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.

i made a bunch of 3d files and had them printed and they came back today you can see them here

http://limited-edition-warhammer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/3d-prints-for-warhammer.html

what do you think of them and have you got any ideas of what i can do next

They do look pretty good.
How rigid are they? Looking like jelly, they appear to be fairly flexible, and a pain to paint.

As for "what next", combi weapons would be handy.

They look pretty damn good imo.How much did it cost you?Also how long did it take you to create the 3d files?

If its cheap enough you could try miscellaneous things like objective markers, mines, radios, cans of food or the like.

Or you could try and make common conversions that people regularly do to save yourself some time/money (e.g. necron warriors > flayed ones, make the scythe blades as usually they're done with plasticard and as a result aren't that durable, or things like backpack additions/wiring if the material is flexible enough).

Thank you for the interest.

They are slightly flexible no more than gw plastic. I will be making moulds of them and casting them with polyurethane resin. And will not be painting the the master copies.

there are combi plasma and melta guns in the pics

took me about a month to make the files but i was a novice at the start and i made alot more files then i got printed.

the cost is fairly high £10+ per spruce so adds up very fast.

Yeah the technology is great for printing prototype models, and casting.

But just to produce bits as needed the cost is way too high.

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing.

I have tried shapeways before, but found that unless I got their frosted ultra detail, the stuff was too "grainy".

Can you share who you used, and what material?

Would also love to know what software you used.

thanks!

I used autodesk 3d studio max, and a company called 3d creation lab, i used their 16micron level of service

I have just got around to updating some pictures onto my blog of my resin casts as I am making them so far I have only done the guns and they are turning out okay. I need to make a new mould before I try more as I have noticed a couple of spots that bubbles get trapped

Here is the page again
http://limited-edition-warhammer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/3d-prints-for-warhammer.html

That is pretty cool stuff. What did it run you as far as cost? I've been looking to do a project that is very hard to find a real model for, and it only exists in 1/72nd. I have a 3D model of it already. I'm going to send the company you used an email and see what they can do for me in regards to this project.

very cool work.

mind sharing what vacuum chamber you got?

I like the scopes, how small could you go, ie red dot holographic sights. Bet you'd make some money back if you sold full sprues of assorted scopes.

Firehead158 wrote:That is pretty cool stuff. What did it run you as far as cost? I've been looking to do a project that is very hard to find a real model for, and it only exists in 1/72nd. I have a 3D model of it already. I'm going to send the company you used an email and see what they can do for me in regards to this project.

each gun cost around 10 to print but that was per sprue and they had 2 or 3 guns per spruce to keep them above a flat charge of 5pound for items under 1.5cm3

skyfi wrote:very cool work.

mind sharing what vacuum chamber you got?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-Gallon-Vacuum-Chamber-Degassing-Urethane-Silicone-Epoxies-1or2-Part-Systems-/271182987664?pt=BI_Pumps&hash=item3f23c40190

that is the vacuum chamber that i have and a random 8cfm or 227ltrpm vacuum pump empties in rougly 35 seconds more than enough to degass the ressin for best results

Kevv6 wrote:I like the scopes, how small could you go, ie red dot holographic sights. Bet you'd make some money back if you sold full sprues of assorted scopes.

hi kevv that is the whole idea i will be shortly setting up my business selling these, bases and figures. hopefully with in the month. as to how small you can go i do not know but some of the details on that stuff is less that 1mm in size. the ribs for example on the plamsa guns are .5mm wide. i guess the smallest you can do is 16 microns as that is how much is printed per pass of the printer head

Even though the pass thickness is 16 microns, the real limit is much higher than that. They look to be using an Objet based on the information on their website for doing their detailed prints and that material starts to get iffy when the detail thickness gets below 0.5mm.

There are a lot of factors which go into that though. If the detail is parallel to the build layer...two layers can be stable, though more is better. If you picture the print sort of like those Bucky Ball Magnet toys...each magnet would be the thickness of the build layer. Now imagine trying to build out something like a cooling fin with those little magnet spheres (especially on an angle to the build layer). If you just used a single thickness on an angle...there wouldn't be anything (or very little) for the material to connect to, and would crumble once the support material is removed.

 Sean_OBrien wrote:
Even though the pass thickness is 16 microns, the real limit is much higher than that. They look to be using an Objet based on the information on their website for doing their detailed prints and that material starts to get iffy when the detail thickness gets below 0.5mm.

There are a lot of factors which go into that though. If the detail is parallel to the build layer...two layers can be stable, though more is better. If you picture the print sort of like those Bucky Ball Magnet toys...each magnet would be the thickness of the build layer. Now imagine trying to build out something like a cooling fin with those little magnet spheres (especially on an angle to the build layer). If you just used a single thickness on an angle...there wouldn't be anything (or very little) for the material to connect to, and would crumble once the support material is removed.

that is a very good way to picture the process


Automatically Appended Next Post:


here is a sneak peak of my prints. the detail may look abit bumpy but it is water from the cleaning process

i have also added some images of the mould i made and vacuum chamber and vacuum pump