Aur0ra145 and the Photon

[aur0ra145]

New year, new project! I've fired back up the Photon. Current project is to print out a TIE Phantom. I found some .stl's for it and purchased them. They are in a 1/40 scale; but, I want to get them as close to 1/72 scale without looking weird.

I've tested one round of prints so far and the scale seemed off. So, time for round two!

For those unfamiliar, the TIE Phantom first premiered in the video game Star Wars: Rebel Assault II - The Hidden Empire. I loved this game as a kid, and the TIE Phantom was so cool to me back then. Unfortunately I haven't found any polystyrene kits on this subject ever.

The neat thing about this TIE is that it had a cloaking device, which is incredibly rare for ships that size in-universe.



The plan is to get the dimensions down, and print off all the parts. Then I'll decide if I want to build it now, or wait.

[aur0ra145]

Success! Sorta. This model just doesn't seem to scale very well with similar models from Bandai. I'll take some pictures when the pieces are done drying.

However, this has really made me want to do a Lambda-class shuttle and a Z-95 Headhunter. Naboo fighter, TIE Defender, Cloud-Car, etc. Though, I think I'll need a bigger printer for some of that stuff. I'll also need to start looking into how to hollow they models when printing to save on resin. Doing a bunch of test prints with a solid cockpit has used a noticeable amount of resin.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Cool
Fun finding some oddball stl’s when you least expect it

[digger303]

Cool and interesting.

[aur0ra145]

Here are some of the prints.

On the left is a 1/72 TIE Interceptor from Bandai. The middle is the most recent print. The right is what a 1/72 size should be from the original file.

The middle print has it's front cockpit lattice nearly the exact same size as the Interceptor. I'll probably go with this one. The proportions look a lot better now.

[BigWall]

Looking good! I see you decided to model it with the cloaking device turned off.

[aur0ra145]

Fired up the printer and made a quick Stalker. Nothing cosmic, just getting some paint on a model to get the juices flowing again. Also, I've purchased a .stl to build the Halo pistol. We'll see how it comes out.

[aur0ra145]

Attempting to make a base with green stuff. Plan is it's cobble with some rocks and a bit of a puddle which will glow green. I plan on doing that with resin, then glazing the top. After that I'll try to do a glow effect on the figure.

Cobble was done with my cobble roller I resin printed a couple months ago.

[aur0ra145]

Finished off the base and put in a glowing pond. Basically I just got a drop of resin on an eye lash applicator thing, and dropped it in the divot. Then cured it under a UV light for about 15 minutes.

Then dry brushed some green to give it a direction effect on the mini. It came out alright. I'm more proud of myself for painting bravely and trying out new techniques.

[aur0ra145]

After seeing Scott making good progress with the Jurassic 3d project, I decided I should make use of some of these .stl's I've bought.

They're from a rather large pack of WWI figures in 1/35 scale and 28mm.

[digger303]

COOL

[aur0ra145]

3d printed a French WWI soldier. Tried my hand at a vignette, not the best in the world, not the worst either. Learning to use the static grass applicator was weird.

[Twokidsnosleep]

I like it a lot

[aur0ra145]

wellll...... I fired up the filament printer to get some Star Wars Legion terrain built. First problem was that I selected the wrong file to print. This is a storage solution idea I had in the past. Additionally, during the print, the power at my home had cut off. It did put itself into a "low power" mode, where it paused the print. Though, when restarting the print I got a layer shift and ultimately failed. Sad, the print time was 15+hr and it failed in the last 40 minutes.

In other news, the guys that released the Russian looking minis from earlier this year and last fall I've been painting have a Kickstarter campaign. They currently have a free sample print that came out pretty well on the Photon. It will get primed and painted at a later date.

[RangerNeil]

Love the WW1 Poilu - came out really well!!

[aur0ra145]

Love the WW1 Poilu - came out really well!!

Thank you!

[aur0ra145]

Tried designing and printing a glue holder. The side aren't tall enough to be stable and the octagon isn't very octagon. Back to the drawing board.

[aur0ra145]

After several failed attempts, we have success!

[aur0ra145]

Not every print works out...

This is a M6G Personal Defense Weapon System commonly known as the Magnum from Halo!

The print failed after many hours of printing, and a ton of resin. I may attempt in the future if I get a printer with a larger build plate.


(reproduction WW1 1918 sawback bayonet for scale)

[digger303]

Not every print works out...

This is a M6G Personal Defense Weapon System commonly known as the Magnum from Halo!

The print failed after many hours of printing, and a ton of resin. I may attempt in the future if I get a printer with a larger build plate.


(reproduction WW1 1918 sawback bayonet for scale)

Always a pain when things don't work out. Printers are getting better, but I bet you'll be way ahead of the curve when you do upgrade.

[aur0ra145]

Not the Photon; but these guys came off of my filament printer. They're in the scale for Star Wars: Legion. These took a looooooooooong time to print out.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Those look great...love the markings on the top surface
What kinda time are we talking for printing out??

[aur0ra145]

Those look great...love the markings on the top surface
What kinda time are we talking for printing out??

The walled portion was a 21 hour print. The roof section was 11 hours. Sooo, 32 hours total per building.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Those look great...love the markings on the top surface
What kinda time are we talking for printing out??

The walled portion was a 21 hour print. The roof section was 11 hours. Sooo, 32 hours total per building.

holy

[aur0ra145]

Finally a print success!

I designed a brush rack, so my brushes can dry while horizontal and not roll around. I'm starting to buy nice brushes for figure painting and I want to take care of them the best I can.

[digger303]

Finally a print success!

I designed a brush rack, so my brushes can dry while horizontal and not roll around. I'm starting to buy nice brushes for figure painting and I want to take care of them the best I can.

Nicely done.
I have thought about buying better brushes, but the price has always put me off. Plus I don't always ( almost never) treat my brushes nicely so I've tended to stick with cheaper brushes and I've bought so many over time that I have a drawer full of new brushes waiting their turn to be abused.

[aur0ra145]

Printed out a Hero Forge character I created several years ago. Completely forgot that you could buy the characters you made in .stl format.

It's a Lewis-gun wielding elephant angel!

[digger303]

Printed out a Hero Forge character I created several years ago. Completely forgot that you could buy the characters you made in .stl format.

It's a Lewis-gun wielding elephant angel!

Looks good.

[aur0ra145]

Well, finally back to the bench and 3d printer after a long time.

Thankfully before I left I did myself a solid and cleaned the ever loving poop out of printer before leaving. Somehow my alcohol bath changed color? Though, everything was in working order and came out well!





I'm really glad I left myself notes for when I got back.



These guys are right where I left them too.



The printed/primed minis. Even managed to get some paint on one of the minis.

[digger303]

Back in the swing of things

I've been recycling general purpose lacquer thinner and I've found that has changed colour too. A real brown sepia colour. I put it down to paint contaminants like oil causing it, but after your observation maybe be its light.

look forward to more of your posts.

[aur0ra145]

Got some paint on. Did a test for black or brown boots. I'm thinking black will pop a bit more. Then I'll do a wash, then paint the deck and base.

[digger303]

[aur0ra145]

Got the boots done, a bit of dry brushing on the backpack and base painted black. I'm waiting for the recipient of this mini to let me know if their campaign is on a space ship or on a planet to finish the basing.

Fun little project. Definitely don't want to make a habit out of making minis for everyone I know in a campaign; but, this one has been fun and forced me to get back into the hobby a bit.

[aur0ra145]

After many months of the 3d printer sitting in silence, I fired it up again. This time with environmental friendly resin. I think it was @Twokidsnosleep that had an issue with his cat possibly being exposed to resin which scared me enough to go more green in case my dog gets exposed to it on accident. It uses a very similar wavelength for curing, so hopefully it works just like the original stuff I was using. Plus, the translucent green looks nice.



It's in there whirring away to make me some fences with stone corners. This is a rather long print at 10 hours, so hopefully it all comes out well. I'm not a big fan of cleaning up failed prints. In other news, and old friend of mine left his work in the finance sector and started a 3d printing company for DnD minis and what not. So, if this goes bust, I may commission him to print this stuff for me. Not because I can't do it on my own eventually; but, to throw him some business while he's still in the early start up phase. Then *maybe* he'll start producing WW2 28mm terrain for this game I want to play.


Additionally the wife and I payed off our vehicles, so we have a lot more disposable income for the time being. A bigger 3d printer is on the docket of things to get after a laser cutter (and some suppressors for a couple of my rifles!) Then we'll start being responsible and throw that into more investments.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Yes it was me, suspected the cat licked some resin blob on the floor. No proof other than she is a dope
I tried that translucent green resin…it stinks to high heaven and family hates when I use it.

Uh oh, excess income is dangerous…something expensive always breaks when we think we have money coming our way
A % is for fun and then rest into investments

[aur0ra145]

Yes it was me, suspected the cat licked some resin blob on the floor. No proof other than she is a dope
I tried that translucent green resin…it stinks to high heaven and family hates when I use it.

Uh oh, excess income is dangerous…something expensive always breaks when we think we have money coming our way
A % is for fun and then rest into investments

The smell didn't seem that bad to me, though I leave the printer out in the garage and my allergies have been acting up.

Agreed on something breaking. Over the last year I've replaced/repaired most of the A/C unit, water heater and fridge.

Next print is underway. This time I'm printing out a boat dock to place in my "lake" that I'll have on the terrain. Should come out looking alright. This time I went more sprue support tree than placing the items on the build plate directly.

Here's how the last print came out. Everything looks pretty good and fits together.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Very nice!
My Favourite green print done so far

[aur0ra145]

Printed out a boat dock. Total print time was about 2.5 hours. Priming time, 2 minutes. Slap chopping, <10 minutes. I'm very pleased with this new painting technique. Very fast and looks great in some applications/materials.

[aur0ra145]

Also got the fences painted up. They look pretty good though the fences were pretty difficult to dry brush. I'll need to print off some more to make a proper fence for the yard.

I'm also starting to think that I need a new 3d printer. This one is great; but, the build plate is tiny. Something to research more...

[Twokidsnosleep]

Excellent work.
Simply amazing what a skilled person can do with these machines

[aur0ra145]

Excellent work.
Simply amazing what a skilled person can do with these machines

You're too kind.

Finished up the print of the grain silo top. Next up will be to paint/prime all of this. Here's the mock-up.

[digger303]

Hiding the whisky in plain sight

[Twokidsnosleep]

That is awesome!!
Did you design the roof or was it an existing file?

[aur0ra145]

That is awesome!!
Did you design the roof or was it an existing file?

It was an existing file off of Thingiverse. I just had to resize it to fit the cylinder. The hardest part was finding my calipers to measure the cylinder.

[aur0ra145]

Story time.

Two 3d prints ago I had a small bit of a model not print as I had planned. Don't know what happened but it didn't come out right. I should have emptied the vat and inspected the FEP film on the bottom of the resin vat; but I didn't. Figured it was fine. When printing yesterday, I had a massively failed print. What I think happened was that the previous misprint had hardened on the FEP. So, when printing the next print, it got smashed into the FEP and created a tiny hole. This leaked a bit on the face of the LCD and hardened.



Thankfully cleaning up the LCD wasn't an issue. Though, the FEP was obviously in ill repair. The damage to the FEP can be seen here.



In a stroke of previous genius, I had ordered extra FEP's just in case. Those took a bit to install and was pretty messy. Disassembly can be seen here.







Essentially the FEP is placed between the metal bracket, then screwed in. This is then screwed into the bottom of the resin vat and tightens the FEP like a drumhead.







Good as new, I hope.



I'll try a print this week and see how it goes. Unfortunately I think my resin printer is so old that spares aren't really sold for it any longer. If it is indeed beyond economical repair. I may be in the market for a new 3d printer, in which it will be some time before I'm able to purchase a new one.

Moral of the story: Clean up your vat if a print fails.

[digger303]

I've heard these are a real step up in ease of use and set up.
Prints tricky to remove from build plate is a comment I've heard about them.

Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra
Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra

I guess the other manufacturers will incorporate these new features into the next gen of printers. It's making these things easier and easier to use apart from the messy chemicals.

How old is your printer ? I'm curious how long the machines are supported for.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Yep like a drum head, good description
Think I am on my third FEP now; poke holes when cleaning off failed prints’ residue

[aur0ra145]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I think the pre-supported STL files I bought are trash. Just means I'll need to go back and re-support all of the files. Disappointing being that I paid a decent price so I wouldn't have to go and support the figures on my own.



You can actually see where the failed stuff is stuck to the FEP.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Do a print file you know works…gets your confidence back in the machine and tells you that it’s the stl file
Eliminate the possible screw ups one by one
Beef up the supports and then change the section exposure times longer for this failing file
Usually that gets things going.
But sometimes things f up for a while no matter what I do.

[aur0ra145]

Followed your advice and did have a successful print. That will get painted up soon. As for today, I'm moving slow after more dental surgery yesterday. It was stage 2 of a dental implant. So trending in the right direction. Not nearly as invasive as the last time around. Maybe this afternoon I'll get some bench time.