Well ... I'm hoping the NEW STUFF will give the detail I'm primarily looking for in Infantry. That is on the EW/Shapeways page ... And the Hoplon II that Tom is going to release too for EW on Shapeways also. We'll just have to see ... and hope ...

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

I got my first sample of this, and it's going to be tricky to use. Since this is an SLA process, "icicles" are used for underhangs instead of a support material. Shapeway's removal of the icicles destroys a lot of detail on the surface in question.

If we can figure out how to orient the models to place the icicles ourselves, this will be good stuff. For example, infantry could have the icicles placed on the underside of the circular bases, tanks on the underside, etc. Not so easy to figure out what to do with, say, a robot arm.

It's super crisp and really sexy on the non-afflicted sides.

yeah i think multipart models might come back. For instance, a hypothetical ellogram v2 could be a thing resembling the old LR where the tracks and chassis were discrete parts. Then when printing we could orientate the parts where the "icicles" are on the interior portion.

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Hmmm ? FED still may be the best option for Infantry ?

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

(Pats L-4 on the back). There there. There there.

But Tom told me to wait and see before I get any of his EW Infantry on Shapeways until it's all figured out ... So if this new stuff is not the best for 6mm Infantry, what would you recommend O-man ? FUD or FED ? Inquiring minds want to know ? Bro !

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Yeah, I would wait until experiments are done. If someone can determine what orientation they print best at, and if Shapeways can follow the same build procedure, it will be kick-ass for infantry.

I'll stand-by for your most learned decision ...

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

I've attempted to order a test print of APCs three times now. I've been arguing with the SW tech-drones that they can print these since the sprues sit flat on the print bed. I'll probably have to appeal it higher, but what I'm being told so far is that the techs choose the orientation, not me. That really pisses me off, because it means that all the work I might do on a product's printability can be wasted by some tech's arbitrary reorientation of my model.



So far, I'm annoyed and disappointed with SW's handling of the new material, but I'm hoping we can get a lot of these kinks straightened out.

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That is disappointing. Although I have not printed anything at Shapeways (yet), I am not a big fan of their "techs" manhandling everything. It would help for me to see raw prints and I would rather clean them up by myself.

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MadMagician
Epic Tyranids

I've... talked to someone who has experience with SLA machines vs deposition machines, and they are completely different animals. Some topologies, such as the four interconnected APCs, become a real bear in an SLA machine. The position of the model to the build plate becomes critical for obscuring or softening detail.

The acrylic material is MUCH nicer than the FUD, though.

If you want to see what I'm talking about, download FormLab's ProForm software and see for yourself. I'll try to take screenshots illustrating the problems involved.

I'd be interested in see that Otter. Tom also told me the printing costs should go down ...

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Alrighty, let's take my Charybdis battery truck as an example. In this case I got lazy and saved two parts to a single file. This will complicate matters, but serves to exaggerate a point:

With deposition printers, lots of pieces in a single model is OK, because the support material software can handle that sort of thing automatically.

With SLA printers, a single piece per model is better. If your model has lots of pieces, separate them so they can be oriented better to suit the printer.

There will be 5 more pictures.

Dang, TacCom logged me in and out and I lost a lot of text.

With a deposition printer, the build head moves back and forth per each layer, depositing build and support material. The build plate usually moves up and down, but I've seen some printers with heads that move.

With an SLA printer, the build plate moves up and down into a tank of liquid photosensitive resin. The plate traps a thin layer of resin between it and an optical window, through which a laser shines and hardens the resin.

With deposition printers, "undercuts" aren't a concern due to the support material.

However, each can be envisioned as building the model layer-wise, like so:

In the case of an SLA printer, EVERY part has to be connected to the base plate, or it won't stick to the model. For example, there are no connections between the base plate and these little islands of blue.

Those guys will float away and leave the underside looking mooshy.