3d Printing for the Tabletop: The Future is Now

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > 3d Printing for the Tabletop: The Future is Now

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

I'm new to this whole 3d printing thing, but am jumping in with a resin printer. The minis I'm most interested in are going to be for D&D, I've seen the free ones put out by the MZ guy, and they do look good and I'm definitely going to start there. Are there any other creators of D&D-esque minis that you'd recommend? Ones with Patreon's are fine by me as well.

Thanks!

# ¿ Aug 3, 2022 15:01

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 22, 2024 17:37

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

CHaKKaWaKka posted:

Yasashii Kyojin - https://www.patreon.com/yasashiikyojinstudio/posts / https://www.myminifactory.com/users/Yasashii%20Kyojin%20Studio?show=objects
The sculpts themselves are pretty good but the thing I like most is that you get access to the whole catalogue if you subscribe to the patreon instead of just this month's offering. There's sculpts for a big variety of DND monsters, focusing a bit more on monsters than humanoids.

Thanks to both of you!

I find this intriguing as that is quite a deal to get the back catalog as well.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2022 21:58

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Bucnasti posted:

One more recommendation: Epic Miniatures.
https://www.patreon.com/epic_miniatures

I think they might be the single best value on Patreon for fantasy .stls.

These minis awakened something inside me. I think it's love

# ¿ Aug 4, 2022 01:13

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

_Gumby posted:

I cant speak for the Mono SE specifically, but I would probably go for the Mono 4k, you can get them for $189USD (~$280AUD) atm: https://www.anycubic.com/collections/3d-printers/products/photon-mono-4k

If your budget is fixed at $350 there is nothing wrong with the Mono SE that im aware of though...

I picked up the mono4k, it makes amazing prints, higher quality than minis from some of the games I've Kickstarted. It's also quite capable of printing 8 medium sized 28mm D&D minis at a time.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2022 13:38

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Lumpy posted:

Is 3D modeling for resin printing for "simple" things that are non-organic (ex: a gun swap on a 40k War Dog that is a single piece) basically making the thing the right size in Blender and export to STL? I watched this video (which was linked here a while back) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqDnLg3o9WE and it seems relatively straightforward, but was curious if anyone had any experience with it they could share.

Also a big thanks to all the people in this thread who have answered my and other's questions! I feel slightly less terrified about ordering a printer now... going to get a Photon Mono 4k.

Cool, I am also a newbie with a mono 4k and despite some minor tribulations I've started to get pretty good at it. Not I just need to get to painting, not enough hours in the day unfortunately.

Also, for you more experienced types, I've been mostly using the Anycubic plant resin, I started with gray and would have occasional failures, I've since switched to the trans green and have not had any failures using the same settings, are the clear resins just more forgiving for prints? I also have a bottle of the striya tech fast, but I'm waiting to use up my other resins first.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2022 16:08

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Deviant posted:

this is what i do. manual supports is too much goddamn work.

I'm super new, but in my experience the orientation of the mini to the build plate is probably more important than the support density/size. Is that something you more experience folks would agree with? I'm getting to the point where I can look at a presupported mini and calculate where I think it might have problems and head them off without wasting time on the print.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2022 18:43

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Bucnasti posted:

Yeah my failure rate went to almost zero when I switched to a better resin.

Out of curiosity what resin is that? I rarely have failures using anycubics plant based, but it's not 100%

# ¿ Sep 22, 2022 00:28

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

w00tmonger posted:

Try out sirayatech fast, even better if you mix 10% tenacious. Mountains better than the plant base water washable stuff for durability

I have some of that, does it really cure as fast as they claim? I'm just using up the rest of my anycubic stuff.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2022 01:03

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

w00tmonger posted:

I'm 2.5-8s a layer depending on the age of my saturns. Pretty much everyone claims their times are fast though.

If you really want to chooch, look into vroom speeds. Crank you lift/retracts to 240. It'll knock a significant amount of your print times and counterintuitively will decrease your failure rates

I looked up Vroom like you mentioned, so far 3 successful prints (with some very fiddly bits) and each one saved like an hour.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2022 15:49

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

As a newbie to resin printing I have to say the mono 4k has been trouble free and I've printed easily 200 minis (including some multipart ones that are easily 12 inches long), most issues were just stupid mistakes on my part. Filament printers may be another thing altogether!

# ¿ Oct 12, 2022 15:21

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

I've been mixing in tenacious with fast in about a 5-1 (fast-tenacious) ratio. Still prints fast, haven't had any failures, stuff still breaks when i drop it onto a tile floor, but more durable to just little bumps.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2022 15:30

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

That new anycubic DLP looks like it's pretty snazzy as far as smoothness of prints go. But even my 4k makes me happy, so I don't see a need.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2022 20:11

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

IncredibleIgloo posted:

That is a great idea. Maybe I am just not tightening it enough when I am leveling it. I may have knocked it pretty drat hard to get some minis off when I had a few prints with too high of a burn in layer time.

I am really, really enjoying 3d printing on a resin printer and I am really, really happy with what I am printing. The only downside is that I seemed to master just about 75mm figures from Loot studios and can get those perfect almost every time, but other things I have less success rate with, but I am still having fun. I purchased the printer to run off a bunch of warhams and 40k armies and then fell in love with the bigger stuff. Now, oddly enough, the hardest thing for me to print well is the small little warhams stuff. I am surprised at how cheap it is to print that stuff though!

I noticed on my mono 4k that the print bed had 2 screws under the the hook thing that attaches to the lifting mechanism, those were both loose, once I tightened them it reduced my failures to zero. any slop in the print head seems like it has the potential to cause failures.

Resin printing is essentially magic. Now to catch up on the 80 or so minis I need to print.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2022 15:17

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

IncredibleIgloo posted:

Trip Report: I just took my print off the machine. I wanted to verify it works with a small project so I did some characters first. The plan is to do a pair of dragon wings that will use the entire height of my Saturn 2. So I want a known good print prior to starting a 20 hour print. So imagine my horror when I look at my plate and see yet again a quadrant is missing. But, oddly, there is no debris on the FEP. I printed 3 characters and a cauldron, and 3 bases. I see 3 bases, and 2 characters and a cauldron, so where did the 3rd character go? I find this strange so I take the plate down and look, and find this:

Turns out I was in such a rush that I forgot to move the character or accidently sent him to home and ended up with him boiling himself alive.

I believe that's known as a happy accident.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2022 16:39

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

w00tmonger posted:

Might be more of a painting thread question, but anyone have recommendations on painting method for a huge FDM piece? I gave it a drtbrush of grey/white like a normally would for smaller pieces, but now I need to tint the whole thing.

Should I be airbrushing inks or some other mixture onto this thing?

Laser cutters are neat and on my long term radar for sure. You should look into acrylic/MDF tokens for wargaming if you haven't already

Did you print that from epic miniatures?

# ¿ Nov 13, 2022 03:28

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

w00tmonger posted:

you betcha, been sitting on it for a year and a half. Nowadays my printers are much more tuned

K, I coulda sworn I saw that picture before...

# ¿ Nov 13, 2022 04:56

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

SubNat posted:

I'm thinking about getting an entry resin printer, and I just want to check:
The 'expected print speed' of printers is just marketing faff, right? Or is it that some of them have stronger UV light sources, and thus can do notably faster layer exposures?
That they never really state layer height and other settings makes me wary of that metric. But at the same time resins do come with pretty wide spans of curing times that'll vary per machine.

I've been looking a bit at a Elegoo Mars 3 Pro vs a Phrozen Mighty 4k, partially for the extra size, but the speed would be nice.

I'd go volume over speed. I have a mono 4k. It's fast enough. I'd say there are very few situations where I'd need speed over being able to fit a bigger model or more minis. I wouldn't sweat speed, no matter what you do you're going to wind up with hundreds of unpainted minis.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2022 15:44

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

I've had success in mid 60s using siryatech fast, in fact I think they market that it works in temps that low. But anything else is very unreliable. For the most part I just have a space heater to keep my printer area warm.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2022 20:52

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

I love a happy ending!

# ¿ Dec 2, 2022 17:58

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Lumpy posted:

Anyone with an Anycubic Wash & Cure know how to stop every single part from partaking in a race to be the first to fall off the platform during curing? The little bumps do nothing. I'm thinking of building a little ledge on the edge of the platform out of aluminum foil.

And speaking of that same station, what do people use, if anything, to line the wash basket so small parts don't fall through / poke down into the fan?

I have it and do not have this problem, is it spinning fast? It should be very slow.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2022 01:58

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

bird food bathtub posted:

I kinda cheat and don't do either. Litttle blobs of poster-tack-stuff in the places where glue needs to go, and after priming take the blobs off. I do this all over the model, wherever arms are going to glue to the torso or where a backpack will glue on the back, stuff like that. I don't have any solid evidence that glue can't fasten completely to the surface through a layer of primer but I've never wanted to test it.

That's smart, I generally just glue then prime unless it's a decorative base, then I just do them completely separate and glue at the end.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2022 19:06

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Usually mine are a bit longer and take a bit longer, but nothing like that. Do you have a really long screen off time or something like that?

# ¿ Jan 5, 2023 15:11

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

The Eyes Have It posted:

I kind of see two use cases: parts enough to create an entire dungeon layout, or enough parts to build ad-hoc "battle maps" as needed.

My own limited experience is that #2 is more actually useful gaming-wise, but I suspect people chasing #1 are the folks who are spending the $$$

I'd definitely prefer 2, but I also probably won't be playing many WotC produced D&D adventures in the future. As I'm getting back into in person I really just want like interesting walls and scatter to put on my maps.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2023 21:46

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Doctor Zero posted:

Jesus Christ that's brilliant

Yeah that was one of my first purchases, really helps.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2023 02:21

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

I only hollow really big things that are also easy to put drain holes in for cleaning. Not worth it for anything else. If you do a bad job cleaning it will eat itself apart from the inside.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2023 15:01

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

I don't need another 3d printer, I need a second me dedicated to painting.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2023 16:55

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

For those of you who use the sunlu abs like resin, how's it's layer cure time as compared to say a mix of fast+tenacious, which for me is currently 2.2 seconds.

Gonna try it out since it's about 1/3 the cost.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2023 14:55

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Bodanarko posted:

lol I don't read gud, yeah I wouldn't do that either, though I've never used presupported minis. You can try adding a couple heavy supports to that foot then?

Yeah, if you can't strip the supports then that's not gonna be great either. Does the creator offer unsupported versions? The way that one is supported isn't great.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2023 02:48

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

IncredibleIgloo posted:

My Saturn 2 runs the Sunlu ABS like between 2.1 and 2.6 depending on color and temperature and a few other factors. But usually around 2.3 .

Thanks, I decided to just run it with my usual settings and it turned out perfect. It was a fiddly little scorpion lady as well with spindly little legs, so I'd say it's a great start. Seems pretty resilient too.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2023 19:33

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Openlock does not print well on resin.

# ¿ May 11, 2023 20:54

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

w00tmonger posted:

That said, the issue with openlock is the supports that are baked in.

I was bugging them about it and under their license in allowed to remove them commercially which is good. I think they were getting a ton of complaints about them and made the change recently

I saw you mention that on discord, very cool

# ¿ May 15, 2023 22:40

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

IncredibleIgloo posted:

19 for a kg is good. If you are doing miniatures I would advise trying ABS like resin as soon as possible, it is probably going to be closer to 25 a kg but is easier to print with and also more resilient to damage.

As for more stuff, if your respirator does not have a face shield or goggle portion, get goggles. Get a lot of shop towels, get more gloves, get some plastic trays. The first time you do the whole operation you want more stuff than you would think you would need. When you have done it a few times you will get your rhythm worked out. I take shop towels and tear off about 10 full size squares, then take 10 more squares and half them, and then quarter some of them, so I have pre-ripped/sized rags ready to go. Don't be afraid to change gloves often. Have containers to transport stuff in. Have a pre rinse and a wash tub of IPA. The pre-rinse gets dirty somewhat quickly, but that is ok, it makes the wash tub stay clean for a long time.

edit to add: This is the resin I use almost exclusively now https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BBVVPWP9?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-reorder-t1_k3_1_6&amp=&crid=1YXPV809JU0BG&sprefix=sunlue&th=1

Seconded on the resin, it fluctuates in price a lot but you can often get 2kg for under 40.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2023 02:47

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Epic minis is offering a free model every day on their patreon. Shouldn't need to be a patron. https://www.patreon.com/posts/daily-free-model-87781443

Good way to see if you like their stuff.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2023 14:59

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

I have 2 build plates that are zeroed the same and just swap between them if I'm building a lot in a row so I can just wash everything still on the plate.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2023 17:05

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Any of you on the lord of print patreon or tribes or whatever? I'm looking at getting one of his stls but hoping for a discount code, do they usually do a discount around christmas? I missed the black friday one (want to get his godzilla to print for my kid)

# ¿ Dec 5, 2023 16:51

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

I've never had trouble with solid minis, I've had one hollowed that I did way early crack and leak, the uncured liquid resin will eventually dissolve the cured resin. I do a better job with my cleaning and curing hollow models now.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2023 14:47

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Couple drain holes, fill it and drain with alcohol a few times until the alcohol comes out clear, shine UV light in the holes as well after it's done drying.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2023 19:23

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

I've been using a mono 4k for a while now and after getting a small windfall over the holidays am thinking of upgrading to at least a 9.1 screen.

What's everyone think of elegoo v. Anycubic. Prices seem mostly on par, elegoo wash and cure station needs a bit more real estate, but also seems to have extra buckets for sale for two stage washes which anycubic never seems to.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2023 18:03

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Southern Heel posted:

Thank you - bed is quite clean already but I've re-levelled and lowered the bed temp - I will report back. Luckily what I've printed so far are quite tall models and bizarrely the top layers appear to be flat and parallel - presumably because the curled up sections are re-melted when the nozzle comes around again - and I can base them on styrene/plastic and fill out the gap underneath as terrain.

I have the separate Elegoo wash and cure units (bought as a bundle) and it's nice. I'm sure you could get away with multiple buckets and UV nail lamps but having the two units that you can cycle through is just dandy. I remember being deliberately steered away from the combination units but for the life of my I can't remember why.

I've had a combo and was just measuring stuff and realized that my secondary buckets take up enough space that it is basically the same as separate units. I guess having separate.

Specifically I'm looking at the Saturn 2 8k.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2023 19:27

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 22, 2024 17:37

Scipiotik: Mar 2, 2004; "I would have won the race but for that."

Tibalt posted:

Hey all! I just got back into tabletop miniatures and wargames after a long hiatus where I gave away my models. I'm also getting into 3D printing for the first time, which gives an unique opportunity: how much do I need to print before I break even compared to buying miniatures from retailers? The marginal cost of printing a miniature is pennies on the dollar compared to buying a unit box from Games Workshop when you only count the resin used, but the math changes when you include the cost of the printer, premium files, and time spent. Since I'm getting back into the hobby and into 3D printing at the same time, I'm going to try my best to accurately track how much I spend on everything related to the hobby.

So, let's jump into it. I purchased the Saturn 2 resin printer from ELEGOO as part of a bundle with the Mercury XS wash and cure station and a 1kg bottle of 8K standard photopolymer resin. The printer was 37% off as part a sale and the bundle had an additional $20 discount, both of which are regular occurrences if you're willing to wait and buy at the right time. After taxes the total costs at this point comes to $540.56, and since I haven't actually printed anything yet that's the hole we'll need to dig ourselves out of - and that hole is only going to get bigger. Since I want to reflect the true cost of 3D printing, I'm also going to be tracking the time I spend on the hobby troubleshooting problems, setting up print runs, and finding files. The rough rule I'm following is "If this was a job, would I bill the time to a client?" For ease of calculation I'm 'charging' $10 an hour, and fully expect to spend an hour or two getting the printer set up and properly calibrated. I'll track how long it takes to find files to print as well, but we're pretty close to $600 in upfront costs.

So let's talk about the good news. For the purposes of tracking the equivalent retail cost I'm using the final dollar amount displayed before hitting the purchase button, and doing my best to find the best and least expensive option for an official miniature (so no Etsy resin shops). I'm looking to build a Gloomspite Gitz army that could double as a Night Goblin army for Old World, so there's a plethora of free and premium files to choose from. I also want to print miniatures and terrain for D&D, which cost at least $2 a figure from Wizkids and also seems to be well-supported by the community. One of the minis I'm most interested in printing is Mollog's Mob, a troggoth hero and friends from Warhammer Underworlds that I'd like to use in Warcry. Since Mollog is a popular miniature that's out of print, finding one for sale at the listed GW price of $25 is impossible. In fact, the only one for sale I could find was for $34.90 from a sketchy .RU website. Let's just say I'm pretty excited that I'll be able to print my own Mollog instead. While I've spent quite a bit and don't have anything to show for it yet, we'll see how things shake out next update after I print my first miniature.

Bottom line: Printing Cost $540.66, Retail Equivalent $0.00

Print and paint yourself a tarrasque and you'll basically already be in the black! (Oh dang it's on sale) https://shop.wizkids.com/products/d-d-icons-of-the-realms-gargantuan-tarrasque

Also congrats on the printer, I was looking at similar as an upgrade to a mono4k, but I decided I'm not currently printing enough to bother with an upgrade and will instead wait. I'd prefer elegoo keep using a 4 bolt for their print plate alignment and they do seem to be heading that way.

Scipiotik fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Jan 18, 2024

# ¿ Jan 18, 2024 17:33

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > 3d Printing for the Tabletop: The Future is Now

«‹›2 »