Resin 3d Printing

[Aliktren]

Hey Guys, I've been out of the hobby for about 8 months for various reasons but I am back

In august my son got a ender 3 printer and we've been having some fun with it finally tuning it to the point where it can make passable 28mm miniature prints for fantasy models

The community for miniature 3d printing is exploding and I'm curious as to why it hasnt done the same for scale modelling, we all love to buy resin sets for this and that and a 200 quid resin printer is now on a par with what you could buy printed from a supplier - the output is effectively the equivalent of what you can buy in a store - but if you look in all the usual places online, no one seems to be designing or printing parts for scale models - they print whole models, sure, like the model I see Tommy did for last years sig which are figures but I would expect to see things like diorama supplies and the like exploding because they are super easy to print

Just curious about whether I'm not looking in the right place and stuff is out there, or whether there is a gap in the market right now, people like Aries could be selling the STL files via Patreon or something similair I would have thought (IP theft I guess is the single biggest issue holding people back)

I have a resin printer arriving in Feb, I'll be using it to print and paint miniatures initially but really hoping that people with more talent than me start to produce stuff for my other favourite hobby

[digger303]

I know next to nothing, but I did hear it was still expensive to print your own. Plus slow and a degree in engineering/ computing was needed to make it all work AND a huge chunk of time.
If I'm wrong I'd love to know more.

[Tomcat64]

@Lee might be able to help out here - he's done a ton of work on 3d printing stuff for Ultimate as well as his own projects so might be able to point you in the right direction for resources that have the STLs you're looking for.

I agree though, this should be a great way of printing out crates and stowage amongst other things.

[bfrd]

@TommyKillander is rapidly becoming a 3D Jedi.

[Aliktren]

Printers are a couple of hundred quid and anything you need for printing is well covered by youtube so I think the days of rocket science are gone.

We already have a Ender 3 so what I would say is - it's the future, the stuff you can already do is out of this world really, the market moved extremely quickly

[bfrd]

Gambody has quite a few selections that I would consider "kits". I have bought a couple, but not printed any of them yet. I do think that IP has great deal to do with the hesitance to move to sell printable kits. I suspect that quality also has some role in this as well. If you buy a kit that has a malformed sprue you get a replacement. If your printer can't handle a spot of G-Code then who is responsible for "fixing" the problem. I think that is a hassle that most of the main-stream makers just don't want to deal with. I am also not 100% sold on the affordability. A jar of resin and the amount of time it takes to print something likely don't add up to cost savings over a kit. I think the miniature/figure world is a completely different animal. I would absolutely print my own miniature over buying a resin one. I don't think we are quite there with "kits" yet. Maybe after I actually print and build my Serenity model I will feel differently.

[TommyKillander]

Interesting discussion

I bought my Anycubic Photon ~9 months ago and I have been using it for a while now. My idea was to be able to make additional details for my plastic models, as an alternative to scratchbuilding. Printing figures/miniatures or downloading and printing kits wasn't on my radar really.
But I have of course downloaded and printed a couple of miniatures from Thingiverse -

There is a bit of a learning curve with a 3D printer... You have to understand the process; 3D modelling, file preparation (scaling, orientation, adding supports, slicing), printing and post-printing (cleaning, removing supports, curing).
3D printing also involves handling uncured resin, that is smelly, sticky and toxic/unhealthy.

The low cost Masking LCD (MSLA) types of printers in the price range of a couple of hundred euros is very labour intensive especially when it comes to handling resin and cleaning. That is the messy part of resin printing.

Skills in 3D modelling is ofcourse only needed if you are going to make your own designs, tools like Autodesk Fusion360 is very intimidating at first, but there are very good tutorials on YT.

But it's very fun and rewarding!


I made some parts for my 1/72 scale Tarangus Viggen:

Safety handle for the ejection seat










I also made a couple of missile rails:











I also printed a figure that I downloaded from Thingiverse, The Mondoshawan (The 5th Element)

Buildthread here: viewtopic.php?f=691&t=27602

I also have a video about my Photon on my YT channel



Tommy

[RangerNeil]

Absolutely fascinating reading this and seeing how far these printers have come. Way back in the late 1990's the Automotive company I worked for got into the idea of Virtual manufacturing which - long story short - required 1:1 models of the various power tools operators used to go in the egonomics Lab. Coudn't use the real thing because of the magnetic fields the "flock of birds" suit interacted with. So in 2002 they bought two 3D printers - nylon rather than resin - and each printer was the size of a small room in a house!! The unit cost would have paid for a small house!! To see them come down to table top size is nothing short of amazing...

[TommyKillander]

Absolutely fascinating reading this and seeing how far these printers have come. Way back in the late 1990's the Automotive company I worked for got into the idea of Virtual manufacturing which - long story short - required 1:1 models of the various power tools operators used to go in the egonomics Lab. Coudn't use the real thing because of the magnetic fields the "flock of birds" suit interacted with. So in 2002 they bought two 3D printers - nylon rather than resin - and each printer was the size of a small room in a house!! The unit cost would have paid for a small house!! To see them come down to table top size is nothing short of amazing...

I totally agree - the development have been mind-boggling

Around 10 years ago I was working as a PM in a project where we developed a handheld hearing device. We made SLA models that we paid 1000€ for each(!), it was a semi-transparent resin that was really really brittle (if you dropped the prototype on the floor it went into 1000 pieces)
The SLA printer itself costed like a house and was located in a clean-room and it was fully booked so there where 2 weeks leadtime on manufacturing parts... The print quality was much lower than what I get on my Anycubic Photon.

Btw: I saw that Anycubic are working on a low-cost version of the Photon called Photon Zero for $169:
https://all3dp.com/1/anycubic-photon-ze ... er-review/


Tommy

[digger303]

Absolutely fascinating reading this and seeing how far these printers have come. Way back in the late 1990's the Automotive company I worked for got into the idea of Virtual manufacturing which - long story short - required 1:1 models of the various power tools operators used to go in the egonomics Lab. Coudn't use the real thing because of the magnetic fields the "flock of birds" suit interacted with. So in 2002 they bought two 3D printers - nylon rather than resin - and each printer was the size of a small room in a house!! The unit cost would have paid for a small house!! To see them come down to table top size is nothing short of amazing...

I totally agree - the development have been mind-boggling

Around 10 years ago I was working as a PM in a project where we developed a handheld hearing device. We made SLA models that we paid 1000€ for each(!), it was a semi-transparent resin that was really really brittle (if you dropped the prototype on the floor it went into 1000 pieces)
The SLA printer itself costed like a house and was located in a clean-room and it was fully booked so there where 2 weeks leadtime on manufacturing parts... The print quality was much lower than what I get on my Anycubic Photon.

Btw: I saw that Anycubic are working on a low-cost version of the Photon called Photon Zero for $169:
https://all3dp.com/1/anycubic-photon-ze ... er-review/


Tommy

It's like computers I guess they started out huge, now they fit in your pocket.
Tommy I have to say a little word here...PM means Prime Minster down under so in that vein....
WHO dropped the concept design model....was it you.....come on your among friends here...fessup

[Aliktren]

Amazing stuff Tommy as usual, I guess i may need to learn some CAD skills , did you post your cad files anywhere online ?

[Aliktren]

Gambody has quite a few selections that I would consider "kits". I have bought a couple, but not printed any of them yet. I do think that IP has great deal to do with the hesitance to move to sell printable kits. I suspect that quality also has some role in this as well. If you buy a kit that has a malformed sprue you get a replacement. If your printer can't handle a spot of G-Code then who is responsible for "fixing" the problem. I think that is a hassle that most of the main-stream makers just don't want to deal with. I am also not 100% sold on the affordability. A jar of resin and the amount of time it takes to print something likely don't add up to cost savings over a kit. I think the miniature/figure world is a completely different animal. I would absolutely print my own miniature over buying a resin one. I don't think we are quite there with "kits" yet. Maybe after I actually print and build my Serenity model I will feel differently.

Yeah i wouldnt print a whole kit, but a cockpit, tyres, stuff like that just needs a few guys with some serious cad skills and time.

If aries sold stl files for cockpits id buy them, i'm guessing the resin production cost is a big part of their price plus theyd open up their entire back catalogue potentially

[digger303]

Gambody has quite a few selections that I would consider "kits". I have bought a couple, but not printed any of them yet. I do think that IP has great deal to do with the hesitance to move to sell printable kits. I suspect that quality also has some role in this as well. If you buy a kit that has a malformed sprue you get a replacement. If your printer can't handle a spot of G-Code then who is responsible for "fixing" the problem. I think that is a hassle that most of the main-stream makers just don't want to deal with. I am also not 100% sold on the affordability. A jar of resin and the amount of time it takes to print something likely don't add up to cost savings over a kit. I think the miniature/figure world is a completely different animal. I would absolutely print my own miniature over buying a resin one. I don't think we are quite there with "kits" yet. Maybe after I actually print and build my Serenity model I will feel differently.

Yeah i wouldnt print a whole kit, but a cockpit, tyres, stuff like that just needs a few guys with some serious cad skills and time.

If aries sold stl files for cockpits id buy them, i'm guessing the resin production cost is a big part of their price plus theyd open up their entire back catalogue potentially

Wheels and tracks would be great to do, but not a fan of having to smooth and fill if the resolution is a bit course.
I'd buy one if I could do that and the on going resin supply cost was competitive.

[JonMW]

I do quite a bit of 3d printing, both FDM and resin and both for the hobby and for work. You can get really nice parts that can be used directly on the models or as a master for regular manufacturing.

I think one of the reasons why "old" resin manufactures don't sell stl files is problems with it being a one time buy and then the customer can print as many as they want and even sell them on afterwards. And they have no control over quality, and as different printers, resin and software can handle the files differently and the finished parts might not fit or work.

From my own work it's usually the CAD work and the development that takes time and thus would cost the most. Material, print time and cleaning for me at least now that I have a good process is less of the "cost" of a finished part. So selling just the stl files they would probably have to come up in price quite a bit compared to regular resin parts for the manufactures to still be able to make a living off of it. Especially since there is still not that many that have 3d printers yet that would buy the parts And I guess a lot of people don't want to buy one until they know there is enough parts available to print to justify the cost of the machine.

And here is a couple of the things that I have printed. The floats, bombs and the other parts in the first two pictures where made as master parts for Tarangus SAAB B17 for them to do injection and resin parts from, the propeller hub is also for the B17 but I print them directly for Tarangus. The last picture are parts that I made for myself, like special landing gear for the AMK F14, that most people most likely don't want or need.

[TommyKillander]

Tommy I have to say a little word here...PM means Prime Minster down under so in that vein....
WHO dropped the concept design model....was it you.....come on your among friends here...fessup

Prime Minister; I like the sound of that!

No, I was Project Manager Definition and Lead Engineer, but that is as far as I would stretch the titles...
The Industrial Design was outsourced and that company was also responsible for delivering the concept design model.


Tommy

[Aliktren]

Found these ww2 themed scenery files today, you have to pay for them but they do look awesome, I am assuming you could also just print the bits you want for Dioramas

https://www.printablescenery.com/produc ... -2/page/2/