3D Printer, Ovy finally got one! [Three 1/6 Chess sets]

Hey there, the future has finally arrived at my place!


After watching a video of a crazy Japanese Art Person obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine, I finally decided to get an Elegoo Mars Pro Resin printer on that Black Friday weekend about a month ago. The machine itself cost less than your average Hot Toys figure and it can produce stuff I probably might never find online. Or would cost a fortune to get. I never outsourced printing to companies as I want more control of the stuff I create, for example didn't want to have the wrong sizes printed etc, that would be frustrating. I prefer to be frustrated by prints I failed myself.
Anyway I think it was a good investment. Although resin can be very messy and in the beginning I had more fails, the success rate is much higher now. I prefer the details you can achieve with resin to PLA (layered heated plastic method). 
Also the production time is rather effective, printing one squirrel takes 2 1/2 hours, but if you can place 9 squirrels models on the platform, it will also take only 2 1/2 hours to make all of them at once.


I started with grey resin, but my brother got me some white Czechian resin for Christmas. It turns a bit beige/yellow while curing under a UV lamp, so I think it's perfect for bones. And that's what I did. I also made quite a number of helmet experiments, many squirrels, car emblems, an articulated baby, some toys and some secret stuff I can't show yet. I also made some heads, but only free models, don't know if I will ever be able to sculpt something goobootastic. Blender fries my tiny brain.
All 3d models I use are actually free creative commons products. If you see something you like I can find the link, most are from thingiverse.com.


In the first post I will start with the bones stuff. For my forest folk I always needed antlers and animal heads, but was too lazy to learn sculpting them by hand.



I tried to get them in the right scale. These four wolf/fox/dog skulls were all printed at the same time in under four hours.



The raven skulls were all printed at once in around an hour. I played it safe and placed the models in a 40° ankle, it's also possible in under half an hour if you place the models flat.



In the left the remnants of a failed print batch where I made too small support structures I think. They are cat, eagle and rabbit skulls. There were supposed to be rat and vulture skulls too.



Here some of my first prints in grey. Roe deer skulls in different sizes, I started too small I think. 



They are very detailed, many skulls available on Thingiverse are medical CT scans.



Also some ram horns and antlers.





Here the human skulls. In the back the small versions I made first, looked ok next to normal headsculpts but weird on bodies as they are bulkier and not skeletal. Might be used for female undead or headsculpt modeling training.
In the back you can see some of the medieval helmets I tried.



Skulls are a win win in 1/6: you can hollow them out to save material. If you hollow them out you need to place a hole so the resin can flow out.. Guess where I put the holes.



What I like about this too, you aren't restricted to have the same skull at the same size over and over again, there are many different models and of course you can adjust the size for variation. Or make monster skulls.



Can only recommend this technology if you are into customizing a lot, haha. I will get the helmet photos ready next.

Great work! I have been printing my own stuff for a while but with the filament type printer. Your prints are very smooth, no layer-lines at all. Do you have to do much post-printing finishing? Sanding? I do like the level of detail that you've been able to get, my printer doesn't have that resolution.

Thanks for showing your work!

Tom

These are fascinating , and very well done . It probably appeals to me further , as ever since I was a child I can not resist picking up and cleaning animal skulls and Antlers ect on the odd occasions I come across them . Well done indeed , you should be pleased with these .

In your hands, even before I had seen these, I'd would have said it is a worthwhile investment for sure. And you have clearly embarked upon a massive testing and creating program, by the looks of it. Pretty much everything you show is a win, and I can't wait to see what you end up doing with it down the line.

sweeeeeeet!

Omg those skulls are FANTASTIC!

Very cool!!! Makes me wish I could swap out my PLA printer...
Looking forward to your next presentation!

I'm a huge fan of 3D printing and am considering getting one. A resin printer looks to be the way to go for miniatures. Threads like this give me more incentive to get one. Looking forward to seeing something goobootastic.

Oh my goodness, big congratulations! Already you are creating awesome things. I'm not envious or anything! ;'D

Seriously though, this is such a good purchase -- a 3D printer in your hands can only lead to incredible works of art. Looking forward to seeing more of your creations!

tflockj11 wrote:Great work! I have been printing my own stuff for a while but with the filament type printer. Your prints are very smooth, no layer-lines at all. Do you have to do much post-printing finishing? Sanding? I do like the level of detail that you've been able to get, my printer doesn't have that resolution.

Thanks for showing your work!

Tom

Thanks Tom! Yes the layer lines are not very noticeable, they are most noticeable at the highest point of the model, were it looks a bit like a CD. The good thing is it can all be sanded. My brother has a filament printer, tried to sand a model, but that filament isn't really sandable.

You have to wash the resin off the models in alcohol, remove the support structures and cure them under uv light. Then sanding away potential damage that might be done by removing the structures. With helmets and heads, the supports are mostly hidden inside the helmet and on the rim, where a bit sanding is required.

Chip wrote:These are fascinating , and very well done . It probably appeals to me further , as ever since I was a child I can not resist picking up and cleaning animal skulls and Antlers ect  on the odd occasions I come across them . Well done indeed , you should be pleased with these .  

Thanks Chip! And fortunately this printer will turn me away from trying to get bones out of dead animals. Wanted to get some tibs of a mouse once, placed the body in a metal grid in the forest earth. but random animals outsmarted me and just ripped the grid apart, haha. 

GubernatorFan wrote:In your hands, even before I had seen these, I'd would have said it is a worthwhile investment for sure. And you have clearly embarked upon a massive testing and creating program, by the looks of it. Pretty much everything you show is a win, and I can't wait to see what you end up doing with it down the line.

Thanks sir, imagine you would have a lot of fun too, there are tons of star wars models floating around for cosplayers and figure collectors. 
And I have only shown the wins yet, haha. And yeah I think the testing phase is finished, but at the same time never over.

GregT wrote:sweeeeeeet!

thaaaaaaanks!

Lynkhart wrote:Omg those skulls are FANTASTIC!

Thanks, they are really great scans.

Diana wrote:Very cool!!! Makes me wish I could swap out my PLA printer...
Looking forward to your next presentation!

Thanks! Well, just get another, it's a relatively small machine.
PLA is much less messy and toxic though, you have to wear gloves and breather when working with the resin and my printer is in a separate room with a window next to it.

shazzdan wrote:I'm a huge fan of 3D printing and am considering getting one. A resin printer looks to be the way to go for miniatures. Threads like this give me more incentive to get one. Looking forward to seeing something goobootastic.

Yeah, definitely a game changer. Might be a great addition to your talents.

skywalkersaga wrote:Oh my goodness, big congratulations! Already you are creating awesome things. I'm not envious or anything! ;'D

Seriously though, this is such a good purchase -- a 3D printer in your hands can only lead to incredible works of art. Looking forward to seeing more of your creations!

Thanks, haha. 
Too many ideas, you know how it goes. But you can try out things you might never have tried out, like combining certain helmets I would never have bought to certain heads.

Here the helmets. I will focus on the 'pre industrial' ones first.



Valiarde had the idea to make Morions, these are the only two models I found for free. The left one is a bit simpler, the right one is more fancy, but the 3d model is rather low poly/blocky, will have to sand it as I don't know yet how to fix and smooth it in the programs.



Notice the grid structure. Many helmet models have these, mostly intended to have textures on them and not for printing, but it can be fixed with the right know how.



The Norsy ones came in two parts each, all printed together. They look cool with cloth hanging out, will try them out on some figures.



Some assembly required.



Armet and Sallet are my favourites. Sadly the Sallet Model is paperthin and broke, have to reinforce it in 3d programs but haven't figured out exactly how yet.



The two on the right are from darksouls I think, but one came out a bit broken so I made it rusty for undeads.



I scaled the armet too small, only female heads without sculpted hair fit in. A larger ones is in the printer. Often the ears get in the way.



It can be opened





Here the Sallet on Roy. I want to upgrade/reboot my Roy and undead stuff which is based on GW2 and create an own less complicated fantasy world, with complete creative freedom so I can use whatever helmets and armor I want.

I'm sure you will master those programs in no time (I took a quick look at them years ago, and it was a bit confusing; now I might hit you up for some fairly basic designs). The helmets you have printed so far look great, and it's nice to see things we wouldn't normally run into in the commercially-available sets.

These are all so stunning!!!! Man, I can't believe how smoothly the resin printer prints. And your metallic paint jobs make the helmets into something really incredible. Those skulls and horns are just SO awesome. Floored seeing all of these.

this is great stuff. right from the get go i see the advantages of a resin printer, one being not having printing halves in order to stabilize certain objects. using my filament printer a helmet would have to have added in support beams with unsure outcome of wether the top line will be accurate or messed up.

but the main no go for me and my room setup is the toxicity of resin printing . while i could eat something right next to mine, or put it in my gaming room in the far future, if i'm not mistaken neither the fumes nor stuff needed to rinse and finalize the resin is any good for ones health.

but as far as the models go, this level of detail far surpasses filament printers.
enjoy your new toy and go ham i'm looking forward for anything dark souls when it comes to helmets and armor
by the way , whats the max size the printer could produce in terms of items? always was a sucker for those huge knights with their tower shields in dark souls, almost 1/4 scale when put in a diorama.

Wow!

Such an impressive amount of work in such a short time. Some really great stuff.

Tjolnir wrote:but the main no go for me and my room setup is the toxicity of resin printing . while i could eat something right next to mine, or put it in my gaming room in the far future, if i'm not mistaken neither the fumes nor stuff needed to rinse and finalize the resin is any good for ones health.

Depends on the filament. ABS and Nylon emit high levels of styrene which is a suspected carcinogen and known to cause headaches, drowsiness, and fatigue. PLA is safer, the main gas it emits is lactide, which is less toxic, but can still cause problems with long-term exposure.

Awesome stuff in really no time. This was the perfect thing vor Ovy to get. He will do wonders with it.

Can't wait to visit him next time and watching that thing in live action, as I have no clue how this is working and how you scale stuff. (And also to collect a nice Morion haha)

I love how you painted them, looks like real metal - especially love the rusty Zombie helmet here.

helmets... helmets galore! an infinity of possible helmets!
it's going to be fun watching Ovy create lots of magical stuff

I’m wanting to grab a 3D printer myself and this has only made me want it more! What model do you have? Did you have to buy anything extra (I.e. how do you have it set up to cure the resin)? What 3D programs have you used/tried?

MeMyself&I wrote:I’m wanting to grab a 3D printer myself and this has only made me want it more! What model do you have? Did you have to buy anything extra (I.e. how do you have it set up to cure the resin)? What 3D programs have you used/tried?

I'd like to know more details, too!

This guy does a decent review of an Elegoo Mars printer and explains how resin printing works.

so far i had satisfying results with pla filament, so i'm sticking to it exclusively. i got a sample of petg around for some time but haven't found the motivation to experiment with it. should be about as "safe" as pla but more stable in higher temperatures, thus having to be printed around 230-240 degrees. but like i said, got my printer set up just fine with the filament and values in simplify3d so no experiments in the near future

shazzdan wrote:This guy does a decent review of an Elegoo Mars printer and explains how resin printing works.

Thanks for the YouTube link, I’ll check it out!

That's a fantastic acquisition, those helmets are really nice even if they need a bit of work.

I've been thinking about getting one but still I'm not too sure which or if I'll use it often so I don't want to spend too much on something and then not use it.

GubernatorFan wrote:I'm sure you will master those programs in no time (I took a quick look at them years ago, and it was a bit confusing; now I might hit you up for some fairly basic designs). The helmets you have printed so far look great, and it's nice to see things we wouldn't normally run into in the commercially-available sets.

Thanks a lot for the confidence, haven't gotten around to getting into all this magical stuff yet. It's fun to experiment with stuff you don't usually have or combine for sure.

ReverendSpooky wrote:These are all so stunning!!!!  Man, I can't believe how smoothly the resin printer prints.  And your metallic paint jobs make the helmets into something really incredible.  Those skulls and horns are just SO awesome.  Floored seeing all of these.

Yeah also wasn't expecting such a good quality is available for that money. Actually it's mostly about the LCD screens resolution, and perfect precise ones are available for 20€, so no point in spending lots of money on other machines, haha.


Great thing about the resin prints, the acrylic paints stick incredibly well, even without primer. You actually can't really scratch it off.

Tjolnir wrote:this is great stuff. right from the get go i see the advantages of a resin printer, one being not having printing halves in order to stabilize certain objects. using my filament printer a helmet would have to have added in support beams with unsure outcome of wether the top line will be accurate or messed up.


but the main no go for me and my room setup is the toxicity of resin printing . while i could eat something right next to mine, or put it in my gaming room in the far future, if i'm not mistaken neither the fumes nor stuff needed to rinse and finalize the resin is any good for ones health.


but as far as the models go, this level of detail far surpasses filament printers.
enjoy your new toy and go ham Wink i'm looking forward for anything dark souls when it comes to helmets and armor Smile
by the way , whats the max size the printer could produce in terms of items? always was a sucker for those huge knights with their tower shields in dark souls, almost 1/4 scale when put in a diorama.

Thanks, there are quite some supports needed for resin too, although the fails mostly don't come in the end, but the beginning.


The build plate is 115mm x 65mm with a height of 150mm. Followed a tip by my brother to decide which printer to get. And made little scales beforehand.
The red one ist the Elegoo Mars, the other two are from Anycubic. The blue one was under 100€ on Black Friday even, but a bit too small for stuff like those big russian helmets. The yellow one cost a lot more, so I chose the Mars.



Remember that models are to be tilted in a 30 to 45 degrees, so a shield could be higher than 150mm. But haven't tried such large stuff yet.

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:Wow! 

Stryker2011 wrote:Such an impressive amount of work in such a short time. Some really great stuff.

Thanks, and yeah it's a fast thing for our scale. Actually didn't have that much time over the last days, but preparing a bunch of prints in the program and then starting prints after getting up, before work and before going to sleep really helps feeling productive.

shazzdan wrote:

Tjolnir wrote:but the main no go for me and my room setup is the toxicity of resin printing . while i could eat something rightnext to mine, or put it in my gaming room in the far future, if i'm not mistaken neither the fumes nor stuff needed to rinse and finalize the resin is any good for ones health.

Depends on the filament. ABS and Nylon emit high levels of styrene which is a suspected carcinogen and known to cause headaches, drowsiness, and fatigue. PLA is safer, the main gas it emits is lactide, which is less toxic, but can still cause problems with long-term exposure.

Yeah, nasty stuff, resin being the nastiest. So glasd my print room is so far away from everything and ventilatable.

Valiarde wrote:Awesome stuff in really no time. This was the perfect thing vor Ovy to get. He will do wonders with it.


Can't wait to visit him next time and watching that thing in live action, as I have no clue how this is working and how you scale stuff. (And also to collect a nice Morion haha)


I love how you painted them, looks like real metal - especially love the rusty Zombie helmet here.

Haha thanks. It's hard to explain, but not that complicated actually. Resin print was invented in the 70s but they didn't have those neat cheap smartphone LCD screens back then.


The rust is achieved wir Vallejo Pigment binder and multiple brown and rust colored Pigments cut from pastels and Vallejo pigments.

GregT wrote:helmets... helmets galore! an infinity of possible helmets!
it's going to be fun watching Ovy create lots of magical stuff

Thanks a lot! Yeah it's magic.

skywalkersaga wrote:

MeMyself&I wrote:I’m wanting to grab a 3D printer myself and this has only made me want it more! What model do you have? Did you have to buy anything extra (I.e. how do you have it set up to cure the resin)? What 3D programs have you used/tried?

I'd like to know more details, too! Smile

Yeah I own the Elegoo Mars Pro as mentioned. The video shazzdan posted covers it mostly. 
Until now I only used the Chitubox Slicer that it freeware, it's very simple but works for beginners. Didn't do much with other 3d software yet, blender is a lot to learn if you have never done something with 3d as me, haha.


For cleaning you either need a little tub (about 3 litres) filled with Isopropyl alcohol or Ethanol (Ethanol is much much cheaper since IPA is used for desinfectants...) And a UV lamp/light, many use these Nailpolish curing thingies.
The cheapest UV lamp is the sun of course, but it takes longer. I use the sun to let the supports etc cure for free.


Or get a wash and curing station for more comfort as I did, cost me 75€ in black Friday times. Before I explain, here a video:



Also needed: nithril gloves and breathers/masks.


I buy the grey Elegoo Mars resin, 1kg for around 25€. You can build a lot with that. There is also water washable resin. It's a bit more expensive, but you don't need the alcohol. The water is still toxic waste after use though, so don't use it in the sink. Let the stuff evaporate outside.
 

shazzdan wrote:This guy does a decent review of an Elegoo Mars printer and explains how resin printing works.

Thanks, yeah Thomas is ze go to guy for everything 3d printing.
He also compared the three versions of the Mars:



And of course check out my favourite sockperson Crafsman reviewing the mars and the anycubic photon, without former experience of 3d printing.

Tjolnir wrote:so far i had satisfying results with pla filament, so i'm sticking to it exclusively. i got a sample of petg around for some time but haven't found the motivation to experiment with it. should be about as "safe" as pla but more stable in higher temperatures, thus having to be printed around 230-240 degrees. but like i said, got my printer set up just fine with the filament and values in simplify3d so no experiments in the near future Wink

Yeah it's probably the wisest choice health wise, haha. If you ever need something resin printed, sag bescheid.

Theboo-bomb wrote:That's a fantastic acquisition, those helmets are really nice even if they need a bit of work.


I've been thinking about getting one but still I'm not too sure which or if I'll use it often so I don't want to spend too much on something and then not use it.

Thanks a lot! Yeah I knew I would probably need it a lot as I was already browsing for tons of models to get printed by my brother, but he has that SLA printer like Tjolnir that produces mechanical sturdier stuff but has these line textures that don't work for most of the detail mini stuff I want to make. 




Here some.more boring modern helmets. Chose the French Spectra helmets for my apocalyptic knights, as they are/were widely used in Europe and also the UN blue helmets they want to emulate.



And of course my favourite Swiss Russian helmet, covered in nasty texture paint to be used by rusty warriors like Xykkurji.



And I made squirrels.
"Squirrels, how many Ovy?
"Yes."








I try to get the Lewis Chessmen set I printed painted tomorrow, they are super cute.