Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

That was very evil, giving you a 3D printer Already excited for your forays into printing with it next year. Even more interesting stuff should pop up here

Gitsplitta wrote:Ohmygosh... 3d printer in your hands! Dakka just became a much more interesting place!

Dangerous place. DANGEROUS.

Theophony wrote:I’m glad you have given into the printing universe .

You can do more than just make cookies

Well, having done the test print of the Rook files that come with it, I have put together my first plate for stuff: a Tiefling for use as Blue Devil, a couple of Transformers cinematic blasts for the boy to use in his stop motions, a pillar for Shadows of Brimstone, an R5 unit and a console for SWIA:

First prints on my Mars Pro 2, done in 1hr 47. Thoughts and queries, L-R.

R5 and visitor bust - both worked perfectly, very happy.
Targa pillar - slight bulging, I wonder if this is because rather than printing vertically I printed it on its side and the resin has pooled?
Console - you can see that the base has cracked where I removed it from the plate with a metal scraper. This is my biggest worry, that I'm finding it really hard to release things from the plate; any advise?
Tiefling - arms have collapsed completely, should I have added supports? (And if so, how?!)
Not pictured - 2 cinematic blast effects for transformers that simply didn't print. Weird.

Slinky wrote:A whole new world!

As long as it's not the awful remake, that's fine lol.

viterbi wrote:that was very evil, giving you a 3d printer :d already excited for your forays into printing with it next year. even more interesting stuff should pop up here

Entirely evil, I quite agree

First impressions from starting Shadows of Brimstone (City of the Ancients) with my kids:

So, the game is fun they are enjoying it, and find the mechanics intuitive. We seem to rack up stuff fairly quickly and that gives a good sense of progression that they find satisfying. Trips to frontier towns seem to run a disproportionately high chance of negative results. I can see, perhaps, why folk recommend the expansion to iron that out.

Personally, I find the minis a bit irritating from a build side - lack of base tabs, quite gappy, monopose yet fussy. Plastic is good quality, nice details, and fairly evocative.

Their impressions compared to other games: the older one doesn't feel particularly immersed in the game world, in the way he does with licensed products, but likes the supernatural horror elements. The younger really likes the setting, and weaving the story together. However, even after just a couple of games he's noticing a samey quality to the monsters. They both like the encounters and the variety that brings, and the older particularly liked the fact that we ran into Goliath relatively early (that boy does love Cthulhu). So, first impressions are broadly positive; it'll be interesting to work our way fully through the COTA campaign and see how they feel at the other end.
On to a lot of gap filling
Does pain me not to playing with painted minis, but there you are.
Later, we're going to try Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion... Wish me luck
Graven

Brimstone looks neat, if it does get a little samey I'm sure you'll be homebrewing and improvising additions in no time!

As for the printing questions, I'll keep the answers brief here but can go into more detail if you want.

"Should I have added supports?" The answer is basically always yes, unless a file is specifically noted as being 'support free'. What needs supporting are 'overhangs' and 'islands'. which are any parts that aren't printing on top of an existing layer. The Tiefling's arms for instance, come down from the shoulders and thus are trying to print on 'nothing' (or rather, printing as the UV screen comes on but sticking to the vat film rather than the plate as there's nothing to hold it to the model). You then get those pancake-flat bits sticking out from the shoulders as that's where the failed parts finally attach to the rest of the print.

As for removing from the plate, similar to the above you generally never want to print directly onto it, for the reason you've already noted, it can be a nightmare to remove. In whatever slicer you're using, there should be a setting ()probably in the supports interface) to lift the print above the plate. a good rule of thumb is to lift 5mm, tilt back about 5-15° and support from there.

If you're up for some homework, watch through this playlist and try setting up a print along with it, the production values are shaky but the info is solid. It's not everything you'll ever need to know to get good prints, but it's a good 90% of the initial learning curve simplified and concise. Then there are some more advanced videos on that same channel that will make sense after you've got the basics down.

Apologies if that's information overload, hopefully it will alleviate some of the inevitable mess, frustration and eventual 'eureka' moments that come with the strange world of printing.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC4QzbTxrEF-fA1OC_-zE_4f6n1K-w2SS

Oh, also, filter your resin and clean out the tank before your next print, odds are there are some failed parts stuck to the film (especially the two that didn't print at all) which will dent the film or potentially even damage the screen if not removed. You might have already done this, but it is something it's easy to overlook.

That's cool to hear that your boy is making stop-motion.

Nice work with the prints. For the pillar, did you have supports on it at all, or flat on it's side on the build plate?

SoB can feel a little samey with just one of the boxes. When you start adding in the expansion sets and new otherworlds it becomes crazily varied as the sheer number of monsters can become a challenge in itself. I'd suggest picking and choosing the expansions that appeal to you (while sticking to the otherworld themes) and slowly growing. I've got everything from the first two kickstarters and havn't seen half of it yet. The next best purchase is the other wild west starter box as you'll have 4 more heroes to pick from and a new selection of monsters. There are loads of new missions and monsters on BGG as well

@Paradigm thanks so much for the outstanding advice. Much to chew on.

Syro_ wrote:That's cool to hear that your boy is making stop-motion.

He's been playing with Stop Motion Pro for a couple of years now. Of course, now he's distracted by 3D modelling

endtransmission wrote:Nice work with the prints. For the pillar, did you have supports on it at all, or flat on it's side on the build plate?

SoB can feel a little samey with just one of the boxes. When you start adding in the expansion sets and new otherworlds it becomes crazily varied as the sheer number of monsters can become a challenge in itself. I'd suggest picking and choosing the expansions that appeal to you (while sticking to the otherworld themes) and slowly growing. I've got everything from the first two kickstarters and havn't seen half of it yet. The next best purchase is the other wild west starter box as you'll have 4 more heroes to pick from and a new selection of monsters. There are loads of new missions and monsters on BGG as well

Good advice squire. Is the other Wild West starter Swamps? Struggling to find it but will continue to keep an eye out. The pillar was flat on its side - a mistake I've learned from

Speaking of which, we're setting up print number 3:

Another pillar, a test tree, a pre-supported dwarf beer wench, another attempt at a cinematic blast effect, and a junk droid. The boy and I have been studying up...

Also, rather annoyingly, I picked up some epic thunderbolts and marauders, with a notion to orkify them, but they are TERRIBLY small.


So, if anyone wants them, fire me a pm. Dakka gets dibs.

On the other hand, I also got a Reaper Bones Astrolabe and it's HUGE! too big, really - I was thinking it would be 40mm high ish, instead it's about 100 and ~60 across the bottom. But I love it. So I shall build it, and it will appear in games as scenery the astrolabe is a size 2 object in Hellboy - person sized - whereas this is ... A... Bit... Bigger but then quite fitting for arcane instruments

Today, we tried Gloomhaven - Jaws of the Lion. Older boy thought it was ok, not gripped by narrative, willing to give it a go, though wants to play some more SWIA. Younger boy really didn't like it, card driven combat mechanic primarily. I think it's possibly to old for them, or at least youngling - he's much more keen to keep going with Shadows and, tbh, I kinda see where he's coming from. Maybe it's my fondness for Deadlands, but it's the campaign I'm keen to get back to. Hey ho.
Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll have news of the print ...
Till then
Graven

Tiny indeed those epic models... Always love to see what people can do with 3D pirnters, I will need to get one at some point too...

Big, but a great terrain piece for Epic D&D adventure. Also, more of an Orrery than an Astrolabe.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CH1XnRrndOz/

 inmygravenimage wrote:


Good advice squire. Is the other Wild West starter Swamps? Struggling to find it but will continue to keep an eye out. The pillar was flat on its side - a mistake I've learned from

Yes, Swamps of Jargano, though the Forbidden Fortress starter is also really solid but doesn't follow the Wild West theme. It does, however, act as 2 new Otherworlds so you can start in Japan and can end up in the American desert anyway. Some fantastic monsters in that one.

CommissarKhaine wrote:Tiny indeed those epic models... Always love to see what people can do with 3D pirnters, I will need to get one at some point too...

It's a blessing and a curse, I'm discovering.

Briancj wrote:Big, but a great terrain piece for Epic D&D adventure. Also, more of an Orrery than an Astrolabe.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CH1XnRrndOz/

Quite so!

endtransmission wrote:
Yes, Swamps of Jargano, though the Forbidden Fortress starter is also really solid but doesn't follow the Wild West theme. It does, however, act as 2 new Otherworlds so you can start in Japan and can end up in the American desert anyway. Some fantastic monsters in that one.

If I could've got FoFo at the time, I would've. One for the future. Not going to run it of choices for expansion.

Right. Here's the first proper set of our prints:

Going through them:
Pre-supported dwarf beer wench, about 35mm (big for a dwarf), lovely figure and very informative for learning about placement of supports.
Tree, which allegedly was support free. Auto supported it, glad I did. I'll now do bigger versions.
Targa pylon, needed more support underneath, gone a bit wonky.
T3 droid, bit big (Legion, not SWIA) but happy with it regardless. I did the supports, worked well.
Ghostbusters blaster with peg for Transformers, with blast effect with own peg - boy did all the supports, and his reward is a full print is now in overnight of other blast effects.
That's tomorrow's excitement planned
Me and the boys took a dive down into the mines of Brimstone again...

Only to have the mine collapse at the end of the adventure, and have to find our way out! Excellent adventure, strong narrative, and great link to the next adventure which was likewise very enjoyable. Now we've found a gate to the Other World, guess I know where we're going next ...
2020 has been a very productive year, with all its ups and downs. I'll do a full review next week, but thanks all for you support. 930 painted - couldn't have done without you! I'd love to hear what your favourites were
Big nerd love,
Graven

Hurrah, those prints look great. If you wanted the droid in a smaller scale for IA, Chitubox does let you rescale models, it's the third button down the left when you're laying out the plate. (just keep in mind it'll remove any supports, so rescale then support). That Dwarf looks like an Artisan Guild one if I'm not mistaken, they are great to learn from as their presupports are generally very well done, I've printed loads of theirs with few errors.

930 is a hell of a score, one to be proud of!

930 minis in a year is incredible, I wish I could achieve just a fraction of that!

930 is jaw-dropping, particularly when you look at the consistently high quality of your output!

Bravo, sir, bravo!

Paradigm wrote:Hurrah, those prints look great. If you wanted the droid in a smaller scale for IA, Chitubox does let you rescale models, it's the third button down the left when you're laying out the plate. (just keep in mind it'll remove any supports, so rescale then support). That Dwarf looks like an Artisan Guild one if I'm not mistaken, they are great to learn from as their presupports are generally very well done, I've printed loads of theirs with few errors.

930 is a hell of a score, one to be proud of!

Well it turns out the T3 droid really is that big, so I'm not fussed. The wench is indeed Artisan's guild, though I only now discover they are 54mm learning process on my next print I'm going scale down one of their demon portals for general use.

aku-chan wrote:930 minis in a year is incredible, I wish I could achieve just a fraction of that!

It WAS a very strange year, to be fair.

Slinky wrote:930 is jaw-dropping, particularly when you look at the consistently high quality of your output!
Bravo, sir, bravo!

Lol quantity over quality, truly.

Me and the boys finished phase 1 of our Brimstone campaign today:

We collapsed the mine that was causing the townsfolk's troubles, levelled up but found many mysterious artefacts from another world - guess campaign part two beckons!

We printed out a set of cinematic blast effects for Transformers overnight, riding the Earthrise hype:

One failed, randomly, and one missile had issues with its 3mm peg slot so I'm going to have to very carefully drill that out. But the rest worked brilliantly, and he's one very happy kid. War for Cybertron is go!

So here's a run down of my 21 hobby pledges for '21:
1) First and foremost - not to try to aim for any set number! If I do 365 (or more!), great, if not, not a big deal.
2) Build, paint and play Armada - got the starter stuff, just got to get it done!
3) Paint my remaining BMG and DCU figs - ideally before the new ones turn up!
4) Complete Dreadball - track down the last promo fig Tycho, try to track down a set of the promo Frenzy dice, maybe get an MDF pitch, and get the last couple of non-promos painted - and play some more [REDACTED]
5) Paint up Strontium Dog stuff - I've ended up with a set of the Scum of Universe and of course my not-Klegg, plus the building from the starter set, so that'll be fun - and play more Dredd vs SD vs AI opponents (tweaking our AI system!)
6) Paint up Reaper figs for the fun of it - no other reason needed!
7) Organise my Star Wars Imperial Assault Collection - this really means get another carry case Did I mention I got Luke Skywalker, Wookies and Hired guns at last?
8) Paint up some 3-D Prints - lots made, so let's do something with them!
9) Explore Shadows of Brimstone - it's a massive hit with the kids, and I'll take that and run with it.
10) Kitbash/print some more Aeronautica - haven't actually played in ages, so some hobby might help the motivation
11) Get back into Gaslands - haven't played with toy cars in ages. SHAME!
12) Learn how to use the printer a bit more - kinda obvious, but still...
13) Get a real-life game of BMG3rd - this is obviously hugely optimistic, but a guy can dream.
14) Play more AoS with the kids and help #2 get his AoS Stormcast up and running - he's shown an interest at last, so I need to figure out how to help him with that.
15) Finally get my Copperhead conversion finished - she's been sitting on my desk for ages
16) Build some Void 1.1 - ah, retro (ish) gaming. Loved a bit of Void back in the day, and I've got a squad of Viridian Interceptors to attend to.
17) Work on getting my painting back up to where I was 4 years ago - I've not really had any hand episodes this past year; the regular painting of the last year seems to have helped build up a lot of muscle strength. Now, it's about getting the technique back.
18) Give Gloomhaven JotL another go - it was a big investment, not ready to write it off yet!
19) Paint and play Moonstone - we've now got a mat and everything! Woo!
20) Reorganise my hobby desk drawer - I want to clear this out and make it solely for game components (cards, templates, dice), rather than the mish mash it is just now.
21) Finally, the big one - try to keep my hobby area tidy! Aye right
Best of the season to you all,
Graven

930 models is something most gamers I know will never paint in their entire LIFETIME, much less one year.

Glad the printer is working for you, at least mostly working.

That's a lot planned for 2021, if we didn't already know what you are capable of we would think it was unrealistic
I hope you are able to get in some games of BMG. Out of curiosity what does army does your older son play in AoS? You've probably mentioned it, but if so I have forgotten.

So, only triple digits in the end, shame on you scnr. 930 is mighty impressive and your plans for 2021 are pretty cool, excited for the things to come!

Looking forward to your new resolutions and congrats on painting over 900 minis in a year. That 3D printer should keep you quite busy this year.

21 pledges? I'm happy if I can make 1 . Loving to hear about the 3d printing as well: most of my friends that have one seem to spend equal times troubleshooting and churning out brilliant stuff.

Theophony wrote:930 models is something most gamers I know will never paint in their entire LIFETIME, much less one year.

Glad the printer is working for you, at least mostly working.

Cheers! It really is, though I need to be a bit more disciplined about masks and gloves

Syro_ wrote:That's a lot planned for 2021, if we didn't already know what you are capable of we would think it was unrealistic
I hope you are able to get in some games of BMG. Out of curiosity what does army does your older son play in AoS? You've probably mentioned it, but if so I have forgotten.

Eldest plays nighthaunts, and trying to coerce younger into stormcast do he has an opponent other than my daemonic hordes.

Viterbi wrote:So, only triple digits in the end, shame on you scnr. 930 is mighty impressive and your plans for 2021 are pretty cool, excited for the things to come!

Lol you and me both

Yorkright wrote: Looking forward to your new resolutions and congrats on painting over 900 minis in a year. That 3D printer should keep you quite busy this year.

That's the hope/fear. Though my Curer (Mercury) timer button seems to have broken very annoying can still be operated. Maybe I'll print a be button

CommissarKhaine wrote:21 pledges? I'm happy if I can make 1 . Loving to hear about the 3d printing as well: most of my friends that have one seem to spend equal times troubleshooting and churning out brilliant stuff.

High time I painted something!

Careful. This R5's got a bad motivator.

So, go big or go home, right?

He's an angry chap. We had a great game of SWIA today:

I swapped out the Royal Guard Champion for Din Djarin, we decided he was Boba Fett with +2 accuracy (longer range) rather than Mobile (can move over terrain). Royal Guards were swapped for HKs and threat spent on IG-88.

They BARELY survived. It was GREAT
More prints, still scale testing

Tree at 150% is perfect. As feared, the SW STLs are for legion so everything else has been scaled back 90% - printing just now.
I printed an abyssal gate for Shadows also

Aiming to print another in this colour and two more in trans blue.

Sadly Tiefling too big, this time
Not sure if this chap is done yet or not

Trying my hand at marble


This is for this month's dakka contest. Never painted bones before, never tried marble, never tried this scale.
In the paint queue are the Carnosaur / Beast Boy and Red Hood just now.
Next on the print line, meanwhile, be some fantasy odds and ends. A Benkei (finally, a spear wielding Oni!), a Yuma (hungry ghost), giant bear, another portal and a soul sucking sorceress that boy is going to use as a counts-as Cairn Wraith I think. After that, I've got some Aeronautica files I want to play with, Imperial Agents and Salacious Crumb, plus attempting to fix the Targa Pillars. I mean I'll find other things too, I'm sure.
Graven

New year, new techniques, and we're not even a week in! Really well done on the marble, did you use any shades or just layer on each color?

Marble is nice, you can certainly tell it's marble

Marble is looking great, glad your having fun with the printer, once you get the hang of it there will be no stopping you.

Some wonderful things happening on this page! Loved reading about your games with your kids and interesting to hear their takes on the systems. Those energy blasts for the transformer look great - looks like the printer was a present for the whole family!

Marble is looking noice, I'm glad you kept the donger, and the eye glow is suitably menacing. I think maybe a few brighter highlights would help there but not sure - I've never painted it either.

What a year of progress! Those are super impressive numbers. Looking forward to seeing where 2021 takes you!

Big Marble looks cool! Rancor brings a smile to my face. Shadows of Brimstone > Gloomhaven.

Hmm 4 days into the new year and your off to the races. That droid and Rancor look the part, well done on those two. Marbling is realistic on the statue and those prints look cool, do you have to wash them before putting ant paint on them?

Don Qui Hotep wrote:New year, new techniques, and we're not even a week in! Really well done on the marble, did you use any shades or just layer on each color?

Thanks! Marble process was:
Prime vallejo white (Reaper don't like aerosol, and it's too bloody cold anyway)
Wash seraphim sepia
Drybrush vallejo deck tan
Draw in thin y shaped lines with Vallejo air mahogany
Edge thinned white around rounded surfaces and edges of dark lines
Spot highlight pure white.

Slinky wrote:Marble is nice, you can certainly tell it's marble

Thanks old son!

Theophony wrote:Marble is looking great, glad your having fun with the printer, once you get the hang of it there will be no stopping you.

We did the Rogue One crew but overdid the supports. Going to redo them so here's hoping. I got a fantastic bear printed for beast boy, another portal and the boy's undead efforts seemed to work well too.

tzurk wrote:Some wonderful things happening on this page! Loved reading about your games with your kids and interesting to hear their takes on the systems. Those energy blasts for the transformer look great - looks like the printer was a present for the whole family!
Marble is looking noice, I'm glad you kept the donger, and the eye glow is suitably menacing. I think maybe a few brighter highlights would help there but not sure - I've never painted it either.
What a year of progress! Those are super impressive numbers. Looking forward to seeing where 2021 takes you!

Thanks matey. Eye glow needs a lot more work, I agree. We're going to do the blasts again in trans blue, along wit the portals.

youwashock wrote:Big Marble looks cool! Rancor brings a smile to my face. Shadows of Brimstone > Gloomhaven.

Cheers! Yeah I'm this close to offloading Gloomhaven. I don't have space, time or money for a game that doesn't grab me and the kids, tbh, if I can reinvest that in something they WILL play.

Yorkright wrote: Hmm 4 days into the new year and your off to the races. That droid and Rancor look the part, well done on those two. Marbling is realistic on the statue and those prints look cool, do you have to wash them before putting ant paint on them?

Yeah, but just with water. Washable eco resin is great

Okay I'm happier now with the big fella.

Thanks for input gang.

Finishing up the holidays (well, my holidays) with a GREAT game of Imperial Assault

They had to break into a disused facility and then escape under fire. They narrowly made it into a secret tunnel, scoring a partial victory but next mission is now getting back through a forest crawling with Imps and AT-STs to their transport. I really think, on a related note, that I'm going to offload Gloomhaven. Life's too short to play games I'm not invested in, and I can exchange for an unplayed copy for Heart of the Empire (Coruscant expansion) with a mate who feels similarly about IA. Equally, I not only pre-ordered the new Dreadball expansion but threw in an Orc Smasha great ship and I've not even tried Armada yet

Painted up the Reaper Carnosaur as Beast Boy

Rawr! Ama dine-saw!


Got my favourite new KM sculpt done
I love Jason Todd. It's the mark of a truly great writer (Scott Lobdell) to make me love a character I've hated every previous incarnation of.

The crowbar was missing it's tip, so I just gsd it.

Scale shot, ready for Titans S3!

And finally, back to virtual work tomorrow, so had to make the view behind my desk more professional.

Job done, right?
Hey ho
Graven

Nice work on the stone graven. I've tried that several times but it's never come out properly.

Thanks for sharing the marble recipe! I got a bunch of fun terrain this holiday that I have to paint up, and it will be fun to experiment with marble effects. Dino fierce and Todd looks dangerous.

RIP Gloomhaven, never got a chance to try it myself. The card-based combat sounded neat, but what doesn't grab ya doesn't grab ya. Glad you're able to make a clean trade of it for more IA goodness.

THE RANCOR IS AWESOME!

Sorry to yell. I got excited.

The statue dude looks good as well.
The backdrop for work calls is excellent. Quite professional indeed.