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And me too. I have a feeling though in the end there will be some minis that will be better done in regular resin molds.. and then I can save the more dynamic poses for 3D. Like those Chupacabra minis, every arm and leg is a separate piece. I'd love to be able to print them out each as 1 big piece.
Getting closer now, only about $750 to go! Hoping for a nice last day boost tonight & tomorrow to push us over the edge and hopefully also get Brooke and maybe another stretch goal or 2 unlocked
We decided to resculpt the Jackalope minis. Here's the first one. What do you think?
These minis will be produced direct from the 3D file, no molds used at all. This way we won't need to have a bunch of teeny pieces for the horns and head and legs, he'll be all 1 piece. You'll just have to clean up and file away the 3D print supports, rather than cleaning up mold lines & flash.
Once we get all 3 sculpted, we'll be launching the Pledge Manger. We'll be using CrowdOx for the PM this time, instead of my old online store. Should just be another week or so if all goes well
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/04/06 14:34:30
That is a great Jackalope! Interesting that you are another on the list of companies switching to 3d printed miniatures rather than traditional casting.
I basically pledged for those guys and the Jersey Devil, so I'm excited. Will the other two minis echo the other two poses of the original trio? I liked the hunched one a lot. He looked like he was plotting something.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I also wouldn't mind a little more fuzzy wuzzy meat on their bones. The one you show is good, and I would be happy with him, but he looks a bit more fragile than the originals to me.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/04/06 16:09:52
Yep the other 2 will have poses similar to the original sculpts. It’s actually going to be the same 3D model as this one, just in different positions. The antlers will be different for all 3 too. I kind of wanted them to have a sickly look to them, not be like plump or fluffy bunnies so that’s how they ended up being more skin n bones. I think it works though since they are minions, they basically just to eat the scraps left over by the bigger beasts. So that makes em extra ferocious when they’re about to bite someone’s foot off.
3D print production is the way to go for the future. I think we’re gonna see lots more “boutique” companies doing it too. I think Kingdom Death even had a 3D printed mini recently, but maybe it was a limited thing. Since we only need a couple hundred copies rather than a couple thousand, it’s more economical and easier to do. The costs are pretty much on par with traditional resin casting, and even though printing is slow it ends up being about the same about of time as making new rubber molds every 30 or so casts, waiting for the resin to harden, etc. Less labor intensive too. I think over the years we will see the costs of DLP printers dropping too which will make it even easier for newer companies to get into 3D production.
It's your decision, but why sickly? That's not an adjective I usually associate with Jackalopes. They usually seem hale and hearty, even a bit smug with all their "Hee hee Hee. can't catch me! Fast as can be!"
Everyone has their own tastes, but I like the skin and bones look. He basically just looks like a rabbit without the fur, which fits with the horror element.
At Games Workshop, we believe that how you behave does matter. We believe this so strongly that we have written it down in the Games Workshop Book. There is a section in the book where we talk about the values we expect all staff to demonstrate in their working lives. These values are Lawyers, Guns and Money.
I'm hoping to have everything from this campaign be 3D printed, except the large models like Tunka and Tiny (due to size). Worst case if production will take too long we might to some sets in regular resin too just to split up the work load. But all will be resin. Any older models from the previous campaign will be metal.
One day when old stock wears out the older minis will switch to 3D prints as well, but that will probably not be for a while yet.
Might be fun to make a Giant Jackalope some day that is like the one from the twilight zone, forgot about that
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/04/09 18:27:30
3D print production is the way to go for the future. I think we’re gonna see lots more “boutique” companies doing it too. I think Kingdom Death even had a 3D printed mini recently, but maybe it was a limited thing. Since we only need a couple hundred copies rather than a couple thousand, it’s more economical and easier to do. The costs are pretty much on par with traditional resin casting, and even though printing is slow it ends up being about the same about of time as making new rubber molds every 30 or so casts, waiting for the resin to harden, etc. Less labor intensive too. I think over the years we will see the costs of DLP printers dropping too which will make it even easier for newer companies to get into 3D production.
I've been pondering this exact thing (as I'm trying to set up and develop my own game company and games), and I was starting to head to the same conclusion. Kinda heartening to see someone else reach it as well. I was also thinking you may wind up being to save a little bit on warehousing since you can, more or less, print on demand. And you won't have mold storage, either.
Out of curiosity, what resin are you planning to use for production and what printers do you have, if you don't mind sharing? I've done some experimentation with Fun To Do resins and really liked their properties, but always curious about other materials.
I'm not doing the printing myself, I have a 3rd party who will be handling that (Garage Gaming). But I do eventually hope to invest in my own printer and do print on demand minis just like you suggested. It's great for a small company if you can afford the printer. I was planning to get my own printer with the funds from this Kickstarter, but decided against it.. I want to be able to afford to get new sculpts done for the next campaign and also afford high end pro-painting that I think will go a long way in helping the presentation and hopefully bringing more in next time.
Anyway what you want is a DLP printer. SLA printers are more common I think, but they are very slow.. great for printing 1 or 2 master copies, but for production you want DLP because you can fill your whole print area and print more minis in the same amount of time as a SLA printer would do 1. SLA uses more like focused lasers I think, while DLP uses a HD projector so it can project the whole screen rather than concentrate on a small area.
The printer I was looking at is the Solus printer, it's a bit cheaper at under $4000, because you also need a separate PC to hook up to it, it basically treats the printer's projector as a monitor. Another good one is Envisiontec.. I forget the name of it, but it came out to like $6000. I think you don't need the extra PC for it, and it has a larger print area too. I will probably end up going with the Solus and a cheap $400 laptop to run it.
Look up some of Dark Severance's posts, he has lots of great info on 3D printing
Cheers, @Necros. I've got a DLP (Sprintray) and have been playing with it some. It's a little smallish on the print bed size, but yeah, DLP is definitely the way to go for this stuff.
Its pretty sturdy, really a lot like typical resin you see on minis. Maybe a little less brittle, not that I've tried to break them. Actually when you hold them it feels kinda more like GW plastic minis than resin minis.
Does it feel like the Shapeways stuff? I don't know if they were printed, but the Fly My Hawkmen minis felt exactly like the frosty white material from Shapeways, kind of a light, gritty plastic.
Definitely not like Shapeways they will be just like "normal" resin, no frosty or gritty bits. I have a couple of samples, I'll take some pics later tonight
bbb wrote: How durable are the 3d prints versus metal or resin?
Some of the 3d printer resins are pretty darn good, actually. The Fun To Do Snow White and Deep Black that I've been playing with are just about as durable as injected polystyrene. A couple of others I've tried are about the same as most other resin miniatures (so not as durable as metal, but this shouldn't be surprising).
I agree that we'll probably see more and more of this as technology improves and the price point for capable printers drops. I will likely have to pick up some of those Jackalopes (just because) when they're widely available (can't do the KS right now...) so I can see how they turned out.
Valander wrote: Cheers, @Necros. I've got a DLP (Sprintray) and have been playing with it some. It's a little smallish on the print bed size, but yeah, DLP is definitely the way to go for this stuff.
I looked at the Moonray printer by Sprintway but getting answers to sales questions seemed to take a week. It also seemed there was a language barrier as some of the terms they used were correct. The sample I got was good but too rough to be used as masters. Technical support and parts were important to me because I can't go down, need to get replacement parts, equipment within a couple days so I kept to places that had US Distributors.
Formlabs Form 2 was good. We use it for larger models. But since it is SLA one miniature can take 8-11 hours and if I add multiples, they multiple the time so 10 miniatures could take 80 hours. DLP is just superior for details and print speed but at the sacrifice of print area. Solus can do the same miniature in 2-3 hours, but if I add multiples it is the same time. I can fit 3-6 on a plate so in 2-3 hours have them done. EnvisionTec is what I use for most production runs since it will fit 10-20 miniatures on a build plate and print all of them in about 1.5-2 hours. The material for the EnvisionTec is more than the material for the Solus though, which is more than Formlabs materials.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Does it feel like the Shapeways stuff? I don't know if they were printed, but the Fly My Hawkmen minis felt exactly like the frosty white material from Shapeways, kind of a light, gritty plastic.
They aren't like Shapeways which is usually an SLS printer, powder coating which is why they are gritty. Horrible to paint with and overall very porous.
The resin is on par with castable resin if not better. It is better than Formlabs resin which tends to be very brittle. Thin pieces can be brittle, while thicker parts are about as good as plastic. I've dropped casted resin pieces and had them break but these are a bit lighter. I have broken parts of them but normally clean breaks, so a very small dab of superglue and they are fine. This is normal though with even castable resins.
Examples in Spoiler
Spoiler:
Traditional resin cast, next to 3d printed resin.
Traditional resin cast, next to 3d printed resin and primed. Can you figure out which one is the resin cast and which one is the print?
The great thing about 3d prints is that I can do things that traditionally can't be done as a single piece with casting or even injection moulding, without splitting it and then gluing. This was printed as one piece, which has cloth pieces that normally would have to be cast separately and then attached.
Valander wrote: Cheers, @Necros. I've got a DLP (Sprintray) and have been playing with it some. It's a little smallish on the print bed size, but yeah, DLP is definitely the way to go for this stuff.
I looked at the Moonray printer by Sprintway but getting answers to sales questions seemed to take a week. It also seemed there was a language barrier as some of the terms they used were correct. The sample I got was good but too rough to be used as masters. Technical support and parts were important to me because I can't go down, need to get replacement parts, equipment within a couple days so I kept to places that had US Distributors.
Yeah, I backed the Moonray on Kickstarter, and while it's a decent machine, I agree that their technical support and response time isn't the best. The software also wasn't terribly great in configuration/tweaking options. I likely wouldn't rely on it for heavy production work, either. I'll have to look into the Solus, though I'm also intrigued by the Anycubic Photon because its price point is crazy low for a DLP. I've also heard decent things about the Wanho D7 (if you don't mind doing your own support; which is likely for the Anycubic, too).
And I'll shut up about that now so as not to veer too far off topic.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/04/12 18:09:16
Our Pledge Manager is now live! If you were a Kickstarter backer, check your email for your special link to the survey to choose the items you want. If you missed the campaign, you can still pre-order all of the items here:
On the upside, are the Chupacabras now going to be printed rather than cast in metal? Because that would get me to add them...as long as we can keep it on the down low.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/05/01 22:36:12
Production is under way and everything looks to be on schedule We are getting our new minis from our last campaign painted up by Angel Giraldez. Here is the first batch. 3 Black Eyed Children, 3 Native Zombies and 1 Outlaw Bandit. We should have more done next week What do you think?
These pics are in the dakka gallery so you can click to enlarge
I was also thinking you may wind up being to save a little bit on warehousing since you can, more or less, print on demand. And you won't have mold storage, either.
