@hopper1999 I’ve access to both resin and PLA printers, and while resin has a couple of extra steps compared to PLA, I wouldn’t consider it painful. I’ve come to appreciate resin’s ability to show detail even in very small scale. For me its worth the extra steps to clean and cure, for those results. What’s great is there are so many free units available, with some simple editing/converting you can quickly build cool armies.
As for casting, while I haven’t casted any A&A parts yet (still building my unit library), I have casted a lot of 3.75 action figure parts. I’ve gotten best results using a syringe and pressure pot. (I converted a old paint pressure tank). You inject your mold, and then put it under pressure, I’d do around 30psi, to help the resin into the thinner parts of the mold and prevent bubbles. It also helps, when making your mold to put it under pressure as well. I’ve found it helps prevents bubbles in the silicone and between the silicone and the part being cast.
I plan on using casting to duplicate units I already have, that I can’t find stl files for.
Make your own sculpts!
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That link may have security problems. The window which opened kept re-opening every time I closed it. I had to shut down my computer to make it go away.
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@CWO:
That link may have security problems. The window which opened kept re-opening every time I closed it. I had to shut down my computer to make it go away.
Really? It is directly off of CNN’s website… I would hope that it would be trustworthy.
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Been looking to pull the trigger on one but Shapeways uses a more professional $40K+ 3d printer and the product does not work well in
A&A board game scales. Possibly for larger A&A minis but you’ll have to spend a lot of time for cleanup to get rid of the layer striations.
You might create larger subassemblies as separate pieces but that would be so cleaning them up would be easier and still have to devote a lot of time for cleanup.Then again there is the FORM1 at http://formlabs.com/
This uses stereo lithography and special resin at over $3K for just the machine.
Much nicer but the resin is even more expensive than ABS or PLA and it looks as if there is more waste resin as well for support
structures. -
Really? It is directly off of CNN’s website… I would hope that it would be trustworthy.
I generally avoid the CNN site because I’ve had security problems with it before. I suspect that, because of its prominence, it’s a target of choice of hackers.
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The only problem with something like the makerbot 3d printer is that, except for simple objects or extremely large objects the detail is going to be HORRIBLE, and there will be visible step-lines that would need a lot of cleanup.
It’s getting better as time goes on, but we’re not yet at the point where we have affordable, desktop 3d printers that will allow us to make excellent (or even decent) pieces ourselves (and certainly not cheaper than mass produced … that plastic is EXPENSIVE).
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The only problem with something like the makerbot 3d printer is that, except for simple objects or extremely large objects the detail is going to be HORRIBLE, and there will be visible step-lines that would need a lot of cleanup.
It’s getting better as time goes on, but we’re not yet at the point where we have affordable, desktop 3d printers that will allow us to make excellent (or even decent) pieces ourselves (and certainly not cheaper than mass produced … that plastic is EXPENSIVE).
Agreed. I was just speculating how cool it would be to design our own sculpts or purchase the sculpt on the internet for printing. I wouldn’t worry as much about losing pieces at a friend’s house because I could make more. I wouldn’t be making a whole set of sculpts- just some specialty and replacement ones.
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For sure it would be awesome to make our own at home!
In the meantime, if you really want to and can come up with an appropriate 3d art file, Shapeways would be a good alterntative for some special items (they spent the money on the uber-expensive equipment already). It just sucks to have to wait for it, pay their overhead and then pay for shipping.
I’d LOVE to have a 3d printer though!
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