28mm IDF with Tavors?

[Rich H]

printing this morning

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.

[Wyrmalla]

Well Rich you're helping me get back on my way to working on more of my moderns.

(Not that I don't have two posts for those WWII and WWWII threads written awaiting photographs too)

I take it that with something so small the print time's relatively short? Only like a week and a half, maybe two?

With the money I've been spending on 3D prints lately I aught to just go ahead and buy a printer. Sorting out the file's been my main stumbling block. And my computer's broken, so I don't think I have a rig to go about making them myself (I'm assuming that the process isn't far off of making meshes for video games - with accounting for that it'll be a physical object that needs to be printed being a main concern).

Maybe I'll take the leap eventually and go from doing the physical building to doing it electronically like you did Rich H.

[Rich H]

My 7 year old mid spec gaming laptop is generally ok, it chuggs a bit sometimes but it rarely actually crashes.  I had to leave it overnight the other week to stitch 22000 surfaces together on an imported file (T-72m) but it got there in the end! 

The rifles are relatively quick, I print them pointing up tilted back at around 45 to minimize supports.  The only support needed is under the butt so it minimises damage on support removal.

First attempt failed (glitched file produced a nightmarish horror) but I'm trying again.  It's about a two hour print due to the other stuff on the build plate.  I've done a few at 100% and a few at +20% in the xy plane to beef them up a bit (fatter barrels and so on)

[Rich H]

They are very tiny...

Could be sharper but I didn't do a great job of cleaning them TBH.  I think it's probably too short, same problem I had with the EM2.  Probably needs to be 20%  bigger on top of this.

The original guns are extremely thin and to he handguards didn't print

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Wow!

[Wyrmalla]

My gaming laptop conked out last year, and I've not yet put together the funds to buy a £700 new Motherboard (bloody integrated graphics cards!). Next time I sell stuff off I'll see about getting some warranty for £300.

Yeah, I see what you mean with how sharp the print is. Is that based on the print time, or the curing process? Regardless, I can agree that the amount of detail is fine for a 28mm figure.

How does it scale up with a figure?

[Rich H]

It's the cleanup, my solvent need changing.  It's fine for larger things with less detail but this is tiny.  I'll print a few more scaled up to 120/140/140.

They are very small, I'd suggest too small for heroic minis. 

[Wyrmalla]

Heh, its just difficult to tell how large it is as we all know that you have notoriously large hands Richard.

My modern figures are mostly Empress. So yeah, they tend to be on the taller end of 28mm - but with slimmer proportions. So the rifles wouldn't need to be Warlord scale if that's what you mean. Though I guess it comes down to what looks "right" as opposed to the things being perfectly sized to the real thing. My measurements are based on how Empress scaled their rifles - however they may have fudged the proportions a bit themselves.

[Rich H]

Empress figure
Warlord Sten

[Wyrmalla]

That looks about right to me. The Tavor has a long distance from the butt to the trigger. If it were scaled up further then it may wind up that its too long as part of the butt would need cut off for the figure to shoulder one properly.

If you do one slightly larger then it may wind up looking the same to me of course. So long as the thing can be shouldered and be short enough for the model to get its hand around the trigger then it would be fine.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

This may be a "how to suck eggs" but is the pistol grip to butt distance a good scaling distance?

I know that a number of weapons have adjustable butt length (stop sniggering at the back), but most figures will have a "standard" position butt.

[Rich H]

Yes, it's easiest to pick an existing weapon and make it match.  I did that with the Lanchesters so it meant I could use the Sten gun arms. 

The problem is the most weapons are beefier to make them stronger so they are distorted.  The empress M16 is bang on 1:56 in length as it happens. (18mm). The warlord STG44 was 1:43.

[Wyrmalla]

The distance between the butt and trigger appears to be similar to the Sten, and longer than the figure's elbow to its hand. Which seems correct to me. If I had the choice I'd rather have 1/56 scaled rifles - as ideally even  if they are a smidge too small I could get around that by having the figures just wear thicker jackets.

You're not looking to make a mould right Rich? So breakages aren't as much of a concern - the figure's would have the rifles to their chests, covered by their right arm and with their left hand close to tje barrel.

[Rich H]

Just prints.  I've a print prepared with one at +20% see if that looks better, tbh it might just be my perspective that they are too small.