For Christmas I treated myself to a 3D printer. I had a Makerbot Thing-o-matic which I never really got working, the slicing software had problems, I never intended to use it for epic models - except some buildings - but as I said it never really worked except for some pre sliced demo models.
Since last year there are a two 3D printers below 6000$ which do not use fdm (plastic sausages), but use light sensitive resin to produce 3D models. The resolution and surface finish is better than that of fdm machines, but the built size is much smaller - which isn't that important for non-monstrous miniatures.
I've received the printer 2 days ago. Making it ready and doing the first print took about an hour .
Than it was time for the first calibration print, and it went perfectly - I was happy as the punch.
While I waited for the printer to be delivered, I did a 3D model of an Rhino. I did a Rhino, because I wanted to have a model I could compare to some existing miniature.
To my very big surprise the first try was successful.
The models are made from a shiny red resin, which does show detail on photographs only badly.
Yesterday I did not have much time, so I only started to design a Stalker. As I already had designed a model of the old Rhino chassis, I put the Stalkers guns on that, instead of designing a new Rhino chassis.
That's what it looked like when the first two fell out of the printer today.
I was eager to see how they compared to my other models, so I painted them in a rush - as you can see on the hairs enclosed on one model, and that there are contact points left at the back of the Stalkers.
My Rhino is a bit smaller than the original, so it does not fit on the base. I still photographed it on a base to make comparison easier.
There are s lot of things to learn about using the printer effectively and designing models so they print well, but I'm more than happy with these first results.
Regards
Stephan
