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I haven't been on much lately as I have been working on some of my painting projects and getting a vampire counts army basecoated for their first time in a tourney. (learned how not to play them game 1 and 2, game 3 was a draw as i was finally getting the hang of what best matches against what in charges.)

All my resin casting supplies arrived today. Silicone for molds, resin for models, mold release, clay, wood for framing molds. This next week should make for some very exciting and fun times as i experiment with casting my own base and shoulder pad designs. So now that the mold making stuff is here I am going to try and get some more work done on the 3d model side of things.

awesome news My Army and I look forward to your foray into making your own molds.

Thanks much, It is hard to make time for a side job/hobby like this after I get home from work between family and painting my armies right now but it is fun and interesting to do in its own way.

Hmm, if you are going to cast them, I would recommend getting them printed elsewhere than Shapeways. Get a single good print of each component and then cast it. Of course, you might want to practise with some cheap bits and what not to see how the casting process goes. Would be a shame to waste a lot of money on good bits that get damaged during the casting process.

 Malika2 wrote:
Hmm, if you are going to cast them, I would recommend getting them printed elsewhere than Shapeways. Get a single good print of each component and then cast it. Of course, you might want to practise with some cheap bits and what not to see how the casting process goes. Would be a shame to waste a lot of money on good bits that get damaged during the casting process.

exactly what i'm thinking too. i might just print out some stuff in hard white plastic first. it wont look good but if i can get a mold made and then cast the junk so it looks 1 to 1 then i can work up from there.

I want to make sure i get the casting process down before i start ordering my masters. need to work out the best way for model placement, resin pouring, and air pocket paths.

Hmm, you really should check out the Resin Addicts forum, they've got a lot of good advice for casting and printing there.

(sorry if I'm spamming here, not my intention!)

 Malika2 wrote:
Hmm, you really should check out the Resin Addicts forum, they've got a lot of good advice for casting and printing there.

(sorry if I'm spamming here, not my intention!)

no problem, do you have a link to that forum?

http://resinaddict.com/forum/

Been away for a bit working on lots of other things lately. New nids are out now so my fingers have been covered in glue and paint these last couple weekends.

Working with molds in resin is a pain in the arse but I have learned a lot about controlling resin and air flow in the mold. Its very tricky stuff but also its own rewarding hobby right up there with building and painting models. You never quite know what to expect when you first crack open the mold. Even the disappointments can be a little entertaining.

Back in the 3d modeling realm I have been looking for alternative to use 123d Design as it crashes to much. I tried out sketchup the other day and it is worlds more stable but still not capable of doing some of what I want when it comes to creating more organic looking shapes. Luckily for me I found that because of where I work for my day job I qualified for a free 3 year license to Studio Max 3d. Got it installed and I will now begin the process of trying to relearn proper 3d modeling. I know that Studio Max 3d is more then capable of what I want to do but has a much steeper learning curve and it has been well over 8 years since I have used a professional 3d software suite.

I do have some great ideas brewing though that I cant wait to get cracking on. Some alternate futuristic scifi heads and chests that fit Games Workshop Tau and Imperial Guard models. Need to start drawing everything out on paper and getting my scale right.

Long time coming for an update. My computer took a dive a while back and took everything with it. Now i have a brand new computer and am getting back into my amateur modeling groove.

Got some new software and a new approach to quickly produce multiple poses of the same model with minimal re-sculpting of the design. Now using Fuse to create a basic character, then auto rig it with a skeleton and import it into Blender where I can pose it. Once I have a each pose the way I like it I can export each one separately and import them to 123D Design to slice up and get ready for 3D printing.

This process brings me one step closer to creating a complete squad of minis of my own design from scratch. Once I get this process down the next question will be what scale to make for?

28MM for 40k heroic scale gaming?
10mm for Dropzone Commander and Modern Warfare gaming?
6mm for Epic scale gaming?

Wow, that's a hell of a way to get a completely unique and personalised army!

I imagine the issue of scale depends on the results of printing, but I would have thought that going for a larger scale (like 32mm or 28mm "heroic" or whatever) would be the way to go to make the most out of all the work put into the digital sculpting?