At (Epic) tournaments I regularly get into conversations that swing around to 3D printing. To date I haven't seen anyone else running a home-printed army (in Australia) *, but as hobbyists who happily make terrain pieces and kitbash from left overs, I think it's natural enough that it's something that may interest us - if only conceptually.
[* ed: at cancon 2018 i met a chap form canberra who was printing some of his army, at least the tanks. they look good and it's pleasing to see someone else exploring the medium.]
[* ed: at castle assault 2018 a gaming buddy from Victoria was running lots of chaos models he's printed and has also produced a lot of fantastic skitarii models (amongst other factions) so the no-printing trend is definitely transitioning]
My own motivations for running 3D armies are mainly about;
- enjoy creating my own/unique pieces (virtual models and then real objects)
- able to easily/quickly/cheaply test out new unit types with actual models rather than cardboard cutouts
- overcome commercial model inaccessibility
and definitely not about;
- wanting to screw over commercial endeavours
If I didn't have a 3D printer i'm about 99% sure that I'd really have struggled to get into this game. Early on I managed, extremely fortuitously, to buy a bunch of 'real'/original Marines stuff off a local chap who was getting out of the game, but aside from the usual routes (ebay etc) there wasn't a plethora of (easy) options for expanding the army.
For the non-printers there are other (ever growing) avenues such as (my favs)
vanguard/onslaught/defeat in detail who do great work, once you know what to look for and where to look for them - and paradoxically know what models you want/need before you use them.
I recently had an, "aldi have a 3D printer next week, I was thinking of getting one" conversation, and i'm always pro that option if you have any combination of hobby time/funds available/inclination/motivation.
My main advice to would-be printers is this; manage your expectations of what you're going to get with a low-end printer and you'll do fine.
From a slightly more technical view point the bottom line is this; with a minimum filament resolution of (commonly) 0.2mm, additive printers simply aren't going to compete with metal/resin cast (or even resin-printed) models. If you can deal with that fact then you're on your way to building expansive Epic armies with more unit options than you'd ever reasonably want or need.
read: GO FOR IT!
Example please...
This was the first epic model I ever printed. I was (and still am) chuffed to have an actual result and excited at the potential of massive armies just waiting to be extruded... but it was also a little underwhelming.
The STL file that was used to print the model was this [below], which clearly has more detail and is not 'blobby'. It quickly became obvious that there was only so much detail that could be added by the little hot strand of plastic.
History demonstrates that this was something I decided I could live with !!
I often write that a lick of paint goes a long way in resolving the resolution issue, but perhaps that's a matter of consolation or justification on my behalf. The following pic demonstrates pretty basic paintwork (and i've seen some truly stunning work on 'real models', even at 6mm) and is slightly less about gap/striation filling than it is about giving the printed dudes a uniform.
Invariably my next comment is that at arms-length/game-play-distance the basic paintwork becomes far less important.
This is, of course, entirely a matter of personal opinion and taste... but it comes back to managing your expectations of what you can produce with the technology you have available.
The army in the picture above should easily be made with less than a single roll of plastic (guesstimate $35 AUD). I won't guess how much a comparable army of official models would be, but it's multiple-hundreds of dollars.
Quantity over Quality
At a really, really, really, really rough guess I estimate that I've printed around 464 of just that particular Marine model (approximately 116 stands with 4 tactical marines per stand + 1 missile launcher guy).
Obviously they're not printed out individually; I run 1 stand's worth of models per batch... the printer struggles not to 'edge-lift' with jobs > 40 minutes... re-read that note about expectations and working within capabilities.
Thingiverse
While I'm here I wanted to give a shout out to thingiverse user fractalnoise who's model this is; fractal you're a legend.
Without getting into my thingiverse experiences too much, when I first started printing there were possibly only perhaps half a dozen contributors who had added Epic usable models.
Since then i've had contact with possibly a couple dozen (new) contributing Epic modellers (some extremely talented and prolific)... and there's an Epic specific group with 92 members (at time of writing). All encouraging stuff IMO.
I guess i could put a list of recommendations on here, but it's just as easily look up my profile on thingiverse and see who I follow.
On the flip side... Resin...
Resin printers are still not common despite 4+ years since becoming... publicly accessible.
It's still largely a matter of price. An additive print can easily be bought for less than $500. The 'best value' DUP Resin print i've seen recently starts at $500 and only has a print capacity of 120x68x200.... which admittedly, is perfectly fine for 6mm infantry.
[ed: this situation is changing as well. yhay]
A chap on tac cmd has been working resin prints for Epic since 2013, including recently posts and the results are bloody brilliant.
The following is taken from a screen shot of this forum and shows a resin model with pretty much as much detail as (presumably) an 'official' cast.
While the following is not using the same file, my printer struggles to get any detail and certainly doesn't get a crisp finish for what detail it does manage to pick up. The gross details are there however and despite being a low-res rendering it's obviously a land raider.
Bottom line: for people looking at 200-500 buck filament machines you're not going to get resin/cast resolution/quality.
Quick Aside...
When I was originally researching which 3D printer to get I saw brumbaer's blog site and found it suitable inspiring (same guy referenced in taccmd above). It did however set my expectation unreasonably high about the quality of printing in general (yes he's using resin).
If you have a moment check out the beautiful eye-candy (and insight) in these and other posts from his blog:
- Objectives
- Marines
- Goblin snipers
Modelling to Resolution
Modelling an object that you intended to be printed - at small size and low-resolution - is a matter of compromise. Without enough bulk the model will be fragile and break (at least until you sheath it in paint). Detailed features aren't going to print so you can either make a pretty model and not print the detail or make low-detail models to start with with solid, robust (but ugly) planes.
This is not to say don't make nice models (as it's fun), but again; expectations and capabilities.
And in Conclusion
The plus side of having a 3D printer, regardless of its capabilities, is that you will have a table functional army when you're done, maybe even two because plastic is so damn cheap!!
Most people I've played have been complimentary about the look of the army; though it is hard to know whether they're just being nice, appreciate the effort put into making it (even if it has taken a fall from the ugly tree), or honestly do like the look.
In my mind anything that gets new player on the table is a plus for a precariously positioned game.
and so I reiterate: GO FOR IT !!
Until next time...
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