Hello, /tg/.
I have a passion for miniatures and tabletop games. I'm also a pretty decent drawfag with a penchant for monsters and fantasy/sci-fi characters. I tend to write lots of homebrew games - skirmish wargames, tabletop dungeon crawlers and similar -, since it relaxes me and every now and then I manage to produce something quite good and playable too. And lately I've been experimenting with 3d sculpting. This all leads to the conclusion that I would really, really love to be able to design and print my own miniatures for my games.
With that in mind, is there any 3D printer capable of printing decent quality 35mm miniatures, with a price range below the four digits? I've been looking around but I don't have much technical knowledge on the matter yet, so for example I don't know what's the printing resolution range I should be looking for, and so on.From what I saw so far I've almost lost hope ... almost.
>>44188068
You might want to take a look at the Maplin website, or to just ram "3D Printer" into Google. It's gonna be pricey no matter what, but depending on your budgetI'm assuming you're a 'Murkan, so everything's in dolleridoosyou should be able to get a decent printer.
>>44188342Actually European, but euro and USD are pretty much the same, with the exception of the latter being stronger and on the rise on exchange valueAlso I was somewhat led to believe dollaridoos meant 'straya dollars, for some weird reason, but anyway
Thank you for the suggestion, but I'm mostly looking for advice on the technical features I should be looking for.
For example, I can see a printer has a 50 micron layer resolution, but I don't know wheter this means it will print my detailed rifleman model decently or just give me a hairy potato.
>>44188441
50 microns is 0.05mm, so that seems like a pretty decent quality for detailed riflemen, even at 28mm. Hell, you could probably print some 40k models at that quality and not get a second glance in a GW shop. What really matters is the printer style, which is what'll cost you the big bucks. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about 3D printer styles to tell you the difference between styles, so it'd be down to you to do your research.
>>44188441
The best way to appraise and compare 3D printers is to see samples of their outputs. Lucky you, most product reviewers will print fairly intricate stuff and post results for their reviews.
But understand: right now, 3d printing is *just* hitting public use levels. 3d printing now is where inkjets were 25 years ago: over $3k for a good one, over $400 for a cheap one.
>>44188068
If you're still getting your feet wet, then why not start with shapeways until you have some experience?
FUD and FXD are excellent for this, and not as expensive as buying a whole printer.
>is there any 3D printer capable of printing decent quality 35mm miniatures, with a price range below the four digits?
Want some ocean-front property in Luxembourg to go with that?
>>44188068
Depending on the material and scale of your minis, you can removing the printing lines through acetone fuming. Basically, you pop the figure in a box with a puddle of acetone at the bottom and wait for the surface to melt slightly.
It's fussy and no guarantee that your models won't lose too much detail, but it'll save you having to buy an industry-grade master printer.
>>44189741
addendum: you'll still want to get the highest resolution printer you can afford; the less you have to melt, the better. And I honestly don't know if it'll even be usable at 35mm scale.
>>44188068
No, there is nothing available right now that will do what you want.
If you want to produce individual models that you've designed then use shapeways or one of their competitors.
If you want to make multiples then use shapeways/etc. to produce a master, make a mould from it and cast the rest.
>>44188068
I 3d printed this miniature out for a game called pocket tactics meant for 3d printing. This is from a printer called the Makerbot Replicator 2, which is an okay printer.
I had a friend who printed out some 40k models for his army from an Ultimaker. I don't have any pictures from that, but they came out with a lot better quality, close enough that he added them to his 40k army without shame. Note about those printers is that they are pretty technical and need some more knowledge.
It comes down to that not only do you need a good printer, but the 3d models you make have to be designed with 3d printing in mind to come out good. 3d printing is just not there yet and requires a large upfront cost, but these individual ones can be easily made once you get going.
>>44188068
> is there any 3D printer capable of printing decent quality 35mm miniatures, with a price range below the four digits?
ยจ
Absolutely not, but it's very possible that there will be in the near future, so keep learning 3d sculpting. In the meantime, here's some food for thought:
What everyone does now is basically design the model in 3D, then have a commercial 3d printing service like shapeways print the model for you. This gives you access to much higher quality printing than you could do at home.
When you receive the model, you clean it up, you might even resculpt some of the detail with epoxy putty or similar, and often you want to polish some of the parts that show too much of the "grain" from the 3d printing, or spray on a thin layer of paint that smooths it out just a little.
Now that your model is touched up, you make a silicone mold of your model, that you can then use to produce copies in resin or pewter if you used a high-temp resistant silocone.
This is the most cost effective way of turning a 3d print into a physical model, but it only really pays off if you do a LOT of recasts since the cost of printing the initial miniature is high.
This is how a lot of small businesses make their miniatures, and it's the best solution for the garage games designer or hobbyist.
The wide-spread fan-made kits and miniatures for epic 40 000 are made this way, and they are of very good quality and ranges from 6mm space marines to titans.
