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So, I'm designing and 3D printing some accessories through shapeways.

The first reason is that it's cheaper/about the same price to print and get it delivered to my door than it is to buy the same weapons from Forgeworld (+$40), the second (and the more important of the two) is that I'll be able to have some truly unique designs for my GK dreadnought.

So far I've come up with the arms and TL autocannons, as you can see below. Next up I'll make a missile launcher left arm and a multimelta right arm. It should be noted that the dreadnought I have is the venerable version, so the stand in dread here isn't exactly what it will be mounted with.
The arms are separate to the guns, so I can mount them with magnets.
I also need to add ornate metalwork to the arms and autocannons, such as wings, skulls and trimmings.

Autocannon
Easier to browse these large images @ http://imgur.com/a/BJioq

Current final autocannons





Missile System
Easier to browse these large images @ http://imgur.com/a/BJioq

Current mockups.


Would love to hear of any suggestions etc.

The bit connecting the gun proper to the arm looks a little thin for what it is. Dreads should be big and chunky. If you can, you might want to widen it to the full width of the shoulder mount.

Looks very cool though.

Wait...that arm is only $40 (australian dollars) to print? What material are we talking about here? Also, how hollow did you make the kit to get the price that low?

Thing is that a Shapeways print is nice and all, but for 28mm scaled stuff your only chance at something decent is probably to print it in FUD, and even then the model would need a lot of cleaning up for it to have the same quality as the model it is supposed to be attached to.

 Malika2 wrote:
Wait...that arm is only $40 (australian dollars) to print? What material are we talking about here? Also, how hollow did you make the kit to get the price that low?

Thing is that a Shapeways print is nice and all, but for 28mm scaled stuff your only chance at something decent is probably to print it in FUD, and even then the model would need a lot of cleaning up for it to have the same quality as the model it is supposed to be attached to.

The $40 I'm referring to is the price of buying two autocannon arms from Forgeworld.

For my model, all the prices I'm talking about here are in FUD. It's ~$20 for a single arm and weapon (combined), so two of them is ~$40. However, there is a $5 handling fee, so if I combine both the models as one single print, it comes out $5 cheaper. Add in that I actually have not hollowed out any of it yet, it could come down a fair bit more depending on how efficient I am.

I also want a multi-melta and missile launcher, so to buy all that from FW and it would be ~$80. It will be maybe $50 - $60 from SW since the weapons will detach from the arm piece.

I will be following this thread eagerly. I've taken my first steps in designing my own Razorback turrets for 3d printing for the single reason that I have a very specific look that I want.

I have a couple of questions:

1. You are printing the whole thing as a single unit? No subassemblies?

2. I see you've modeled the rivets on. I am debating whether to do this myself. I wonder if the finished print will require enough sanding such that the rivets are better off added conventionally as a last step.

Spy_Smasher wrote:
I will be following this thread eagerly. I've taken my first steps in designing my own Razorback turrets for 3d printing for the single reason that I have a very specific look that I want.

I have a couple of questions:

1. You are printing the whole thing as a single unit? No subassemblies?

2. I see you've modeled the rivets on. I am debating whether to do this myself. I wonder if the finished print will require enough sanding such that the rivets are better off added conventionally as a last step.

1. The gun and arm will be separate, but will be printed at the same time They are separate so that it can be magnet mounted for swap outs and the ability for it to swivel. I may print out the end of the ammo drums as separate, as that means I'll be able to hollow it out a bit better and save further costs. However, you have to keep wall integrity in mind.

2. Rivets are some of the smallest pieces of detail, so they tend to be removed when put into Shapeways. Worse comes to worse, I clip them off if they are malformed and spend a little extra time cleaning it up. TBH, this is an experiment for myself, so I'll have to see how it goes. As for sanding, from what I've seen is that it will be fairly smooth in Frosted Ultra Detail. I'll make sure to take a photo of the designs once printed to give the best example for anyone interested in doing this themselves.

Missile concepts:


What I've decided on ATM:


Multi-melta requires hollowing and detailing, it is barebones atm. Current price to print including shipping is at $55. Same items from FW is ~$74.

The MM looks a little to “Tau” to me, and the ML looks like it would run out of ammo a little too fast for a weapon arm. One thing about the stock ML arm is it looks like it has space for internal reloads.

The MM looks like it’s a quick barrel swap away from being a TLHF. Might be able to get two options out of the same base for minimal work.

 Nevelon wrote:
The MM looks a little to “Tau” to me, and the ML looks like it would run out of ammo a little too fast for a weapon arm. One thing about the stock ML arm is it looks like it has space for internal reloads.

The MM looks like it’s a quick barrel swap away from being a TLHF. Might be able to get two options out of the same base for minimal work.

I've given the MM detail now, it should be looking less tau and more space marine now:



As for the ML missile numbers, I kind of went off how many are fired per game and the size of the blast (1 missile, blast).

I like the TLHF idea, I might make a new end that clips on. Good idea.