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A random series of articles on war gaming in 40K, FOW and other systems. The headings are, WiP; Conversions and models in various states of assembly. PiP; Paint works on various models. Mission Critical; scenarios or missions to bring a bit of a twist to a normal game. MiA; rules for units and characters that could/should/might appear in a game. Dig In; How to guides on making various types of terrain for different game systems. Sit Rep; Battle reports and after action reports on games played

Monday, May 21, 2018

Tilting at windmills in 3d printing

Benchy

Last year I took the plunge and got a 3d printer. Paying an exorbitant 140 euro for a DIY chinese knock off of a market leader (a Prusa Mk2)  I did not expect it to be an easy ride (trying to translate screenshot instructions in chinese was challenging). But I wanted to get a flavour for 3d printing without a massive outlay and in fairness 3D printing is possibly a bigger hobby in itself there was a question if it could absorb all my hobby time.  With Two Dice’s help and many many expletives Little Red was up and running.  The results were not particularly impressive. Frequent breakdowns, mediocre prints were a little frustrating but the time spent troubleshooting the system, debugging G code, visiting tinkercad and generally learning about the topic was invaluable.  Feeling a mix between a 40K tech priest and Scotty from Star Trek, Little Red is now up and running but relegated to low value tasks printing bases, door and window frames etc. 
3d printed Windmill
 Fast forward a couple of months I decided to up my game and enter the Prusa Mk3 aka 3d printer of the year 2018, aka BlackBeard.  Time spent with Little Red paid off since BlackBeard was dead on arrival with the some parts coming out of their packaging and breaking in transit.  Despite this everything was fixed within a couple of hours and Prusa kindly shipped replacement parts.  While the parts were onroute BlackBeard was up and running with the aid of some tie wraps. The difference between the two was night and day.  Benchy, a test printer to stress the printer, from Little Red went straight into the bin while Benchy from BlackBeard went on to the front page of this post.

Mexicana
Paint in progress barn
With Blackbeard’s arrival I have become a frequent visitor to thingiverse. Also I had been slowly backing 3d printed terrain set on kickstarter from Jens at 3d printed terrain and now those buildings are rolling of the printer. Albeit a little slow with the windmill took 72+hrs to print.  Below are some painted examples of the printing. 
Blackbeard
Little Red
Family Shot
That is all for now thanks for stopping by








3 comments:

Frank O Donnell said...

Wow that windmill looks the dogs b.... mate & the Mexicana even better, sadly even if I could afford one I never master using it :(

Dakeryus said...

I do not know Franco they are getting to critical mass. Every few months the printers get cheaper and easier to use. I am waiting for someone to connect their printer to an amazon's echo(?) or some type of voice controlled software and telling the print
'#?l'er to print something.

Interesting times my friend

Frank O Donnell said...

When that voice control thing happens let me know mate ;)

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