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Hello everyone,

I've actually been around dakka for a long time without posting. I received a 3doodler as a Valentine's Day gift from my fiance. It's basically a 3D printer that you draw with in the sense that it extrudes plastic and it's freely moveable by hand.

Now, unfortunately I have no idea what to do with the thing. I'm not the kind of hobbyist who does much converting or embellishing of the models, or scratchbuilding for that matter. I generally build things in what would be considered the 'normal' fashion, and my experimentation is pretty much limited to using bits from different ranges/kits to spice things up and break up the monotony.

I have over 2k of IG and 1.5k of DA painted up right now, and probably at least 1-1.5k more of each to assemble and paint still so there is plenty to work with.

Some thoughts that came to me immediately: gap filling (especially on the land raider MKII from FW that one of my friends got me for Christmas this year) and potentially drawing raised symbols for shoulder pads and/or terrain.

Going any further than that though is why I'm coming to you guys. I've seen so many amazing creations from everyone here with materials from just bits of sprue and cardboard to plasticard titans.

If you had this thing ( http://the3doodler.com/ ) how would you make use of it?

Thanks everyone for the help, I'm trying to make sure I make use of her gift lest she think I don't like it

As cool of a concept as the 3doodler is... to be honest, I don't think I'd make much use of it for modeling. Don't know how flexible it is, in terms of useable materials (option to load in styrene instead of ABS) and nozzle size, but the examples I've seen suggest that it lacks the appropriate... resolution(?) for detailing 28mm models.

What I mean in that the pen extrudes a bead of plastic which is too large and uniformly round for most symbols you might want to add. Perhaps organic ribbing on Tyranid models/terrain or chunky, lumpy Nurgle symbols, but the tool appears incapable of laying down clean lines or hard edges, which are what comprise most Imperial iconography. At the scale and in the style that seem most appropriate for you, I imagine epoxy putty and styrene would serve you better in nearly every case.

Welding models and filling gaps might be a useful option. Generally, I find that gaps are small enough that a touch of putty is a quicker fix than a large bead of plastic that would need further finishing (filing/trimming/sanding). For big tasks, when one might use a solvent cement to "weld" in filler strip or rod, though, it could expedite the process. Same for scratchbuilding larger shapes with plasticard, where interior welds are an out of sight option. The website claims that the pen's extruded ABS will adhere to any plastic, which is good. Be aware, though, that sanding/filing dissimilar materials to get an even finish can be a pain - just ask someone who has used superglue as a gap-filler on a styrene kit.

Perhaps scratch-sculpting (printing) a new army? Amorphous, squiggly Tzeentchian daemons that roughly echo the expected human/daemon forms? It's a bit of an "out there" project, like the "Cubes of Tzeentch" (partially melted cubes of styrofoam) army someone posted a while back, but it's novel and at least has direction as a fluffy, artsy project. Other than that, I'm genuinely having trouble thinking of uses for the thing. Hopefully someone with either direct experience using it or a more creative mind will chime in - seems like a waste just to (three dimensionally, which is still really cool!) doodle with it.

Could be invaluable for terrain / basing. Make custom rocks? Trees?

Bridges..... walls. Etc etc.

I fired the doodler up last night to give it a go. I was using the ABS plastic rod as that's what she got with the gift (see the apparent differences in PLA v ABS here https://the3doodler.com/blog/2013/04/22/abs-vs-pla-head-to-head/).

The device extrudes plastic in an even manner, but unfortunately whether you get a uniform thickness is not determined by the rate of extrusion but rather by how quickly you move the pen around. Maintaining a uniform speed in order to maintain a uniform appearance is something which seems like it'll take a bit of time and practice to master. As such, my initial plastic constructions have varying thickness, from super fine to something about the diameter of an average office paperclip.

In terms of using it to gap fill, I'm not going to test it out for that. Green stuff, both liquid and the solid mixes, seems much superior to this. The plastic cures/hardens very quickly once out of the machine, leaving little room for error and/or shaping once its out.

Freehanding symbols may be the only way I could use it still, but even there I don't think this is the best use for this tool as I've seen some youtube videos of people trying to trace over designs on paper and it doesn't look very easy. Given time and practice, maybe...

One thing it does seem very good for: Making barbed wire for terrain! It's very easy to create spring-shaped items with this thing.

I could also see it being used to create the "Wirewolves" from Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series. Maybe I could also use it to generate some 'power lines' or communications wire. The thing is, it seems like all of that could be done much easier with conventional items/tools such as steel/copper wiring...

All in all, I'd say it's cool but nowhere near ready for use as an average hobbyist's tool. Maybe some of the very artistic among us could find a use for it? I'll keep playing around with it to maintain the domestic tranquility, but I don't really expect any revolution in how I do my hobby work.

Rabidmofo wrote:
Could be invaluable for terrain / basing. Make custom rocks? Trees?

Bridges..... walls. Etc etc.

I agree with this guy, you would make some pretty wicked terrain with that thing. In my honest opinion it looks like a glorified hot glue gun but very fun none the less haha. I've never heard of that nor seen one used. Good luck with it and be sure to post pictures of what you make, we would love to see your creations!

It strikes me as an excellent option for bocage, hedges, trees, etc. You can make an organic, skeletal structure using the pen, paint it a dark colour, then glue clump foliage and flock on to it to flesh out the shape.

It could probably go as far as being used to sketch out the shape of barricades and similar hard structures and then affix things like plasticard to it without having to build a large or complex internal structure from scratch.

Sounds like it would make great vines.