We bought a 3D printer. We bought one mostly because not buying one seemed a less sensible option at the time.
I'm a wargamer. I have no doubt that I will find a 3D printer of use in the future. And even the present.
Anyway, I have been playing with it, mostly by doing stuff with the wonderful 1/200th tank collection offered for free by one m_bergman of New Zealand.
I printed off some Churchill Mk IVs. They came out pretty well.
Certainly wargames quality models, anyway. 1/200th, in case you weren't paying attention above. At the moment I don't have any great use for 1/200th scale tanks, so they'll go into my Memoir '44 box in order to provide a change from the omnipresent Shermans.
Other experiments have been less successful, but that's mostly down to me not having fully explored the software and the printer settings. And, of course, at some stage I will have to bite the bullet and try to make some 3D designs of my own.
Update: The originals were printed in garish yellow plastic. I ran a couple of coats of green paint over them. But I suspect you guessed that already.
Kaptain Kobold,
ReplyDeleteI am becoming more and more convinced that 3D printing will become an essential tool for wargamers. I am very impressed with your models, and look forward to seeing your next efforts.
All the best,
Bob
Those wee tanks look great. I imagine you could rescale the designs for 1:300 scale without too much hassle for micro-armour games
ReplyDeleteI suspect that scaling the models down will cause the same issues as scaling down a 2D print - loss of resolution. I shall give it a go though and see what happens. I think that the guns would be the biggest issue; they might get too thin to print at 1/300th, which will mean editing the original source files to thicken them up - something my skills don't yet extend to.
DeleteFine looking miniatures! 3D printing is a world of promise! :D Cheers!
ReplyDeleteAs gamer/nerds we have talked at length of the possibilities of the 3D printer but you're the first gamer I know of who's actually done it. Congratulations! What an innovation; one might even say...'One small step for a wargamer, one giant leap for nerd-kind'. Have 3D printers become truly affordable?
ReplyDeleteDepends what you consider affordable. The UP Plus 2 - which is the one the NZ guy refers to on his website - is currently £1185 on Amazon. To me that is quite expensive unless you are going to make a lot of use of it, or share it with friends. There are many cheaper models (down to £250 or so); I suspect this is very much a case that you get what you pay for and the cheap models probably have much reduced capabilities.
DeleteMaybe there is a small business opportunity here selling AFVs? Or can one print ready based 6mm or 10mm troops?
Ours was AU$500, and is probably at the cheap and cheerful end of things. But it seemed the best way to explore the possibilities. After all, I can do more things with a 3D printer than without one :)
DeleteMy daughter can also make use of it for some of her hobby activities, as well as for her degree, so it kind of justifies its existence on that basis.
Thanks very much for the gen. I suppose it will be the designs that generate the income for individuals/companies in future. I can imagine a marketplace flooded with gear and/or everyone having even bigger collections. I suppose the following logical step will be to have recyclable armies; done with that army? Back into the printer you go!
DeleteWhat about 6mm or 2mm infantry? Come across any plans for those?
ReplyDeleteNot so far. And I'm not sure how the printer would cope, but it's something I might try.
DeleteI did stumble across what looked like some Epic 40K clones though, so I'll try and find them and see how they work.
Where did you buy the printer in Aus and which model is it?
ReplyDeleteIt's a Cocoon Create. I goot it through Aldi, who do weird-arse deals and special every Wednesday on things up to and including ... 3D printers. If you're very, very lucky they may have one still lurking in stock (but it was three months ago). Cocoon Create is Aldi's rebranded name - It's actually branded as the Wanhao Duplicator i3 if that helps.
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