Some quick and dirty gaters

[YPU]

You gotta have alligators/crocodiles for your pulp games, historicals and fantasy too right?

These are 3d printed on my form 1+, file from thingyverse and edited to make them rearing up from the water. I would link to the file but it appears to have been removed, or I am very bad at searching!








And some unpainted pictures for those interested:

[Sangennaru]

Lovely crocs!

I wonder if the resin base is worth printing, though. Maybe adding a few leaves or floating branches for a swampish effect?

Cheers
Jack

[YPU]

Thanks!

The bases are mostly there to adhere the crocks to the build platform. In retrospect, I could have done a lot more with them for sure, or make them smaller and fit the crocks to a more interesting base later on.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

The quality looks very good compared to other 3D prints that I have seen.

Is that a special level of print quality?

What is the material?

Thanks

Mick

[YPU]

The quality looks very good compared to other 3D prints that I have seen.

Is that a special level of print quality?

What is the material?

It's definitely on the high end of home printers, and a major investment (for me at least)
These were printed at a 0.05mm layer height though the machine can go down to half of that still. The material is a UV curing resin, which is used in liquid form and cured with a laser to build the object. As for material properties is comparable to most resins used for models these days, though small parts are easier to print than cast. A flaw of the material is that it will harden and become brittle over time as it absorbs more UV light, but this can be avoided with a simple layer of regular primer. Generally, it's more suited for making masters than general production, but there are some shapes you just can't cast. I find myself needing to print something to finetune my printer on occasion so I have a log of things I want to print for my own use anyway.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I am very interested to understand the economics of this. 
Up to now, I have ignored 3D printed parts because everything has a rough woodgrain like finish.

This is the first time that I have seen parts that are similar quality to injection moulding or spin casting.

How much does it cost for the material in one figure?
How long does it take to print?
How much was the Printer?

Thanks



Mick

[YPU]

Mick, for most of your questions I'm going to refer you to the https://formlabs.com/ website.

Printing these crocks cost me about 2 euros in material, and took 2 hours. I could have printed thrice as many in half an hour more, because the height of the models has far more influence on the print time than surface area. Most prints need to be "suspended"  on supports rather than printed flat on the build platform like this one, and would take probably twice as long.
And I should point out that while the machine is a marvel of technology even to me still, it is very finicky and requires finetuning and cleaning more than I would like.

I hope that helps a bit.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Thank-you very much.

I had a look at the FormLabs website and I am very impressed with the quality and also the materials available.

If I understand rightly, for bulk production, this would be about fifteen or twenty times as much as producing a spin cast metal figure or a hard plastic sprue.

So I conclude although the quality now equals the other production methods, is still a long way from replacing existing production methods on cost basis.

Regards

Mick

[YPU]

Definitely, but that's hardly surprising considering those forms of manufacturing had a lot longer to mature. This machine might be a glimpse of what's to come, or maybe we never evolve beyond this point. Regular 2d home printers haven't become all that more impressive in the past years for instance.

For now, it's a good way to do things that can't be cast, or to create masters from which moulds are made for regular casting.

[marianas_gamer]

I like the crocs and the paint job!
LB