Any advice on 3D printed miniatures?

[TheArtilleryman]

Title. Bought some 3D printed IG tanks on eBay; first time working with this kind of stuff so just wondered if there is anything I need to know about working with this material either in construction or painting. Any advice appreciated :)

[Bung]

It depends on the Resin used for printing.

Standard Resin tends to be more brittle than cast Resin you may know from Forgeworld.

 

Removing Supports can be a bit hit and miss, as they can leave pock marks if you are not carefull.

 

Anything else, work with it like normal cast Resin.

[TheArtilleryman]

Thanks! Looks like the parts are already cut from their frames etc so it’s just about assembly and maybe some cleaning up. So just use normal super glue? Any washing needed before priming, or just go ahead and spray?

[Bung]

I would say Clean them and give the Modells a wash in warm water.

Normal Super Glue Works fine.

[Grotsmasha]

A light sand at glue contact points will increase adhesion. As mentioned, they are brittle (especially so if they were cheap), and instead of breaking, they'll be more inclined to shatter.

In regards to painting, give your primer additional time to set, preferably hours, as it will have adhesion issues (at least in me experience).

Typically I paint over a GW spray primer in ~15-20mins, but if I do this with a printed model the primer will crinkle or wipe straight off. Drybrushing especially disturbs it.

[Grotsmasha]

ALSO, also, if there's any particularly egregious print line a very fine wet-sand paper will sort them right out.

[TheArtilleryman]

Thanks for the advice both of you, especially the bit about undercoating. I normally do the same, painting very quickly after spray priming, so after what you’ve said I will definitely leave it overnight with these.

I’ll post some before and after pics later!

Edited November 16, 2023 by TheArtilleryman

[Bung]

9 minutes ago, Grotsmasha said:

 

In regards to painting, give your primer additional time to set, preferably hours, as it will have adhesion issues (at least in me experience).

Typically I paint over a GW spray primer in ~15-20mins, but if I do this with a printed model the primer will crinkle or wipe straight off. Drybrushing especially disturbs it.

 

Did you wash your prints before printing?

Most Resin is cleaned with alcohol, so some remenants may be react with your Primer.

I tend to wash my prints again after curing with simple hot water and font have that problem.

 

But it may be your Primer / Resin combination.

 

I never had that problem with Anycubic Resin and MiG One Shot Primer.

[TheArtilleryman]

So, here is what I’m working with:

 

 

The details on the prints are pretty good tbh so I’m happy with those. I’m going to need to do some trimming/filing to get the turret guns to fit, but luckily there are spares of those so if I screw one up it’s not a disaster. There aren’t really any decent hull/sponson weapons with the kits but that’s not an issue as I have decades of spare parts to be able to add lascannons, plasma cannons etc.

 

One interesting quirk is that the tanks are slightly longer than a normal Leman Russ. I think that’s quite cool though. I might call it the Caxton pattern! See below:

 

 

Only issue I can foresee is that a couple of the track pieces are slightly not quite straight. Question: when I put these in the warm water do they flex at all? Just so they can line up better with the hulls. Or is it just going to be about strategic filing?

 

Thanks in advance…

[Bung]

I never had to reshape my 3d prints, but i wouldnt try.

Depending on the Resin you will probably break the parts while trying to bend them.

[TheArtilleryman]

Construction went quite nicely. Lots of filing to get the executioner plasma cannons to fit. The tracks on the left tank are a little twisted but you can’t really tell unless you look closely. A nice pair of tanks I think:

 

 

Sponson and hull weapons are spares from Stormraven, Stormtalon and Razorback sprues, but everything else is the 3D printed stuff. Not bad for twenty quid 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by TheArtilleryman

[twopounder]

3 hours ago, TheArtilleryman said:

So, here is what I’m working with:

 

 

 

The details on the prints are pretty good tbh so I’m happy with those. I’m going to need to do some trimming/filing to get the turret guns to fit, but luckily there are spares of those so if I screw one up it’s not a disaster. There aren’t really any decent hull/sponson weapons with the kits but that’s not an issue as I have decades of spare parts to be able to add lascannons, plasma cannons etc.

 

One interesting quirk is that the tanks are slightly longer than a normal Leman Russ. I think that’s quite cool though. I might call it the Caxton pattern! See below:

 

 

 

Only issue I can foresee is that a couple of the track pieces are slightly not quite straight. Question: when I put these in the warm water do they flex at all? Just so they can line up better with the hulls. Or is it just going to be about strategic filing?

 

Thanks in advance…

 

People generally try to make their own design rather than directly from GW models, which has dubious legality for selling.

In lieu of water, you can room temperature 99% rubbing alcohol. This is typically what the prints are initially washed in before final curing. Simply let the model dry for a short time, as the alcohol will evaporate completely very fast.

I'd recommend adding liquid green stuff to your tools to fill any tiny holes created by support removal.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Vallejo Plastic Putty is also great for filling gaps  

[TheArtilleryman]

First one done. Scrubbed up nicely in the end:

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by TheArtilleryman

[Grotsmasha]

Looks great