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Experiments in 6mm (3d printing)

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Forwardmarchstudio:
Two new models I'm working on...





These are in 6mm scale, and with the guns and bases are about 10mm high.  The bases are 38mm wide and 2mm deep; they are just a hair under 40mm so that they'll fit comfortable on a 40mm base, or can be cut in half to be placed on two 20mm bases.  They are designed to be cut off the sprues (obviously). 

Any comments/critiques welcome.  This is still a very early stage of the game.  I've previously done mainly 2mm stuff in 3d printing.  Which has been very fun and promising, but I've pretty much exhausted what can actually be done in 2mm, so its time to move on. These 6mm figures are actually very competitive with 6mm metals, price wise.  We'll have to see how they print up though...

Any feedback or ideas appreciated!

Rich H:
FDM or resin?  I think in FDM you are going to struggle with the legs.

Interested to see what the ocme out like

Forwardmarchstudio:
FDM and SLS are both in the works.

Should work with SLS. These will be competitive with metal 6mm.  Actually, they are cheaper than Irregular 6mm and Baccus once postage is figured out (in the US anyway).

If I can get FDM to work these will be cheap-cheap-cheap. The infantry have a good shot at working with FDM.  I'll know by tomorrow probably.  The cavalry might not, but they should work on SLS.  Even in SLS, the price is decent.  Like I said, we'll see!  I need to work a bit on the horses body shapes though...

Lysandros:
They are very charming, a sort of micro toy soldier feel .They don't seem to have the crisp detail that say a Adler fig may have, does the process have it's limitation  ?
Saying that they do look good in their own stylised approach.

Forwardmarchstudio:
Hi Lysandros-

The process has extremely hard and fast rules, and you have to design around them.  The figures I'm making are designed to be generic, and people will have to paint some details onto the figures. I don't mind that personally, because I prefer to paint over or ignore detail on my own microscale stuff.  I prefer the effect of lots and lots of microscale figs, not individual ones.  My theory with these figures is that players are modeling the division, not painting up the unit.









This all started out as what could have been (maybe should have been, haha) a personal project to do Wagram at 1:1 in 2mm.  The board for the main part of the battle would have been 30' across.  I have models that allow me to do it, but they aren't sale-able because they don't meet the requirements for public Shapeways sales.  I got the idea in my mind that I could make a 2mm range for people interested in doing something similar, but to get 2mm figures to print I had to make a massive number of design concessions that took me away from the original idea. Originally, I could have done Wagram for about $100, at 1:1 on both sides.  When I say 1:1, I mean you could see every bayonet tip that would have been at the battle, every cavalry figure, a command stand with officers for every regiment, brigade, division, corps, etc, etc.  My production models are much more expensive than those original 2mm figures were, because Shapeways won't let me sell the originals.  And, they might not have been everyone's cup of tea.  Here's one of my 2mm heavy cavalry divisions at 1:1 figure to man ratio:



Here are the infantry:



Each base is 40mm, and there are over 1000 bayonets in this Austrian battalion.  The bases are only $0.75 I think.  Or they were that price; Shapeways gave me HELL about printing these off in the store because of a long list of technical issues.  I eventually gave up for awhile, but I've since returned with a new version that I called 2mm 2.0:





Huge difference.  These are a bit more expensive, but they are so far proving to be very printable, and Shapeways hasn't given me any grief over them.  They become cheaper if you figure that you don't have to base them up; the bases have 2, 3 or 4 ranks on them.  A box of wooden bases is a hidden expense of traditional model soldiers.  You can also paint these 3d prints without base coating, without flocking, etc, etc.  They are very fast to paint and prepare, in other words.  You can get an army together in a few hours, which I think is something people increasing would be interested in. 

I'm continuing to make some changes to the models and rolling out new figures (the artillery in particular needs a tweak or two).  Designing these is tricky, because I'm trying to keep my cost down as much as possible, to be competitive with other figure lines.  Its easy enough to design stuff in CAD, its another thing to do it cheaply.  Also, I try to print out copies of every model so that I have a copy to put up on my store to show that they'll print up. 

What I really need to do is get to some conventions and show them off; people are often blown away in person, especially by my ECW pike-stuff.  But, I don't know how I'd sell them at a convention; provide some iPads?  I would actually lose money if I had them printed and shipped to me, since Shapeways has never heard of anything like a bulk deal.  The whole thing is tricky. 

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