My 3D printing Odyssey, final RPG instalment page 11

[matakishi]

I bought myself a 3D printer at Christmas and since then I've printed loads of things for various games. I've finally managed to get time (and glasses) to paint them so I thought I'd share.
There are full details on my site about where the files came from and the settings I used if you're interested in that sort of thing:
http://www.matakishi.net/3d-printing.html

First up cave lurkers. Designed for 15mm games these are great for 28mm with no re-sizing necessary. they work out at under 24p each.





28mm Alternative Armies miniature for scale



Stone Apes of Knuum. Living stone guardians for my current FRPG campaign. I drybrushed these to bring out the layers because theyre stone.





Treasure chests



Loads more to come including the big stuff as soon as I get round to painting it.
http://www.matakishi.net/3d-printing.html

[Sterling Moose]

Very nice!

[AKULA]

Thanks for sharing Paul.

The printer grain definitely seems suited towards items that might have a grain or strata, but what do you think of its utility for smoother forms - is it easy to sand them smooth?

[matakishi]

Sanding is difficult. The PLA is very resilient and slightly flexible and doesn't take sanding well. If you print with ABS you can use acetone vapour to melt the surface slightly and smooth it out without losing detail but to do this with PLA you need to use chloroform. (so I'm not doing that).

I'm currently preparing some 'wooden' items for painting- boats, barrels and a gallows set for my pirate game and they look fantastic, the layers are not a problem at all because of the wood grain.

As with other media it's suited to some things and not to others. The way I look at it is: I have metal miniatures with mold lines, resin miniatures with bubbles, plastic miniatures with bendy weapons and all the scenery I make has visible joins and seams and none of this matters during a game, nobody notices (and if they do they don't care) so a few 1 micron lines on a printed piece isn't going to bother me if the piece itself is good.

Also, it's just so much fun printing them

[beefcake]

Very cool. That first print there is on my list of ones to do but my printer doesn't seem to like it. File too big I imagine. They've come out really nice.

[Argonor]

I find it harder and harder to restrain myself from digging into my savings to buy a printer. 

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

I find it harder and harder to restrain myself from digging into my savings to buy a printer.  

Me too! .........and this doesn't help:    

Also, it's just so much fun printing them

[snitcythedog]

Very nice work all round. 

The printer grain definitely seems suited towards items that might have a grain or strata, but what do you think of its utility for smoother forms - is it easy to sand them smooth?

I find with the lines some very fine grain sandpaper and files will do a good job of it. My printer on the very finest setting leaves little to no evidence of it as well.

One thing that I found on a 3D printing forum is to spray multiple layers of gloss coat sealer to backfill some of the layers followed by a lite sanding then a primer.  I did that on two 3D printed dinos from shapeways and it cleared about 80% of the lines.   I am sure that if I had more patience then I would have had better results.
Again Matakishi, lovely work.
Snitchy sends.

[matakishi]

I must admit I'm not too bothered by the lines, the whole process is too much like magic to allow me to complain about the details

Here's my gallows for my pirate game. Try buying that in resin for £1.36.

[matakishi]

The printer cost £299.00
Worth every penny.

[Calimero]

...have you had a go at making your own designs Mat?

I have the same question

Very nice work BTW!

[matakishi]

have you had a go at making your own designs Mat?

Yes.

They're shit at the moment but I'm improving as I learn.
Soon, soon...

[marianas_gamer]

Those stone apes are great! As is the paint job
Lon

[tomrommel1]

very nice things you printed there!

[matakishi]

what program are you working with and always happy to help.

I'm using 123Design because I can use it on my iPad during the day.
I made some flagstones for a project I'm working on and I got the shapes and the cracks ok but got hung up on adding a surface texture.
I've got Blender in my desktop but havent looked at it yet.
It's really early days. When I have something I want to print and cant find an existing file I'll give it more time and though. For the moment I'm happy producing existing stuff.