3D Printing 15mm Napoleonic Terrain

[jmilesr01]

I’ve been fiddling with a 3d printer to learn how to use it to make terrain and printed out the pieces below to make a walled farm complex to use with 15mm Napoleonics



The STL files I used are from Printable Scenery and I highly recommend them.

I used a print setting of 0.2mm per layer to try and balance appearance and print time.  The models look fine from 12 inches and beyond but if you get up really close you can see the layers.  I think the pieces will paint up fine and i’ll experiment with different ways to hide the layers.  I used PLA filament so using acetone to smooth the model isn’t really an option.

Here a link to my blog which has some more pictures and some thoughts about 3d printing for terrain making.  Bottom line - I think it holds huge promise but is still a very early tech and is not all that user friendly.  I’m really enjoying tinkering with it but do have access to my son who is a senior at Carnegie Mellon and pretty much an expert on all things tech.

https://lairoftheubergeek.blogspot.com/2018/08/15mm-napoleonics-3d-printing.html

[Fitz]

In my experience so far, printing terrain and scenery at 0.2mm, you don't really see the layer lines when the pieces are in use, any more than you notice the texture of the canvas a picture is painted on.

The texture does mean that washes darken everything more than they would on a smooth resin or injection-moulded surface, but a once-over with the base colours on the highlights takes care of that.

[6mmfan]

That looks great and 23 hours to print it is pretty quick. I got a Anet A8 and I have printed a few 16 hour things but I'm not very keen to leave it unsupervised due to the chances of it catching fire!

[jmilesr01]

Finally finished painting up the farm and basing it.  Overall I'm pleased with how it came out.  The #D files for the farm are available from PrintableScenery.com







As with most of my gaming projects, there are still a few minor details to finish up, including the addition of doors for the gate and some minor details for the interior courtyard.

I remain intrigued about the usefulness of 3D printing for the Hobby.  I feel it will have as impact on the production of miniatures of the same scale the internet has had on the gaming hobby.  The impact of internet commerce has allowed for almost instantaneous direct global reach for manufactures where as 20 years ago they had to rely on physical stores and where much more regional in approach.  Fascinating stuff

Here's a link to my blog with some more pictures and details about to prepare and paint 3d printed terrain.


https://lairoftheubergeek.blogspot.com/2018/09/3d-printed-15mm-fortified-farm-done.html

[Jabba]

Looks very nice, well done.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

It looks great.

I am getting very impressed by 3D printed scenery. (This could get expensive).

[War Monkey]

I am getting very impressed by 3D printed scenery. (This could get expensive).

I agree this could get very expensive for me as well.

[jmilesr01]

Given the time it takes to print (at least on my Creality Cr-10S) I’m not sure 3D printing is all that practical for big projects.  It’s great for detail parts such as window frames or centerpieces like the farm in this post.  As with most tech, I expect both the efficacy to improve and costs go down so I do think there are some profound and positive implications for the future.

It’s a very exciting technology