My Early Goes at 3D Resin Printing

A couple of weeks ago, I shared some pictures of my first 3D resin prints. Well, my first successful ones. And even then, it was a tad inconsistent. Taking some advice from Adam, I spent some time trying to optimise my settings and work out what my printer needed to produce good prints. This involved printing a lot of cones…

The Cones of Calibration helped a lot, and the folks on the Tableflip Foundry Discord helped me to interpret them. I genuinely cannot recommend them enough.

In addition to getting the exposure settings right, I also had to learn to use slicers and get used to using supports. I’ve been playing around with both Lychee and Chitubox at this point, and am finding them both pretty good. I appreciate the Lychee likely has more to offer, but only once I upgrade to the paid version, which I’ve not yet done.

As mentioned in my previous post on the topic, I started with some fun Cyberpunk minis:

These turned out really well, and I ended up doing a lot more such minis afterward. What initially did not go so well were the bases. My first batch was poorly supported and we were a wee bit mangled around the edges. I kept them and used them, though. They were just slightly choppy. The later ones, once I had a better idea of how supports work, were a lot smoother. Here’s a build plate full of Cyberpunk minis:

It’s one of several that I printed. I’m keen to use these miniatures in either Stargrave or Reality’s Edge. Both would be great, and having starting forces for a couple of skirmish games is one of this year’s resolutions. I’ve also been keen for some time in further exploring Osprey’s wargames.

I then decided to try something a bit different, and moved on to trying to print a big, multi-part model. I started off with a Troggoth-themed Mega-Gargant that I can use as a mercenary with my Gloomspite Gitz. I started printing it off in sections:

It took 5 build plates, each taking around 12 hours to print. I could probably have optimised these better, thereby cutting down the overall print time quite substantially. I’m not to this, though. I finished up the Mega, and I built him. The hardest bit was actually attaching him securely to his base, and I ended up using some green stuff, just to give him that really secure connection. I also printed up a Troggoth King, who could proxy in as an Aleguzzler Gargant:

I’m looking forward to getting these chaps painted up and added to my beloved Troggoths. The problem at the moment is that it’s just too cold to prime anything. I’ll get to it, though.

What was really good about the long prints on the Troggoth parts was that there were no errors or misprints whatsoever. This was a big moment and helped confirm that I’ve got a decent set of settings at the moment. Not perfect, like, but decent.

Since then, I’ve been printing slightly random things like wizards, lizards, and some FF7 characters that I’m giving away to a friend:

I really need to get some of these primed and painted, or I’m just adding to my big ol’ pile of grey. I also need a bit more direction with what I’m wanting to print off.

As I start to build towards something or get anything painted, I’ll share it. Until then, I’m enjoying trying stuff out.