3D Printed Terrain is Here

I've been experimenting with 3D printing for a couple of years now. I started using an XYZPrinting SLA printer, and after that failed decided to try one of the inexpensive filament printers. It turns out that two years make a huge difference in quality. Using a Prusa i3 clone, made by Wanhao(duplicator i3 plus), I've been able to print at lot of interesting terrain. I'm only printing at .2mm resolution here, which is half the vertical resolution possible, but that is just due to impatience on my part. My goal is to have a new model to paint every day. The prints do require finishing, but the bones are here for some really nice resin-ish quality terrain.

Since I'm currently printing in PLA, the only way to finish a model is to sand it. However, once this spool is done, I'm going to switch to ABS (lego plastic), which can be smoothed using acetone. With that with, the time between printing a model, and having it ready to paint will be nominal.

I'm still dialing in my printer, so the quality keeps improving. I've even printed out some printer parts to upgrade the printer itself!

NOVA Open Charitable Foundation WIP 4

 I continued working on the charity Knight today. Oils were added to the pneumatics, eye lenses were repainted, and pigments were liberally distributed to tarnished surfaces. This guy is getting close to completion. I wish I had the opportunity to win this army!

NOVA Open Charitable Foundation WIP 3

The gloss is starting to go away, and the finished knight is beginning to emerge. I usually take photos of stuff, not just to share, but also so I can review the painting and clean up spots I might have missed. For instance the sensors need cleaner green transitions, and the leaking oils to the pneumatics needs to be reapplied post matte. I am happy with this guy. Some lucky person will win this model along with eh rest of the army as part of the charity raffle.

NOVA Open Charitable Foundation WIP 2

The NOVA Charitable Foundation knight is in the home stretch. It might be hard to tell due to the gloss coat, but the armor plates are done. Once I dull coat the model the shading will be brought back forward, and the weird interplay between the matte oils and chipping and glossy undercoat (for protection) will have the same finish quality. For those who don't know, you can win this knight along with a beautiful Mechanicus force by entering the NOCF raffle. Once again we are supporting Doctors Without Borders, a wonderful organization providing medical care to people all over the world.

NOVA Open Charitable Foundation Knight

This ungainly fellow is a 30k Knight for the Charitable foundation. Every year I paint something for charity, and this year I was lucky enough to be tasked with painting an all resin Forgeworld knight. Since this guy is part of an army give away, I am sticking to painting style of the team leader. His style involves a lot of transparent paints, which is new to me. So far so good.

Ogre Goblin Bust WIP 2

This is my first time using transparent paints, and despite some initial success, I managed to un-green the goblin. The original green was a couple of layers of badger ghost tint green. After putting those layers down, I used badger thinner to clean my airbrush. I then added a blue tint using GW air. The badger thinner melted the green layer down, which then ran into the crevices. So lesson learned. I guess I should figure out what to do next. Do I start the goblin over? Do I discreetly push the model into some less visible part of my desk and ignore it? The more I look at the sculpt the less I like how chunky the giant is. Maybe I should just gore and mud platter this and call it done.

Ogre Goblin Bust WIP 1

Next time I need a quick model to paint after a long slog, I won't pick a bust! Next time, I'll pick a space marine, or IG, or something simple. Nonetheless, I like how the colors are starting to show. I'm trying to mix blues and purples into the model in order to play off the orange ogre, and green goblin. I think I have a few more hours to go on the goblin flesh before I know if I am on to something.

Guilliman As Done As He Is Going To Be

I'm calling him done at this point. I added some more color to his face, and toned down the extremely exaggerated sculpt a bit by artificially shallowing the crevices on it. I'd like to try to get some better photos, but I am really struggling to get them to come out these days.

I really appreciate all the helpful feedback. I tried to use a lot of it. The power glove should be a lighter color to add another spot focus, but in the end I just needed this guy to be finished and take his place in my cabinet.

Do I like my rendition of him? I'm not sure. He doesn't fit my style really well. I suspect that if you lined up all my stuff and put him in the mix that you might not pick him out as having even been painted by me. I can't tell if that is color choice, skill, or just the basic model itself. Something is off. I'll revisit him at some point and try to figure out what it is.