MajorNese's AdMech reboot - project log

[Subtle Discord]

Humble light amplified and focused to a point that can instantly disintegrate matter, Omnissiah be praised, science is awesome.

 

Yep, controlling the edge melt on styrene with a laser was always a huge unknown for me and why I hesitated on getting one. I'm very interested in seeing how your experiments turn out since working with styrene isn't out of the question for me and I'd really like to know if laser cutting really is a viable option. I know they can do amazing things with other materials but styrene is the one that matters most to me and I've had a hard time finding examples of what to expect.

 

The Fabricator General approves of this experimentation to better understand this laser technology. *Initializes a pleasing binaric cant*

[MajorNese]

Yep, controlling the melting will take a bit of time.

 

I've tried directly engraving a logo on bits - first try (at 10% power, of a 2.5W laser) carved deep lines into the material, that looked horrible. Not enough power made shallow engraving. The sweet spot was still not that powerful - it could consistently carve deeper, but not that deep. 5x engraving an area resulted in this:

 

 

I have to see how it ends up after basecoating and painting. If it's possible to fill that area cleanly, it should cover up the grid structure.

 

And I should collect this in a separate thread over in the general forums, not here. But I won't do it this month, I still have to get that 0.13mm plasticard for tests.

[thewarriorhunter]

You could try putting some type of filler into the bottom to smooth it out. I use a product called Perfect Plastic Putty that can be thinned with water and painted on. I wonder if something like that brushed into the bottom would help smooth it out?

[Subtle Discord]

Damn, I didn't expect the pulse of the laser would leave that much of noticeable surface. If you're willing to spend a bit consider trying a self-leveling sandable primer. I'm not positive it would work, but in theory it should settle into the irregular surface and smooth it out with minimal effort.

 

 

Remember to experiment on some sprew or other components that you don't care about if you bork it up while trying to get the best possible results.

[MajorNese]

Damn, I didn't expect the pulse of the laser would leave that much of noticeable surface. If you're willing to spend a bit consider trying a self-leveling sandable primer. I'm not positive it would work, but in theory it should settle into the irregular surface and smooth it out with minimal effort.

The grid was flat enough not to matter. What was clearly visible got blurred more and more.

1. freshly engraved, 2. basecoated, 3. after wet blends, 4. after painting. In the end it appears completely smooth. And it's barely deep enough to make out after step 3, so it's more of an insta-freehand, not the deep cutouts of regular GW details.

 

 

Current approach is to increase burn time per pulse - that smoothed out the grid structure. Now I'll have to try deepening that with different parameters.

 

 

Remember to experiment on some sprew or other components that you don't care about if you bork it up while trying to get the best possible results.

I have enough of those bikers - and only engraved an area that I could cover with a certain pouch like on the other bikers.

 

It did fail 3 times, but that's only 2 out of 9 bikes I have on sprue.

Edited August 12, 2020 by MajorNese

[Subtle Discord]

Ok, the progression gives a better sense how shallow the cut is. The first image seems a bit deeper than it actually is. Damn, you could do filigree, fine lettering and letter blocks, and other delicate details that could be picked out with wash really easily. Iiinnnteresting...

[MajorNese]

I found out a setting where I could achieve a smooth surface on plastic, and repeating it made it deeper than before.

 

Now I tested a more complex logo, with smaller lines closer to each other. The outlying lines were nice and clear, deep enough to use a wash to paint it instantly. The lower area going from wings to circle and the smaller cogs' teeth were harder to distinguish.

 

My painting time was limited to half my lunch break, so this is not 100% clean yet. Still a lot more faithful to the original than my previous freehand (right).

[thewarriorhunter]

That's very cool and looks so good with just base layers of paint.

[Magos Takatus]

That's quite an interesting way to personalise models. It sounds like there's quite a few variables to get it how you like it. Good job. :)

[MajorNese]

The laser itself doesn't have too many variables, but the surroundings are a factor. A few observations from the past days:

 

Laser power:

For plastic models, 5-6% (of the 7W laser module) are good. Any lower and it's barely noticeable, any higher and it seems to melt wide lines into the model. Have to experiment if I can get rid of those. As seen on the first experiments with plasticard - it requires getting above a certain power threshold to actually cut away material instead of just heating it. Above that threshold it cuts deeper, the more "excess" power the wider and deeper does it melt away. I once tried cutting out a shoulder pad sized logo from 0.5mm plasticard, too much power evaporated most of the logo too - but at least it got through.

 

Burning time:

The time the laser is activated for each "dot", ranges from 0-100 ms. Too low, and you get the grid structure from the biker pics. Longer, and the heat spreads further, melts down wider to reach the next line. I found that, if power is not too high, I could easily go up to 100ms for a smooth surface. Downside is the longer engraving time - the Brotherhood of Steel logo above took 1h per engraving, and I ran the engraving 3 times to get that deep.

 

Loops:

Once done, it can just engrave the same area/logo (with different settings) again. Gets the logo deeper each time, but obviously requires more time. If settings were good on a previous run, re-running it won't make matters worse. Re-running with lower power and longer burning time even smoothed out some of the less fortunate settings' results.

 

Now I have the rough settings for thick plastic, next step (besides also trying resin) would be optimizing the engraved logos. Laser resolution is limited, so thin lines may disappear at some point - especially with longer burning time widening each dot. Manually expanding lines (and gaps between lines) in the original image file would be an approach to fix that.

 

The original plan of cutting logos from plasticard will be a bit more of a challenge - white, partly translucent plasticard doesn't really absorb light that well. For my first trials I basecoated a sheet of white 0.5mm plasticard black. The first cut was nice and deep, the following ones barely took away any material (up to 20 loops) by not crossing the threshold. Enough power to burn through on the first try will melt away a large area. I'll try to get thinner plasticard, or gradually increase power when the top layer is cut away. Another issue was the engraving logo itself - the laser does either outlines of a logo, or the logo as is. When doing outlines, the outlines are widened to the point where the outer millimeter (or something like that) of the logo is missing as well. Though expanding a marked area in photoshop is quite easy, so that would be my approach to fix this.

 

Enough left to do. I'll see when I can do what exactly. A full write-up will happen once I'm through the list...

[MajorNese]

Finally, something done for the first time in months. Motivation has been sparse, I've been sitting on my ar...

 

 

First lasered logo on an AdMech model too. The shading step went pretty bad, mixing shade with medium to get it a bit less dark lead to some really ugly splotches on the main body. Wings were done with a sponge brush, that went better.

 

Next up, some flame-grilling chicken guys. And maybe some other, smaller models from my pile of shame.

[Magos Takatus]

Really nice work on the Archaeopter. I'm liking the vibrant green. The laser cut logo is a pretty neat idea too.

[Black Knight]

That paint scheme is great as always, can't help it but the favourite part of that flier is the ammo on the rear stubber, great gradient there.

[MajorNese]

That paint scheme is great as always, can't help it but the favourite part of that flier is the ammo on the rear stubber, great gradient there.

Yep, tried something similar to my AdMech primaris - in this case it wasn't Waywatcher Green, but Necron Glow. Either way, makes stubbers look more interesting.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Beautiful work on the Archeoraptor.

[MajorNese]

A bit more work done, to get something different in.

 

The first is a Vindicare assassin. We can integrate it without losing rules or slots, so why not. Converted it a bit to better fit the picture.

 

 

And the little guy for "bring your biological descendant to purge day" - 3D printed resin from a friend. With the 25mm base it doesn't actually stand in for anything, but I got him done while waiting for the Vindicare's paint to dry.

 

 

Next up I guess I'll add a primaris techmarine to my Raptors. Love the model, but can't use it for AdMech...

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the assassin and the Jawa cosplayer.

[DanPesci]

Great work on the vindicare, and love the little dude too (hes wicked!)

Your archeopter also looks awesome! Im currently working on mine but fairly demotivated painting wise atm so its taking forever lol

 

Ive wanted to convert some admech assassins for a while (ever since reading the 30k mechanicus novel), i was thinking of using some ruststalkers and then converting from there....but yeah..one on the long list to do (archeopter needs done first!)

[MajorNese]

Great work on the vindicare, and love the little dude too (hes wicked!)

Your archeopter also looks awesome! Im currently working on mine but fairly demotivated painting wise atm so its taking forever lol

 

Ive wanted to convert some admech assassins for a while (ever since reading the 30k mechanicus novel), i was thinking of using some ruststalkers and then converting from there....but yeah..one on the long list to do (archeopter needs done first!)

Yep, the Mechanicum novel was my inspiration too for doing this. And the little dude is fun, but I'm most impressed with the quality and detail of 3D resin prints. Any FW model would have been more work to clean than this.

 

My archaeopter dragged on for around a month in my case, but rather due to lack of motivation. Spent most of the time playing ArmA/Star Citizen or editing pics, my motivation for 40k-related stuff is not very high considering there are simply no games, and there will be none for the foreseeable future. Our local store is reduced to an actual store instead of a good meeting place, so that's that for now.

[Charlo]

Nice little bit of conversion on the Vindi!

[Prot]

Awesome 'little guy' there. Utinni!

 

If you painted up a pile of those coming out of a Drill you'd have quite the little jawa scene with droids and all.

[MajorNese]

Awesome 'little guy' there. Utinni!

 

If you painted up a pile of those coming out of a Drill you'd have quite the little jawa scene with droids and all.

I only have two BB-8s...well, they're not so hard to do, so I might try an R2 if I get any motivation to do 40k stuff. Which is currently hard to get.

 

Also, I doubt there's more Jawa models - this was a one-off from a 3D modeler as far as I know. Though it would be awesome if there were more, yes...

[MajorNese]

Long time no update...well, mostly no motivation to get stuff done.

 

But since last year's ETL had been postponed, I decided to give the pre-built Warhound its paint - easier to find motivation for models you want to do rather than the ones you might need for a game, when there are no games scheduled.

 

Either way, this is the first resin kit I lasered on. Parameters worked out as intended, with really crisp details. Filling the side logos with thinned Celestia was done in <20min per side and looks better than any of my freehands, which is worth the few hours of laser time.

 

 

 

No idea when the next update might be due. I still have a Reaver titan in its uncleaned and unassembled form, but by experience cleaning/building it takes the longest time out of all steps. We'll see, maybe for this year's ETL, if it happens...

[INKS]

love the green plasma and other bits. It really pops

[MajorNese]

love the green plasma and other bits. It really pops

Yep, the good old Waywatcher Green. Sadly it's OOP, so I reserve my remaining pots for the centerpieces.