Computer Modeling 6mm Miniatures for Fun (12/26/17 Now with Wolf)

[Eldon Wilson]

Hi all.

My wife and I were trying to make a game and I thought to myself how nice it would be to have some miniatures to go along with it.  I rolled around doing 2mm and 3mm for a while eventually decided on 6mm because of the increase of detail I could add was just right.

It still needed experimentation as to wether or not this was a feasible route to take, not only in economic terms but simply from a basic production standpoint.  A lot of lessons were learned and still being learned, but I'm happy to say that I'm satisfied with the results of this experiment so far.



To start with some background, the game my wife and I are making is about two civilizations that were at one time connected to the material plane and as the result of some unknown catastrophe were separated from the rest of the world (or the world was destroyed, whatever).  The capitals, experiencing some stability in space/time due to ley lines/nodes of power/sheer force of will have "floated" in such proximity to each other that "the mists roll back" and the land between them has merged, now sharing the traits of both, and the two engage in a battle for superiority.  A combination of deckbuilding (what is in/who makes up your nation) exploration (your units must go explore the new world) and fantasy wargaming (used in the very loosest sense, as it's not WHFB or KoW, more like Mage-Knight).

These "units" would be made up by a squad of rangers, soldiers, undead, elementals, vikings, whatever, so I decided doing a 6mm creative range of individual poses would be pretty neato.  I got on a few forums/reddit where 3d modelers and artists convene and put out some feelers.  One fairly active modeler had some strange ideas about how much this should cost and kept on making sweeping statements about how less than $2000 for the project was a crime against the profession and how they wouldn't even turn on their computer for less than $100 per part, but I eventually got 3 people on board and gave them the inspiration provided below:  

A 3d modeled solider in .obj format with sections split into pieces as illustrated so that I could make my own custom poses for production or further art concepting.



Between the three professional's contributions and my own improvements, I ended up with this guy and with my newfound 3d modeling skills of shaping different objects made him a nice mace to match.  (the handle turned out to be too thin in most production models, plus the positioning of the production maces was bad, but you'll see that later)



Essentially, I now have a "doll" that I can pose into an infinite number of positions.  Later if I had a dragon made, I could have him holding onto it's horn trying to stab it's eye, riding a unicorn backwards, or in the middle of performing Thriller.

Now it's time for the rubber to meet the road, so I model up four poses with a few weapon combinations and put them on a sprue.



It's $10 with the promo free shipping per sprue so I order in 3 different plastics, Frosted Detail Extreme, that black Miniatures specific plastic, and the Nylon RCA for mechanical prototypes.

And two weeks later:



Nylon RCA is definitely looking the worst.  Big ol' spongy looking holes.



Miniature Black plastic is looking good, some obvious stratification with my x20 magnification jewelers goggles, but we'll see how that eventually turns out.  The main thing is those connection artifacts that appeared between the miniatures that weren't in the .stl file.  That's some weird stuff going on there.



I have a lot of hope for Frosted Detail Extreme, but even with my goggles I couldn't get a good look because the frosted white just doesn't hold up enough contrast for me to see.  They look like they're "frosted" and have fuzzy edges, but we'll see if it comes out with a wash.  My lack of forethought in not putting a dark background behind them when photographing doesn't say much for my intelligence either.



So far I've gotten as far as priming them, but I'm not sure when I'll get to painting some as it's the holidays and I don't have an acceptable base yet (I'm leaning towards a 40mm circle).



So far so good, I guess, now just another 12 unit types to go!

[thenamelessdead]

Interesting development, good luck with it.

[jambo1]

Following this with interest.

[Eldon Wilson]

As a case study I decided to try to duplicate these with my doll:



First things first let's get him that shield.



Next we've got to make a spear out of flattened cones and a cylinder.



Alright, now time to grab it.



Swing that shield around.



And throw him in line with the others to be put on the sprue. 



Also made a standard bearer, thickened the weapons and altered a new shield-sword pose.

And now it's caged (I got this idea to protect them in shipping), and ready to be printed!

[Eldon Wilson]

Ordered the above today for myself.

I probably should have put the wolf I modeled into a few different poses on there, but it was American Christmas so I didn't have the presence of mind.



Cleans up good.



I was going to do a horse last weekend, but like I said, presence of mind wasn't there with the holiday and I was busy building that sprue from above.