Not so long back I took a huge leap of faith and bought a 3D Printer. A Creality CR-6SE to be precise. This in itself was quite a challenge. Learning the software that is provided with it “CReality Slicer”, then finding that there is a better version which it is based on (Ultimaker Cura) and learning that one, which is a tad more complex in having a few more exposed options. Then I hit a wall. The printer is fine, but it can’t print the tabletop stuff I want to print. Except that, logically there shouldn’t be a reason why not. So, I went on a hunt and found that there is quite a variety of nozzles and other bits and pieces to expand the capabilities of the printer. The most important thing I found, were new nozzles – .1, .2 and .3mm. These allow ever smaller details and models to be made. Mind, to be fair, printing at 0.1mm takes a long time, even for a 28mm table top figure. Well worth the wait though.
After several failures I finally stumbled on the settings I needed to turn out a decent 28mm model. It takes from 4-12 hours to print a figure depending on how complex it is and how much material is required to support it. But, I was able to get almost 200 figures out of a single roll of filament. Now though it took forever, that is well worth the time and money.
Then somebody pointed out that while this is a relatively cost effective way to get game figures, there is a downside. The amount of time it takes to delicately and carefully remove the support material, clean the model and file off the edges and spots from where the support material attaches to the model. This in itself is very time consuming and the model is extremely fragile and delicate.
Resin however, saves all that time by providing an almost finished model. Clean, less worry about material and while still fragile, not nearly so much as a filament model of the same scale. I stayed with the FDM printer for a while, until I started getting into nightmare territory where I had liquid filament flooding the print head and making a mess. Took me ages to figure out that the heat unit was broken and filament was leaking out through the screw thread of the print head. Such a mess. So much messing about to figure it out and so many heads wasted.
During this time I decided to look a bit more seriously at resin printers.
There are so many of these things. Sheesh. Lots of research online, reading reviews, reading comments from owners and trying to decide which one fitted my budget and would do what I wanted. Primarily game figures, 28mm table top for wargaming and RPG – as well as extra models for the Zombicide and Cthulhu board games I have. Finally I settled on the Anycubic Photon Mono 4K. This was on sale at Amazon and there were a couple vouchers which made it worthwhile. So, after a discussion with the wife over this I went ahead and bought one. I do realise that there is now a 6K model of that printer, but that is still way outside my budget. Plus, the one I have is printing amazing models and I don’t know that the 6k option is going to provide any detail that my eyes will be able to see. Mind, it might be quicker at printing.
So, now I can turn out four or five prints of 8 figures a day, instead of one figure a day. Massive difference, just massive. Detail is better, it is just better all round. I mean, I was happy with the .1 head on the FDM printer, and detail was very good from that, but it is nothing compared to 35um level detailing. or 0.035mm. For props, buildings and scenic items, 50um is more than adequate but the tiny details – clothing creases, gear lines and weapon details are astounding. So much so that I decided to sign up for one of the Patreon makers who make figures in my interest field. Unit9. Amazing figures, amazing modelling, absolutely beautiful when printed.
Anyway. Happily churning away printing things on two printers was keeping me very occupied indeed. Cleaning, undercoating and painting was keeping me even busier. The wife was happy, mostly because I was spending considerably less time on the computer (aside from prepping figures for printing) and my daughter was happy, for the same reason. Not sure why but they seem to have been concerned about the length of time I spent doing stuff on the computer. No idea why.
Of course, this has added a whole new area of cost, spare tanks, replacement FEP screens, all sorts of additional parts and of course, resin. That was when I stumbled, completely by accident on 3D Print Monkey, and I was in happy heaven. Resin, materials, parts, all cheaper than I could get them on Amazon and all it good quality gear. I replaced all the screws on the tank and the printer with stainless, bought a bunch of stuff including own brand resin and I’ve been in a happy place ever since. Craig that runs the store knows what he’s talking about and has some interesting ideas where he’s going with the store. I will be eagerly awaiting some of his ideas as he will be providing things I want – display cases for example. Most of my purchasing now goes through 3DPrintMonkey – his prices are better than anywhere else I’ve seen. And with a 50 quid order, it’s free delivery around the UK. It’s not hard to spend 50 pounds in his store.
Then disaster. Somehow the FEP film on the Anycubic ruptured and released resin all over the printer. I didn’t notice and a print was running so the resin cured on the screen, leaked through to the secondary acrylic screen and made a godawful mess. The LED screen unfortunately was unrecoverable, so I had to buy a new one and that was a source of almost endless entertainment. I’m sure there are probably videos somewhere online to show how to do this stuff, but I’m an obstinate git and having spent many years working with, on and repairing computers I figured I could fudge by. Yeah, I did, my experience with computers and laptops actually stood me well as the care taken with those enabled me to dismantle the printer without damaging any of the components – which do seem rather fragile to be honest. While I was waiting for things to arrive and figuring out how to fit them, plus cleaning the printer of the resin spill I decided that enough was enough. I bought another printer. This time I went for an Elegoo Mars 3.
Well, I’m impressed. It was even easier to set up than the Anycubic, and is just a little bit larger. The design is quite a bit different and I think I rather prefer it to the Photon. With a little bit of fiddling I started printing on that while waiting for the parts to repair the Photon.
After a couple weeks I finally had everything I needed to fix the Photon, replaced the screen and the secondary window, replaced the screen protector (I hate those things) and the seal around the LED screen. Finished cleaning the printer and …. hey presto I have two printers.
Cool.
So, now I have the FDM printing large scale items, walls, buildings, scenery and stuff (much cheaper than printing them on the resin printer), and two busy little printers churning out all those little figures I like so much.
So glad that I bought the Army Painter set and the Vallejo paint set as I’m going to be needing all that paint.
Happy days. Of course, this does rather mean that I’m not making any models on the computer at the moment. Although, I suspect I might be heading back into Modo to make scenic items that are unavailable elsewhere. I’m quite looking forward to that to be honest.
We shall see.
Hobbies. Always expensive, always fun, sometimes entertaining. Not so often, educational. I know more about 3D Printers and printing than I ever thought I would, and not through choice either.
I haven’t worked it all out yet, but I think the way things are now, I should save a fortune on the costs of models for games. They are not cheap, and the manufacturers rather than seeing the trends out in the world are just jacking the prices up further and further. Almost like they don’t realise that money is finite, and there is only a relatively small amount available to ordinary folks, the wealthy top 10% have all the rest, and they don’t buy this stuff.
I hope they figure it out before it’s too late, but I have a suspicion that they won’t.
Not that I care much to be honest. I’m set now, and if I can’t find what I want online, I have experience modelling stuff, I can maybe make my own.
Dreams. Everybody should have some.
