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Old 08-03-2018, 03:06 PM   #1
ColinK
 
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Default 3D Printed Miniatures

Has anybody tried 3D printing their own miniatures or other objects for any Steve Jackson Games applications?

How about designing and ordering custom miniatures from SHAPEWAYS?

Here's a packed article with lots of information about 3D printing miniatures.

https://3dprint.com/221439/3d-printi...miguel-zavala/

I'm only starting to play with 3D printing, though I've done some craft CNC in the past.

Always happy to burn some time talking about techie toys and gaming.
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Old 08-03-2018, 03:19 PM   #2
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Default Re: 3D Printed Miniatures

Miguel is a frickin' gift to the world.

I've mostly been printing terrain. OpenForge and similar projects produce a lot of useful walls and other bits of adventuring decor, but I can't get as much use as I'd like from the floors for GURPS (or TFT) because it's based on a hex grid, while the more popular printable terrain systems are based on a square grid. I have, therefore, been working on floor components on my own. I've even tested CNCing some hex floor sections from wood. They came out tolerably well, but I need to make some adjustments to my rig for various reasons. I've also toyed with the idea of doing some with stone tile, though that depends on my getting decent diamond-tip bits for cheap.

I find that printed terrain, which involves less detail than miniatures, is better suited to 3d printing for the tabletop. I toy with minis from time to time, but I'm not excited by the results. That said, there's a guy on YouTube who had some interesting advice on maximizing the quality of prints. I haven't replicated the apparent quality of his results, but they do help some, and it's not like his settings are universal, so I'm still fiddling with things for my printer.
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Old 08-06-2018, 03:37 PM   #3
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Default Re: 3D Printed Miniatures

Not for SJGames applications, but I have a shop on Shapeways where I sell a bunch of stuff. Stuff being 99.9% airplanes, most of which are WWI era. When I make a purchase, I go with the low-cost white plastic. Some say it is too grainy, but if you know how to prepare it for primer and paint you can get a really smooth finish.

That being said, now that I have finally gotten a copy, I may make some spacecraft for use with Triplanetary. And I've been sitting here thinking about what sort of terrain I can make for use with Melee/Wizard/TFT.
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Old 11-28-2019, 09:51 AM   #4
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Default Re: 3D Printed Miniatures

I've bought a load of cheaper plastic 3D printed Star Wars ships off of Shapeways. The spray-can primer plus normal paints seems to work well.

I wonder if anybody's coated them with varnish? I do have metal minis for DnD that I varnish, but I don't know if this is okay for the 3D printed material.
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Old 01-16-2020, 05:44 PM   #5
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Default Re: 3D Printed Miniatures

I haven't printed my own, but I have ordered a mini from Heroforge that I'm fairly happy with. I can post a link to the model, and links to pictures of what was delivered, if there's interest.
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Old 01-16-2020, 06:59 PM   #6
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Default Re: 3D Printed Miniatures

So I've got a solution to mini printing I'm happy with: a DLP printer. In my case, it's an Anycubic Photon, but I expect an competing model would be just as good. The quality I'm getting approaches that of regularly manufactured minis, so I'm only limited by the quality of the digital model.

(Oh, and I've taken to priming with cheap spray primer from the hardware store. Works better than the brush on primers I was using.)
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