Adventures in 3D printing!

I’d been thinking about getting a 3D printer for a few years but they only recently reached the quality, affordability and ease of use for me to finally buy one.

I made a below asking price offer on an Anycubic Photon Zero resin printer during Black Friday 2020 and was surprised when it was accepted.  I ended up with a 3D printer and a wash and cure machine for under £200 - something which would have been absolutely unbelievable 4 or 5 years ago.

A small scene

In the year or so since getting the printer, I've produced a range of things.  Some of the first were some items of scenery for my 15mm games.

Lockers

Although the Photon Zero has a small print area, most of what I print tends to be for 15mm gaming or smaller, so this isn't a major issue.

Cupboards

I've been learning all sorts of things, for instance many items were printed flat on the build plate to start, which resulted in an "elephant's foot" bulge around the base few layers, but this easily disappears in a few seconds with a sanding block.

Medibed

Other items seem to work without any clean up required afterwards (apart from the usual rinse and cure).

Storage

Most of this scenery has been re-scaled from 28mm scenery.

"Midfielder" missile tank.

I rescaled this "Midfielder" (i.e. BattleTech Striker) to 200% normal size but it's a bit small for 15mm.

"Midfielder" missile tank.

I mixed various files together to add on the pioneer tools and some stowage.

Salamander scout/command vehicles.

"Epic Scale" (6mm) is where I've been most impressed.  Cost of old Epic stuff is prohibitive these days, at least as far as the Imperial Guard is concerned.

Destroyer tank hunters

There is loads of stuff available free on web sites like Thingiverse and Cults 3D that has allowed me to bulk out my existing epic forces.

Leman Russ Demolishers

In some instances, I've added on some of the metal Epic 40K parts such as dozer blades and cupola mounted storm bolters or searchlights.

Leman Russ Demolishers - multi-melta (left) and heavy flamer (right) sponsons.

Printing your own vehicles provides a range of possible variations (eg sponson weapons) that might not be be viable for a physical manufacturer.

Leman Russ Demolisher

 I'm hugely impressed with the results from this little bargain basement printer.

Leman Russ Vanquisher & Crassus superheavy troop transport.

I intend to add a few more 3d printing articles to this blog soon, maybe they will be of interest or use to anyone who is currently wondering whether to give the process a try.

Epic scale Chimera IFVs

Overall, I've been extremely pleased with my purchase, the only difficulty was in finding some isopropyl alcohol at the start for washing the models - at the height of COVID, production of Isopropanol had difficulty keeping up with demand for disinfectants!