Glyn, do you mean 6mm scale shoulder pads? Those would be too small, IMHO.

I don't see 6mm shoulder pads printing well, especially with detail on them. That's just too small a scale for printing, and definately too small for metal casting.

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http://www.troublemakergames.co.uk/
Epic: Hive Development Thread

Can you model stuff up for this process in 3Dsmax?  If so, what file format must the model be in for printing?  I work with 3Dsmax everyday, but thats about it when it comes to my knowledge of 3D packages.

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ONSLAUGHT MINIATURES onslaughtmini.com

Yes you can.

The export format is .STL

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

Ah cool - whats the rules on intersecting geometry?  Does it have to be clean as a whistle - ie: all verts welded - no overlapping on faces, or is it pretty forgiving?

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ONSLAUGHT MINIATURES onslaughtmini.com

100% clean.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

cool, thanks.

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ONSLAUGHT MINIATURES onslaughtmini.com

6mm marine shoulder pads was the slightly crazy idea, yes. The resolution of the detail on some of Omans models looks somewhat smaller and more delicate than a shoulder pad so I was thinking it might come out ok, though at the very limit of what could be done.

Obviously a single shoulder pad would be too small to cast on it's own but I was imaging casting a number of them on a supporting sprue that they'd need to be cut off from (the interior of the shoulder pad would also be solid and not hollow as the W40k ones are, but they could be used like that or hollowed out before use if need be).

Glyn: Pieces that small are difficult to cast in resin, let alone metal. Even if you could somehow get them printed at a good enough detail (unlikely, since the best you'll really get is 0.2mm accuracy), you'd never be able to cast them.

You'd have to model whole marines to have any chance really.

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http://www.troublemakergames.co.uk/
Epic: Hive Development Thread

I downloaded a Moment of Inspiration last night and had a very quick play. I've never used a modelling package before and have no idea what I'm doing so it'll be a steep learning curve till I (hopefully) work out what I'm doing and maybe (touch wood) produce something good.

Quick question: how does scale translation work? Say I measure a real something that is X mm long on one dimension, how long would I need to make that on screen?  

Are there guides anywhere on the net how to go about using MoI for this sort of thing? Or should I just have a good read through of the help files and have a go?

Heya Glyn, you can set the dimensions thusly:

Click the Options button (lower lefthand corner, looks like a cog).
Select the 'General' tab.
Find the drop-down combo box at the top that says "Unit system:", select millimeters.

I'll dig up your email later and zap you a file or two.