Elegoo Printers available here! shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1680329&u=3447346&m=104244&urllink=&afftrack= This one's an affiliate link that helps support the channel if you did choose to pick anything up :)
I have shamelessly printed whole 40k armies for myself and friends for no payment. Adapt or die GW. I wouldn't want them to go under, but I would love to see them get hurt enough to wake up and make some major changes
This right here. Not all heroes wear capes. Some just have a 3d printer and is a kick@$ friend. My dude. Quit a long time ago during like 5th or 6th edition and came back for my jaw to hit the floor. GW smoking some serious corporate pipe they think I'm paying 200$ for 10 minis or 260$ for a tank😂. Ain't no way
I got a 3d printer so I could print miniatures for my kids to paint with me. As much as I love them, spending $5-20/mini for my 5 year old to put giant blobs of paint all over it just makes me cry on the inside. I paint my armies, they paint the stuff I 3d printed - it makes for great family fun.
I bought the Elite Starter set a bit ago (The necron VS space marines one) and although I've built the space marines, and my younger brother has built his necrons (with my help, since he's too young to handle a blade *just* yet) he's still new to painting. So, to give him a nice way to practice, we 3d printed some necron warriors for him to paint (and also so I can see just how easy they are to paint myself).
I'm an owner of one. Just... make a mental note to stop when you'll notice the unpainted pile is getting to unbearable levels. I know it's cheap. I know you just found a new power and you want to go crazy using it. Just... please paint that pile.
@@Ironblood4564it’s really easy to end up with a massive amount of units in just a month for me. With a FDM printer handing big stuff and terrain while the resin one handles minis just actively on the paint desk I have. Just finished today: a Great unclean one. Nearly finished: One ork kill tank alternative, One ork stompa alternative, one alternative ork Naut, one alternative Ghaz, two mek gun alternatives, one battle wagon alternatives, Just primed: 40 grots, a jabberslith, several terrain pieces, ork warboss on bike, a unit of nurglings, and several plague toads. And god knows how much just sitting bare no primer.
@@monkeyinapanzer After full paint jobs is there a noticeable difference between GW models and 3D printed one. Also in your experience have people even cared that you print your own?
I've started printing this year, just a fair warning to everyone else considering giving it a go: It's not as easy as a lot of people say, there's a lot of handling nasty chemicals and the fumes are pretty bad. If you don't have a dedicated workspace with airflow available, it's better to reconsider.
Even PLA 3D printers are a lot of work. It took me quite a while to get the much simpler Ender 3 to work right. I honestly am still not sure what I did that finally made it start working, so I'm not touching any of the settings any time soon.
@@jammer9300 I'm fairly new to 3D printing and have only used 2 full sized bottles of it, first was Elegoo Grey and the 2nd was Elegoo Water Washable and it was a massive improvement in not only structural quality and flexibility, but hardly any odor in comparison to the Grey and the water solubility is great.
Before everyone says 3d printing kills hobby, just think that GW has brought it on themselves. Overpriced models, fixed unit loadout, no converions or 3rd party allowed, blatant p2w rule design and unfinished, ovepriced annual rulebooks. The pricing is wrong when you can buy 3 new tanks or a whole 3d printer and print the whole army instead.
@@CurlyTheBass Your argument boils down to "you can't use chess pieces from XYZ company because those are made using machines, while we make them with different machines, but charge 10x more because of branding!" Just say "ok, I'm going to buy these other space marines, which don't infringe on your legal rights or IP, because we double checked the lettering, and we just won't attend GW events or tournaments. Unless for some reason you want to ban us from using your rules as we see fit which, good luck with that!" I used to care about GW making their cut... Until they cut off the community and tried to strong arm the animating community. I will never forgive them for that, period. I have not purchased any models from them since. I didn't use to 3D print models except for a couple of warhounds. Now? I print without reserve! I don't care if GW is mad, they legally can't stop me, even if I print their models, so long as I don't sell them it's still legal. So no. F*** GW
Just want to say that I purchased an Elegoo Mars 3 last year and it was well worth it. Currently using Siraya Tech Fast ABS-Like resin and the models turn out great. The most surprising part of this hobby was just how many models are readily available. Searching "Blank" STL can often net you several great choices let alone the many hub websites that are dedicated to 3D modelers selling their work. Cults3D and Myminifactory have been a godsend for proxies. There's definitely troubleshooting involved and the clean-up is a chore (Filtering IPA through coffee filters for re-use and to properly cure/dispose of resin gunk is the messiest part of the hobby.) but I'm really glad I took the dive. (And so are my friends who play the "guest armies" I've printed off!)
All I can say is this video has amazing timing. I have had a Mars 2 Pro for a couple of years and I have printed bits and bobs really outside the GW range of miniatures. I am upgrading to Saturn 2 8K as a number of pre-supported creators are getting more adventurous in the design space. Larger miniatures are becoming available. It is great to see so many options now thriving across the community. Highly recommend water washable resin if you want to remove the complexity of dealing with isopropyl alcohol/white spirit. Once you have dialled in the settings and get two or three good prints done, it becomes all about printing, cleaning, maintenance, paint, go again.
I have used it a lot for spare parts, I buy second hand armies and the amount of models I have been able to save after they arrived broken or with missing parts has been invaluable.
I'm working as 3D Environment Artists for videogames and in the last year 2 friends leave their companies not for other videogame companies but for 3D print tabletop companies! This "hobby" is becoming an industry. In my free time I design props, bases and terrain elements/buildings for fun but I'm sure that people with basic knowledge about modeling/sculpting (pref ZBrush) can do their own projects! This is a plus for Warhammer!
I'm a 3d student and this topic is something that really cought my curiosity. Do you have any tips for someone trying to get into that sort of environment? Alo do you have an artstation or something? I'd love to see the stuff you make.
I haven't used ZBrush yet, but can you do hard surface modeling in it or set sizes? I use Blender for hard surfaces and trying Nomad for organic sculpting since my PC is potato-like.
The biggest practical application I have is to print out designs for minis GW either couldn’t be asked to update or even produce anymore. Likewise printing designs that run circles around GWs is one of my big factors. Just printing copies of GWs designs is extremely boring to me, but something like Geargutz mekshops badass broozer ork alternatives or Total Wars rips of nurgle demons just look so much better then GWs offerings.
Also alternate sculpts, like my 1000 point army of elysian drop troopers (because gw does not do them) Also, there is no way to get a valkurie in my region. They just do not exist
As somebody who has been printing for nearly a decade, and is in charge of maintaining and doing much of the 3D printing of my local MakerSpace, I have some insight I would like to share. I normally don't drop these sorts of comments, but I like Auspex Tactics so I'll make an exception. I'm the guy who is attempting to cover the details that AT is not sharing, either because of how boring the content is, or because he just isn't confident enough in this entirely different branch of space that exists (3D printing can be a LOT). Note: This is likely going to be long and detailed, but I think that's what the community likes, and it's best (imho) to give more details rather than too little. Background: I started 3D printing on some older printers, I would have never suggested them 8 years ago, they were terrible and inaccurate. Back then if you wanted even a half decent print, you needed a $4000 printer. Nowadays, it's clear that this isn't true. I typically use an Ender 3 for most of my printing nowadays (an FDM/Filament printer) for anything larger than a Space Marine, and for anything the size of a Space Marine or smaller, I print using my Mars 2 Pro (Resin printer). Depending on the model, this may switch back and forth. I believe I am about to approach 9 years of experience, over about 15 different FDM printers and about 8 different SLA (Resin) printers. I constantly maintain about 9 printers at my local MakerSpace, but because my local Space also happens to be integrated with the University I attend school for (I graduate in 3 weeks) the school's employees often ask me for help on their printers as well, so I tend to also help them out, and when you include my 3D printers at home, I'm sitting at around 15 printers I maintain and work with. First off: FDM is Fused Deposition Modeling, and is the 3D printers that use filament rolls (the rolls of plastic strings) and the best bang for your buck and what most people purchase is 1 kg spools, which is roughly 335 meters of string, and quite a big volume. The other type of printing is SLA or Stereolithography. Secondly: If you live in the States, you may want to look up your "Local MakerSpace" if one exists. Many have access to some form of an FDM printer, and others may even have resin printing. These machines usually require training by the MakerSpace before you actually use them, but are free to use as the MakerSpaces are usually community driven and led. A MakerSpace is honestly just a community that tries to help others create, while also fundraising to put those funds into new equipment for the benefit of the community. Typically, the machines are free to use, but you have to either bring your own filament/resin, they let you use filament they have on hand and then charge you for the amount you used, or both options are available. This is worth noting as it essentially drops your "buy in/Initial investment" costs down to just the cost of a single bottle of resin or spool of filament. So, why does Resin print better? Simple. What is more accurate? A 0.4 mm ball point pen? or pixels on a screen? Keep in mind these screens nowadays have up to 8,000 pixels length wise, and they are about 6 inches long... you can do the math... But resin printing can be as accurate as 48 μm (micrometers). It's hard for FDM printers to compete. Why does Resin print faster? Resin printers can print an entire "screen" at a time by using all the pixels simultaneously, while FDM printers print with a pen. It's simply unfair. Why use Resin vs FDM printing? Main things are covered above, but mostly Resin is harmful, toxic, messy and more expensive but the actual printing process is easier but the modelling part is harder. FDM is clean, not harmful, but the printing process if not set up correctly, fails a lot and is difficult to calibrate correctly. So, why am I even bothering talking about this? Simple: I don't think people should just jump into 3D printing. It's not a simple process, this isn't a consumer good, this is a hobbyist's world. IF you are willing to struggle, learn and bash your head against a wall OR if you are genuinely intrigued and/or love the thought of 3D printing, please by all means continue to enter this world we all share! The main benefits: I do not believe it's covered completely here, but I would like to add for example my entire repertoire of 3D printed models, EVERYTHING, plus costs over the past 3 years or so. Ender 3 $150 (you can buy for $99 on sale the Ender 3 Pro, right now, but also at certain times of the year) FDM printer. Silent Motherboard upgrade $40 (just get it) BLTouch $45 (self-leveling, just get it) Direct Drive $35 (only get this upgrade when your original extruder fails honestly, it will eventually, but mine failed after... something like 8000 print hours... We're talking roughly 3000 space marines in) Nickel Plated Steel Nozzle $41 (again a splurge for Ender 3, it allowed me to print Carbon-Fiber PLA, not useful for this community I know) PEI Sheet $40 (I splurged to get some really good ones... worth it) Mars 2 Pro $250 (currently $135 on Elegoo for Black Friday OR $99 for the regular Mars 2 on Elegoo, a bunch of fantastic deals are currently happening! The sale ends in 2 days? I think) 14 kg of PLA ~$308 (A lot was purchased through sales, but let's just go for retail value and say $308, but realistically I paid much closer to $200) 5 kg of Resin ~$200 (again, I purchased during last Christmas sale so it was $22 a bottle not $39, and it was buy 2 get 1 free, so really I paid less than $100 but I am going off of retail prices right now! On a side note, Europe has some insane deals on resin for Elegoo resin only in Europe atm!) Let's call it about $300 in electricity over 5 years. I only ever purchased 2 STL files, the DKOK Engineers/Infantry men, and Warlord Titan STL (about $40 after tax) Total Price: $1,449! Wow, that's a lot!... over 5 years, that's nearly $300 per year, that's a lot! Well, let's see what I MADE from all this: (Edit, first reply to this will have the rest, comment too long lol)
Well, let's see what I MADE from all this: FDM Printer (14kg of PLA): 3x Warhound Titans (wow, we have ALREADY broken even) 1x Riever Titans 1x Warlord Titan (currently being printed, just hit about 60% done, but I should have enough PLA to finish this) 6x Terrain pieces 3x multi-part, multi-level buildings for D&D (another hobby I play and enjoy) ~160x skeletons (I love my skeletons, back off!) ~14x Dreadnought sized trolls/ogres/etc for D&D 6x Warg (worg?) riders 20x Orcs 40x Villagers/Player Characters 1x 1/2 scale Spoiler for a Senior Design Project 1x full scale, Carbon-Fiber PLA Spoiler for a Formula car (prototype) for a Senior Design Project (this is technically not accounted for in the 14kg but I wanted to show other use cases) multiple DIY fixes around the house. Resin Printer (5 kg of resin): 40x Death Korps of Krieg 3x Dragon/Giant Golem sized creatures 1x Galatus Dreadnought (Sword and shield one) 1x Custom Minifig for a customer 100x Space Marines for a customer 80x Guardsmen for a customer plus some odds and ends. So, if we were to go retail for GW, as I have gone retail on ALL costs but unlike GW 3D printing stuff actually goes on sale... You should realize that even after all initial costs, we are getting massive savings. If you don't account for initial costs, typically, you are getting about an 88% - 98% discount, especially with overpriced Resin casted models. Why go FDM? Because you can use different filament types for different use cases. Why go Resin? More details. Where find STLs? Keep in mind, with the exception of the Death Korps of Krieg models and the Warlord Titan, ALL STL's I found were free! Isn't that crazy? Honest opinion: Should you get into 3D printing? Maybe, maybe not. This is NOT a plug and play hobby. 3D printing includes proper usage lest you accidentally break it, proper maintenance or else you run the risk of early part failure, having some basic idea of how to mess with electronics (99% of the time, if you can turn on your computer and surf the web, and know how to use a screw driver, you have the pre-requisites covered). Keep in mind any issues you run into, generally if it's a "big name 3D printer", you can find hundreds of other people who ran into the same issue and have posted questions/solutions 3 years ago. If you have any questions about specific details, I will try to reply, but yea. This is the main reason. I would honestly suggest the given resin printers as shown above, but for FDM, I would suggest an Ender 3 V2 Pro or Elegoo's Neptune 2 Pro 3D Printers. They're just fantastic. Elegoo is also, unlike GW, a company worth backing. They look out for the little guy, try to make their printers affordable but are still very much high quality products. Creality does the same thing, hence why I directly support them.
Lovely Overview! As a concept artist for Makers Cult, I endorse the use of printed models, but I really dislike full-on copies or almost identical recreations of GW models, I try to make designs that wouldn't look out of place, inspired but not copied.
Same! I just can’t be spending that kind of dough on pieces of plastic at the end of the day, for the price of one squad of intercessors I can make a small or even full size army out of resin
Some tips I learned through experience: Buy a lot of Paper towels, throw away paper funnels with filters, isopropanol, stainless steel funnels, Trays (one to set you printer in case of catastrophic failure, resin wont leak al over the place. And one to remove your prints on from the buildplate from), plastic spatulas, spare containers to wash your models in and recycle your Isopropanol. Buy a screen protector for your printscreen ! Buy spare FEP Sheets. Calibrate your buildplate with the papermethod, not your FEP. Yes you can use the FEP but you cant pull the corners to check if the pressure is aligned in all the corners of the buildplate. A lot of free and even payed models have a lot of errors. 3DBuilder is a free microsoft program that works great to repair models. (a lot of models aren't checked for errors, this program helps to fix it!) Never assume (even for payed models) the supports are correctly placed. After slicing your model, run it through UVTOOLS. this program helps to detect island, pockets and suctioncups. It can also autocorrect small errors. This will reduce your print errors by a lot. TEMPERATURE! a lot of print failures tend to happen because the ambient temperature is to cold. Resin works best between 25 -30 degrees celsius for most brands. invest in a vat warmer or a small heater for your printer. Removing supports from models works best in a tub of warm water. After cleaning the model with ispropanol ofcourse. Hot water helps to soften the resin. Make sure to dry it thoroughly before curing. clean your FEP with micro cloth only, dont use papertowels as this will scratch the surface and make the FEP a lot duller with micro scratches. You can recycle isopropanol by pouring it in a clean transparent soda bottle and leave them in the sun. The resin particles will harden and sink to the bottom, filter the remaining isopropanol in a new bottle and repeat until clear. Hope this is useful for anyone!
I suck at sculpting with green stuff, but i can 3d print accessories and bits to make my Salamanders look legit. I have about 1500 pts of Primaris that Im slowly converting. I would love to make Lore dioramas for them eventually!
@@sir_ridley388 I got the Photon S last year Black Friday new for $80. Its only a 2K but for bits its perfect. There are some good scale cape files and other goodies. Im learning blender to tweak some and create my own
Not only that but some of their stuff is just TOO scary! I play warhammer for the corporate rainbow-coalition hugbox feel, not scary grim dark spooky stuff!
I am also incredibly interested in avoiding these, if anyone happens to find exactly where to avoid these at please @ me so I can continue to enjoy weeping with joy over the cost my desire to have my favorite traitor legions brings. 😁
True that. It's really just a variation on the "assemble mini" part of the process, which has slowly taken up more and more time over the decades as the industry transitioned away for one-piece metal castings that were once the norm.
One thing I love 3d printing for in the Warhammer sphere is custom bases. I even designed my own for the Dominion box minis so to accomplish some cool basing ideas I have.
Owning a good printer and knowing what you're doing with it is the minis gamer equivalent of owning a pickup truck when your friends need to move. Expect to get asked for "little favors" from your gaming circle a lot.
Yup. However I ask what my printing friend would want in compensation and I try to make sure he is funded for his time, effort, and resources. I’m not a beggar. I am just a customer.
@@timunderbakke8756 I think a good baseline is £5 plus 200% material costs. For example it's about £4 of material for 20 Marines, so you pay your friend £13 for let's say 20 Terminators. I know for me it's like 90p of resin for 10 Eldar Guardians.
@@oliverp3545 I tend to trust my friend on what he needs. I explain my intent is to compensate fairly. He tells me what I owe and I go from there. Something like “Hey, I’ve got these OPR stl files and I’d like to know how much it would cost me to have you make?” “Well based on the quantity you asked for, I’d like this” “Ok!” Last time I paid him more than he asked because I’m sure he’s being too nice. I’m also making sure I don’t do this too much to him.
I want to start a ravenguard army *finds auspex’s channel with full rg vid* I recently start considering an elegoo *auspex magically uploads video on said printer* Never change Auspex, much love from the crazy states of America
Whenever I think about bringing an army I always check with a game store first so far I haven't had any game stores that were completely opposed to it. And when I do 3D print at that store I'll usually end up buying my codexes and paint there to help them out
I can see the appeal, however part of the hobby is putting the plastic kit together, priming, painting and gaming with it. Would be pretty happy regarding the accessories option, but to be honest I would not save a massive amount doing it against what I currently spend.
A tip for you if you are getting into resin printing: shell out the extra for more durable resins. I started with standard and this is an inflexible and brittle material. Things were breaking all the time from even just the tiniest of pressures. Swapped to ABS-like and the quality has been night and day. Do yourself a favor and make the long-term investment in your prints. There are a lot of durable resins out there. Another tip: Taking care of the contaminated IPA is a pain. Be prepared for going through quite a bit and having a rough time trying to figure out what to do with it. I still have 4 large jars sitting out in the sun that I don't know what else to do with because everything I have done to recycle or clean them for disposal has not worked.
Leaving it in the sun should cure the resin in the IPA and you should be able to filter it all out afterwards. If the resin is not curing in the jars, it is most likely because the glass is too thick, mineral glass has a natural high ability to block UV light which is why you won’t get a tan by sitting in your car. I bought some thin clear plastic containers large enough to hold the IPA, since plastic allows for a lot more UV to pass through, and I had clear IPA the same day after leaving it outside in the sun.
I have a filtering tank that I built. Basically it’s clear 5 gallon can I leave in the sun and suck off clear chem from the top. Once it’s half full of cured resin I Chuck it and start over. I go through 10 a month that way.
This. I had brought 3D prints from various stores, these models were incredibly frail and while i love hero forge for sketching characters in a RPG, I find their quality and durability highly questionable. E.g my models came with massive resin nubs that were an extreme pain in the arse to trim down, much more so than any sprue model I had owned. At least printing in house allows one to have much better QC then some (not all) venders.
Been 3d pringting for a while now and ultimately I love the printing out basing stuff and some alternate pieces or upgrade options for blinging out models
I recently printed 2x Legio Custodes Caladius Grav-tank Annihilator's recently using fairly new cults3D file and for the cost of that STL+Printer+1L Resin it still cost less than buying two of those models. 3D printing is a good way to try Forgeworld minis (In this case it would've cost me 400 bucks for two models) without taking the plunge of cost, if you really like how they play you can just buy the models later for tournaments.
Bought an Ender 3v2 about a year and a half ago. I found proper settings for 28mm miniature scale and I managed to print my first mini at day 1 (a proxy for Trajann). In a 6month period I printed about 4x2000+pts armies (Custodes, DA Deathwing, Deathguards, IG) and various parts and models for my 4 existed armies. Really enjoyed the hobby aspect of 3D printing more than having to assembly the minis from a sprue. I have paused the process for now because of electricity cost, printer maintenance and the fact that is not easy to keep up with so many armies (except if you are the Auspex Tactics). Still the enormous amount of stl files you get and the quality of the sculps grows the desire in you to "print them all", having plans for Dark eldar (I stop the project half way), Tau, Black legion, Knights, Nids, Sisters, Admech, orks, Daemons and Tsons (so almost everything).
My printer is the only thing that keeps me in the hobby (building and painting models, not 40k). GW has thrown away enough of my investment for me not to care about supporting them.
I feel that after that initial investment, you save time in the long run with 3d printing. My Guard army is almost entirely 3d printed. The first batch of infantry was one of my first prints, so it took a couple of hours. I have now printed that batch 12 times. I can't imagine the time it would have taken me to separate those from the sprues, filed down mold lines, and then glue together 120 models. My infantry comes off the supports in 1 piece, just glue to the base and done. My Chimeras come out in 7 pieces, 2 of which are swappable weapons options with the magnet holes already built in. That's less than an individual track assembly for a GW model, And the tracks can just be slapped on to anything in the Chimera family. I've even printed tau like flyer bits and made Chimerafish and Hydrahead models, in addition to the 6 Chimeras, 2 Basilisks, and 1 Medusa I've made.
Been printing for a while now and one thing I have to say is use a plastic spatula when chipping off the prints from the plate. I started with a metal one when I first set out and ruined the plate. A plastic one is fine to use and wont damage your plate which is around £40+ to replace
I usually commission someone to resin print accessories or hard to find models for me, like wolf tail talismans, specific heads, heavy weapons, etc. This makes my Kitbashing much easier and gives me a lot more choices in terms of what I want to put on my models to make them unique :3
Nice! DMG Minis just put his models on sale thru Cyber Monday. If you like that Silver Warden Dread Walker Knight, check out the rest of the Silver Warden catalog. Good stuff for sure. He’s also working on some Dusty Boys.
My biggest army is something like 6,000 points of real GW plastic, with extra gear bits from 3D printing (Shields, Heads, Combi-meltas & Jump packs), but then I have 3 more 100% 3D printed 2000K armies. If you are looking for competitive play I'd suggest keeping to bits, but for casual play the fully printed armies are just extra armies I wouldn't have otherwise.
Just started this year, let me just say, way easier then everyone says! Be sure to do resin for detailed minis and get good airflow but there’s so many easy free files that you just slap in a model program, hit the slice button and press print on your printer and it’s great! Don’t be afraid if you have the down payment for it
I think on of the best uses for 3d printing in 40k is to extend existing kits. Kits will often come with 1 set of legs, torsos and head but arms and weapons to equip them multiple different ways. With some judicious use of 3d printing, you can parley one box into 2-3 squads and multiple squads leaders with different weapon options. Another is customization. There are all sorts of customization bits available for 3d printing. There are some nice, 3d printed alternative models but they aren't always cheaper than the GW version. I found some really cool looking alternate Repentia but they were actually more expensive than the GW ones. That has been the case multiple times.
I just got a Mars3 Pro for $210 with black Friday and coupons. Feel like I got a pretty sweet deal. Glad to see it's a machine endorsed by you! This channel is like my WH bible
No issue here for me. My cousin wanted to get into 3D printing and I told him "Go for it." Just because I buy models because I love the building aspect and don't want to personally deal with something when I am happy with what I have I am not going to stop him. If some guy like Commisar Gamza jokes/makes fun of me for buying models... 80% of the boxes I got was on sale from 8 different stores at least ^_^. Glad I bought my stuff before GW raised prices.
3D printing is MUCH easier than some may led you to believe, my mars 2 pro stands in the bathroom and works just fine, since no one is in there for long hours there are no problems with ventilation and it's convenient for cleaning models. When it comes to printing itself you can easily get enough presupported files to never touch any settings, just plug it in and you're good to go. Same with resin, I use anycubic / elegoo based on which I can buy cheaper at the moment and details look great - there's no real need for expensive resins.
I find the actual supporting, printing and cleaning is the least time consuming part. By far the most time consuming thing for me has been the endless browsing of files. Just ask my 3TB of STL's that I'll never print.
It's not for me but I'm happy the 3D industry is going well for the people who like it. I have a lot of fun building plastic models and I don't have anywhere good to put one. Also, models are a great thing to have on a Christmas list when nobody knows what to buy for you :)
I was the same way, but I had a 3D printer for other stuff so I just started printing some 40K stuff and it’s honestly addicting, most files come in different parts so it’s still like putting them together, and it’s so satisfying to get the files and print that thing the same day. But to each is own, it’s always fun buying the model kits too I’ve bought quite a bit lol
I’m conflicted on scanned bodies. On one hand I fee like it’s just an attempt to print models that won’t raise an eye for competitive play, on the other I feel like it’s simply an answer to wasted bits. The bullgryn box is a great example, they give you the pieces to build 7 models but only enough bodies for 3
Loota/burna boyz are the same way, although old boyz are so easy to find used or trade for it's often easy enough to just rip their arms off and use them rather than print spare parts.
I made a silicone mold for the bodies in the bullgryn box and then cast them out of polyurethane. I was able to build all 3 bullgryns, ogryns, and nork from one box
You can essentially double the value of the ork loota/burna kit that way as well, although it's probably easier to just trade for old used boys and use their body/leg/head bits to build the unused parts into full models.
@@richmcgee434 yeah the only reason I was able to do what I did was because my job gives me access to these things, most people don’t have silicone and poly at their disposal
@@t3hSpAdEs Is true, used to do that kind of stuff myself. I've worked for several small resin casters back in the day. Kind of a good thing they got out before 3D printing came along, it's just destroyed that kind of business.
I have a Mars 3 that I print at .03mm layer height with a mix of Sirayatech Fast and Tenacious, and I've printed around a hundred models or so. It has taken a lot of work to get all the setting dialed in, but if you're willing to put in the work, you can get some really amazing results. It is a different experience from putting together a plastic kit from the store, but it does make elements of the hobby much more accessible, and you don't necessarily need to compromise on the quality of miniatures if you're welling to take the time for it.
I picked up a Elegoo Mars 3 Pro at the start of the year, got it all setup and started printing D&D mini's, loved the flexibility of it and then after about 3 months i start moving out into other area's bust's terrain for 40k and then i just bit the bullet and found some files online for some TSons, since then i have invested in a Elegoo Saturn 2 and have been printing 40k models non stop, Chutbox Pro that came with my Mars 3 Pro is a great peice of software and i honestly only have to load up a model press 4 buttons and then save it to a memory stick and print the thing, i know this is going to sound like an ad for the printer but the quality is equal to GW injection moulding and FAIR superior to forge world especially when it comes to tolerances, Once to slap some paint on them you would have no idea they were 3D printed not that i play at any GW locations anyway.
Titans. Also, as someone who doesn’t buy into Primaris being able to print taller legs in different poses is just fantastic and lets you make use of any leftover torsos from the golden age of marines.
From experience I would definitely second the benefits of a cure machine (especially in the UK!). It reduces the mess a lot and makes the curing far more reliable. I'd also agree that it is best to keep the printer somewhere well ventilated. The resin was certainly triggering my eczema in an enclosed space.
if you have a well ventillated space for it, I HIGHLY recommend getting a 3d printer. It's an incredibly fun hobby, and among other things it's massively helped my painting skills since I have so many minis to practice on
As a raven guard player being able to print bits has been invaluable. Chapter specific bits are a market GW should be cornering with their own stl packs in order to push sales of base kits, rather than expensive and lackluster primaris upgrade packs that just make their kits less appealing.
Hello, new player here. I am absolutely going to use 3d printing. Particularly for orks cause the army i want to build is almost 3 times as much as a mars 2 pro
I have the Elegoo 3, its amazing. I mainly print bases, heads and other accessories. The issue with printing any kind of 1 to 1 or even semi similar proxy for anything that isn't a space marine is that half of your army will look odd. A lot of STL creators tend to cram too much detail into their STL's and the prints look shit, ensuring you have good resin and a well supported mini helps as well. I play Sisters of battle and guard. Guard have an amazing library of stls to find and print. Heck if you look hard enough you will find 1 to 1 leman russes and various forgeworld vehicles. Sisters on the other hand has one of the worst library of STL's I've ever seen. Half of the models are coomer bait and the other half are poorly designed low res shit. On the off chance you find something good, its normally so out of proportion and the design is so far off that I may as well field it in a different game.
Can you elaborate on the sisters stls being bad proportion and design? I was thinking of getting a printer and starting with them. Are the stls that much worse?
If you're aware of the original batch they did I'd be weary. The actual first opr sisters they did were pretty much what i was mentioning in my original comment. They are terribly designed and don't fit the army aesthetic at all. They all looked like butch football players.
As someone who does this with fossils, you should be able to create STL files of models you already own through the use of photogrammetry. Basically, you take a bunch of detailed photos until you have covered all angles of the model, then run it though some free software, which stiches the photos together into a 3D model. You can then import that to Blender and touch it up if needed as well. I can't test it myself, as I don't have a 3D printer myself, but I would be interested to see if the idea would work.
@@bart_ender6116 Yeah, I know what you mean. Scanners didn't really work well for my research either, which is why I used the photo method. You literally just need a camera (even a phone camera works, but a nicer camera gives you nicer details), and then you take a whole bunch of pictures to make your 3D model outta. That worked a ton better for my thesis, which I am saying might be an option worth testing for people who have printers for their models.
The durability difference is bonkers. I 3d printed several armies 10 years ago now. They are in a big plastic bin, no separators, just loose. As they die I throw them back, from across the room. Nothing breaks. It was also a fraction of the cost. I have no problem paying, but I threw out the fragile minis I got over the years, to much hassle. Now it's all 3d. Way way better
@@gallusdomesticuskfptechpriest it's been quite some time, but if I remember correctly, pla or abs. We (my gaming friends and me) bought a whole bunch of both in several colours (blue for smurfs, white for bike boys etc) and printed out a whack ton of stuff. The people were ok in quality, good enough for me (we don't do the painting part of the hobby, just play) the vehicles were amazing though, I can stand on my rhinos. The dreadnaughts have been thrown in anger, and they damaged the drywall, they are fine. The bigger the better it looks for sure. We did orks also, in green, but they didn't turn out as well, kinda pock marked, they were first, and the temp wasn't quite right, but they also proxi for nurgle quite well
The point of printing not supporting GW should work both ways (ie: GW to the customer) but it doesn't. There is no guarantee that the model you buy at top dollar doesn't just get reduced to Legends or deleted from codex's altogether in the future, or units getting nerfed to drive sales of "what's in." 3D printing allows a reasonable sidestep from that sort of business model.
I will say, a few stores in my area now have 3D printer setup for rental and sell many more paints and finishing materials. 3D printing is the future of this hobby, whether directly or indirectly. I like both the plastic models and 3D models, but best is modding Plastic with resin printed parts to make them extra unique. Example is inboard guns on the Leman Russ or snake legs for Chaos Knights war dogs. To ignore it will only hurt the hobby and I think it's best if game stores embraced and started selling Resin printing parts and tools, there is a bit of overlap from plastic. I have 3 printers, 1 FDM and 2 Resin and can say the models are getting better in quality and that it's ok to support smaller creators (those that make the model) as well.
I started to learn 3D modeling to make tiles and maps that I can use to help me write. Now, I am trying to use the skills learned to improve my wargaming hobby by creating terrain and buildings, one day I hope to make it into a small business. That was one of the biggest things I disliked about GW, their terrain, $50+ for a set of trees? No thank you.
3d printer go brrrrr, Im currently working on: A proxy knight army from station forge. a proxy admech army from stationforge, a proxy space dwarf army, and a proxy saurian starhost army from Onepagerules
I've been using a 4k Saturn with a flex plate and its amazing, detail is spot on, can easily print 20 space marines at a time, or a huge demon, its great
I love OPR models. Nicely grimdark inspired without being an IP infringement. And I prefer the OPR change daemon models to the official GW Chaos daemon ones
I pretty much dive in all. 3d print, second hand army, 3rd party stuff and GW. They really have all their own experience. I enjoyed building my titan but it took about 300 hours and a few misprint (which does a great mess if you are not around) Second hand army is pretty fun to clean and gove a new life. Makes you see oop models that were pretty neat! Looking at you metal miniatures! GW stuff is still my addict stuff...cleaning sprues, scrapping mold lines...not sure why I enjoy that so much...but ya its own vibe. 3rd party is pretty fun when they are ready for paint. Its basicly buying a canvas and enjoy the painting.
I have done quite a lot of resin 3D printing up to an including using a Juipter for a small group of local gamers. Its pretty good fun but it is not a case of plug in a play and get great results, it takes work and effort. You have to be prepared to invest time, effort and money in it - experimenting with resins, clean up methods, IPA and PPE
I have been looking into getting a 3d printer for a while, I think just as essential to it as a slicer program is a program that finds unsupported islands. Being unsupported is 85% of a project’s failure.
I have just printed 20 kreig rough riders 6 bullgrins and a leman russ and plenty of guard corpses as basing decorations all from a single 25 quid bottle of resin
Recently watched my friend pull out a full 3d printed khorne deamon army. Looked amazing once we painted a few but resin is super fragile, especially if your making something large. watched skarbarand shatter like glass in a way that will probably never be able to be put back together
Nice video, very fair and objective which is rare when this topic comes up. Balance is what we need when discussing these things. "Why wouldn't you 3D print, fuck expensive games workshop?" is a tired, lazy and annoying argument which I think is unhelpful to people like myself considering 3D printing. A lot of people prefer the GW quality and are more than happy to pay for it, plus they make generally amazing minis with the money they put back into their designs (which you generally buy knock offs of when you 3D print). Equally 3D printing is incredibly exciting and I'm sure has a massive future, for many of the reasons you have covered here. I will probably invest in one soon enough, am becoming more and more convinced!
I have a cr-10 (first version, bought second hand). It's amazing. It can print decent 28mm squats, great tanks and amazing terrain. I print in HIPS and PLA+. Detail is not great, but workable; everything can be repaired on your own and is useful also for other stuff around the house (caps, pots, brackets, handles, hangers, mounts for appliances, etc). Resin is easier and has better detail, but less pleasant to work with. Also not as useful outside the hobby (mechanical properties of resin are not great)
I have been printing on and off for years. And the biggest thing that keeps me doing it is the change of aesthetics and the price cuts. Some armies I think are still great to buy from GW, and if I pick up Space Marines I'm absolutely buying those. But I want to play guard. Is that viable at GW price? Heck no! But with TMC's three amazing lines of guard-like models, it's' way more affordable and makes guard actually within reach to me Even if I'm printing in the living room like a couple metres from my main computer....
I do forget that I need a space for it. Only choice is either the shed with no space and freezing or my bedroom. Both definitely have ventilation but maybe not enough sadly
3D printing is a God Emperor send. I have very little time and even less money, but even then I can print 3-4 batches a day with my Elegoo Mars 3 on my day off equaling about 20 or so models. I have now about a 2k army printered and it costed only time and about 65$ of resin. But now the issue is actually painting them...
What's leaning me towards getting a 3d printer is lack of availability. I'm trying to put a Tau army together and I can't find Sunshark Bombers anywhere; even GW is out. Can a printer handle larger models like tanks, perhaps printing the larger panels in sections?
Yeah it can, but the file needs to come in separate pieces, which not all of them do, and it depending on the software you’re suing it can be complicated or hard to split
For anyone at least wanting to have a look around at 3d print files, cults 3d has some quality creators. Also, try using tags to find some models. They would have to use non copyright names, but the tags would have “night lords”, “Astra militarum”, or “horus heresy”. Search for something general, and look at tags on certain model pages to look for something a bit harder to find. Anvil industries also has some wonderful models and conversions on their website and digital forge Patreon. Their stuff is amazing, and very efficient with their resin usage.
The one thing I find interesting is 10+ years ago GW encouraged you to do custom builds and models as long as the minis where 50% GW official parts, interesting the now it’s a mortal sin. I mean hell ork battle wagons and flashgitz, as well as many other official rules units had no model and required you to scrap build em.
Anyone new should be aware that most air filters, and especially the carbon filters that come with the printers do a pretty good job of removing the smells, but not the toxic VOCs. Same problem with the low smell resins. They may not stink as bad, but they are just as toxic. The low smell simply means you spend more time in the toxic air.
Personally a big fan. Got a slightly less conventional printer (A Creality Halot, not a particularly expensive model but seems pretty good frankly) and have printed a lot of self designed models. Most helpfull was printing some stuff for guard, managed to get 30 men worth of guard (including heavy weapon guys) and an extra heavy weapon squad, plus three cyclops bombs and a handfull of characters for a single £35 1kg bottle of resin. And that was printing (solid) bases too, I could have done it much cheaper if I had some spare bases. It's 100% cheaper if you plan to make a fair bit. And while modeling your own stuff is fun (albeit a bit of trial and error) there's loads of good stuff out there already. Just be carefull with thin parts. From what some have said, ABS resin is supposed to be good for avoiding snapping but considering the pain in the backside handling the resin is I'll stick to chonky designs (or at least minimal long, thin details) and water washable.
Two notes about supporting your local game store... 1) All these models still need to be painted and finished, and those paints and brushes will often come from that same game store. 2) I wonder if some local game stores might set up their own printer service like you mentioned as a service to the local community.
I have an Ender 3 FDM, and it's good! But the mental load of managing my STL collection, my to-print list, and the pile of unpainted stuff I have already mean that I am using it somewhat infrequently.
I'd say people get these printers too much as an impulse buy. This is a technical hobby, that is not going to be worth the health risks for most people. Handling hazardous chemicals is no joke, and most companies making the printers themselves even have very little idea on how to do so. The printer I bought for example came with Latex gloves which is completely inappropriate to handle the resin.... As a biochemical engineer I can say the following: You probably dont have the adequate ventillation and space for this. Even if you do, you probably wont handle the material perfectly and get exposed to it. Even if you get the nicer ones, remember this isnt just about the smell, and getting sensitive to it in terms of skin contact. We don't have enough studies, but I can say for sure that it is going to fuck with your body, especially the endocrine system. Just because it doesnt cause visible sickness or burns immediately, doesnt mean it is good for you, especially long term. On the flipside, it is pretty cheap to commission prints from companies and even some local hobbyists. If you want the best of both worlds, just pay someone to do it in a more appropriate setting. It is going to be enourmous savings (you can print entire armies for a couple hundred quid, I have done for friends too)
I printed an entire renegade guard army for peanuts in terms of cost. Mesh mixer (free) lets you digitally kitbash as well, I was able to take STL files and swap their weapons in a matter of minutes. In addition the printer and all the equipment and the stl files came out around 200 quid cheaper. I saved 200 quid AND now have a 3D printer. GW can eat their heart out
As a guy who lives in a dump of a country (brazil), and loves warhammer lore the only way i could get into warhammer would be via 3d miniatures, because the amount of taxes i would have pay to buy warhammer miniatures just make the whole deal impossible. FYI in brazil if we buy something outside of our country we have to pay 60% of the full price with shipping as taxes and when the packge arives in brazil we have to pay the brazilian post office another shipping fee.
I have been using an Elegoo Mars 2 Pro for about a year and want to emphasize that it is a hobby unto itself. For bits, bases, and other small decorations it's a superb tool. Very good for figures but don't assume there's STL file options for every idea in your brain (I still haven't found good female KO dwarves). I'm wrapping a big terrain project and I probably spent as much on resin as if I had bought a GW terrain kit.
I’m all about it for adding details to existing 40K models which as upsizing firstborn kits to primaris. I wouldn’t print whole army of non 40K units though.
I provide a 3d print service and am a merchant seller for many on patreon. There is a lot to learn. It can be a fun hobby and it can be a lot more fun to add to your miniature gaming!! But fair warning. These machines are not plug and play or watch TH-cam and your up and printing. There is way to many variables not to mention temperature changes that effect you results. Temp of resin temp of the plate temp of the room temp of the vat….it just goes down the rabbit hole from there. Many pre-supported files fail because they use auto support feature. I test every file before I print it for a customer or place it in my store. Over 2/3’s have to be supported from scratch and many files need to be repaired prior to printing. 2k to 4K is more than enough for great table top gaming. If you want to paint(busts or competition) then 8k is the better choice. But who prints it makes the difference!! I can make minor changes and it will make a world of difference in the final print but if you don’t have something to compare to you would know until you Dry brush or glaze!! Where this shines is outside Warhammer. GW is getting more aggressive. They came after me for producing bits to magnetize weapons. I was not breaking any laws, advertising incorrectly, you couldn’t even really see the parts in most cases, and payed a copy-write attorney but GW came after me anyway. I can’t afford to fight them so I gave in. But for D&D and the host of other skirmish games it’s the only way to go!! I can print a custom mini or squad that’s different from anyone else that is playing with you is a huge bonus! It’s only going to get bigger but GW will always have it’s big piece of the pie. But their pricing is making people to look to other games! And believe me they are out there!! I do not want to discourage anyone…go for it! 3d printing is a blast. Buy a small machine and learn and you will have a great experience. You can always buy bigger and better later. The price will always go down. There is more than enough room for new 3d printer providers like me. But don’t limit yourself to war gaming. There is a world of things to print and enjoy. And it takes time to build any business. Hope this info helped. Great video with a wealth of info and options and thanks for all you do!!!!
Aften printing 1000 pts of a custom army for One Page Rules I've calculated how much I'd pay GW for similar models for AoS. It turns out that printing them cost roughly the same, including the cost of resin, STLs, the printer itself and peripherals (curing station, safty mask, etc). I'm not going to go back to buying models.
At some point gw will have to become a 3d print company, actually quite viable, also would have to double down on the hobby side with paid classes and gaming clubs but soon the gw business model will need to change. I personally would buy a grey knights themed printer.
3d printing can be a great addition to the hobby but its not some secret weapon that will 'punish' GW or take any real bite out of GWs profits or whatever. I'm sure it feels awesome to print a whole army for cheap but you're not exactly starting a revolution. You dont need to learn an entire second hobby or put on PPE etc to go in to a game store and buy some models after all.
Agreed, their profits won't be cut into by convenience factor alone. I'm a big "screw GW" advocate so that sucks. But I'd say the people that own 3D printers can make a much larger difference if they offer to print stuff for their fellow hobbyists either for cheap or for free for your friends. That way they can get super cheap super cool models and you get more people not walking into that GW store and selling their kidneys for the new "army" box.
Its great for hoard armies. I wanted to get into orks and make a boyz heavy list but only thing holding me back would be the $$$$ . Now with a 3d printer I have 70 bouz I'm currently painting lol
I recently got a Ender 3. It's my first foray into 3d printing. I am shocked at how much detail I am getting out of minis I have printed with the right settings. I haven't tried any of the more impressive minis, like the ones from One page Rules, but the Shy Guy and ashigaru I got off Thingiverse turned out way better than I expected. are they hard plastic quality? No. They are acceptable for me, though. Only downside is that I have to work in the same room its running. Its like having a drunk R2-D2 sitting in the corner telling me it's life story.
![HIWWHEE | OHM [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OJJLtTLqLag/mqdefault.jpg)
Elegoo Printers available here! shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1680329&u=3447346&m=104244&urllink=&afftrack=
This one's an affiliate link that helps support the channel if you did choose to pick anything up :)
I have shamelessly printed whole 40k armies for myself and friends for no payment. Adapt or die GW. I wouldn't want them to go under, but I would love to see them get hurt enough to wake up and make some major changes
Been doing the same
Where do you find the STLs? Everything I have found is styled differently enough for it to be instantly noticeable
This right here. Not all heroes wear capes. Some just have a 3d printer and is a kick@$ friend. My dude. Quit a long time ago during like 5th or 6th edition and came back for my jaw to hit the floor. GW smoking some serious corporate pipe they think I'm paying 200$ for 10 minis or 260$ for a tank😂. Ain't no way
I got a 3d printer so I could print miniatures for my kids to paint with me. As much as I love them, spending $5-20/mini for my 5 year old to put giant blobs of paint all over it just makes me cry on the inside. I paint my armies, they paint the stuff I 3d printed - it makes for great family fun.
I bought the Elite Starter set a bit ago (The necron VS space marines one) and although I've built the space marines, and my younger brother has built his necrons (with my help, since he's too young to handle a blade *just* yet) he's still new to painting.
So, to give him a nice way to practice, we 3d printed some necron warriors for him to paint (and also so I can see just how easy they are to paint myself).
I'm an owner of one. Just... make a mental note to stop when you'll notice the unpainted pile is getting to unbearable levels. I know it's cheap. I know you just found a new power and you want to go crazy using it. Just... please paint that pile.
This has been the main warning I have heard. Is it really that quick?
@@Ironblood4564 Yes. I can easily sh*t out a 20 man ork mob in 2 hours, fully assembled.
@@Ironblood4564it’s really easy to end up with a massive amount of units in just a month for me. With a FDM printer handing big stuff and terrain while the resin one handles minis just actively on the paint desk I have.
Just finished today: a Great unclean one.
Nearly finished: One ork kill tank alternative, One ork stompa alternative, one alternative ork Naut, one alternative Ghaz, two mek gun alternatives, one battle wagon alternatives,
Just primed: 40 grots, a jabberslith, several terrain pieces, ork warboss on bike, a unit of nurglings, and several plague toads.
And god knows how much just sitting bare no primer.
@@mtgmac1 Overall how receptive have people been to #D Armies and how close to the real Models can these STLs get?
@@monkeyinapanzer After full paint jobs is there a noticeable difference between GW models and 3D printed one. Also in your experience have people even cared that you print your own?
I've started printing this year, just a fair warning to everyone else considering giving it a go:
It's not as easy as a lot of people say, there's a lot of handling nasty chemicals and the fumes are pretty bad. If you don't have a dedicated workspace with airflow available, it's better to reconsider.
some people are also more sensitive to the resin than others, to a big degree I've found
Even PLA 3D printers are a lot of work. It took me quite a while to get the much simpler Ender 3 to work right. I honestly am still not sure what I did that finally made it start working, so I'm not touching any of the settings any time soon.
I'd recommend water soluble resin, as it's much easier to clean.
@@jammer9300 I'm fairly new to 3D printing and have only used 2 full sized bottles of it, first was Elegoo Grey and the 2nd was Elegoo Water Washable and it was a massive improvement in not only structural quality and flexibility, but hardly any odor in comparison to the Grey and the water solubility is great.
I use Anycubic eco resin, it is pretty oderless.
Before everyone says 3d printing kills hobby, just think that GW has brought it on themselves. Overpriced models, fixed unit loadout, no converions or 3rd party allowed, blatant p2w rule design and unfinished, ovepriced annual rulebooks. The pricing is wrong when you can buy 3 new tanks or a whole 3d printer and print the whole army instead.
At what price is it no longer okay to steal GW's IP?
GW literally uses 3d printers for their own design/prototyping purposes, GW ain't afraid of the tech
They need to put it into perspective of “competition”, GW either adapts or dies in the “free market”
@@CurlyTheBass GW execs won't suck you off anon
@@CurlyTheBass
Your argument boils down to "you can't use chess pieces from XYZ company because those are made using machines, while we make them with different machines, but charge 10x more because of branding!"
Just say "ok, I'm going to buy these other space marines, which don't infringe on your legal rights or IP, because we double checked the lettering, and we just won't attend GW events or tournaments. Unless for some reason you want to ban us from using your rules as we see fit which, good luck with that!"
I used to care about GW making their cut... Until they cut off the community and tried to strong arm the animating community. I will never forgive them for that, period. I have not purchased any models from them since.
I didn't use to 3D print models except for a couple of warhounds. Now? I print without reserve! I don't care if GW is mad, they legally can't stop me, even if I print their models, so long as I don't sell them it's still legal.
So no. F*** GW
Bought mine 6 days ago.
Already own a ghazkull thraka and a warbike squad.
Best decision ever!
Edit:spelling
Just want to say that I purchased an Elegoo Mars 3 last year and it was well worth it. Currently using Siraya Tech Fast ABS-Like resin and the models turn out great. The most surprising part of this hobby was just how many models are readily available. Searching "Blank" STL can often net you several great choices let alone the many hub websites that are dedicated to 3D modelers selling their work. Cults3D and Myminifactory have been a godsend for proxies.
There's definitely troubleshooting involved and the clean-up is a chore (Filtering IPA through coffee filters for re-use and to properly cure/dispose of resin gunk is the messiest part of the hobby.) but I'm really glad I took the dive. (And so are my friends who play the "guest armies" I've printed off!)
Love it. Great choice
Forget coffee filters. They make metal funnels with removable metal mesh filters specifically for resin. So much less messy of a process.
All I can say is this video has amazing timing. I have had a Mars 2 Pro for a couple of years and I have printed bits and bobs really outside the GW range of miniatures.
I am upgrading to Saturn 2 8K as a number of pre-supported creators are getting more adventurous in the design space. Larger miniatures are becoming available. It is great to see so many options now thriving across the community.
Highly recommend water washable resin if you want to remove the complexity of dealing with isopropyl alcohol/white spirit.
Once you have dialled in the settings and get two or three good prints done, it becomes all about printing, cleaning, maintenance, paint, go again.
I have used it a lot for spare parts, I buy second hand armies and the amount of models I have been able to save after they arrived broken or with missing parts has been invaluable.
Honestly it would fascinating if GW opened up selling the files to print them. Obviously not to resell the models you print, but would be interesting.
It would be ideal.
I'm working as 3D Environment Artists for videogames and in the last year 2 friends leave their companies not for other videogame companies but for 3D print tabletop companies! This "hobby" is becoming an industry. In my free time I design props, bases and terrain elements/buildings for fun but I'm sure that people with basic knowledge about modeling/sculpting (pref ZBrush) can do their own projects! This is a plus for Warhammer!
I'm a 3d student and this topic is something that really cought my curiosity. Do you have any tips for someone trying to get into that sort of environment?
Alo do you have an artstation or something? I'd love to see the stuff you make.
I haven't used ZBrush yet, but can you do hard surface modeling in it or set sizes? I use Blender for hard surfaces and trying Nomad for organic sculpting since my PC is potato-like.
GW Legal Team: EVERY BODY PANIC!
The biggest practical application I have is to print out designs for minis GW either couldn’t be asked to update or even produce anymore. Likewise printing designs that run circles around GWs is one of my big factors.
Just printing copies of GWs designs is extremely boring to me, but something like Geargutz mekshops badass broozer ork alternatives or Total Wars rips of nurgle demons just look so much better then GWs offerings.
And replacing parts for old GW minis that aren't made anymore. I just repaired an entire 2e army with 3d printed bits because I had no other choice!
@@robking6975 yep!!!
Also alternate sculpts, like my 1000 point army of elysian drop troopers (because gw does not do them)
Also, there is no way to get a valkurie in my region. They just do not exist
As somebody who has been printing for nearly a decade, and is in charge of maintaining and doing much of the 3D printing of my local MakerSpace, I have some insight I would like to share. I normally don't drop these sorts of comments, but I like Auspex Tactics so I'll make an exception. I'm the guy who is attempting to cover the details that AT is not sharing, either because of how boring the content is, or because he just isn't confident enough in this entirely different branch of space that exists (3D printing can be a LOT).
Note: This is likely going to be long and detailed, but I think that's what the community likes, and it's best (imho) to give more details rather than too little.
Background: I started 3D printing on some older printers, I would have never suggested them 8 years ago, they were terrible and inaccurate. Back then if you wanted even a half decent print, you needed a $4000 printer. Nowadays, it's clear that this isn't true. I typically use an Ender 3 for most of my printing nowadays (an FDM/Filament printer) for anything larger than a Space Marine, and for anything the size of a Space Marine or smaller, I print using my Mars 2 Pro (Resin printer). Depending on the model, this may switch back and forth. I believe I am about to approach 9 years of experience, over about 15 different FDM printers and about 8 different SLA (Resin) printers. I constantly maintain about 9 printers at my local MakerSpace, but because my local Space also happens to be integrated with the University I attend school for (I graduate in 3 weeks) the school's employees often ask me for help on their printers as well, so I tend to also help them out, and when you include my 3D printers at home, I'm sitting at around 15 printers I maintain and work with.
First off: FDM is Fused Deposition Modeling, and is the 3D printers that use filament rolls (the rolls of plastic strings) and the best bang for your buck and what most people purchase is 1 kg spools, which is roughly 335 meters of string, and quite a big volume. The other type of printing is SLA or Stereolithography.
Secondly: If you live in the States, you may want to look up your "Local MakerSpace" if one exists. Many have access to some form of an FDM printer, and others may even have resin printing. These machines usually require training by the MakerSpace before you actually use them, but are free to use as the MakerSpaces are usually community driven and led. A MakerSpace is honestly just a community that tries to help others create, while also fundraising to put those funds into new equipment for the benefit of the community. Typically, the machines are free to use, but you have to either bring your own filament/resin, they let you use filament they have on hand and then charge you for the amount you used, or both options are available. This is worth noting as it essentially drops your "buy in/Initial investment" costs down to just the cost of a single bottle of resin or spool of filament.
So, why does Resin print better? Simple. What is more accurate? A 0.4 mm ball point pen? or pixels on a screen? Keep in mind these screens nowadays have up to 8,000 pixels length wise, and they are about 6 inches long... you can do the math... But resin printing can be as accurate as 48 μm (micrometers). It's hard for FDM printers to compete.
Why does Resin print faster? Resin printers can print an entire "screen" at a time by using all the pixels simultaneously, while FDM printers print with a pen. It's simply unfair.
Why use Resin vs FDM printing?
Main things are covered above, but mostly Resin is harmful, toxic, messy and more expensive but the actual printing process is easier but the modelling part is harder. FDM is clean, not harmful, but the printing process if not set up correctly, fails a lot and is difficult to calibrate correctly.
So, why am I even bothering talking about this?
Simple: I don't think people should just jump into 3D printing. It's not a simple process, this isn't a consumer good, this is a hobbyist's world. IF you are willing to struggle, learn and bash your head against a wall OR if you are genuinely intrigued and/or love the thought of 3D printing, please by all means continue to enter this world we all share!
The main benefits: I do not believe it's covered completely here, but I would like to add for example my entire repertoire of 3D printed models, EVERYTHING, plus costs over the past 3 years or so.
Ender 3 $150 (you can buy for $99 on sale the Ender 3 Pro, right now, but also at certain times of the year) FDM printer.
Silent Motherboard upgrade $40 (just get it)
BLTouch $45 (self-leveling, just get it)
Direct Drive $35 (only get this upgrade when your original extruder fails honestly, it will eventually, but mine failed after... something like 8000 print hours... We're talking roughly 3000 space marines in)
Nickel Plated Steel Nozzle $41 (again a splurge for Ender 3, it allowed me to print Carbon-Fiber PLA, not useful for this community I know)
PEI Sheet $40 (I splurged to get some really good ones... worth it)
Mars 2 Pro $250 (currently $135 on Elegoo for Black Friday OR $99 for the regular Mars 2 on Elegoo, a bunch of fantastic deals are currently happening! The sale ends in 2 days? I think)
14 kg of PLA ~$308 (A lot was purchased through sales, but let's just go for retail value and say $308, but realistically I paid much closer to $200)
5 kg of Resin ~$200 (again, I purchased during last Christmas sale so it was $22 a bottle not $39, and it was buy 2 get 1 free, so really I paid less than $100 but I am going off of retail prices right now! On a side note, Europe has some insane deals on resin for Elegoo resin only in Europe atm!)
Let's call it about $300 in electricity over 5 years.
I only ever purchased 2 STL files, the DKOK Engineers/Infantry men, and Warlord Titan STL (about $40 after tax)
Total Price: $1,449! Wow, that's a lot!... over 5 years, that's nearly $300 per year, that's a lot!
Well, let's see what I MADE from all this: (Edit, first reply to this will have the rest, comment too long lol)
Well, let's see what I MADE from all this:
FDM Printer (14kg of PLA):
3x Warhound Titans (wow, we have ALREADY broken even)
1x Riever Titans
1x Warlord Titan (currently being printed, just hit about 60% done, but I should have enough PLA to finish this)
6x Terrain pieces
3x multi-part, multi-level buildings for D&D (another hobby I play and enjoy)
~160x skeletons (I love my skeletons, back off!)
~14x Dreadnought sized trolls/ogres/etc for D&D
6x Warg (worg?) riders
20x Orcs
40x Villagers/Player Characters
1x 1/2 scale Spoiler for a Senior Design Project
1x full scale, Carbon-Fiber PLA Spoiler for a Formula car (prototype) for a Senior Design Project (this is technically not accounted for in the 14kg but I wanted to show other use cases)
multiple DIY fixes around the house.
Resin Printer (5 kg of resin):
40x Death Korps of Krieg
3x Dragon/Giant Golem sized creatures
1x Galatus Dreadnought (Sword and shield one)
1x Custom Minifig for a customer
100x Space Marines for a customer
80x Guardsmen for a customer
plus some odds and ends.
So, if we were to go retail for GW, as I have gone retail on ALL costs but unlike GW 3D printing stuff actually goes on sale... You should realize that even after all initial costs, we are getting massive savings. If you don't account for initial costs, typically, you are getting about an 88% - 98% discount, especially with overpriced Resin casted models.
Why go FDM? Because you can use different filament types for different use cases.
Why go Resin? More details.
Where find STLs? Keep in mind, with the exception of the Death Korps of Krieg models and the Warlord Titan, ALL STL's I found were free! Isn't that crazy?
Honest opinion: Should you get into 3D printing? Maybe, maybe not. This is NOT a plug and play hobby. 3D printing includes proper usage lest you accidentally break it, proper maintenance or else you run the risk of early part failure, having some basic idea of how to mess with electronics (99% of the time, if you can turn on your computer and surf the web, and know how to use a screw driver, you have the pre-requisites covered). Keep in mind any issues you run into, generally if it's a "big name 3D printer", you can find hundreds of other people who ran into the same issue and have posted questions/solutions 3 years ago.
If you have any questions about specific details, I will try to reply, but yea. This is the main reason.
I would honestly suggest the given resin printers as shown above, but for FDM, I would suggest an Ender 3 V2 Pro or Elegoo's Neptune 2 Pro 3D Printers. They're just fantastic.
Elegoo is also, unlike GW, a company worth backing. They look out for the little guy, try to make their printers affordable but are still very much high quality products. Creality does the same thing, hence why I directly support them.
Lovely Overview! As a concept artist for Makers Cult, I endorse the use of printed models, but I really dislike full-on copies or almost identical recreations of GW models, I try to make designs that wouldn't look out of place, inspired but not copied.
For me 3D printing is the only way I’m ever going to afford to have more than two armies.
Same! I just can’t be spending that kind of dough on pieces of plastic at the end of the day, for the price of one squad of intercessors I can make a small or even full size army out of resin
Some tips I learned through experience:
Buy a lot of Paper towels, throw away paper funnels with filters, isopropanol, stainless steel funnels, Trays (one to set you printer in case of catastrophic failure, resin wont leak al over the place. And one to remove your prints on from the buildplate from), plastic spatulas, spare containers to wash your models in and recycle your Isopropanol.
Buy a screen protector for your printscreen !
Buy spare FEP Sheets.
Calibrate your buildplate with the papermethod, not your FEP. Yes you can use the FEP but you cant pull the corners to check if the pressure is aligned in all the corners of the buildplate.
A lot of free and even payed models have a lot of errors.
3DBuilder is a free microsoft program that works great to repair models. (a lot of models aren't checked for errors, this program helps to fix it!)
Never assume (even for payed models) the supports are correctly placed.
After slicing your model, run it through UVTOOLS. this program helps to detect island, pockets and suctioncups. It can also autocorrect small errors. This will reduce your print errors by a lot.
TEMPERATURE! a lot of print failures tend to happen because the ambient temperature is to cold. Resin works best between 25 -30 degrees celsius for most brands.
invest in a vat warmer or a small heater for your printer.
Removing supports from models works best in a tub of warm water. After cleaning the model with ispropanol ofcourse. Hot water helps to soften the resin. Make sure to dry it thoroughly before curing.
clean your FEP with micro cloth only, dont use papertowels as this will scratch the surface and make the FEP a lot duller with micro scratches.
You can recycle isopropanol by pouring it in a clean transparent soda bottle and leave them in the sun. The resin particles will harden and sink to the bottom, filter the remaining isopropanol in a new bottle and repeat until clear.
Hope this is useful for anyone!
I suck at sculpting with green stuff, but i can 3d print accessories and bits to make my Salamanders look legit. I have about 1500 pts of Primaris that Im slowly converting. I would love to make Lore dioramas for them eventually!
Trying to make Salamander capes with greenstuff takes skill I don't have. An endless supply of thunder hammers sounds like a dream
@@sir_ridley388 I got the Photon S last year Black Friday new for $80. Its only a 2K but for bits its perfect. There are some good scale cape files and other goodies. Im learning blender to tweak some and create my own
Back to the Hoby this year after 20 years of abscence and planning on 3d Print (Specially terrain) next. thanks for this video long time waited!
If you like playing Chaos Marines I have to tell you to Avoid Hellforged Miniatures
They offer you their entire range for only $10
Oh my God! This is unbelievable! Where exactly? Because I need to be sure I will be avoiding the correct one!
Not only that but some of their stuff is just TOO scary! I play warhammer for the corporate rainbow-coalition hugbox feel, not scary grim dark spooky stuff!
I am also incredibly interested in avoiding these, if anyone happens to find exactly where to avoid these at please @ me so I can continue to enjoy weeping with joy over the cost my desire to have my favorite traitor legions brings. 😁
@@22readbetweent22 it's in the comment chain
I had mixed feelings about this topic until I bought one myself and realized the printing itself is just as fun of a hobby.
True that. It's really just a variation on the "assemble mini" part of the process, which has slowly taken up more and more time over the decades as the industry transitioned away for one-piece metal castings that were once the norm.
One thing I love 3d printing for in the Warhammer sphere is custom bases. I even designed my own for the Dominion box minis so to accomplish some cool basing ideas I have.
Owning a good printer and knowing what you're doing with it is the minis gamer equivalent of owning a pickup truck when your friends need to move. Expect to get asked for "little favors" from your gaming circle a lot.
Yup. However I ask what my printing friend would want in compensation and I try to make sure he is funded for his time, effort, and resources.
I’m not a beggar. I am just a customer.
@@timunderbakke8756 I think a good baseline is £5 plus 200% material costs.
For example it's about £4 of material for 20 Marines, so you pay your friend £13 for let's say 20 Terminators.
I know for me it's like 90p of resin for 10 Eldar Guardians.
@@timunderbakke8756 Yeah, the truck owners get gas money and a free pizza at minimum, why should printing be free? :)
@@oliverp3545 I tend to trust my friend on what he needs. I explain my intent is to compensate fairly. He tells me what I owe and I go from there. Something like
“Hey, I’ve got these OPR stl files and I’d like to know how much it would cost me to have you make?”
“Well based on the quantity you asked for, I’d like this”
“Ok!”
Last time I paid him more than he asked because I’m sure he’s being too nice. I’m also making sure I don’t do this too much to him.
@@richmcgee434 as the guy with the truck, I totally get it.
I want to start a ravenguard army
*finds auspex’s channel with full rg vid*
I recently start considering an elegoo
*auspex magically uploads video on said printer*
Never change Auspex, much love from the crazy states of America
Whenever I think about bringing an army I always check with a game store first so far I haven't had any game stores that were completely opposed to it. And when I do 3D print at that store I'll usually end up buying my codexes and paint there to help them out
I can see the appeal, however part of the hobby is putting the plastic kit together, priming, painting and gaming with it. Would be pretty happy regarding the accessories option, but to be honest I would not save a massive amount doing it against what I currently spend.
A tip for you if you are getting into resin printing: shell out the extra for more durable resins. I started with standard and this is an inflexible and brittle material. Things were breaking all the time from even just the tiniest of pressures. Swapped to ABS-like and the quality has been night and day. Do yourself a favor and make the long-term investment in your prints. There are a lot of durable resins out there.
Another tip: Taking care of the contaminated IPA is a pain. Be prepared for going through quite a bit and having a rough time trying to figure out what to do with it. I still have 4 large jars sitting out in the sun that I don't know what else to do with because everything I have done to recycle or clean them for disposal has not worked.
Leaving it in the sun should cure the resin in the IPA and you should be able to filter it all out afterwards. If the resin is not curing in the jars, it is most likely because the glass is too thick, mineral glass has a natural high ability to block UV light which is why you won’t get a tan by sitting in your car. I bought some thin clear plastic containers large enough to hold the IPA, since plastic allows for a lot more UV to pass through, and I had clear IPA the same day after leaving it outside in the sun.
I have a filtering tank that I built. Basically it’s clear 5 gallon can I leave in the sun and suck off clear chem from the top. Once it’s half full of cured resin I Chuck it and start over. I go through 10 a month that way.
This. I had brought 3D prints from various stores, these models were incredibly frail and while i love hero forge for sketching characters in a RPG, I find their quality and durability highly questionable. E.g my models came with massive resin nubs that were an extreme pain in the arse to trim down, much more so than any sprue model I had owned. At least printing in house allows one to have much better QC then some (not all) venders.
Been 3d pringting for a while now and ultimately I love the printing out basing stuff and some alternate pieces or upgrade options for blinging out models
I recently printed 2x Legio Custodes Caladius Grav-tank Annihilator's recently using fairly new cults3D file and for the cost of that STL+Printer+1L Resin it still cost less than buying two of those models.
3D printing is a good way to try Forgeworld minis (In this case it would've cost me 400 bucks for two models) without taking the plunge of cost, if you really like how they play you can just buy the models later for tournaments.
Bought an Ender 3v2 about a year and a half ago. I found proper settings for 28mm miniature scale and I managed to print my first mini at day 1 (a proxy for Trajann). In a 6month period I printed about 4x2000+pts armies (Custodes, DA Deathwing, Deathguards, IG) and various parts and models for my 4 existed armies. Really enjoyed the hobby aspect of 3D printing more than having to assembly the minis from a sprue. I have paused the process for now because of electricity cost, printer maintenance and the fact that is not easy to keep up with so many armies (except if you are the Auspex Tactics). Still the enormous amount of stl files you get and the quality of the sculps grows the desire in you to "print them all", having plans for Dark eldar (I stop the project half way), Tau, Black legion, Knights, Nids, Sisters, Admech, orks, Daemons and Tsons (so almost everything).
My printer is the only thing that keeps me in the hobby (building and painting models, not 40k). GW has thrown away enough of my investment for me not to care about supporting them.
I feel that after that initial investment, you save time in the long run with 3d printing.
My Guard army is almost entirely 3d printed. The first batch of infantry was one of my first prints, so it took a couple of hours. I have now printed that batch 12 times. I can't imagine the time it would have taken me to separate those from the sprues, filed down mold lines, and then glue together 120 models. My infantry comes off the supports in 1 piece, just glue to the base and done.
My Chimeras come out in 7 pieces, 2 of which are swappable weapons options with the magnet holes already built in. That's less than an individual track assembly for a GW model,
And the tracks can just be slapped on to anything in the Chimera family. I've even printed tau like flyer bits and made Chimerafish and Hydrahead models, in addition to the 6 Chimeras, 2 Basilisks, and 1 Medusa I've made.
It's a must for kitbashing IMO. An invaluable tool.
Been printing for a while now and one thing I have to say is use a plastic spatula when chipping off the prints from the plate. I started with a metal one when I first set out and ruined the plate. A plastic one is fine to use and wont damage your plate which is around £40+ to replace
I usually commission someone to resin print accessories or hard to find models for me, like wolf tail talismans, specific heads, heavy weapons, etc. This makes my Kitbashing much easier and gives me a lot more choices in terms of what I want to put on my models to make them unique :3
Nice! DMG Minis just put his models on sale thru Cyber Monday. If you like that Silver Warden Dread Walker Knight, check out the rest of the Silver Warden catalog. Good stuff for sure. He’s also working on some Dusty Boys.
My biggest army is something like 6,000 points of real GW plastic, with extra gear bits from 3D printing (Shields, Heads, Combi-meltas & Jump packs), but then I have 3 more 100% 3D printed 2000K armies. If you are looking for competitive play I'd suggest keeping to bits, but for casual play the fully printed armies are just extra armies I wouldn't have otherwise.
Do you know where to find the STLs for the GW minis?
1 day after I made up my mind to buy a 3d printer I see this. Couldn't be any more convenient.
Thank you for the balanced review. Too many TH-camrs are pushing 3d printing as a magical way to get infinite free warhammer miniatures.
It is still worrysome he (and even printer manufacturers) dont know or say much about the dangers and proper handling of the hazardous materials.
Just started this year, let me just say, way easier then everyone says! Be sure to do resin for detailed minis and get good airflow but there’s so many easy free files that you just slap in a model program, hit the slice button and press print on your printer and it’s great! Don’t be afraid if you have the down payment for it
I think on of the best uses for 3d printing in 40k is to extend existing kits. Kits will often come with 1 set of legs, torsos and head but arms and weapons to equip them multiple different ways. With some judicious use of 3d printing, you can parley one box into 2-3 squads and multiple squads leaders with different weapon options. Another is customization. There are all sorts of customization bits available for 3d printing.
There are some nice, 3d printed alternative models but they aren't always cheaper than the GW version. I found some really cool looking alternate Repentia but they were actually more expensive than the GW ones. That has been the case multiple times.
I just got a Mars3 Pro for $210 with black Friday and coupons. Feel like I got a pretty sweet deal.
Glad to see it's a machine endorsed by you! This channel is like my WH bible
No issue here for me. My cousin wanted to get into 3D printing and I told him "Go for it." Just because I buy models because I love the building aspect and don't want to personally deal with something when I am happy with what I have I am not going to stop him. If some guy like Commisar Gamza jokes/makes fun of me for buying models... 80% of the boxes I got was on sale from 8 different stores at least ^_^. Glad I bought my stuff before GW raised prices.
3D printing is MUCH easier than some may led you to believe, my mars 2 pro stands in the bathroom and works just fine, since no one is in there for long hours there are no problems with ventilation and it's convenient for cleaning models.
When it comes to printing itself you can easily get enough presupported files to never touch any settings, just plug it in and you're good to go. Same with resin, I use anycubic / elegoo based on which I can buy cheaper at the moment and details look great - there's no real need for expensive resins.
I find the actual supporting, printing and cleaning is the least time consuming part. By far the most time consuming thing for me has been the endless browsing of files. Just ask my 3TB of STL's that I'll never print.
Yeah 🤣 I think I have proxies for most 30k & 40k Armies now
Just got the elegoo mars 2 yesterday and starting printing this evening so this video is very well timed
It's not for me but I'm happy the 3D industry is going well for the people who like it. I have a lot of fun building plastic models and I don't have anywhere good to put one. Also, models are a great thing to have on a Christmas list when nobody knows what to buy for you :)
I was the same way, but I had a 3D printer for other stuff so I just started printing some 40K stuff and it’s honestly addicting, most files come in different parts so it’s still like putting them together, and it’s so satisfying to get the files and print that thing the same day. But to each is own, it’s always fun buying the model kits too I’ve bought quite a bit lol
I’m conflicted on scanned bodies. On one hand I fee like it’s just an attempt to print models that won’t raise an eye for competitive play, on the other I feel like it’s simply an answer to wasted bits. The bullgryn box is a great example, they give you the pieces to build 7 models but only enough bodies for 3
Loota/burna boyz are the same way, although old boyz are so easy to find used or trade for it's often easy enough to just rip their arms off and use them rather than print spare parts.
I made a silicone mold for the bodies in the bullgryn box and then cast them out of polyurethane. I was able to build all 3 bullgryns, ogryns, and nork from one box
You can essentially double the value of the ork loota/burna kit that way as well, although it's probably easier to just trade for old used boys and use their body/leg/head bits to build the unused parts into full models.
@@richmcgee434 yeah the only reason I was able to do what I did was because my job gives me access to these things, most people don’t have silicone and poly at their disposal
@@t3hSpAdEs Is true, used to do that kind of stuff myself. I've worked for several small resin casters back in the day. Kind of a good thing they got out before 3D printing came along, it's just destroyed that kind of business.
Welp we just bought a good resin 3d printer for our group here in Texas because of this video 🙏
I have a Mars 3 that I print at .03mm layer height with a mix of Sirayatech Fast and Tenacious, and I've printed around a hundred models or so. It has taken a lot of work to get all the setting dialed in, but if you're willing to put in the work, you can get some really amazing results. It is a different experience from putting together a plastic kit from the store, but it does make elements of the hobby much more accessible, and you don't necessarily need to compromise on the quality of miniatures if you're welling to take the time for it.
I picked up a Elegoo Mars 3 Pro at the start of the year, got it all setup and started printing D&D mini's, loved the flexibility of it and then after about 3 months i start moving out into other area's bust's terrain for 40k and then i just bit the bullet and found some files online for some TSons, since then i have invested in a Elegoo Saturn 2 and have been printing 40k models non stop, Chutbox Pro that came with my Mars 3 Pro is a great peice of software and i honestly only have to load up a model press 4 buttons and then save it to a memory stick and print the thing, i know this is going to sound like an ad for the printer but the quality is equal to GW injection moulding and FAIR superior to forge world especially when it comes to tolerances, Once to slap some paint on them you would have no idea they were 3D printed not that i play at any GW locations anyway.
Titans. Also, as someone who doesn’t buy into Primaris being able to print taller legs in different poses is just fantastic and lets you make use of any leftover torsos from the golden age of marines.
From experience I would definitely second the benefits of a cure machine (especially in the UK!). It reduces the mess a lot and makes the curing far more reliable. I'd also agree that it is best to keep the printer somewhere well ventilated. The resin was certainly triggering my eczema in an enclosed space.
if you have a well ventillated space for it, I HIGHLY recommend getting a 3d printer. It's an incredibly fun hobby, and among other things it's massively helped my painting skills since I have so many minis to practice on
As a raven guard player being able to print bits has been invaluable.
Chapter specific bits are a market GW should be cornering with their own stl packs in order to push sales of base kits, rather than expensive and lackluster primaris upgrade packs that just make their kits less appealing.
Hello, new player here. I am absolutely going to use 3d printing. Particularly for orks cause the army i want to build is almost 3 times as much as a mars 2 pro
I’ve been printing and ork army this week and they have some cool models on cults3d
I have the Elegoo 3, its amazing. I mainly print bases, heads and other accessories. The issue with printing any kind of 1 to 1 or even semi similar proxy for anything that isn't a space marine is that half of your army will look odd. A lot of STL creators tend to cram too much detail into their STL's and the prints look shit, ensuring you have good resin and a well supported mini helps as well. I play Sisters of battle and guard. Guard have an amazing library of stls to find and print. Heck if you look hard enough you will find 1 to 1 leman russes and various forgeworld vehicles. Sisters on the other hand has one of the worst library of STL's I've ever seen. Half of the models are coomer bait and the other half are poorly designed low res shit. On the off chance you find something good, its normally so out of proportion and the design is so far off that I may as well field it in a different game.
Can you elaborate on the sisters stls being bad proportion and design? I was thinking of getting a printer and starting with them. Are the stls that much worse?
Onepagerules is releasing first batch of their sisters in a few days, perhaps worth taking a look?
If you're aware of the original batch they did I'd be weary. The actual first opr sisters they did were pretty much what i was mentioning in my original comment. They are terribly designed and don't fit the army aesthetic at all. They all looked like butch football players.
As someone who does this with fossils, you should be able to create STL files of models you already own through the use of photogrammetry. Basically, you take a bunch of detailed photos until you have covered all angles of the model, then run it though some free software, which stiches the photos together into a 3D model. You can then import that to Blender and touch it up if needed as well. I can't test it myself, as I don't have a 3D printer myself, but I would be interested to see if the idea would work.
The scanning tech for home use isn't quite there. You can get home scanners and they will scan the model but you lose a lot of detail.
@@bart_ender6116 Yeah, I know what you mean. Scanners didn't really work well for my research either, which is why I used the photo method. You literally just need a camera (even a phone camera works, but a nicer camera gives you nicer details), and then you take a whole bunch of pictures to make your 3D model outta. That worked a ton better for my thesis, which I am saying might be an option worth testing for people who have printers for their models.
@@HealedFiend oh that is really interesting! Never heard of that!
The durability difference is bonkers. I 3d printed several armies 10 years ago now. They are in a big plastic bin, no separators, just loose. As they die I throw them back, from across the room. Nothing breaks. It was also a fraction of the cost. I have no problem paying, but I threw out the fragile minis I got over the years, to much hassle. Now it's all 3d. Way way better
what material do you print yours out of?
@@gallusdomesticuskfptechpriest it's been quite some time, but if I remember correctly, pla or abs. We (my gaming friends and me) bought a whole bunch of both in several colours (blue for smurfs, white for bike boys etc) and printed out a whack ton of stuff. The people were ok in quality, good enough for me (we don't do the painting part of the hobby, just play) the vehicles were amazing though, I can stand on my rhinos. The dreadnaughts have been thrown in anger, and they damaged the drywall, they are fine. The bigger the better it looks for sure. We did orks also, in green, but they didn't turn out as well, kinda pock marked, they were first, and the temp wasn't quite right, but they also proxi for nurgle quite well
@@redhairdavid neat
After I finish the backlog I gotta print Butov's flyrant with a scythe, proxy for the Reaper of Obliterax
The point of printing not supporting GW should work both ways (ie: GW to the customer) but it doesn't. There is no guarantee that the model you buy at top dollar doesn't just get reduced to Legends or deleted from codex's altogether in the future, or units getting nerfed to drive sales of "what's in." 3D printing allows a reasonable sidestep from that sort of business model.
I will say, a few stores in my area now have 3D printer setup for rental and sell many more paints and finishing materials. 3D printing is the future of this hobby, whether directly or indirectly. I like both the plastic models and 3D models, but best is modding Plastic with resin printed parts to make them extra unique. Example is inboard guns on the Leman Russ or snake legs for Chaos Knights war dogs. To ignore it will only hurt the hobby and I think it's best if game stores embraced and started selling Resin printing parts and tools, there is a bit of overlap from plastic. I have 3 printers, 1 FDM and 2 Resin and can say the models are getting better in quality and that it's ok to support smaller creators (those that make the model) as well.
I started to learn 3D modeling to make tiles and maps that I can use to help me write. Now, I am trying to use the skills learned to improve my wargaming hobby by creating terrain and buildings, one day I hope to make it into a small business. That was one of the biggest things I disliked about GW, their terrain, $50+ for a set of trees? No thank you.
3d printer go brrrrr, Im currently working on: A proxy knight army from station forge. a proxy admech army from stationforge, a proxy space dwarf army, and a proxy saurian starhost army from Onepagerules
My friends and I built many amazing set pieces.
A friend of mine also made a couple of Knights. His are unique and can be posed however you like
I've been using a 4k Saturn with a flex plate and its amazing, detail is spot on, can easily print 20 space marines at a time, or a huge demon, its great
One Paige rules is a good place to look for good sculpts
I love OPR models. Nicely grimdark inspired without being an IP infringement. And I prefer the OPR change daemon models to the official GW Chaos daemon ones
I pretty much dive in all. 3d print, second hand army, 3rd party stuff and GW.
They really have all their own experience. I enjoyed building my titan but it took about 300 hours and a few misprint (which does a great mess if you are not around)
Second hand army is pretty fun to clean and gove a new life. Makes you see oop models that were pretty neat! Looking at you metal miniatures!
GW stuff is still my addict stuff...cleaning sprues, scrapping mold lines...not sure why I enjoy that so much...but ya its own vibe.
3rd party is pretty fun when they are ready for paint. Its basicly buying a canvas and enjoy the painting.
I have done quite a lot of resin 3D printing up to an including using a Juipter for a small group of local gamers. Its pretty good fun but it is not a case of plug in a play and get great results, it takes work and effort.
You have to be prepared to invest time, effort and money in it - experimenting with resins, clean up methods, IPA and PPE
I have been looking into getting a 3d printer for a while, I think just as essential to it as a slicer program is a program that finds unsupported islands. Being unsupported is 85% of a project’s failure.
I have just printed 20 kreig rough riders 6 bullgrins and a leman russ and plenty of guard corpses as basing decorations all from a single 25 quid bottle of resin
Recently watched my friend pull out a full 3d printed khorne deamon army. Looked amazing once we painted a few but resin is super fragile, especially if your making something large. watched skarbarand shatter like glass in a way that will probably never be able to be put back together
Often it's down to the resin being used, not to mention some people will mix up their resins to end up with a stronger bond.
Nice video, very fair and objective which is rare when this topic comes up. Balance is what we need when discussing these things. "Why wouldn't you 3D print, fuck expensive games workshop?" is a tired, lazy and annoying argument which I think is unhelpful to people like myself considering 3D printing. A lot of people prefer the GW quality and are more than happy to pay for it, plus they make generally amazing minis with the money they put back into their designs (which you generally buy knock offs of when you 3D print).
Equally 3D printing is incredibly exciting and I'm sure has a massive future, for many of the reasons you have covered here. I will probably invest in one soon enough, am becoming more and more convinced!
For guys like me I buy models because I love the building aspect as they remind me of Legos ^_^
I have a cr-10 (first version, bought second hand).
It's amazing. It can print decent 28mm squats, great tanks and amazing terrain.
I print in HIPS and PLA+.
Detail is not great, but workable; everything can be repaired on your own and is useful also for other stuff around the house (caps, pots, brackets, handles, hangers, mounts for appliances, etc).
Resin is easier and has better detail, but less pleasant to work with. Also not as useful outside the hobby (mechanical properties of resin are not great)
I have been printing on and off for years. And the biggest thing that keeps me doing it is the change of aesthetics and the price cuts. Some armies I think are still great to buy from GW, and if I pick up Space Marines I'm absolutely buying those. But I want to play guard. Is that viable at GW price? Heck no! But with TMC's three amazing lines of guard-like models, it's' way more affordable and makes guard actually within reach to me
Even if I'm printing in the living room like a couple metres from my main computer....
I do forget that I need a space for it. Only choice is either the shed with no space and freezing or my bedroom. Both definitely have ventilation but maybe not enough sadly
3D printing is a God Emperor send. I have very little time and even less money, but even then I can print 3-4 batches a day with my Elegoo Mars 3 on my day off equaling about 20 or so models. I have now about a 2k army printered and it costed only time and about 65$ of resin. But now the issue is actually painting them...
What's leaning me towards getting a 3d printer is lack of availability. I'm trying to put a Tau army together and I can't find Sunshark Bombers anywhere; even GW is out. Can a printer handle larger models like tanks, perhaps printing the larger panels in sections?
Yeah it can, but the file needs to come in separate pieces, which not all of them do, and it depending on the software you’re suing it can be complicated or hard to split
@@GamaniacMike14 I stopped looking for them. Errata has since come out making the bombers kinda poopy.
For anyone at least wanting to have a look around at 3d print files, cults 3d has some quality creators. Also, try using tags to find some models. They would have to use non copyright names, but the tags would have “night lords”, “Astra militarum”, or “horus heresy”. Search for something general, and look at tags on certain model pages to look for something a bit harder to find.
Anvil industries also has some wonderful models and conversions on their website and digital forge Patreon. Their stuff is amazing, and very efficient with their resin usage.
The one thing I find interesting is 10+ years ago GW encouraged you to do custom builds and models as long as the minis where 50% GW official parts, interesting the now it’s a mortal sin. I mean hell ork battle wagons and flashgitz, as well as many other official rules units had no model and required you to scrap build em.
This is the aftermath of Chapterhouse lawsuit. GW deleted many models in 4th to kick them out of business.
I had a harder time setting up my airbrush then my 3d printer, it's really not as hard as some people claim.
I literally got my Saturn 2 in the mail an hour or so ago this couldn't be better timing
Anyone new should be aware that most air filters, and especially the carbon filters that come with the printers do a pretty good job of removing the smells, but not the toxic VOCs. Same problem with the low smell resins. They may not stink as bad, but they are just as toxic. The low smell simply means you spend more time in the toxic air.
Personally a big fan. Got a slightly less conventional printer (A Creality Halot, not a particularly expensive model but seems pretty good frankly) and have printed a lot of self designed models. Most helpfull was printing some stuff for guard, managed to get 30 men worth of guard (including heavy weapon guys) and an extra heavy weapon squad, plus three cyclops bombs and a handfull of characters for a single £35 1kg bottle of resin. And that was printing (solid) bases too, I could have done it much cheaper if I had some spare bases. It's 100% cheaper if you plan to make a fair bit. And while modeling your own stuff is fun (albeit a bit of trial and error) there's loads of good stuff out there already. Just be carefull with thin parts. From what some have said, ABS resin is supposed to be good for avoiding snapping but considering the pain in the backside handling the resin is I'll stick to chonky designs (or at least minimal long, thin details) and water washable.
Two notes about supporting your local game store...
1) All these models still need to be painted and finished, and those paints and brushes will often come from that same game store.
2) I wonder if some local game stores might set up their own printer service like you mentioned as a service to the local community.
My local game store does resin and fdm! They have proxy WH models on display they can print & terrain pieces. The times are changing…..
I have an Ender 3 FDM, and it's good! But the mental load of managing my STL collection, my to-print list, and the pile of unpainted stuff I have already mean that I am using it somewhat infrequently.
I'd say people get these printers too much as an impulse buy.
This is a technical hobby, that is not going to be worth the health risks for most people. Handling hazardous chemicals is no joke, and most companies making the printers themselves even have very little idea on how to do so. The printer I bought for example came with Latex gloves which is completely inappropriate to handle the resin....
As a biochemical engineer I can say the following: You probably dont have the adequate ventillation and space for this. Even if you do, you probably wont handle the material perfectly and get exposed to it. Even if you get the nicer ones, remember this isnt just about the smell, and getting sensitive to it in terms of skin contact.
We don't have enough studies, but I can say for sure that it is going to fuck with your body, especially the endocrine system. Just because it doesnt cause visible sickness or burns immediately, doesnt mean it is good for you, especially long term.
On the flipside, it is pretty cheap to commission prints from companies and even some local hobbyists. If you want the best of both worlds, just pay someone to do it in a more appropriate setting. It is going to be enourmous savings (you can print entire armies for a couple hundred quid, I have done for friends too)
even the auspex joined the 3d printed side of the force
I printed an entire renegade guard army for peanuts in terms of cost. Mesh mixer (free) lets you digitally kitbash as well, I was able to take STL files and swap their weapons in a matter of minutes. In addition the printer and all the equipment and the stl files came out around 200 quid cheaper. I saved 200 quid AND now have a 3D printer. GW can eat their heart out
As a guy who lives in a dump of a country (brazil), and loves warhammer lore the only way i could get into warhammer would be via 3d miniatures, because the amount of taxes i would have pay to buy warhammer miniatures just make the whole deal impossible. FYI in brazil if we buy something outside of our country we have to pay 60% of the full price with shipping as taxes and when the packge arives in brazil we have to pay the brazilian post office another shipping fee.
I have been using an Elegoo Mars 2 Pro for about a year and want to emphasize that it is a hobby unto itself. For bits, bases, and other small decorations it's a superb tool. Very good for figures but don't assume there's STL file options for every idea in your brain (I still haven't found good female KO dwarves). I'm wrapping a big terrain project and I probably spent as much on resin as if I had bought a GW terrain kit.
I’m all about it for adding details to existing 40K models which as upsizing firstborn kits to primaris.
I wouldn’t print whole army of non 40K units though.
I provide a 3d print service and am a merchant seller for many on patreon. There is a lot to learn. It can be a fun hobby and it can be a lot more fun to add to your miniature gaming!!
But fair warning. These machines are not plug and play or watch TH-cam and your up and printing. There is way to many variables not to mention temperature changes that effect you results. Temp of resin temp of the plate temp of the room temp of the vat….it just goes down the rabbit hole from there.
Many pre-supported files fail because they use auto support feature. I test every file before I print it for a customer or place it in my store. Over 2/3’s have to be supported from scratch and many files need to be repaired prior to printing.
2k to 4K is more than enough for great table top gaming. If you want to paint(busts or competition) then 8k is the better choice. But who prints it makes the difference!! I can make minor changes and it will make a world of difference in the final print but if you don’t have something to compare to you would know until you Dry brush or glaze!!
Where this shines is outside Warhammer. GW is getting more aggressive. They came after me for producing bits to magnetize weapons. I was not breaking any laws, advertising incorrectly, you couldn’t even really see the parts in most cases, and payed a copy-write attorney but GW came after me anyway. I can’t afford to fight them so I gave in. But for D&D and the host of other skirmish games it’s the only way to go!! I can print a custom mini or squad that’s different from anyone else that is playing with you is a huge bonus! It’s only going to get bigger but GW will always have it’s big piece of the pie. But their pricing is making people to look to other games! And believe me they are out there!!
I do not want to discourage anyone…go for it! 3d printing is a blast. Buy a small machine and learn and you will have a great experience. You can always buy bigger and better later. The price will always go down. There is more than enough room for new 3d printer providers like me. But don’t limit yourself to war gaming. There is a world of things to print and enjoy. And it takes time to build any business. Hope this info helped. Great video with a wealth of info and options and thanks for all you do!!!!
Aften printing 1000 pts of a custom army for One Page Rules I've calculated how much I'd pay GW for similar models for AoS. It turns out that printing them cost roughly the same, including the cost of resin, STLs, the printer itself and peripherals (curing station, safty mask, etc). I'm not going to go back to buying models.
At some point gw will have to become a 3d print company, actually quite viable, also would have to double down on the hobby side with paid classes and gaming clubs but soon the gw business model will need to change. I personally would buy a grey knights themed printer.
3d printing can be a great addition to the hobby but its not some secret weapon that will 'punish' GW or take any real bite out of GWs profits or whatever. I'm sure it feels awesome to print a whole army for cheap but you're not exactly starting a revolution. You dont need to learn an entire second hobby or put on PPE etc to go in to a game store and buy some models after all.
Agreed, their profits won't be cut into by convenience factor alone. I'm a big "screw GW" advocate so that sucks. But I'd say the people that own 3D printers can make a much larger difference if they offer to print stuff for their fellow hobbyists either for cheap or for free for your friends. That way they can get super cheap super cool models and you get more people not walking into that GW store and selling their kidneys for the new "army" box.
Its great for hoard armies. I wanted to get into orks and make a boyz heavy list but only thing holding me back would be the $$$$ . Now with a 3d printer I have 70 bouz I'm currently painting lol
I recently got a Ender 3. It's my first foray into 3d printing. I am shocked at how much detail I am getting out of minis I have printed with the right settings. I haven't tried any of the more impressive minis, like the ones from One page Rules, but the Shy Guy and ashigaru I got off Thingiverse turned out way better than I expected. are they hard plastic quality? No. They are acceptable for me, though. Only downside is that I have to work in the same room its running. Its like having a drunk R2-D2 sitting in the corner telling me it's life story.