Sunday 6 March 2016

More Adventures in 3D Printing

I've been busy on the 3D printer again, trying out all sorts of things and getting to grips with parameters, print speeds and fill ratios.

I thought that it was time that I actually printed some bits I would use for something, so did some tanks scaled to match those in the Memoir '44 box - roughly 1/185th. This involves taking the 1/200th scale tank models from Marco Bergman's extensive collection and increasing them in size by roughly 10% (it's good enough, anyway).

First up, some Tiger Is. I would use these to show heavy tank units in scenarios which need them. The gun didn't print properly on one of them; I will need to replace it with wire before painting.


Just to add some variety I printed of a Memoir '44 unit's worth of Stugs.


And for those esoteric heavy tank units - a Sturmtiger.


Anyone thinking that 3D printing is about mass-production should be aware that the siz vehicles above were printed as one file and took 8 hours. I had the print-speed set fairly low, as a number of sites suggest this is a good thing for small objects. But it's still quite a while. I won't be turning out tons of these things on a regular basis.

I have also been printing off some buildings to add to the cities Godzilla and his friends frolic in in my Giant Monster Rampage games. They are all from a collection of Sim City buildings I found on Thingiverse.

This is an oil refinery. I took the file and printed it twice.


Here it is being menaced by Ghidorah. I love the little petrol tankers that are part of the base.


This is a capitol building. All cities need a bit of domed Victorian architecture.


Finally a factory. Like all of the buildings I rescaled them, but I think I overdid this one. I'll probably print it again and reduce it in size a little - print at 50% of its original size instead of the 100% I actually did.


It does look nice though.


This is my favourite bit. If I do reprint it, then this big model will either end up as a stronghold for HOTT, or may end up on a bring and buy.


I helped a friend set up and configure his printer yesterday - I am considered an expert now, after owning one for a week - and we printed off this lovely Rocktopus for my daughter, who has a bit of a thing for octopus. Octopi. Octopuses.


As I write this there are Hanomags on the printer - I can use them to indicate German Panzergrenadier units in Memoir '44. After that I have some Russian heavy tanks to print.

Note: If you are reading this post on http://morieorgames.info/ then you are reading a stolen version. Please go to 'The Stronghold Rebuilt for the original posts. Thank you.

4 comments:

  1. Kaptain Kobold,

    I am very impressed with what you have managed to produce in such a short time. I can certainly see many uses for 3D printing, although I won't be buying a printer quite yet! (I don't think that my wife would allow it.)

    All the best,

    Bob

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  2. Those really are impressive. The detail is much better than I was imaging you could get with a home printer. Which printer do you have? I'm talking with my gamer friends about jointly buying one we can all print on bu there are so many models now that it's hard to make a decision.

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    Replies
    1. I have a Cocoon Create, purchased, believe it or not, from the supermarket chain Aldi. I suspect that it's very much the lower end of things in terms of quality but, as I said in a previous post, we decided that it would be a chance to try out the 3D printing process. I've not been disappointed with it so far.

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