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3D printed figures

Posted:
August 18th, 2019, 3:23 pm
by Bob77
I am trying to replace my broken figures and upgrade my furniture with 3D printed pieces. I have found a few stl. files on the web, and plan to start printing this week. I dont have a printer, so i will be using the one at my local library. Its pretty inexpensive, but the turn around will take time due to the fact that there is only one printer. I plan on posting the file and a pic as they are completed. Please feel free to share your files with pics as well.
Re: 3D printed figures

Posted:
August 19th, 2019, 12:49 am
by hightechartist
I've considered doing this myself and have done a lot of research. The problem is that technology is rapidly advancing with 3D printing and the older 3D printers are kind of crap at printing small things like wargame figures without losing a lot of detail.
By all means try it out and show us how it turns out, but I'm guessing the 3D printers at your library are filament-based technology such as FDM or FFF. My understanding is that if you want proper detail on your miniatures, you'll want to print with a resin-based 3D printer such as SLA.
Of course, this is only based on my reading. Anyone with practical experience please feel free to chime in.
Re: 3D printed figures

Posted:
August 19th, 2019, 2:59 pm
by lestodante
I've seen a lot of 3D prints of Heroquest figures and I have to say they all look so-so.
The problem is that you can't find a file scanned at a proper resolution to allows a good printing. Also the cost of the material is not cheap.
Re: 3D printed figures

Posted:
August 19th, 2019, 3:18 pm
by hightechartist
lestodante wrote:I've seen a lot of 3D prints of Heroquest figures and I have to say they all look so-so.
The problem is that you can't find a file scanned at a proper resolution to allows a good printing. Also the cost of the material is not cheap.
Someone who is good at 3D modeling needs to recreate the heroquest models from scratch. The best I've seen are the Springer models and... they're not great.
Re: 3D printed figures

Posted:
August 19th, 2019, 4:59 pm
by Bob77
Hmmm. Good stuff to chew on. I will start with 1 goblin and compare it with an original. The cost seems very good at 15 cents a gram. I figure most figures wont weigh much, no pun intended.
Re: 3D printed figures

Posted:
August 20th, 2019, 11:33 am
by cornixt
I've been looking into this recently. You can get reasonable prints from a well-tuned $200 FDM printer (Ender 3), and HQ models are low on the detail scale when it comes to miniatures so they would be fine if you had a good source to work from. If you are happy with Reaper Bones then you won't be too disappointed. Filament seems to come out at about 10c per model, so not expensive either. The drawback is that printing to these levels is slow (hours per model) and all the time taken to get your printer running well.
Re: 3D printed figures

Posted:
August 22nd, 2019, 3:28 pm
by Bob77
So I finally made it to my local library yesterday and printed a goblin for 60 cents. I was to take 2 hours before I was notified of its completion. An hour and a half for the model before mone, but just 30 minutes for mine. I got a call an additional 3 hours after that, but didnt feel like going, so I will be picking it up in about an hour.
The model is by Carlbark out of sweden and he has a few other free stl filed here.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3153612 I will post pic and thoughts when I have it in my hands.
Re: 3D printed figures

Posted:
August 23rd, 2019, 8:21 pm
by Bob77
20190823_164937.jpg
So here is a pic of the 3d goblin. An original is in their also for comparison. I still need to clean it up a bit.
Re: 3D printed figures

Posted:
August 23rd, 2019, 10:13 pm
by Uncle_Elvis
I understand cleaning it up some, but I still feel that is rough
Re: 3D printed figures

Posted:
August 24th, 2019, 8:56 am
by whitebeard
Check out these other posts on this site for an Ender 3 with no calibration. Models were printed at 0.05 mm layer height (Hatchbox White PLA) and 100% infill Cura profile per Danny H. from 3D Printed Tabletop (YouTube).
http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=4254&start=22A knight figure
http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=4254&start=9