3d printing / design - how difficult is it?

[Blissful Brushes]

Howdy one and all,

 

With the crazy growth and (finally) affordability of 3d printers I am pondering entering that rabbit hole myself. 
 

On the printer front I have an idea that the Mars/Saturn is likely the route I’ll go if I buy my own but my FLGS also take print commissions so there’s that as an option for me too.

 

The STL design front though, I’ve seen mucho different things on the internet and Reddit, what are the B&C recommendations for software to create your own STLs? My main use case is biggerising 30k marine bodies - at the moment I’m greenstuffing primaris into MkIV and it’s starting to wear me down. 
 

Any advice, or indeed directions to good quality vendors/pre-exisitng STLs would be appreciated

 

:)

 

[Grotsmasha]

1- with affordability these days, once your comfortable with your resin printer of choice (Mars / Saturn are solid) if also consider a FDM printer to enable those larger prints (terrain, THawk etc).

- EDIT: don't skimp on a cheap resin, pay for a good miniatures one (I use Sirayatech), non-miniatures resin are brittle, and will shatter if dropped, or even just knocked over. A good resin will behave like FW resin, mostly firm, with a bit of bounce, and can be shaped with heat.

- EDIT 2: some printers can bundled with a wash and cure station, also worth the investment.

Location, weather, time of day are all variables that will effect a print. So taking the time to fine tune settings will save time in failed prints.

 

2- TinkerCad is a free design web app that lets you design 3D files with basic geometric shapes. It's major drawback is a max file size that excludes very complex, hi-res files.

A more complex one ( I think it's still free though) is blender.

If all you're looking to do is resize / scale existing files, then that's something the slicer program that will be supplied with the printer will handle, no problems. Most slicers will also allow "digital kit-bashing", you can import multiple files, position the together, then save than as a new combined 3d file.

When slicing, take the time to learn supports, it will also save so much time in failed prints.

 

3- yeggi.com is a 3d file specific search engine, that is great for a quick browse. Cults3D ard myminifactory are two file specific sites that have both free and paid for files.

A tip for searching for files, is when you see a model of good quality, even if it's not of the faction you're chasing, I'd check it out to get to the creator, they may have also done what you're looking for.

Edited June 16 by Grotsmasha

[sarabando]

the programs you are going to want to learn are blender and zbrush, Blender is free and there are lots of very good tutorials on Youtube to get you started. 

For the printing itself i can strongly recommend the mars 5 ultra by elgoo along with their wash and cure station. 

I have also bought an enclosure for it that allows me to seal it off and vent the fumes out of the room. 

 

 

The basic premise of model making is pretty simple if you can make a square you can make anything. its all down to your patients. 

[Blissful Brushes]

Thanks for the advice! I shall look into Blender and once I have worked it out look into buying some hardware 

[BelVasques]

Hi, I currently have two 3D printers: a resin one for parts requiring more detail and a better finish, and a filament one for buildings and terrain.

For resin printing, I have an Elegoo Mars 2 Pro.
And for filament, an Ender 3.
I've had the Ender for a long time; it might actually be interesting to upgrade and get something newer.
But the Elegoo Mars 2 serves my home use needs very well.

As for the software, I like Blender.

 

[WBRBloom]

I got an Ender 3 V3 KE last year as a birthday present. That is an FDM printer, with many capabilities, a lot of space for expansion potential and good price/peripherals.

 

Since last year I've been printing like crazy. I've printed terrain, vehicles (in parts), scatter terrain pieces, bits and bobs. And then I tried printing 28mm scale miniatures. Boy, was I wrong.

To put it gently, FDM printers are not built for that. If you want to print miniatures, fiddly parts like weapons, accessories or small parts then resin is a one way road (unless your miniatures are 1:6 or 1:3). FMD printers leave a lot of lining and, depending on the material you use (I only use PLA) you will either need to fill and sand it or use a acetone vapour smoothing/polishing.

As I've never dubbed in CAD design before, and these all seem high gothic to me, I use the built in splicing software (that's what the software that opens .stl files is called) provided by Creality (the company that makes the printer). I've tried a few others but I don't have the time, or inclination, at the moment, to look more into it.

 

If you decide to go down the resin path, keep in mind that you'll need double the space of an FDM printer and you will need a well ventilated area to do the printing and curing, as resin does tend to produce fumes (I mean a lot!).

[BelVasques]

Yes, ventilation is important because the resin has a strong odor. But the print quality is incredible—and mind you, mine is an entry-level printer.