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I might have to order that IPA as I finally reordered resin! I doubt I'll be able to run a print this weekend as it is expected to arrive on Sunday according to Amazon. Since working on the trek ships and after getting back into a recent Heavy Gear/VOTOMS kick, I started retweaking an earlier model that I didn't successfully print to my liking. The Heavy Gear Hunter from the aborted HGA game is a nice design and I decided to retweak it as a stock (but reimagined) Hunter instead of the XMG model that I was emulating before as well as adding a ball and socket joint to the split parts. It took me multple attempts over several days to figure out why simple boolean subtractions weren't working adequately in my attempt to add poseability.

Tested out a few new things concurrently which might not have been the best idea but I think the results are still pretty good. I printed out the gear above in RAFM scale without any major misprints (only a minor loss of detail due to model orientation that isn't visible except from below). I changed both the resin as well as the slicing software but I did a quick calibration print and didn't see any major issues. I may try this again with a half second less exposure as some of the edges aren't as crisp as I had initially hoped but that's still not fully decided. The first print is of the model exactly as printed next to the (incomplete) model whose overall size I was trying to emulate. Obviously measuring to the waist on the leg piece didn't exactly match up so if I do another print it'll be at roughly 95% scale as shown in the spoilered pic.





There is more detail visible to the naked eye than shown in the picture but I'm not sure what it is about my photography that causes that. A few details are a bit lost like in the front of the crotch and others are soft which is what is leading me to think that it might be a bit overexposed. I don't use any anti-aliasing and my layers are at 30 microns so I don't think either of those are the cause. I'll have to double check the FEP to make sure it's not microscuffed up causing possibly some dilution of details/sharp edges.

That looks great. Even if the corners aren't quite as sharp as the metal, withbpaint and a bit of super thin edging, is the difference actually noticeable?

 Flinty wrote:
That looks great. Even if the corners aren't quite as sharp as the metal, withbpaint and a bit of super thin edging, is the difference actually noticeable?

With my mediocre/average level of painting, I'd give it about a 50/50 chance. Thanks though! I just can't help but feel I see better results from others with the same printer (original Elegoo Mars) so I'm trying to problem shoot.

I think it looks amazing already... I'm not exactly surprised to see it looks more rounded, given that the renders already looked that way, so I'd say pretty good rendition of it.

 Albertorius wrote:
I think it looks amazing already... I'm not exactly surprised to see it looks more rounded, given that the renders already looked that way, so I'd say pretty good rendition of it.

Considering you're on the top of the list of people who make me feel self conscious about my prints, I appreciate that! I cleaned out my tray and don't see any additional damage though there was a tiny chunk of cured resin about the size of two grains of rice stuck to the FEP (likely from two small supports that I noticed were half missing). I primed the model with grey primer and it does look a bit crisper than my naked resin does in the pics so that's a relief. It did reveal a bit of slippage though on some of the parts that I previously wasn't aware of visible on the second pic on the right shoulder. Since I've got the tray empty, I may end up trying to lubricate the FEP as well as the guide rail for the first time but I'll need to research that a bit more as I've only read in passing posts about what is needed. I think it was lithium grease on the guide rail and PTFE on the FEP but I'm not entirely sure. I figure now is as good of a time as any to try.