Neil Merryweather
SMF Supporter
I have recently bought a resin 3D Printer, the Elegoo Mars 2 Pro, and here, as promised, is some follow-up.
Although I have many years’ experience with other printers I dutifully printed the manufacturer’s test print, called ‘Rook’, which I was expecting to be some kind of Warhammer bird character, but turned out be a boring chess piece, and a very old design at that.
And yes it is supposed to be upside down. These printers work by printing one super-thin layer at a time on a plate that gradually lifts out of the bath of resin.
This chess piece design has been around in the world we originally called Rapid Prototyping since the year dot. But to be fair it does exemplify the kind of thing moulding can’t do easily- spirals and helixes and tubes without seam lines.
But this is no use to us military modellers, so let’s find something that is.
I have been preparing a diorama for over ten years which involves GIs climbing down a cargo net into a 1/35 scale Higgins Boat on D-Day. As I researched the side of the ship that the cargo net would hang on I found lots of pics of sailors hanging around watching and I though ‘why not go the whole hog and build part of the ship as well?’ I started to prepare scale drawings and in order to place things correctly I built a detailed 3D digital model which took me over a year, and is still ongoing. But that’s for a separate blog, and probably not until I retire.
So what I am going to print is a part of the ship- a fire-hose point to be precise
This is the Liberty Ship Jeremiah O’Brien in San Francisco which I am using as the basis for my model. I was fortunate enough to visit her years ago, and don’t I wish I had taken even more photos!
Anyway, here is the digital model for the pipes and hose nozzle, as seen on the printer software. I will make the hose itself from something else.
I cobbled this together digitally from things I downloaded free from the internet and some stuff I created myself. I have spent a long time on this, thinking out of the box to search for interesting stuff I can use-I think this started out as an American fire hydrant.
Here it is with supports added in the slicer software
You will notice that I have rotated it which will help to place the supports in a position out of sight against the wall. Just in case there is a bit too much evidence of them. Generally, though, it is easy to file away, like sprue gates on a moulded model.
3D printers can't print stuff 'in thin air' as it were, so although we don’t get seam lines in 3D printing we can’t always avoid support, but with time and experience you learn ways of minimising it. If I had printed this piece the right way up there would have been support all over the hand wheels, which I want to avoid, naturally. The software places the support automatically but you can edit it to suit your needs.
Here it is in the flesh, so to speak
It’s not all in focus because I have tried to show the build lines, which are the evidence of the layering process. This was built with a layer height of 0.05mm.
Here it is with supports removed with a sprue cutter- I almost lost two of the wheels to the carpet monster- more care required next time!
I built a different one with a layer height of 0.02mm
Not the best picture but I think you can see the difference.
It’s clearly not the same as building it yourself out of bits of plastic and brass, but in many ways building these bits digitally was just as satisfying for me.
I should point out that these resin printers are smelly and messy, so don’t have the machine too near your laptop…..(ask me how I know)! I have so far kept my printer at work where the smells are not even noticed, so it remains to be seen how SWMBO reacts when I take it home…
Obviously, it’s not for everyone, but I think it would be difficult to deny that 3D printing will have an increasing impact on our hobby over the next few years
Although I have many years’ experience with other printers I dutifully printed the manufacturer’s test print, called ‘Rook’, which I was expecting to be some kind of Warhammer bird character, but turned out be a boring chess piece, and a very old design at that.
And yes it is supposed to be upside down. These printers work by printing one super-thin layer at a time on a plate that gradually lifts out of the bath of resin.
This chess piece design has been around in the world we originally called Rapid Prototyping since the year dot. But to be fair it does exemplify the kind of thing moulding can’t do easily- spirals and helixes and tubes without seam lines.
But this is no use to us military modellers, so let’s find something that is.
I have been preparing a diorama for over ten years which involves GIs climbing down a cargo net into a 1/35 scale Higgins Boat on D-Day. As I researched the side of the ship that the cargo net would hang on I found lots of pics of sailors hanging around watching and I though ‘why not go the whole hog and build part of the ship as well?’ I started to prepare scale drawings and in order to place things correctly I built a detailed 3D digital model which took me over a year, and is still ongoing. But that’s for a separate blog, and probably not until I retire.
So what I am going to print is a part of the ship- a fire-hose point to be precise
This is the Liberty Ship Jeremiah O’Brien in San Francisco which I am using as the basis for my model. I was fortunate enough to visit her years ago, and don’t I wish I had taken even more photos!
Anyway, here is the digital model for the pipes and hose nozzle, as seen on the printer software. I will make the hose itself from something else.
I cobbled this together digitally from things I downloaded free from the internet and some stuff I created myself. I have spent a long time on this, thinking out of the box to search for interesting stuff I can use-I think this started out as an American fire hydrant.
Here it is with supports added in the slicer software
You will notice that I have rotated it which will help to place the supports in a position out of sight against the wall. Just in case there is a bit too much evidence of them. Generally, though, it is easy to file away, like sprue gates on a moulded model.
3D printers can't print stuff 'in thin air' as it were, so although we don’t get seam lines in 3D printing we can’t always avoid support, but with time and experience you learn ways of minimising it. If I had printed this piece the right way up there would have been support all over the hand wheels, which I want to avoid, naturally. The software places the support automatically but you can edit it to suit your needs.
Here it is in the flesh, so to speak
It’s not all in focus because I have tried to show the build lines, which are the evidence of the layering process. This was built with a layer height of 0.05mm.
Here it is with supports removed with a sprue cutter- I almost lost two of the wheels to the carpet monster- more care required next time!
I built a different one with a layer height of 0.02mm
Not the best picture but I think you can see the difference.
It’s clearly not the same as building it yourself out of bits of plastic and brass, but in many ways building these bits digitally was just as satisfying for me.
I should point out that these resin printers are smelly and messy, so don’t have the machine too near your laptop…..(ask me how I know)! I have so far kept my printer at work where the smells are not even noticed, so it remains to be seen how SWMBO reacts when I take it home…
Obviously, it’s not for everyone, but I think it would be difficult to deny that 3D printing will have an increasing impact on our hobby over the next few years
