Hey guys, I put together a little video about 3D printing. Some basic info you need to get started and my experiences as well as recommendations.

Thanks man nice video.

2 hours ago, Rebel dude said:

Thanks man nice video.

Glad you liked it. i reached my goal of at least one person lol

Nice video.

I actually have a few friends who own their own printers. I’ve been considering getting one myself but I’m not the least bit tech-savvy. It would have to be pretty idiot-proof for me to not get frustrated.

Might just have to keep passing them $$ for the cost of filament and continue to use my local library’s free service because after watching your informative video, I’m more inclined to believe I’d get more frustration than finished product if I owned one. 🤣

5 minutes ago, FSD said:

Nice video.

I actually have a few friends who own their own printers. I’ve been considering getting one myself but I’m not the least bit tech-savvy. It would have to be pretty idiot-proof for me to not get frustrated.

Might just have to keep passing them $$ for the cost of filament and continue to use my local library’s free service because after watching your informative video, I’m more inclined to believe I’d get more frustration than finished product if I owned one. 🤣

Lol, well at least you now know. Once you have used it a couple times, the process of printing gets easier, but there are still the annoying parts to it...I'm always tinkering with it for sure. And thanks!

I built my Prusa Mark3 to better understand how things work. One very minor problem I fixed in seconds on the first self test. One part I had to replace, I believe because I didn't follow assembly instructions. I am extremely happy with mine. I recommend a cheaper price printer if you are okay with doing some tinkering (like adjusting/calibrating the printer for a good print). It is more work than a dot matrix printer.

If you're printing anything small you should have a look at the AnyCubic Photon. It's amazing the level of detail you can get out of it. I've printed computer consoles, proton/sonic mines, ammo crates and some containers for cover. Got a list of other things to get around to printing too, a selection of random "details" (pipes, vents, ladders etc) to add to the buildings once we've made any.

The very small build size though makes it unsuitable really for terrain, plus the resin cost more than filament. If you took your time and cut larger models into parts you could print some rather large models at high level of detail and fit them together after, although it would take quite a lot of effort compared to using the larger build plate on the FDM printers. For the smaller items though, it's unbeatable in terms of quality.

Outside of legion, it's proven itself a really useful printer for Christmas decorations and gift tag. Printed and painted some great looking polar bears carrying a Christmas present.

I'll check it out. I've been wanting to start getting into printing out actual minis. I have seen people other YouTube do it with the Ender 3 to great success with the right settings.

34 minutes ago, lukecook said:

I'll check it out. I've been wanting to start getting into printing out actual minis. I have seen people other YouTube do it with the Ender 3 to great success with the right settings.

You don't really want a FDM printer to do models. You would probably want to go with an SLA for finer details.

9 hours ago, themightyhedgehog said:

You don't really want a FDM printer to do models. You would probably want to go with an SLA for finer details.

absolutely I agree, but people do make some nice models from them. I'm starting to test it out on mine. I just printed a model that had basically toothpicks for legs (but smaller). It held for a little then eventually broke when my students were using it LOL. I've been thinking of getting an SLA for a little bit. Any recommendations or experiences with them?

6 hours ago, lukecook said:

I've been thinking of getting an SLA for a little bit. Any recommendations or experiences with them?

Generally they are more expensive both up-front and in material, but are capable of very nice detail. They also require more (or at least different) post-process work. Parts have to be cleaned, snipped, and post-cured. Print beds are also smaller.

I’ve used the printers from Formlabs for work. Currently have the Form 2.

My advice would be to stick with the filament FDM printers for large terrain parts, and look into SLA for detailed smaller parts like scatter terrain or figures.

Great video! Im one of few in my area with a 3d printer and its constant request for legion terrain. Which i don't mind at all since I still get to play on all that stuff i print I like that dice/token holder but having hard time hearing where you got on thingiverse. Any chance you could link it?

8 hours ago, Gridloc said:

Great video! Im one of few in my area with a 3d printer and its constant request for legion terrain. Which i don't mind at all since I still get to play on all that stuff i print I like that dice/token holder but having hard time hearing where you got on thingiverse. Any chance you could link it?

Thanks! Yeah I have printed enough stuff for about 2 or 3 boards that I bring for our local tournaments. I think it's great, a couple guys in our group now have them.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2980020

Isnt everything invtge star wars u copyrighted? I always wondered how people on shapeways can get away with selling something like character for legion

1 hour ago, Thalandar said:

Isnt everything invtge star wars u copyrighted? I always wondered how people on shapeways can get away with selling something like character for legion

Yeah, I really don't understand copyright law. I was thinking about going to school for it just because it confuses me so much and I want to understand how it all works and know what the grey-areas are. There are a ton with the 3D printing side of things. We had a presenter come into our senior design class who was a copyright lawyer in IP and he was saying how wild it gets. I think they get away with it by calling the stuff different names and maybe not making the things exactly like seen in the films/ what-have you.