
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Post by: Graphite
Flinty wrote:I made a stencil
It kinda worked. I need to practice spraying more vertically to reduce the bleed.
Firstly, the printing station with the Glowing UV Cube Of Doom is awesome
For the stencil - if there's any bleed it's not showing in photos. If vertical spray is a problem, try to turn the model rather than the spray direction.
I also figure that the "indentured workers"* doing the job of spraying hazard stripes in the depths of the underhive won't figure they're getting paid enough** to care about doing a top notch job, and their supervisors certainly aren't going to want to hang around long enough to check beyond a quick walk through to ensure it's done.
Printed stencil certainly looks good.
*Slaves
**Anything
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Post by: Cryptek of Awesome
Question for you - how much does the printer shake the table?
Or to phrase it another way - how stable and how level does the table need to be?
Thanks for the interesting thread/
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Post by: Monkeysloth
Depends on the printer and the speed of the printer. A reprap style FDM printer (where the Y axis is the movable build plate) moves more then an ultramaker FDM style (where the build plate moves along the z). A resin printer causes almost no movement.
I know people that print on folding tables just fine but if you can gently shake it and you get a lot of movement then you shouldn't print on it. I have my printers on some cheap "cube" shelves from Walmart. The type that you can store the fabric bins in. I'd say if the table has a visible wobble when you put anything on it then you shouldn't put the printer on it but it's not like you need a solid oak kitchen table for these things.
Having a level surface also depends on the printer. It's most important for a resin (since it has liquids) but all should be fairly level but being 100% level doesn't really matter for the FDM printers. In all cases you can use things to level the printer vs leveling the table. My first printer years ago I used cardboard to lift up edges.
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Post by: Flinty
I have my prusa on an IKEA Lack and on quite spongy carpet. The table is solid, but it bounces a bit on the carpet while running without apparently causing any problems. So it doesnt need to be absolutely rigid.
I tried to make the shelf for the Mono as level as possible as Monkeysloth says its filled with liquid and I want that level as well, however with both it's about the relative position of the build plate and the creation mechanism, whether that's the x/z axis of the prusa or the build plate on the mono. Automatically Appended Next Post: @Graphite - thanks
The black stripes on the one on the left are a bit thicker and more irregular than the ones o the right. Nothing major and I'm not going to redo them. Just notes for future reference.
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Post by: Flinty
Right... no turning back. The gloop is in the square bowl thing and the house hat thingy is bumping up and down... with a bit of luck I may get a test piece at the end of it all.
The smell was fine doing the setup, and easy enough to get the vat filled without pouring the stuff everywhere... I guess the proof will be in the clean up. Conveniently, the rooms extractor fan is directly above the printer. Not the reason it was put there, but I'll take it
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Post by: Ketara
Paying very close attention here!
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Post by: lord_blackfang
Make sure you have table space for cleanup! I keep forgetting to make a spot for the printer lid. Then the ultra dirty spot where you will attempt to pry the prints off the build plate. Oh, when you remove the plate, make sure to hold a towel under it so it doesn't drip everywhere. Then you'll have to decide whether to hold it by the knob while prying the models off, which will probably ruin your leveling, or hold it by the plate, which gets resin on your glove. Good luck!
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Post by: Flinty
All good advice! Thanks for sharing. Definately expecting it to be messy. I have a bench and a sink just our of shot so should have enough space, just need to keep the liquids out of the water system.
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Post by: lord_blackfang
More protips! A plastic tub with lid for all your dirty towels and filters, to wait for sunshine. And extra long tweezers/kitchen tongs to handle the towels when you take them out to cure.
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Post by: Graphite
Looking forward to seeing the results of this. Fingers crossed.
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks lord_blackfang. I used a plastic bag this morning, but I was thinking some kind of plastic tub would be better.
So I left it overnight and did cleanup this morning. Only now getting the time.to post the results.
It worked! First time and totally smoothly. Which is good because I was asleep and wouldn't have noticed if it had failed utterly...
I have 2 dunking tubs, one for initial.cleaning and a final rinse tub. Worked nicely and I managed to cure it off in my little uv den no problem.
No major mess anywhere. Used quite a few towels, but nothing catastrophic. The Mono build plate has quite a nice mount point that's big enough to grip away from the resin coating, but also not interfering with the levelling screws. That let me clean most of the resin off the plate before scraping the model off.
Need to print a draining stand on the Prusa for vat clean down, but that is also not drastic. I wasnt sure if I would be able to do more until the weekend, so I put the resin back in the bottle. I have seen advice that you can leave it for a couple.of days, but thought it better to get into tidy habits from the start.
So, a successful start. Next to try a raptor with generated supports... let the fails begin
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Post by: Graphite
Looks SMOOTH
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Post by: Flinty
Good grief... the flipping tank worked first time... pics in the morning as it needs to cure a bit longer...
It was definately over supported, but the only detail I've lost idls a bit of the turret ring and the back and 9f the tracks... I could care less
So auto supports, default exposure settings and a 28mm model being printed at 35% just worked. I think i like this printer
Now for a cheeky raptor overnight
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Post by: Flinty
Cheeky raptor indeed.
Again, worked really well using default exposures and auto supports. I damaged the claws a little bit taking the supports off, and a bit more damage to the underside, but I dont think it'll be that noticeable.
And here is the tanky
Putting some primer on just now as the transparent resin makes it hard to see the detail.
The details become a bit subtle at this scale, but a it of drybrushing will help show some up.again. I need to print off a bunch of tiny secondary weapons to put on the top of the turret. That's the medium tank. Now on to the light, heavy, AA, rocket.artillery and so forth
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Post by: MDSW
Big congrats - you are well on your way to filling the resin void you have been feeling for so long and welcome to the club!!
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks MDSW
Entering a new world of never ending plastic nonsense requiring paint
And so with some primer on (please ignore the fingerprints)
The detail looks fine for my purposes
The underside is a terrible mess, but I don't think I care enough to go through more trial and error to get it less messy. Anyway i can just paint it brown and call it pre-weathering
And here is the cheeky raptor
Again the underside is a bit messy, but when based will not be noticable.
I think tonight will be an orgy of slicing and supporting other tanks.
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Post by: Albertorius
Yeah, that underside is one of the usual downsides (heh) of resin printing... but the rest loos so amazing that I don't usually care that much.
Even so, practice makes it go away somewhat.
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Post by: MDSW
Yeah, just need to dial your support settings a bit better.
Here is a thread where I posted a pic of my Chitubox support settings. https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/30/793017.page#10963489
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks for sharing, MDSW. I loaded your settings into chitubox and tried auto generating supports there rather than in Prusa Slicer, but the support trees generated in both look very similar. I even dug into the support terminal.settings in prusa slicer and they look pretty similar to your settings in terms of contact point size and shape..
I will try a few more generated in Prusa and then try some using your chitubox settings and see if there is much difference.
With the tanks, at least, it might just be that the 28mm scale track design is too finicky when scaled.down to 10mm. I might also try and slice off the track texture and see if it leads to a different support tree.
Currently printing an AA tank and associated radar track. I can fit 2.of these babies on a single build.plate, huzzah. Heavy tank file.is also ready for the morning. Then maybe back to some raptors with guns this time... oh the possibilities
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Post by: Graphite
That stuff looks fantastic
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Post by: Flinty
I am absolutely loving the Mono.
The tanks are needing secondary weapons,.so banged off a build plate of assorted HMGs missiles.and sensors. They are all about 6mm infantry sized,.and all.appear to.have come out perfectly.
It is also a testament to the skills of Antenocities Workshop that I can abuse their 28mm scale stuff in this way.
I have had another learning experience today though. I hollowed out the tank models, but forgot to leave drainage holes... so my tanks are full.of liquid resin. Thankfully the transparent resin means that it cures all the way through in the sun. However, I must have damaged the 2 AA tracks when removing their supports because the rear of these hulls.are.just weeping liquid resin. I'll probably just print another pair of solid hulls, but I'll.leave these in the sun to see if they are.recoverable. otherwise they might turn into wrecks
So now I have completed a radar track, an AA track and one each of a medium and a heavy tank. Another heavy is on the build plate just now. Each print takes about 2 hours, sonic can fairly.churn these babies out
I'll probably do 3 or.4.of.each vehicle.type, then it will.be on to the OPFOR.
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Post by: Flinty
It was the tracks... I have pasted a plain rectangle over the track texture on all the tanks and it cuts down the supports by about a gazillion per cent (scientifically speaking).
So the AAtracks and a couple of the heavies will have super detailed and reasonably damaged tracks. The test will have simplified smooth base tracks. They are only ever going to be in contact with the board at any rate...
Ordered a bunch more magnets for the job as well, and prepped some camo stencils for airbrushing everything in due course. I'll run them off on the Prusa in the morning.
Onward!
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Post by: MDSW
Being a war buff, you are totally getting me wanting to jump into this kind of stuff!! I just have no more room and I do not think my sons would be into a true wargame.
It makes me think of the war games I had as a kid, Hit the Beach, Dogfight (OMG I loved this game) and my HUGE collection of US and German plastic soldiers, tanks, trucks, jeeps, cannons, etc.
Here is a totally needless bit of TMI that I will share anyway... I used to take all the cannons and take a paperclip and a spring from a ballpoint pen to make them actually shoot. We would shoot the little red and white markers from the Battleship game. Oh, the joys of childhood... Automatically Appended Next Post: Yes, I am loving that tank!!
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Post by: Flinty
Work was a pile of horror today, so no pics and updates. Just need to get the heavy tank off the build plate and clean the vat to shut down the print works for the week. Boooooo.
On the other hand, MDSW, you remind me of the 25lb field gun and the german 75mm AT gun that I used to play with as a child that had a spring loader flicky bit and fired matchsticks at my plastic army men ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) definately happier times...I had a lot of 8th army and DAK facing off against each other.
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Post by: MDSW
My brother and I would line up our men and throw a rubber-banded small block of Legos and the goal would be to knock down every man.
Yep, quite a few dings on the walls and dresser with that projectile...
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Post by: kaotkbliss
MDSW wrote:Being a war buff, you are totally getting me wanting to jump into this kind of stuff!! I just have no more room and I do not think my sons would be into a true wargame.
It makes me think of the war games I had as a kid, Hit the Beach, Dogfight (OMG I loved this game) and my HUGE collection of US and German plastic soldiers, tanks, trucks, jeeps, cannons, etc.
Here is a totally needless bit of TMI that I will share anyway... I used to take all the cannons and take a paperclip and a spring from a ballpoint pen to make them actually shoot. We would shoot the little red and white markers from the Battleship game. Oh, the joys of childhood...
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Yes, I am loving that tank!!
Oh man do I remember dogfight and hit the beach. Also had some naval battle game with old sailing ships but I can't remember what that one was called.
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Post by: Arakasi
Oh the green plastic army men memories. I used to use a syringe of water. Different weapons allowed different fill levels...
Tanks look good too!
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Post by: MDSW
kaotkbliss wrote: MDSW wrote:Being a war buff, you are totally getting me wanting to jump into this kind of stuff!! I just have no more room and I do not think my sons would be into a true wargame.
It makes me think of the war games I had as a kid, Hit the Beach, Dogfight (OMG I loved this game) and my HUGE collection of US and German plastic soldiers, tanks, trucks, jeeps, cannons, etc.
Here is a totally needless bit of TMI that I will share anyway... I used to take all the cannons and take a paperclip and a spring from a ballpoint pen to make them actually shoot. We would shoot the little red and white markers from the Battleship game. Oh, the joys of childhood...
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Yes, I am loving that tank!!
Oh man do I remember dogfight and hit the beach. Also had some naval battle game with old sailing ships but I can't remember what that one was called.
Broadsides, I believe...
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks all.
Still no printing this week, but that gives me time to actually finalise some stuff
So, I have now.magnetised all the turrets and fitted all the secondary weapons to the heavy tanks. I had to raise the AA tank turrets up a bit so the rear of the elevated guns can pass over the hull. I got my tolerances.a bit wrong on that, but its ot that obvious at this scale. The heavy tank turrets fit nicely though.
Group shot
Rapier AA platoon and integral tracking radar tank
Urquart class heavy tank platoon
And the random Hawkwood class medium tank I used as my first practice next to it big brother Urquart
The hulls aren't that different in size, but the bigger turret definately lends the Urquart much more heft.
Still to print are 3 or 4 more Hawkwoods, 4 or 5 Marshall class light tanks and 6 each of Scimtar IFVs and Broadsword APCs. And maybe some cobbled together rocket artillery tanks.
Not a bad battalion. And then the OPFOR which will be a random assortment of other Antenocities designs of a totally different style. And then j might paint them.all.and play some kind of game with them
Because we all know how easy it is to finish projects like this
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Post by: MDSW
Tanks are awesome!! I would love to see them again when you get them painted - even the primed one dramatically improves the look over the translucent resin, which makes the details hard to see in the pics.
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Post by: Flinty
I agree that the translucency doesnt help. However it's super useful when I stupidly end up with loads of liquid resin locked inside the model
Planning on trying to get a basecoat down tonight.
Camo stencils are printing as we speak for 2nd stage
Automatically Appended Next Post: The paintening has begun... aaand swiftly stopped as I have run out of castellan green air. Oops.
More is on the way though,.along with some dropper bottles because pouring out of GW pots into airbrush is madness...
Some details.of the other tanks now with some paint.
And the lucky tester tank that will prove my proposed scheme, or otherwise.
Planning on a dry brush of lighter green, then trying some stenciled white disruption pattern as a bit of an arctic feel. Probably a black wash over the top.of it all. I have stencils.for a kind of birch pattern and a digital.camo type pattern so I'll.try one on the turret and one on the hull.
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Post by: MDSW
Awesome!!!
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Post by: Flinty
Only update today is a trial.drybrush of niblet green over the castellan base.
I think that works. Next step.happens when I can get time.and energy for getting the airbrush out again
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Post by: Graphite
Looking very good.
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Post by: Flinty
More progress today. Burned out 6 Broadsword class APCs, a Marshall light tank tester and another Hawkwood medium tank with another on the build.plate overnight.
I might just be able to get another 2 or 3 hawkwoods out of my first litre of resin and then I'll stop for a bit to get the little buggers painted.
On that score, the new paint supplies turned up, so the first batch are now fully green, and I've run a test on the camo pattern.
I went with the digital pattern in the end as that stencil.gave a much better result compared to the birch wood pattern I also tried out.
Pure pattern
Turret failure
And with a nuln oil wash. I think that works. Planning on running a few bits of white through the grey afterward to brighten the pattern a touch, and then pick out a.few details in reds or blues. Unit markings will probably happen at some point as well.
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Post by: Albertorius
So far looking great
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks. Definately spurred on by your example
The second batch of tanks is now well on the way to completion.
4 medium tanks, 1 light tanks and 6 APCS in that pile (and the do actually stack quite neatly ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) )
Another medium tank waiting for the dawn, and a brand new Scimitar class IFV. I thought the scimitar might be the end of the first litre, but I actually might be able to get 1 or 2 more out of the dregs of what I have left.
So the transparent stuff goes on the waiting list until I can get the first batch with its camo scheme on.
Wheeeee
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Post by: Albertorius
Wheee indeed ^^
Nice to see people having fun with the goop!
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Post by: MDSW
What a cool collection of tanks!!!
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Post by: Flinty
With the Mono in shutdown while I await paint for the tanky horde, I have had time to get the Prusa singing again.
Some scenery for the tanks to.fight over. Files from the Ordus Station kickstarter which are nicely detailed
And more importantly, strongly.modular
The files.seem to be robust and print really nicely. All of these came out of a single print bed in a day long print for the cost of about 250g of filament, or about £4. There are also additional.roof bits to add character and variety to the individual units,.but they will need to wait for the next batch starting tomorrow. As with the tanks they are originally.scaled.for.28mm play, but shrink down really nicely.to 35%.
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Post by: Flinty
Back to the tanks. Got the niblet green drybrush down. It's a little heavy in places, and it shows up that I do have some quite obvious layer lines going on... oh well, I think even with slight ridges the things looks awesomely sci fi.
Also in this shot are all 6 medium tanks, the tester light tank and one example each of the APC and IFV models. All relevant secondary weapons are now installed so I can get to undercoating the whole lot now.
Next up is to wait for the ulthuan grey air that should arrive monday to get the camo pattern down. Then a simple black wash and some black details. Getting there.
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Post by: Flinty
I found this on thingiverse and realised that my office/man cave needed some line art really badly.
It's quite big, and even this is scaled down a bit to fit on my print bed.
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Post by: Graphite
Damn, Flinty, that stuff (including the x-wing) looks awesome. And a wonderful Camo pattern.
And those aren't print lines. They're Sci-Fi Zimmerit.
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Post by: Flinty
No real hobby progress due to 60 hour weeks at work. booooo... however, just needed to share the Raygun Raptor update
Tech-raptor!
How cute is that!
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Post by: Boss Salvage
Damn adorable ![](/s/i/a/5d13fa41280d6fdef786d41bc175d3f6.gif) I just noticed the servo harness on his legs, processed that as just more armor before. Will happily steal his head for other goggle-y purposes myself
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Post by: Flinty
Work has finished for the year! huzzah!
Kids are still in school for the moment! Double Huzzah!
Hobby Time Ahoy!
So yesterday I went a little outside my comfort zone and tried out a bit of remixing. I am going for an arctic theme for my horizon wars collection, hence the camo scheme on my tanks. So with the approval of my long suffering wife, I have purchased a snowfield gaming mat and now need to think about stuff to fight over and around.
I have posted what will become brightly coloured arctic habs above. Next up some trees. I know how annoying trees can be to fight around though so I wanted a nice modular set that I can take stuff out the way easily to move models around and through. So I smooshed together these two sets of thingiverse trees using Meshmixer:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4614220
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1655501
to end up with this.
I think this will make some nice forbidding thick forests for the little tankies (APC shown to scale with how I want to print them) to fight their way through. Being an arctic theme should mean I can paint most of the base stuff white.
I have even played with 3DBuilder to emboss a recess into the base to fit a magnet.
So the plan is to use the Prusa to do the large flat bases from the original Thingiverse files, and then print the tree bits on the Photon. I can then add clump foliage or flock as required to get the right texture, or just drybrush the ever living flippety flip out of it all. I'm out of resin until Santa arrives, so progress will pause on this part of the project.
In other news, the OPFOR has also taken shape.
Planning on combining a turret created from the amazingly modular kit here:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3495333
with the hull from one of the Antenocitis Workshop kickstarters from a while back to create this guy:
I may rescale the turret to be a bit bigger in the end, but it will look something like that.
So the Horizon Wars single player is based on 8 "power level 1" units, 3 "Power level 2" units and 2 "Power level 3" units and a "supermech". The tanks above will be the Level 2 boys. I'll then use 4 each of:
https://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/product/bison-apc/
https://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/product/usimf-wolf-stl-3d-print-files/
for the level 1s, and a pair of these bad boys for the level 3:
https://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/product/bobcat-walker-stl-3d-print-files/
And then this thing with a bunch of additional tiny MG and AA turrets as the supermech
https://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/product/mobile-turret-spider-3d-stl-print-files/
That basically means I'll have printed basically everything I got out of the 2 kickstarters I got off Antenocitis in a scale where they can be well appreciated and used together. Everything is detailed for 28mm, but actually printing all of that off at that scale would be insane!
Over the next few days as I get a bit more time and space, the plan is to crunch through painting the existing tanks and habitat modules, and clear the decks for the next lot after Christmas
And then maybe on to the space dinosaurs
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Post by: Flinty
Forest base test prints done. Super shiny because the copper filament was in and still plentiful
Trees to follow.
I found some starcraft buildings on thingiverse that seem.to match my tank scale. some bunkers and supply depots will be on the bed soon
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Post by: Graphite
Scraft bunkers! Awesome!
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Post by: Flinty
Random progress!
First up, finally stitched together my WOR portal terrain. Need to get it primed up and ready for airbrushing. Planning on using this to be an infantry display piece in my detolf.
The thing stopping the priming, are these little.blighters taking up space in my spray box
Mostly now based and washed. Also mostly drybrushed for a simple highlight. Planning on picking out some pipes and gubbins in point colours for visual.interest.
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Post by: Graphite
Oh, that's awesome
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Post by: The Power Cosmic
The print lines actually accentuate the design, I've never seen something like that.
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Post by: Flinty
I just set it to concentric fill for top and bottom. The shiny filament does help in this case
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Post by: Flinty
Wheeeeee... this bunny is happy. A few years ago I saw a kickstarter for some amazing jetbikes. I didn't go for them as they were resin and I didn't really have a need for them.
Now that Van Saar have stupid flying things, I find I have a need for them after all... and they are available as STLs!
I also.didnt need to go through some kind of hoop jumping using patreon, so thats good too. I'm thinking using the legs and the forearms and GSing in van Saar torso, upper arms and head. I'll need to see what scaling is like, but the jetbike guys look to have similar proportions to the newer.necromunda stuff so should fit nicely.
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Post by: Graphite
That looks vastly more sensible than the hoverboards!
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Post by: Ketara
Since we're both using a Mono, what software are you using for slicing and supports? From what I'm reading, Chitubox doesn't work for the Mono, meaning that you need either Prusa or Lychee Slicer?
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Post by: Flinty
I have a Prusa FDM printer as well so I use prusa slicer. You can set up everything by pretending it's an SL1 and then save presupported STLs. Drop them into the Anycubic workshop thingy and you can hollow and slice.
I've only really used the auto support function and it's been fine so far. I'll be trying out some more complicated 28mm scale stuff soon though so I'll see if I need to whip out some hardcore manual supporting action
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Post by: Ketara
EDIT:- Double post, please remove.
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Post by: Flinty
In other news christmas resin arrived so operation OPFOR has begun
Now to go tire the kids out so I can post process in peace a bit later!
Automatically Appended Next Post:
First OPFOR tanks rolling off now. A medium and a pair of lights as compared to my Hawkwood mediums.for the "good guys".
I was contemplating bumping the turret size.up.a bit more, but I actually think it looks fine as.it is. The magnet mount raises it up.a touch too high, but you only really notice that if you are looking side.on, so it should look fine on the table, and I prefer a bit too high rather than the turret scratching over the hull.every time I turn it. The Hawkwoods.are on that side of the equation, so I need to varnish the hell out of them.shortly.
And some detail shots. The lights are supposed to have some plasma bottle type gubbins hanging off the rear.of the turret, but they were too delicate for printing at this scale.and one came.off.each turret, so.i just snapped both off. They are not really missed but a bit of a shame they didn't survive. The secondary turret MG will.also be repurposed as secondary close support MGs on my supermech spider thingy.
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Post by: Flinty
Hmm... I was running some prints.through at 0.01 and 0.03mm layer heights without adjusting the exposure times.
And I was wondering why I needed to chip the rafts off the build plate... d'oh...
I've re-sliced a test file at 0.03mm with a reduced exposure time to.see if it helps. I have also found the setting in Prusa slicer to let me make angled.raft.edges to make it easier to get under with the scraper... a day of discovery,
In the down side, I've been getting some failed prints off my prusa :( also trying a 0.1mm layer height there when I usually run at 0.2 with no problems. I'll give it one more chance before I revert back to the thicker layers and just live with a slightly bumper end result.
To be fair though, the main failures were actually due to dirty great gaps in the files.i was trying to print that I didn't notice when slicing the things... Automatically Appended Next Post: So the 0.03mm settings at 6 base layers at 25s each followed by 1.5s per layer seems.to have worked nicely. Stayed stuck to the print bed.
I've mocked up so.e 0.01mm settings gs based on scaling the above. Time will.tell if it works as.well.
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Post by: Flinty
First resin failure today :(
I think I managed a double whammy of rubbish support placement and exposure set to too low. Thankfully the super low exposure means that it was easy to peel the failed bits off the FEP. Doesn't look too damaged either. Just a bit scuffed.
Back to the drawing board
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Post by: Flinty
Work is horrible again... boooo.
Managed to get some things printed off though
First off is a rather nice high mobility truck thing from Czech Republic. Printed at 0.1mm layer height on my Prusa, I think it looks really good. Going to run a second one off so the arctic base can have some more scatter gubbins to go with the moon rovers.
Just realised I didn't post the moon rovers here. Lookit how cute they are...
Also finally managed to.test out the resin trees I printed a while back
Big enough I think for an ancient arctic pine wood around the base ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) can also be used for 28mm scale quite easily as well.
They are a bit heavy in resin, and somewhat wasteful I think, so I'll try a set on the prusa to see if I can cheap them up without significant loss of awesomeness.
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Post by: Graphite
Try 'em on the Prussa and dip 'em in some clump foliage or flock. That'll disguise any loss of detail.
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Post by: Flinty
I've been too busy and its been too cold in my utility room to get the airbrush going so hobby ADD to the rescue. Found some nice road tiles on thingiverse, so printed them up at a a scale that I think matches my little tankies nicely. If I had any Infantry they would probably show the kerb to be about half a metre deep, but I dont want to lose the lovely detail by scaling the thickness down.
I scaled it as if it's a standard 2 directional road allowing 2 big lorries with a bit of space on each side. The tanks obviously hog rather more space on the carriageway
And then I was thinking ahead to the inevitable painting. And what all roads need are road markings. 3D Builder to the rescue!
I made a couple of stencils for line markings for the t junction and straight segments. They just slot in between the kerbs, so super easy to place. 3d modelling packages make it so easy to make stencils!
And modified a set of HO scale road markings I found on thingiverse for arrows, parking spaces and assorted other things.
Printing off more tiles as we speak, and I modified up a couple to make an off street car park.
All the above should make pai ting the tiles super quick with a grey, black and white spray can and a bit of drybrushing.
As my board is snow themed, also planning on biw to add dirty snow drifts. Thinking of using a base of kitchen rl soaked in PVA with a sprinkling of baking powder laced paint over the top. I will do a bit more research
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Post by: Flinty
And now with some basecoats on. I think the stencils work fine. A bit of bleed, but then again actual road markings are not exactly fine art.
Next steps.are to wash the pavements and then dry brush the ever living hibbledy hoo out of them
And then print a few more to allow.a.decemt sized road system. And then muck about with fake snow. Hmm... starts to sound like quite a lot when.listed like that, however I managed to paint all of these in about an hour so far,.so.it shouldn't take too long.
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Post by: Jebsonic
Hey those stencils are awesome! Sam would wish he had some when we did the roads of ruin for the studio shoot! (I'm with Printable Scenery)
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Post by: Flinty
More simple stencil work for a car park feel. Need some kind of open area for the tanks to fight through... hmm... need some civilian vehicles to run over now. Damn the rabbit hole just keeps getting deeper!
Most of the tiles need a little bit of tidying up to get rid of some unforeseen spray lines and a touch of over spray here and there, but much easier to do that than hand paint the details.
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Post by: Flinty
Printed a few more straight sections. I'll.probably leave it at that.
Also printed a rather nifty No Mans Sky ancient relic monument portal thingy. The arctic research base needs something to be researching after all ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) Some of the details ended up a bit rough up close up, but some messy stone style dry brushing should hide that
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Post by: Flinty
Blah... taken 3 months to get around to printing the forest bases...
On the plus side, I am now cranking out forest bases
Had a slight false start where I printed the round base to be exactly the same diameter as the hole in the base pad. Tolerance was such that it just didn't quite fit properly. Dropping the scaling by 1mm was enough to get it to fit nice and snugly.
Base also has a slot for magnets.
I deliberately printed the trunks horizontally to get a bark-like pattern and I think it worked nicely. Simple spray, wash and drybrush should get a nice effect.
Speaking of bases, I also printed a couple of resin terrain bases for my Bobcat mechs. To avoid it looking like the mechs are floating above the snow, I included some recessed footprints. Again tolerance required a trial to confirm the positioning, but was super easy using the "subtract" tool from 3D Builder.
I sliced the actual model.to.a thin layer of the base of the foot, scaled that up a bit and then embedded it in the base model. The subtract tool then just deletes all parts of any model that overlaps the selected part.
And here with the feet in place. It turns out the base of the printed feet aren't super flat, so I'll scrape it down a it and see if it fits a bit more snugly.
I am also hugely entertained by the fact that the new "official" source of models for Horizon Wars also picked up the Antenocitis Workshop STLS that I am using
So I am effectively printing the official models, but entirely legally... awesome!
https://stratominis.com/2020/01/01/hardwar-horizon-wars/
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Post by: Flinty
Switching focus again a little, I printed off a.model.to use as a counts.as spider rig for my Van Saar gang.
Now it's got a scoosh of paint on it I think the back is a bit too messy even for my low standards. The front looks good i think. Printed at 30 microns.
But the back, where I put all the supports.is.a.bit of.a hot mess
I want to use contrast paints so I thought I would go for.another shot to try and get a smoother finish and spent last night mucking about with chitubox and MDSWs support recommendations to.see if I can refine it a bit. I have another couple of trials on the print bed just now and will.report back tonight hopefully.
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Post by: MDSW
Yes, as your supports should come right off with almost no or very little marks - it usually is the supports are set to go too deep into the model so you do not get the feature of the small, fine point on the end of the support right where it touches the model.
Printing at .03 layer your should be getting really fine results.
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Post by: Flinty
Finally got around to getting the resupported file.printed and primed.
The rear looks so much better. I used chitubox and MSDWs settings. I used the auto support function, but then deleted some of the supports that seemed to be redundant. I also realigned the model to be less horizontal and it seems to have made a difference as well. I did a.second version using the same alignment as previously and the rear was much worse than the one in the pic. Seems a bit finicky really.
However I have a good copy to paint up now, so on with the show. Also been painting my forests. Progress later tonight.
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Post by: MDSW
So glad that it worked out. It still seems like your mini has some rough edges and layer lines - there really should not be any, unless that is the way the sculpt is.
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Post by: Flinty
Yeah, I think the layer lines are showing up quite a lot in those pics. Next learning point is to see how to reduce the layer lines
The image below shows the model render and it's pretty smooth.
1
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Post by: MDSW
I would probably angle him about 20 degrees back so it is minimal supports and make sure your supports are not going too far inside the model so just the fine tip is touching and comes off clean. The render is super cool and detailed, so you should be getting good results in the .02 to .03 layer range with AA set to 0 or off.
Also, do not set your layer exposure too high - just at the time to expose properly (might have to do a test) as I looked back at some of my first prints and I way over did the exposure and it mushed the details. When I put a properly exposed mini next to it, it is quite an improvement.
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Post by: Flinty
Managed to finish the trees. That just leaves a bunch of other stuff I need to do to finish the Horizon Wars project... like painting the opfor and all the buildings ive printed for it. And then there is the Necromunda stuff...
So obviously the thing to do is to get distracted by other things!
I have. A preorder on for Stargrave and just picked up the New Modiphiusised version of 5 Parsecs from home. Conveniently I also just backed Gridwars for some nice generic sci-fi dudes, dudettes and beasties of mechanical and biological origin. Ooooohhh. I feel a raptor based crew coming on as well!
I am also running a 40 hour print of a 28mm scale Kodiak from Mass Effect Andromeda to act as a drop ship. I already have a Mako from a previous modelling project to work with, so at least I don’t have to print one of those, even if I do have to paint it still.
Dagnamit, why can’t I just win the lottery and retire to spend my whole time playing with toys!
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Post by: Graphite
Those trees have come out very well indeed.
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks Graphite. I’m really happy with them
So my new side project just came off the print bed. Looks great!
Allegedly the Kodiak is supposed to be able to carry 12 fully kitted out troopers in the mass effect universe, so I think it’s about the right size as a utility shuttle for a 6 person crew for 5Parsecs and Operation Last Train, and the 8 crew for Stargrave. Looks about the right size for that.
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Post by: Flinty
While the primer dries on the shuttle, Red Force gets its "stripes"
Its a bit messy because of the way the stencil cant quite get into contact with the surface due to the details, but I'm not planning on tidying it up much. Tracks, guns and some spot colours, and they are almost ready to go.
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Post by: Flinty
Haven’t update this for a while. No new printing, except for stencils. Been having fun with the Kodiak... and the stencils...
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Post by: Flinty
As I was a pondering the inter web recently I came across MatStation as a vendor of STL comestibles.
And one of the nicest tributes to the spider tank from the original Ghost in the Shell anime I’ve ever seen.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r-IsysrqUlU
Now I got all excited and immediately printed the presupposed files. Big mistake. Why do people think it’s a good idea to put supports on the visible surfaces?
Even with the tiny feathered supports it still wrecks the surface. Printing a slightly smaller resupported version now.
Currently adding some mechanical tentacles to the square thingies on the front and printing a bit smaller for use in Necromunda. Thinking I can put some Van Saar las weapons in the weapon pods to use as the brute spider rig thingy. Different form factor than the concept art of a guy in a suit, but it matches the spider theme and I loves it I does!
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Post by: Graphite
Yeah, that's for the Van Saar, that is. Any pilot should be crouched in the main body as with a Tau suit.
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Post by: MDSW
Flinty wrote:
Now I got all excited and immediately printed the presupposed files. Big mistake. Why do people think it’s a good idea to put supports on the visible surfaces?
I cannot seem to ever find anyone else's pre-supported files that are any good - either weirdly placed, huge, ill conceived, etc. I totally prefer to set my own supports and rarely have a failed print.
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Post by: Overread
I came across MatStation the other week, though I was hooked on his xenomorph designs!
Some great stuff and I believe they are next on the list to be updated with yet more models after his human forces got a release with that big mech - which I agree is very cool looking spider-tank!
Heck I'm very tempted to buy the set just for the tank to print!
As for pre-supports I think it depends a lot on who does them. Atlas are steadily taking over alot of the patreons offering stls and Atlas generally provide very good supports with a focus on minimal detail loss whilst supporting the model.
There are certainly a few designers who need more support practice. I did re-do the supports on the xeno I printed from MatStation and even I still have to improve on a few things (lost a thumb....
That said he has thought about things, he actually designed the model with two holes drilled in with details lifted off so that they are printed separate and can be placed back on to hide the holes, which is something you don't often see from designers as generally you have to find a spot with no detail to cover over yourself when it comes to holes. Which on high detail models can sometimes mean either sacrificing detail or just not hollowing at all because there's no good spot to put a big enough hole - and small holes never drain properly - they dribble and drip and are more of a pain than a gain
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Post by: Boss Salvage
Overread wrote:I came across MatStation the other week, though I was hooked on his xenomorph designs!
I immediately started making Tyranid Warrior-heavy lists as soon as I saw that MatStation xenos release ![](/s/i/a/6d3c0a908a3861135dfaebde91c0ecf6.gif) I have his khanivore and have meant to print it forever, and I really dig his tentacled power armor sculpts. Mostly just figuring out a use for them, as it's still hard for me to just make stuff because it's cool
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Post by: Flinty
Hah... I did get the set just for the tank
At £10 for the set I'm fine with that, and I may be able to recycle some of the infantry into something else.
I am currently having great fun remixing bits from elsewhere onto the tank to make it a proper arachnirig ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) I guess it follows as I have the most fun in this hobby when tinkering different bits together for conversions.
My results should be sitting on the build plate just now, but I'll only be able to review how well it worked after work.
I will say that the holes and hollowing worked flawlessly on the presupported mech. I just don't understand putting supports on the visible top surface of legs for example, when the back side of the legs will never really be seen and therefore could be a bit messier.
I mean for the reprint, I just re-orientated the piece and hit "auto" on Lychee and got much better results. Automatically Appended Next Post: I also play a lot of world of tanks, so I was entertained to find out that he does digital models for that as well
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Post by: Nurglitch
Those are some really nice filament prints!
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Post by: Flinty
Bah... print failures. Snapped tentacles and support failures, and on the bulkiest parts as well, so burning resin a bit here. However I am Determined to succeed. I’ll resupport the thing at lunchtime and add a few more medium supports. Just need to get one good print of the modified rear
Hull. Everything else is golden. Well, translucent blue
At least... Automatically Appended Next Post: Argh... now the print bed grounds out. Need to re-level the thing I think, but continual cleaning of stuff to fix other stuff is annoying.
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Post by: Flinty
Right. Finally got everything printed ok. The underside is not quite perfect, but I’ll never see it, so I don’t care any more.
So the full set.
I cut slots in the top to take Magnets and then Magnetised some Gubbinz.
Arachnirigs have big arms, so I added little tentacles to the front of the head and big tentacles to the top.
I have 2 different heads as I’m not quite sure yet which to use. The base head has a pair of MGs in the front. I switched them out for van Saar weapons to represent twin linked heavy las carbines.
I also did a couple of turret types, las carbine and plasma gun to allow for the arachnirig weapon options
Still need to do a rad gun option.
In addition, I did a print bed of random stuffs.
Doggoes ready for Stargrave
Work bots
And a couple of random bounty Hunter types
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Post by: Flinty
Calling the Kodiak done
I was going to put some weathering around the place, but I tested something in an unobtrusive place and then did some leading edge weathering and I couldn’t quite get anything satisfying, so I’ll stop there. The side panel Destiny symbol is still a little bit damaged but I think I would cause more harm than good if I tried to fix it.
Van Saars for scaling purposes.
Now to batter some varnish on there and stick it in the cabinet for possible future use in Stargrave, 5Parsecs and operation last train
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Post by: Flinty
I got some great NPC bot models as part of the Cochin Kickstarter. I printed these a while back, but have just gotten around to basecoating them.
I’ve also been printing random sci fi models and bases from various places for the purposes of Stargrave. More on them a bit later as they are still being primed
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Post by: Overread
Flinty this reminds me have you see the Papsikels Patreon?
IT's the last day of the month ,but this might interest you. They've got some neat mecha stuff this month and next month is "Xenomorph" inspired
https://www.patreon.com/papsikels/posts
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks for the link Overread. I had seen them earlier in the month, but went through them again. I like some of the robot designs, but for some reason the bubblegum crisis stylings aren’t doing anything for me. The poses are all just a bit too passive I think, and the bolt-on extra leg things are a bit too drippy with weapons and super static looking. Also, given that I have still not printed any raptors with laser guns, I don’t need another big set of stuff (yet).
Onward with the priming.
Some generic dudes and dudettes with pistols and carbines. The guy in the cape is a bounty Hunter from the Cochin Kickstarter, while the rest are from the Gridwars set that finished recently.
A hacker and a corporate samurai that may well end up being my Jedi-esque XO. The sword blade warped a bit on curing, so I might need to replace with a more lightsaber style rod.
A random fantasy gnoll or kobold or something that caught my eye on Thingiverse. Originally had 2 knives, but I swapped one out for a Van Saar pistol. I really like this little thing for some reason
And a rather nice rendition of Tali al Zorah from Mass effect. I need to sort a weapon that matches her rather diminutive scale. Even the smallest van Saar pistol I have available is too big. Need to raid my bits box as I think I have some smaller metal weapons from Hasslefree kicking about still.
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Post by: Flinty
The best thing about 3D printing is the ability to print stuff that would not ordinarily be available... or strictly necessary!
Just printed off a neat wee project box to see if I can do painting in the car while the kids are at classes of various types. Yes, an empty ice cream tub could also have been deployed...
Also, some progress on my Necromunda and Stargrave duders
The Archeotek known only as Ice Queen
Stargrave robot trooper of some kind
Codebreaker
And a cute wee Space Kobold as a runner
Oh yes, and the doggoes!
Wuff!
I have another 4 build plates coded up with goodies for Stargrave (mixture of beasts, troopers, drones and space dinosaurs) but I want to finish some more of the last batch before creating more stuff to add to the painting pile!
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Post by: Boss Salvage
I 100% am looking to mine my Heretic and Cyber Forge files for StarGrave ![](/s/i/a/5d13fa41280d6fdef786d41bc175d3f6.gif) Good stuff across the board, tho the pups and Codebreaker prawn take it for me.
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Post by: Flinty
Aaargh. Printed 6 models. Exactly the same but varying exposure and layer height
50 microns 2.5s exposure
30 microns 1.6s exposure
30 microns 1.6s 2xAA
20 microns 1.2s 2xAA
10 microns 1.6s exposure
10 microns 1.2s exposure
THEY ALL LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME! Click on images below to get larger zoom able versions.
50 microns
20 Micron 2xAA
10 micron
What to try next? Automatically Appended Next Post: In retrospect, the ridges I can see I think are from the xy plane from the LCD resolution. However I can see no discernible difference in the two models with AA applied. Not sure how much of an effect I should see because of AA, but I was expecting something a Bit more obvious.
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Post by: Albertorius
If you can, try and run this test:
https://mega.nz/file/ZBxAXJjK#PJCPDXaxDLOzN9nIhiKVsoHvKZEGMCHmCM_BXS-sJ90
It's pretty quick, so you can run a bunch in a short period of time.
For starters, try 50 microns at 2.5s, 2.2s and 2s, and see what are the results (don't use AA on these, ever), and repeat it for 20 microns starting at whatever value you know works, and then lower it bit by bit. From there we'll be able to see if you're over exposing or if it's something else, I think.
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks Albertorius. I’ll go check it out.
I have also done a Bit of googling. It looks like the Mono AA feature isn’t actually enabled. An upcoming firmware upgrade may be addressing it though.
Dag nammit! Automatically Appended Next Post: Do you print it flat on the build plate? Automatically Appended Next Post: More updateage. Seems like the 1.7 firmware update is now official as you can get it off the anycubic website, but only if you go to the sales page for the Mono. I didn’t see it on the Support part of the website, but I might have missed it. Currently flashing the firmware and I’ll run a 2x and 4x on the 30 micron model tonight and tomorrow and report back
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Post by: Albertorius
Yup, flat on the plate, no need for supports.
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Post by: Flinty
Hmm… the models sliced using Lychee and with 2x and 4x AA applied don’t seem to be substantially different to the non AA model I printed earlier in the week. I think I’ll give it one more shot using the latest version of Photon Workshop to slice the model. I’ll also try dialling in my settings a bit more using Albertorious’ thingy. To the slicer!
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Post by: Flinty
Right… test tabs for Elegoo water washable ceramic grey. Just recording it all really. Hopefully it will be useful to others as well.
All sliced at 30 microns. All running with 1s light off time, except the marked one. Varying exposure times.
1.2s per layer. Looks a bit underexposed as the edges are a bit gloopy
1.3s per layer. The centre bit seems to match Albertorius’s explanation of crispness and the arrows just Meeting each other, but the comb bits at the bottom seem a bit wibbley.
1.4s. The comb bit looks a bit better than 1.3s, but the central arrows are less well defined
1.6s is pretty gloopy which would suggest a bit overexposed
And then 1.6s with 5s light off time.
Looks a lot crisper.
Ok, so findings would suggest that 1.3s exposure time with a longer light off will give best results. To the experimentmobile! Slivers at the ready!
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Post by: Albertorius
Yeah, the 1.3 mark seems the best from here, certainly, but as you saw the light off delay impacts directly on the end quality, IME.
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Post by: Flinty
Unfortunately, antialiasing doesn’t seem to do much on the Mono, even after the firmware upgrade and using the latest version of Puoton Workshop. The leg of my test dinosaur is still looking pretty ridgey even with 4xAA On.
However, running the test tab at 1.3s exposure and extending the light off has increased quality again, in accordance with Albertorious’ experience (all hail Albertorious, bringer of 3D knowledge and general awesome printer dude!)
I did two different tabs, one with 3second light off and one with 5 second. I forgot to label them an I’m not sure which is which, so therefor I will use 3s delay in future as it would seem to give negligible benefit going for the full 5s
Currently printing a rather nice elf mage model I bought recently using new found precision. The light off delay adds a couple of hours to the print run, but I was going to be printing it overnight anyway, so it’s no real loss.
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Post by: Albertorius
Yay, good to see things are working out
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Post by: MDSW
The light off delay seems to have a great benefit, but in reading other sources there is a bit of inconsistency with how to set it properly.
Some say just set it the number needed.
Other say you must add it to the total number of seconds it takes for your plate to lift and come back down.
Does anyone know exactly how to set in Chitu for an Elegoo Mars or Saturn?
Edit: Actually, Albertorius has expertly found the best resource, so question answered: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19nPJ16sjrXwjgUk_S3x7mDkPCXnz3-_wBngHrcXhaw0/edit?fbclid=IwAR3cTu_zGaf51TBWTCO8TrLpCNFW3C5zxBQHSeLrbB5ynz_YWTwZgncbjB4#gid=1981963383
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Post by: Flinty
Hot elf mage is done, and the level of detail is glorious.
She originally had a wand as well, but that was too thin to survive. I printed her at 75% scale as she was coming out too tall for Stargrave, but everything is so slender I might print at full scale and just live with the larger size.
Now to grind through my Stargrave beasties!
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Post by: Albertorius
That turned out great! Glad to see that the work's paying off
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks for the tester blank and instructions on use
I might need to revise my support system though. I was obviously over exposing previously, which meant that my supports were coming out pretty bullet proof. I was printing some beads last night with a few light supports only and they all tore off. Either that or slow down my retract and return a bit more. Automatically Appended Next Post: Next set of stuffs. Still getting some support failures, so I need to fiddle with settings a bit more
Police swat duders to be used as Stargrave troopers
Some Metroid to be used as the brain eating beasties
A displaced beast with a somewhat failed tail. Will redo this guy
Planning on using this as the worm thing
And a wee drone for my roboticist cap’n
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Post by: Albertorius
That's some pretty spiffy stuff, nice.
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Post by: Paradigm
In general, I find that printing anything without at least one heavy support is asking for trouble. Even heads and hands, I stick one with a .80mm tip on the ball of the joint if there is one.
The prints are looking super clean where they have worked though, so obviously the settings are pretty darn spot on.
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks guys. It’s been a Fun voyage of discovery
Lining up a repeat of some of the stuff that failed with a mixture of a few thicker supports and dialling down the retract and return speeds to 2. See if that is enough.
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Post by: Overread
Paradigm wrote:In general, I find that printing anything without at least one heavy support is asking for trouble. Even heads and hands, I stick one with a .80mm tip on the ball of the joint if there is one.
.
I don't tend to use 0.8 supports, but yeah for the surface of the model I try and stick to 0.3 as the absolute largest as that tip size can leave a mark when removed. 0.25 are more ideal as they generally leave nothing or a tiny easy to remove stub. Though I sometimes have to pinch/cross support (one either side as opposed to just one) when using smaller tips to get the same power of hold on the model.
Anything greater than 0.3 really wants to be in a spot that, once assembled, will be invisible and covered over. Right now I tend to cap out at around 0.65 tips at most, but again that's only in hidden areas where I don't care about damage.
edit
eg on this alien the largest support is hidden right up inside the leg and is a 0.5 and that's not even the start point of the leg. It's where I'm putting it to hold the most weight whilst the lower parts of the foot have a lot more lighter supports to keep them nice and detailed. The rest of the supports are mostly 0.25 or smaller with a few 0.3 in key spots (like the knee).
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Post by: Boss Salvage
Flinty wrote:Police swat duders to be used as Stargrave troopers ...
Are these from the recent UNIT9 release? Great stuff in there, have been tempted. Nice to see you're having some successes! Fails like that beast's tail are bummers but you'll get there (though I still have a lot of trouble with supports myself, auto or manual ![](/s/i/a/39ea8e0dbfb45dcc6b802cd0e198dba3.gif) )
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Post by: Flinty
the police dudes are from Papsikels. I have been sorely tempted by the Unit 9 stuff as well, but the Papsikels stuff just pipped them to the post
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-pcpd-special-police-force-m-b-147933
My success is increasing. I had set up some build plates before fiddling with my settings, and I'm gradually moving back through them and beefing up the supports as they fail
the concepts are simple, in terms of adding medium and heavy supports to inconspicuous locations. Just need to get better at predicting what will need extra heft.
I reprinted the displacer beast, and this time the tail was great, but the head didn't print
I will just do a bit of tail surgery I think, rather than rolling the dice again, just because its a really tall nini and takes ages to print
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Post by: Overread
Have you seen what Papsikels are doing for the last 2 months?
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Post by: Flinty
Aliens stuff
Not super interested to be honest. The models are really nicely realised, just not something I feel I need just now
Automatically Appended Next Post: The latest batch of random Stargrave stuff.
Cyborg bounty hunter type:
Crazy protestor lady (I think she will be a leading Ruffian... I love the gas mask/santa hat combo ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) )
Tiny, cute robot bunnies! I seriously have no idea what i'm going to use these things for, but they were free and look at the cuteness! Probably base them as a pair to act as a drone.
Sewer Dragon:
Dedfurd
Horat (Not so much a wooly rhino, but I'm goung to say this is the desert version)
A rather diminutive Twi'ilek trooper... I might reprint this guy slightly larger
A couple of wolves to use as bad guy guard dogs in single player mode:
And probably my favourite after the angry bat lady, a pair of Ferroxes (possibly different sub-species ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) )
If it printed at all, then it printed nicely. I'm seeing very few support markings, which is nice. I think I will stick with this resin type, now that the settings are nicely dialled in.
On the build plate just now is a fiddled version of Kittens Stealthy Waifu to act as Tamix Phage from the single player, a couple of nice mage models and a tentacled thingy to act as a Tangler and some more wolves. Waiting in the wings is Tali Zorah, a random anime-esque space engineer, some combat droids and a few crystal scorpions to act as magmites. Then its on to the Imperial probe droid to act as a repair bot... dag nammit... Then I'm going to have to paint the little blighters! Hopefully the monthly painting comp will continue to enable relevant choices to be made
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Post by: MDSW
Is the JSI Wundel Test vailable somewhere to download? I will be having my Saturn arrive soon (Hooray!!) and would like to calibrate.
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Post by: Flinty
Quoted for MDSW to get the link
Albertorius wrote:If you can, try and run this test:
https://mega.nz/file/ZBxAXJjK#PJCPDXaxDLOzN9nIhiKVsoHvKZEGMCHmCM_BXS-sJ90
It's pretty quick, so you can run a bunch in a short period of time.
For starters, try 50 microns at 2.5s, 2.2s and 2s, and see what are the results (don't use AA on these, ever), and repeat it for 20 microns starting at whatever value you know works, and then lower it bit by bit. From there we'll be able to see if you're over exposing or if it's something else, I think.
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Post by: Albertorius
That's an impressive set of prints, Flinty! You're really industrious
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Post by: MDSW
Perfect - Thanks!
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Post by: Flinty
@Albertorious - it’s just too easy, and I have amassed far too many tempting models over the last couple of years that every time I print something I really want, I end up dropping one or two random things on there to fill the plate. Then, if something fails, I fix it, and then add a few more bits and bobs to fill the build plates up again… it’s like the hotdog/hotdog roll problem writ in liquid plastic!
The next set of stuff!
A pair of cute engineer types in the form of this elfin cyberpunk babe. She has a small pistol but an awfully large toolbox
The heels of her boots didn’t print properly, and a reprint was missing a leg, so not sure on the future of this one.
And the second of the duo, in the form of Tali Zorah. A much nicer model in a less cheesecakey pose compared to the other Tali model I have. I bumped her carbine thingy up to more of an LMG and she might become my Roboticist captain
A pair of crystal spider thingies to act as magmites . A bit of leg failure, but nothing that’s too noticeable, and I have gone through about 4 or 5 iterations of these little buggers, so I’m done for now
Tentacley beast to act as a tangler
And a rather nice set of combat robots that are about Primaris sized natively and could act quite nicely in a variety of roles for pirates or crew. I have a couple of misprinted ones before I realised that I could easily separate the torso from the legs to make supporting all that gappy angularity much easier. With another 3 printing just now. Armed with rifles and a support rail gun thingy. There is a shotgun torso as well, but I prefer the rifle aesthetic.
After the next build plate is done, provided there are no big failures, it’s probably back to the painting table for a while
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Post by: Flinty
Gleeeeee. Turns out there are “Tetra” bots to go with the Deltas that I have already printed. That’s another build plate on the way… damnit, next months painting comp had better be robot compatible
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Post by: Flinty
Finally hitting some of the Stargrave beasties with paint. The washes are showing up the printing layers when viewed on the close up photos, but it’s not as bad when looking normally. These were some of the last models I did before the epic setting session, so hopefully future models won’t be quite so obvious.
Ferrox type 1. Still working in the base, but the beastie is done.
Hmm. The close up pics really show the printing pattern. It’s not so obvious at normal size.
Ext up is the dedfurd. Super simple scheme loosely based on rainforest frog colouration. Not trying to win prizes with these things
And finally the bile worm. Again, the base needs a touch of drybrushing on the rubble, but otherwise I’m done. I might hit it with gloss varnish to make it extra gooey looking actually…
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Post by: Theophony
Love the Ferrox ![](/s/i/a/5d13fa41280d6fdef786d41bc175d3f6.gif) , Nicely done fire effect.
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks Theophony.
Been away from the slicer for a bit playing computer games and painting an ambull. However, my daughter wanted some cute things to paint, and who am I to deny my tiny bundle of command
So some cute things, largely based around fox-like beasties… well, except for the robot rabbit… and the axolotl… obviously… and I guess eevie isn’t really a fox… but… anyway…
And speaking of foxes, there was space on the build plate for a different kind of fox!
Fox McCloud, in Stargrave scale… well, height at least. Those proportions aint ever going to look realistic
And also space for this gem as well. Started as a werewolf sorceress for fantasy games, but I was able to smash my face off Meshmixer sufficiently correctly to swap her staff out for a laser pistol. I think it works rather well! Planning on running this one as either of the mystic/psionicist bad guys from the single player supplement. Pondo-pondo or the Soulshark.
A few support crumbs still to clear up it seems, but otherwise a good print I think. Lost a tiny amount off one of her ears, but that just adds to the mystery
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Post by: Flinty
Hobby time has been focussed at monthly painting comp and Subnautica. However after being introduced to Betrayal at the house on the hill on holiday thought I would print up a full set of storage and stuff for a friend.
So some minis for the additional NPCs. Pretty small scale, but should paint up ok with some simple but effective details.
The FDM printer is running off the storage boxes.
And for my Stargrave set is a really nice grenade launcher dude and a sniper type.
They are slightly bigger than GW human infantry but not quite as tall as Primaries, so should slot in no problem
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Post by: Albertorius
Wow, looking really nice! The glasses dude is awesome
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Post by: Flinty
I got Quarantine 37 earlier in the week. Yaaay.
Now I need cryo tubes for the zombies to escape from.
There is a really nice set of soldier zombies on MyMiniFactory, with a super complicated cryotube assembly.
So I went simple, and picked a free set of tubes from Thingiverse. Originally by DutchMogul for his 15mm scale range, it scales up nicely I think. The pictured one is a remixed version with removable cryo-pods, while there is another remix with openable pods. Currently trying to work out how best to do wrecked pods to swap in at the appropriate juncture in the game
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Post by: MDSW
The Betrayal minis look stellar - great job. Nice to see you all dialed in. I got my Saturn all set up and the quick exposure with the light off delay I think has given me the best results I have gotten, even from my Mars.
1
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Post by: Graphite
The pods themselves look pretty durable - paint the windows as cracked glass with blood on the edges?
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Post by: Albertorius
MDSW wrote:The Betrayal minis look stellar - great job. Nice to see you all dialed in. I got my Saturn all set up and the quick exposure with the light off delay I think has given me the best results I have gotten, even from my Mars.
It is, in my experience, a much neglected setting that improves results a whole lot. Like, night and day in some cases.
@Flinty, those cryopods look awesome! Are there versions without the windows? That seems like a good place to use transparent plastic from a blister, a bottle or whatever.
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Post by: Flinty
Even better than than, the openable version has a specific separate window piece that slots in. Planning to get some printed up on the Mono when my new PC turns up. Personal laptop is down and work laptop doesn't have Lychee.
I was trying to do some models with severe damage done, but after a few trials in Meshmixer, I decided it was beyond my digital skills. In the end I bodged together the openable model with the removable pod version to give me separate beds and lids, and I'll manually distress the lids
Automatically Appended Next Post:
(and yes, I know there are more lids then beds... I did extras in case I wreck some during the distressing process) Automatically Appended Next Post: And here we are. Lots of lovely secure cryo pods all safely waiting for magical space medecine.
Oh bugger!
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Post by: Graphite
God damn those look awesome. Sorry your laptop died!
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Post by: MDSW
Yes, that is a great scenery piece - I can imagine the scenario now...
You come upon the pods, which look to have been abandoned for years and your eyes are drawn to those that have opened, with the occupants nowhere in sight...
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Post by: Flinty
But just at the edge of hearing is a faint moaning sound… is it getting closer?
This is the point at which these guys and gals get busy
And with a bit of an atmospheric backdrop
After being a bit ground down but the big pointless tank, managed to bang these duders out in a couple of sessions. Really fun and nicely textured armour and random bags and gubbins. Painted up as a slightly eclectic mix of Stargrave troopers that have maybe looted kit from slightly different sources. Could be good guys, could be pirate troopers. Although now I’ve painted them I think I’d like them to be good guys. I’ll keep my BSF traitor guard as the pirates
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Post by: Flinty
Ready the cryo pods!
So here they are
And with some troopers scouting the area. They might need to take care… I don’t like the look of those biohazard labels!
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Post by: Arakasi
Cool looking cryo pods - they look good in white.
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Post by: Boss Salvage
Festive young lass looks great, just in time for the Halloween season ![](/s/i/a/6d3c0a908a3861135dfaebde91c0ecf6.gif) The completed cryo pods looking sharp as well.
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Post by: Flinty
Someone needs to take off and nuke the site from orbit. Not-Hicks from Papsikels' recent Aliens extravaganza.
The details are awesome and super sharp.
Also had some space on the build plate, so added a drone from 2nd Dynasty's Sleipnir set. Having now watched some of The Expanse, I am assuming thats the inspiratio for this industrial little duder. It can be fitted with a range of weapons, but I think the double SMG thingy fits most nicely. Hmm... the second picture shows some intersting surface patterns... Not sure if thats a printing artefact, or deliberate texture on the model. Oh well, still looks good
Also decided to print up some random stuff for my Horizon Wars collection.
I supported Antenocitis a bit recently by picking up the Excelsior super heavy tank, so thought I should print one up. Here in comparison with my other main tank types. It fits quite nicely with the heavy tank platoon, with similar turret armament.
I was also recently reminded that the Eldar Hornet is a thing. I was smitten with this thing ages ago, but I ahve no use for a full size one, and no real space to show one off, so I managed to find a version I could miniaturise. Possibly get added to the dastardly OPFOR for single player games, if I ever get around to it again.
Ther was some warpage on the guns and the front wings, but hot water reshaping worked a treat. I managed to straighten the guns a bit, but they are still a touch wonky. Might give it another try, but they are pretty slender thingies.
Kind of burned myself out painting wise preparing for the Quarantine 37-a-thon with Graphite, but I'll wind back around to it in anther week or so I think.
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Post by: Flinty
This month the painting comp theme is catch me if you can. Perfect. I need a jetbike or two for my Van Saar gang.
Here is my jetbikes through the ages line up!
First try on the right (good grief they did not work… fit only for battlefield debris)
through a middle section of “it only worked when I split the model in two”
and then on to “so that’s why you dial in your settings and use micro-supports”
I also grafted on some proper Van Saar weapons on the thing rather than the 6 rather generic solid ammo MG muzzles of the original model.
I have also found that you can’t get the rider in without cutting at least one leg off. While the models look amazing, they are most Definately not simple to print and put together.
I have 2 options. The set came with separate legs, of which I have printed a few that I could graft on to an actual Van Saar torso and head. Alternatively I think I have found a decent cut point in one of the full legs and torso models that won’t be too noticeable. I’ll need to paint the bike, dissect the rider, mostly paint the bits, reassemble and then touch up. A bit of a faff, but I’ve had to deal with worse
The dodgy bikes will become scenery of various types, and the best 5 will be submitted got the comp
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Post by: Flinty
Found this amazing model for the A43 hammerhead from Space: Above and Beyond. Printed out almost perfectly. I lost a couple of missiles and the nose gun off one of the models, but not too bad for a first stab.
Based on real work scaling of APC length versus fighter aircraft length, I think I scaled it down too far. An F16, for example, is more than twice the length of a Warrior IFV. I tried scaling it against my Horizon Wars tanks in the slicer, but obviously missed the point somehow.
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Post by: Theophony
Loved the show and those ships ![](/s/i/a/5d13fa41280d6fdef786d41bc175d3f6.gif) , turned out great.
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Post by: Albertorius
Yep, they look amazing
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Post by: Flinty
thanks guys. I have a rescaled larger version sitting in the slicer for tonight's support-a-thon. See if I can get that off the bed tomorrow at some point. the model is so nicely done. There are a few rough spots underneath around the landing gear, but its not like anyone will even see those parts. I'll take that on a free model
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Post by: Flinty
maybe a bit longer than the next day, but the resized hammerhead is looking pretty fine. I'll be in Germany for the tail end of the month, so for the painting comp I think I'll do some catch up work on my Horizon Wars stuff, with the Hammerhead, the super-heavy tank and the hornets I printed a while back. Super simple paint schemes and therefore an illusion of progress
Anyway, on with the pics. First up the hammerhead:
And here alongside my never-finished Halo Pelican. They scale quite nicely against each other based on the internet's values for vehicle length.
The landing gear hatches didn;t work, as they were way too thin to survive, but I'm not particularly bothered as its supposed to be landed and therefore I'll never see the things underneath ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) It also turns out that the missiles on one side were missing something in the model to connect them to the wing hardpoint, but wit all the other wing gubbins its not that noticeable a gap
Lots of lovely details on the panelling
As well as the hammerhead, I've been catching up on some other stuff. First up the L0b0 mecha-wolf thingy I got on a kickstarter ages ago. Lovely smooth curves. Aiming for a 50mm base for that lovely and some kind of use in Stargrave (hmm.. looks like I missed some supports):
Then a trio of Papsikels' Aliens stuff, picked up on Black Friday. Printed slightly smaller than base, to fit better with my more 28mm scale Stargrave stuff, rather than the native 32mm scale:
Thre s something about Papsikels' stuff for me. The proprotions and detailing really speak to me.
And then a Papsikel Hardsuit... not sure if its supposed to be Nene's or Sylias, as the wings don't quite match the images I can find, and I have never really followed BGC. The ears might make it lean more toward Nene.
Random cheesecake dynamic trooper of some kind. Budget Kusanagi maybe? don't care, love the pose
And a big stompy robot, again from Papsikel. Destined to be one of the single player bad-guys for Stargrave methinks! either the ork one or the alien battlesuit one ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) It has a shoulder mounted cannon fo some kind, but I didn;t have any blu- tac to hand to dry fit it.
Still getting massive layer lines. Printing at 30micron layers, but I still can;t get AA to work on the Mono, so I can't smooth it off at all.
Maybe I'll reset my print settings for 20microns instead and see if that helps.
Fresh on the print bed just now are a quartet of raygun raptor storm-o-saurs, and the silly chibi Siblings of conflict guardswomen from Marchen Atelier. They were so cheap, and they are so cute ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) Going to see if my daughter might want to paint them up.
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Post by: Overread
Which company/kickstarter/designer did the mech wolf thingy model?
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Post by: Flinty
It’s this guy
https://officerbrush.com/index.php/product/stl-l0-b0-2/
He’s tried to do other mecha- animal type things but does t seem to be able to get much traction. I though the wolf was the nicest of the set.
It’s even on sale just now
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Post by: Albertorius
Paps' stuff is amazing, and it turned out really well
Also, that mecha wolf is so cool, and sooo smooth!
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Post by: Flinty
Finished the mecha-wolf for the December painting comp. Quite happy with the OSL effects in the end. Needed some re-work halfway through though!
Also printed up some elementals and a couple of mages in case I can gather the enthusiasm to join this months comp
Unfortunately when trimming some of the mini-supports off the floaty mage, I managed to drop her and she shattered on the floor! And then my PC imploded so I couldn't re-plate the broken one, and the world, like, was so unfair! Anyway... In the next couple of days I'll try a re-print.
Also printed recently are these beauties. I joined a kickstarter and got a load of rather large and vaguely impractical (but very pretty) sci-fi terrain bits, just so I could get my mucky paws on these amazing gargoyles (in the classic sense of the word as architectural gubbinz). The lion and wolf figures really speak to me, but I also have bear, horse and eagle versions. I love the various metallic statuary finishes and the grimdark touches. Some of the grimdark ones are a bit too grim for my tastes, so I didn't print those. Need to print some pedestals and get these added to my necromunda scenery somehow.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh yeah, when I've been re-printing stuff recently I've been adding on various ray gun raptors. Need to get a group shot of them. Leaning toward the stormtrooper duders as I love the tail armour and the fully enclosed helmets, but also have a radio operator, medic and an engineer printed up. When I reprint the mage I might stick a few more on for good measure.
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Post by: Overread
Ohh nice Gargoyles! I was very tempted by that campaign, though it was on the expensive side for 3D print material and - in all truth - I really don't have a need for terrain stuff (nor a large enough printer to make it practical to print).
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Post by: Flinty
I keep looking at the fusion generator stuff and almost slicing, and then shying away from the complexity! I might try to print at half scale. It at least the animal statues are awesome. And it’s not like I haven’t wasted money on STLs before…
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Post by: Albertorius
Awesome stuff! That mecha wolf is a thing of beauty
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Post by: Boss Salvage
Very pretty mecha wolf, fun OSL work too.
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Post by: OfficerBrush
I have to say thank you very much for showing off L0-B0. He was a fun one I still am trying to get more but I have a second line as well.
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Post by: Flinty
Argh. I had a bit of a pause in printing for various reasons. so I thought my FEP was looking a bit ropey, so I replaced it. And then promptly dropped the build plate on it, so had to replace it again.
And then I thought it would be a good time to try out a different set of print settings, so its deep into multi-failure territory! And then last night, when I thought I had it nailed I think my bed level has gone, so just got lots of grindy noises! So much draining going on! The vat is currently just sitting there full while I gather the energy to drain yet again and try to reset the bed zero.
On the plus side, in between all the failures I managed to get these guys out. I couldn't resist the hive tile kickstarter in the end. Only one tile has been released so far as a print tester, but I think it comes out nicely at 30micron layer height. And I have nicely robust settings for that.
Also had some fun with virtual kitbashing to give this fantasy lioness lady a decent weapon ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) I had to fudge her quiver to disguise the quarrel fletching, but I'll fix that in post
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Post by: Flinty
More map tiles! And they stick to the wall!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also printed a tester engineer from the Printminis space station crew set. The details look great, and it scales well with my Necromunda/Stargrave stuff, but with even better proportions.
Next up needs to be a full build plate of modular bits, and then onto the cyberpunk police set from the same source.
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Post by: Flinty
Wheeeee! The 20micron test engineer model worked! So now I’ve gone all in on the same settings for a full build plate of the night market police bits. I’ll compare the 20mic engineer with the 30mic engineer tomorrow and with a bit of luck the lower layer height will in fact look better
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Post by: Overread
Layer height change? I figure you'll see some subtle differences under a camera, but naked eye on the model it will be hard to tell apart. You might well see gains on things like curved surfaces.
In general any 10 micron change in layer height is going to be darn hard to see. The differences are slight.
That said I personally print at 20micron layer height. I'm willing to go for the small gains ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) Though I went from 50micron to 20miron so I never went down in 10 micron steps
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Post by: Flinty
I’m mainly trying it out to see if it reduces the moire pattern a bit on curved surfaces. The 30mic layer height was bringing fantastic detail out, but I was still getting a slight surface patterning that contrast paints in particular were really picking up. Anyway, I have two of the same model at the two layer height so I can compare directly. If there is no discernible difference I’ll go back to the 30mic height just to keep printtime down.
Then it will be on to experimenting with aa to see if the problem can be solved. I haven’t tried as for ages. Maybe they have fixed it by now…
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Post by: MDSW
Are you using any AA setting?
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Post by: Flinty
Not at the moment. AA wasn't enabled when I got my Mono on release. It needed a firmware upgrade to enable AA, and based on my limited googling of the issue, its apparently really hard to set up properly.
My results have been "good enough" so far so I haven't dug into that mound yet.
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Post by: MDSW
That's fine, as it's not needed if using a low micron setting for crisp details. I usually set it super low as default and really only turn it up when doing big pieces and have the layers at .06 or more.
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Post by: Overread
I think AA lacks a good standard test print to measure performance of layerline removal against fine detail loss. So there's a lot of myths about it
It doesn't help that everyone increases AA power by increasing the AA value except chitubox who lower the AA amount the higher you set its AA value too..
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Post by: MDSW
Overread wrote:I think AA lacks a good standard test print to measure performance of layerline removal against fine detail loss. So there's a lot of myths about it
It doesn't help that everyone increases AA power by increasing the AA value except chitubox who lower the AA amount the higher you set its AA value too..
Yes! That is super confusing when I switch from Cura to Chitubox when slicing for my two printers. It is a total fallacy that some manufacturers claim the AA lets their printers print better, when while it does decrease the layer lines to smooth, it totally starts to blur the fine details. That's why I will only increase the setting for AA when doing a high layer, low detail large print. If you are doing a mini spend the extra hour it might take to print and keep your layer level low and the AA off to keep those details crisp.
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Post by: Boss Salvage
Great work, loving the colors. Gives me '90s action figure / cartoon vibes.
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Post by: Flinty
Well that’s the shuttle printed. Took about 48 hours in all at 100micron layer height. I think it’s come out pretty nicely. The landing gear failed due to loss of adhesion to the bed, so I’ll reprint with supports and hopefully that will deal with it.
It’s got some nice internal detailing with a partition door between a small cargo bay and 4 seats up front
I’ll see how well a layer of primer evens out the layer lines, but I think a bit of light sanding will be needed to really smooth down the Main flight surfaces.
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Post by: Flinty
Primed the shuttle. Then sanded it, then primed again using filler primer, then sanded again, then snapped one of the landing gear, then undercoated... Overly processed it now and losing interest in painting it :( Just need to get the gumption up to get the airbrush out again and it will be fine though.
Anyway, the excitement now rests with the following motley crews.
First up, the Night Watch (Print Minis excellent and amazingly modular Night Market Police). Printed at 20 micron layers, and I hadn't quite sorted my support requirements, so these are formed from the remains of various failed bits and pieces. Even then I think they are nicely atmospheric, and a great combination of organic and bionic parts, all of which are interchangable. The crouching guy is very much declaring a lack of understanding about what exactly the flippedy flip is going on up in this hizouse
Speaking of interchangeable, they are even paired up with a couple of Papsikels heads, and a set of legs from the second crew down the page
Printed them at 95% size as they are natively scaled more to 32mm. I didn't want to go much smaller, as the bits would end up being a bit slender. The big bot thing is already unfeasible snappable I think and probably won't last long on the table
Compared here with a handy Van Saar and Reiver. Maybe a touch tall compared to GW fare, but not too far our as a baseline, or modded human.
And then onto the ladies. I got these from the recent printing Humble Bundle, and they are Albino Raven's excellent modular female soldiers. Again, a random selection of the available bits that I smooshed together with limited thought. The details are excellent, but a bit fiddly to get perfect, so there are a few minor mis-prints that I'm just not bothered enough to reject. Cover it all in olive drab and sand camo, and it'll all fade away. Again, printed at 20 micron layer heights, and I got a good success rate after a second round of support trials.
The helmets in particular I find particularly awesome, in a modern tacticool way ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) I tried to print some delta-style light helmet heads, but there was something wrong with the supports so they all failed.
And a pair with some more sci-fi style heads courtesy of Keta-minis' recent kickstarter:
And a scaling shot against GW stuff. These were printed at 90%, and still are super-tall giraffe ladies compared to standard GW fare. However, at arms length, it will be hard to tell really, and if they are ever used it will be for something like Stargrave where a bit of scale difference really doesn't matter given the whole galaxy of available differences in the human norm
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Post by: Flinty
Yaaay, my kickstarters are starting to deliver.
First up are a couple of things from the Fool's Hope campaign.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tiborbattletank/outpost-40-fools-hope?ref=user_menu
A nice little colony industrial set with a power station, workshop thingy and a couple of generic utility vehicles that should work nicely in Ash Wastes (if I ever play such a thing).
It also comes with a nice colony flak defence turret that looks nice and meaty. Currently getting the weapons for both printed up in resin on the Mono to get a nicer finish. Happy with the finish of the main bits using filament, but weapons and barrels never come out quite right for me using FDM. There is another slightly larger truck thingy in this set as well, that I need to sort out as well to get a proper wastes motor pool going, alongside my old Rhino based transporter and multi-legged utility vehicles.
Hit the vehicle with a quick rattle can zenithal prime. Trying to decide if I go blue, grey or yellow for this one
Scales nicely with my Stargrave models, and should be fine with my Van Saar crew as well.
Lining up a few fast-print buildings as well from here
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/digitaltaxidermy/fast-terrain?ref=user_menu
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Post by: Paradigm
If you want really fast terrain prints, look up stuff that can be printed in spiralise/vase/VMT mode. There's not a massive amount out there specifically made for it, but some things that have fairly simple geomerty can be edited a bit to work with it (the Make Solid tool in Meshmixer is a good start) and while you trade off some detail, the print is super-fast as it's just one continuous wall, no retractions or infill. Not massive sturdy, but cheap and ludicrously quick way to fill out a board.
I've done a few edits to assorted Thingiverse building files to get them printing in this mode, let me know if you want them.
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks Para, but that would only add to my massive pile of shame ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) I picked up the set largely because of the design rather than the print efficiency.
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Post by: Flinty
No further on the outpost stuff, but I e been printing some of Digital Taxidermy’s fast terrain. Very much does what it says on the tin
Starting with a couple of standard hab units, one with interior walls and one without. The floor is a bit springy if it’s put as a second floor, but pla is pretty robust so should be able to stack easily and safely. Having the interior walls will help support as well. The roof is a we bit thicker so that much more stiff.
The buildings print in about 10hours each, and the roof in 2 to 5 depending on whether you want barriers or not. Detailing is simple but effective. Very happy with this set. It also has walkways and greeblies, but not sure how much of that I’ll go for.
Currently printing another couple of roof variants, then it’s on to Watcorp’s wasteland cargo train
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Post by: Albertorius
That's looking great! Kinda dig the floor lattice.
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Post by: Flinty
Yeah, for gaming it’s really handy as you can’t lose models under solid flooring. You can always assume you can’t fire through it.
There are some stairs that go with the set as well.
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Post by: Flinty
First transport car for the Watcorp ash wastes transporter. Nice solid print, and goes together smoothly.
Printed at 0.1 layer height for a bit more refinement. Took most of a day, but I’m not really in a hurry.
It fits a munitorum container oerfectly, as advertised. Unfortunately it’s a hair too narrow for a set of hard foam containers I also have, but that’s no matter. I have enough containers for a couple of cars, and can use the hard foam ones and scenery.
My only niggle is the wheel pins you can see in the final pic. You need to feed these through the suspension assemblies, and I think I’ll need to use pliers as my fingers are too big to fit.
Waiting for a new spool today to get the hauler printed with.
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Post by: Flinty
Hauler printed and now primed. Goes together really nicely.
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Post by: MDSW
Wow, the lattice-style floor is a super cool idea and technique not only for the aesthetic, but for the reason you mention - well done!!
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Post by: Flinty
I can’t take credit. It’s all on Digital Taxidermy
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Post by: Flinty
I need to reconfigure my painting space again. The lamp I have has a clamp to attach to the table, but I don't have any convenient table edges. However, I do have a 3D printer!
A simple set of problem solving ensued. What could I create to clamp a lamp to, that wouldn't fall over.
Well the base shape was easy enough to sort using simple shapes, embossing and boolean remove command from 3D Builder:
So how do I stop it falling over? Bring on the random free-weight we happen to have kicking about in the house!
And then clamp the lamp on there:
The 2.5kg weight feels like it hefty enough to stop the lamp going anywhere at pretty much any angle that I might want to get it to. The base is nice and wide and feels pretty stable. I think I'll need some blu- tac in there just to stop the weight shifting as I was a bit generous on the tolerance.
And a group show with the prototype that I messed up the slot width, meaning that the lamp clamp didn't fit... d'oh!
Victory. Now to rejig the actual desk space as its currently covered in random nonsense.
Automatically Appended Next Post: If I had really been thinking I could have integrated paintbrush/tool storage into the thing
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Post by: Flinty
I was just getting up to speed on some random FDM scenery and paint racks and the dreaded nozzle blockage descended :(
Even just received a brand new spool and everything. Now it will be down time for a while until I can get the momentum up to take the thing apart to swap out the nozzle. Oh well, I have a bunch of stuff in the paint queue anyway, and I can always spin up the Photon if I need more
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Post by: lord_blackfang
You get used to it, I get a clog about every 2kg of filament when the PTFE tube gets sticky from constant reheating. Snip off half an inch of tube, clear the clog and off we go again.
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Post by: MDSW
lord_blackfang wrote:You get used to it, I get a clog about every 2kg of filament when the PTFE tube gets sticky from constant reheating. Snip off half an inch of tube, clear the clog and off we go again.
Yes, I have found the last time I replaced my tube to leave and extra inch or so to help when snipping off the end to reinsert into the hot end is a time and life saver.
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Post by: Flinty
Its my fist clog! I've run about 30kg of PETG and PLA through this thing without any problems. I don't even know if I have a PTFE tube in here... I think there will be no more Prusa-ing for a while until I get the time to take the print head apart.
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Post by: MDSW
Flinty wrote:Its my fist clog! I've run about 30kg of PETG and PLA through this thing without any problems. I don't even know if I have a PTFE tube in here... I think there will be no more Prusa-ing for a while until I get the time to take the print head apart.
Depends if your printer is direct drive or uses a bowden tube. Direct drive has the extruder motor and gear right on top of the hotend nozzle and the bowden set up has the extruder off to the side and feeds the filament through a tube to the hotend. I have had both and had to deal with clogs on both from time to time.
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Post by: Flinty
It has an extruder motor feeding directly into the heat block thermal break heatsink thingy.
So a direct drive I guess.
The heat block is a disaster zone after various failed prints, so I'm just going to replace it and the nozzle. I've been needing to replace the thermistor for ages, and the grub screw has stripped out, so a wee mid-life refresh seems to be in order.
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Post by: Flinty
Me, me, its me. I have a Madcat
My absolutely favourite Mech ever. I've been meaning to print one for ages, and finally bit the bullet and had a go with a free file off MMF.
Its a beauty of a model. Its designed as an action figure basically, with click-in and out joints and articulation. However, while I would love a Madcat action figure, printing it at its intended scale would need an FDM, and it would be all ridgey. So I scaled it down to my horizon Wars 10mm-ish scale and combined some of the smaller bits like toes, feet and arms.
I think it works nicely. Its little friend is a super-heavy printed at the same scale.
And with a raygun raptor and random 28mm scale medic figure.
I'm thinking a white/grey mountain camo scheme.
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Post by: Overread
If you are into Battletech check out Matt Mason on Patreon (also now on tribes and MMF)
https://www.patreon.com/Syllogy
LOTS of battlemechs and he released a MadCat in the last day or two
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Post by: Flinty
I played some battletech back in the day, but I don't play much of anything just now due to various life reasons. I almost printed Sylollogy's version of this thing, but it was redone specifically for 6mm scale, so I went for downscaling a more detailed model, rather than upscaling that one. I'm sure it would have worked fine though.
I guess I might see if there is a Bushwhacker to complete my nostalgia from the days of MW2
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Post by: Overread
There are at least 2 variations of Bushwhacker somewhere in his patreon. You might have to hunt around a bit and I think they are in one of 3 collected blocks he did of mechs (either he did a collected download or I sorted them into a collected block, not sure which)
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Post by: Flinty
He has 2 versions on MMF. I might buy the $2 one in thanks
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Post by: Overread
You're welcome
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Post by: Flinty
And all printed up. I think I underscaled it a bit. The Madcat is a 75ton mech while the Bushwacker is 55 ton. I tried to scale it out based on height, but I think the bushwacker needs to be quite a bit more bulky to look right next to it. Lovely models though.
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Post by: Flinty
Reprinted the Bushwacker a bit bigger, and I think it works a lot better.
Also finished painting the Madcat and Bobcat
And here with a couple of the Horizon Wars tanks I did a while back
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Post by: Flinty
The deep dustsiders speak softly of a legendary archeotech find eons ago. There was a freighter of Old Earth lost in transit. How it ended up here nobody knows, but the treasures that old noble steed of the stars carried have enriched this world beyond measure. They say that the ship was named for a paradise on earth. A cornucopia of plenty where no one want d for any earthly delight. The true legacy of that ship, and that mighty land of awe, is found across the galaxy now. Wherever traffic needs diverted, wherever a boundary needs to be set out, wherever privacy is needed (and provided the locals can’t climb very well) the bounty of the Ger’seey is found!
In other words, I printed some jersey barriers to act as simple linear cover for anything that needs it
That is two build plates duplicating the most useful bits. There are a range of shorter barriers and various curves, but I didn’t want to go mental. The standard straights should be fine.
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Post by: Graphite
Class
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Post by: Flinty
I made a thingy. I am printing a larger hollowed piece and reckoned that some internal curing might help.
I saw something similar on Etsy and decided to give it a try myself. I had visions of having to get all the components individually and bodge it together, however in the end I found uv leds pre fitted with wires, and a handy battery box with a fitted switch. Two simple solder joints later and I have a modular led up source that should slot inside the thingy.
Cost less than the Etsy version for two sets and some spare LEDs
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Post by: Flinty
Used the LEDs to cure the inside of my replacement spider-monstrosity:
I printed one of these when I was first starting the printing journey, but it was before I dialed in my settings, so the rear end was pretty wrecked. So I did a replacement. Trialled hollowing, and internal curing on this guy.
Also works quite nicely as a 32mm scale monstrosity as well (if you ignore the tiny ventral defence guns)
Entering it for this month's painting comp. Lets see if I get it finished.
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Post by: Flinty
Spider mech progress:
The highlights are maybe a bit too yellow, but I think it looks ok. Now to go back in with the hairy brush for details.
What this update is really about though is some new Kickstarter toys that dropped recently. Not-Sampsons! Larc utility VTOLs from Kore Games.
this one is done up as a medevac transport with saviour pods and enhanced imaging kit. There were a stack of drones I planned to add to the front pylons, but they ended up waaaaay too small for this scale, so I left them off.
Also have a pair of gunships with missiles and rockets.
And a group shot with my other Horizon Wars stuff for scale:
I had to work out my own scale for the models, so I scaled it broadly off the Huey for height, which is about right. However, I think my tanks, while correct for height, are overly large in terms of width and length compared to modern armoured vehicles.
I think they look ok together though. the LARCs should still be able to carry 6-8 people if they are feeling friendly
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Post by: Albertorius
I see you're busy!
Excellent stuff, I quite like the red/orange on the crab mech, and the not-Samsoms look amazing.
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Post by: Flinty
Thanks! Now Ivee pondered it a bit more the LARCs are too small by comparison. Thankfully, it’s an easy job to bump the size up a bit ![](/s/i/a/c944477abc92c1c101da485e07ff06d8.gif) no failures on the last bed, so it should be clean enough. The only question is if I can still get 3 of them on the bed. Then when I have the scale set I can print the Stork, which is what the Kickstarter was actually about
Really tempted to do one at 28mm scale as well. They are lovely pieces. Might give AA another shot as well to reduce the print lines.
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Post by: Flinty
Reprinted about 30% bigger, and I think this is much more like it. Still managed to fit 3 on the bed, and the fuselage is much more in scale with my other stuff.
I have a Stork waiting on the print bed, but I’ll deal with that tomorrow. Need to finish the spider mech today.
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Post by: lord_blackfang
That's precious!
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Post by: Flinty
The baby LARCs have just been joined by some heavy lift capabilities. Got the Stork printed up. Some minor deformation due to my print settings and curing, but nothing major, especially at this scale. I really like this model. I have 4 containers curing on the window ledge just now to go with it, so I can do one attached and the rest as scenery.
Currently on the undercoating turntable.
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Post by: Flinty
I have been on a bit of a break form printing, but have done a few more bits for Battletech, which I'm dropping back into:
Urbies:
The Kintaro with a bit of slapchopping on it:
and this beautiful monstrosity
I backed a couple of kickstarter and Frontier thingies as well over the past few months, so I need to get them on the plate. a decent deal on resin has led to another litre in my magazines to do a bit more with
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Post by: Flinty
Completed the battle armour, and printed some kind of map scale Leopard dropship as well
Next up in the queue are a bunch of building gubbins that I can use to dress up the quick print buildings I printed a while back. Cables, control panels, lights and suchlike.
Also I backed a rather cool modular mech set recently that I need to make a few of. The resin will start flowing again soon
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Post by: Fluid_Fox
That battle armor is awesome
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Post by: Flinty
Moving onto a different scale of mech. I recently backed an MMF Frontier thing for Modular Mechs. And have now burned through about a litre of resin to give birth to 4 of these beauties.
I’ve just finished assembling the medium mech, scaled against a random marine sized space lizard. They are beasts!
Everything was printed using presupported parts and only a single component failure out of about 10 build plates. Lovely stuff!
And out of this box and another imilar box will rise 2 lights and a heavy mech in the same style.
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Post by: Albertorius
Oh boy, that looks amazing! Is the Frontiers thingie still going? I'd be quite interested in taking a look at those myself...
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Post by: Flinty
I think it’s just transitioned over to being normally available on the MMF site. Again with the wonders of printing, 4 amazing quality mechs with a range of awesome weapons for about £50 of resin and files.
The presupported files are also hollowed so it’s all really efficient, and the walls are thin enough that I think sunlight can cure most of the inside given a bit of time, but I sped up the process with an led probe.
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-modular-mechs-builder-vol-1-268320
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Post by: Overread
He's also working on another mech campaign right now
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Post by: Albertorius
Neat, thank you both
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Post by: Flinty
Ooh, cool. I really like the aesthetic he’s hit on being anime, but more appleseed/GITS rather than Gundam.
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Post by: Flinty
Quick update pics on progress. Got the main sub assemblies glued together now. Just missing one pair of legs due to a misprint.
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