These miniatures were created using "Elegoo" Water Washable Resin on a Mars 3 Pro 3D Printer and are available as unsupported STL (Standard Triangle Language) files from Splunjohnny on "Cults". These sculpts are clearly inspired by various famous television and film franchises and are all created in 100mm scale.
This range is actually one of the main motivators for my purchasing a machine as I had previously been using a 3D Printing Service to produce the models for my tabletop gaming, and up until quite recently I had been extremely happy with their "high resolution" figures. However, much of this satisfaction stemmed from me believing several myths concerning home printing, such as the nauseating smell given off by resin, the nastiness of Isopropyl Alcohol, the financial outlay for a 3D printer, and the enormous effort required to calibrate a device so you can actually achieve a successful print (e.g. exposure settings, curing times and supports).
Having invested some hours watching numerous videos on "YouTube" I soon discovered that whilst "Elegoo" Water Washable Resin has a strong, pungent odour, as long as you're wearing a face mask in a well-ventilated area, its effects are minimal. Indeed, my initial thoughts around potentially needing some sort of thermo-nuclear chemical suit swiftly evaporated. Furthermore, there is plenty of advice out there to help a novice get the best from their printer's settings, with "Chitubox" Basic arguably doing the vast percentage of this heavy lifting with just a few clicks of the mouse - at least for me.
Furthermore, despite the definite monetary commitment needed upfront, I quickly realised that no matter how pleased I was with the end result, paying a tenner for each "4k resolution" (plus postage) would quickly add up and surpass the cost of a lower-end 3D printer like the Mars 3 Pro (as well as an "Elegoo" Mercury Plus 2.0 Wash and Curing Machine). True, at the time I also thought I was getting additional value as the service was (in my mind at least) employing some serious time-consuming witchcraft by adding numerous intricate supports to the miniatures and slicing them, as well as reducing their size to 40mm scale.
Disconcertingly however, I have encountered one sticking point since stopping using a 3D printing service, and that has been trying to perfectly match the reduction size they employed whilst shrinking my STL files down from 100mm t0 40mm. Initially, I had simply expected the miniatures to have shrunk by 60%, but that is most definitely not the case.
Indeed, the actual figure appears to be around the 48% mark, with the heights of some previously printed models requiring a little more or less according to my ham-fisted measurements. This difference is debatably not noticeable from a distance on the tabletop, yet it does grate upon my obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) somewhat when I want to add reinforcements to already pigmented forces. Resultantly, I might 'ramp up' future prints to the 48.20% bar to see how that pans out...
I'm really enjoying your travels through the worlds of 3D printing! Some of the supports on those models look like a nightmare to remove, but then again having to take some off a few of my Etsy purchases I know they're not too hard to get off. Looking forward to seeing more of these posts!
These little articles about your 3D printing hobby journey are great reads. I enjoy them enormously, and while you are doing your best to demystify it, it still seems a little complex for me and my small brain! Keep these coming as they are super interesting.
Better you than me on this 3D printing lark Simon, Forget the startup and running costs, the pfaffing about with scales and supports and cleaning just seems too much for my levels of patience. Add in the then removal of the print supports and how they seem to just obscure all sorts of detail..... Yeah no thanks. LOL
Still, it's been fun following your own adventures on this. I hope to see some fun stuff in the future!
I've had problems with scale, long before the 3D printer was even thought of, so nothing new there, though the trial and error of getting the sizing right must be a bit wearing when there's so much you want printed. I have to admit I'm less keen on the "human" figures as opposed to the Dalek/Cybermen alien style figures from this range.
Sorry I have no idea who Barnabus Collins is, is that his actual name, or is it a clever "not" name?
Cheers Roger.
Having had scale issues from printers in the past can understand the frustration, but I'm sure you'll get there in the end, Can understand wanting the Cybermen and Terminators all the same size.