My Attempt

[nheather]

A Soviet Komsomolets in 28mm for wargaming

 

 

This was done in on an Ender 3 Pro with PLA using a 0.12mm layer height sliced using Cura.

 

Overall, pretty pleased with it but obviously, it is a shame about the layer lines.

 

Clearly they are part and parcel of FDM printing but wondering if anything can be done.

 

Sanding is really awkward and PLA resists - I think if I valued the time taken to sand I’d be better off just buying a commercial model.

 

I’m aware that ABS sands easier and there is the cooks it in a steam of cellulose thinner trick.  But also understand that printing in ABS is more difficult.

 

And then their are the resin printers - do they solve the problem - not sure I’m up for buying another printer (already had two) at the moment.

 

Interesting in any advice on getting rid of or minimising layer lines.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Schwarz-Brot]

Resin printing gets rid of most of these lines for sure. Layer height and resolution are way better even with entry level machines. Your model is looking pretty crispy for a FDM machine, btw.

[nheather]

5 hours ago, Schwarz-Brot said:

Resin printing gets rid of most of these lines for sure. Layer height and resolution are way better even with entry level machines. Your model is looking pretty crispy for a FDM machine, btw.

Is there a clear must have budget SLA printer like there has been over the years for FDM printers?

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[qn30jEkPz7]

16 hours ago, Schwarz-Brot said:

Your model is looking pretty crispy for a FDM machine, btw.

I’ll second that - you must have it set up nicely to achieve sharp detail like that

[nheather]

Oh no, I have watched a video of an affordable SLA printer, the Elegoo Mars Pro and I am blown away by what I saw.

 

If I didn’t have a printer I would be ordering an SLA soon.
 

My hangup is that I have already spent £200 on an Anet A8 (which I never got to work properly) and then another £250 on an Ender 3 Pro (plus upgrades), now thinking of £200 on an SLA pinter, so these cheap printers can soon get expensive - how long will it take me to print £650 worth of wargaming tanks.

 

I can see that the size of SLA printers is very limiting - when they did the famous 3D Benchy ship it took up a good proportion of the build plate.

 

For me, mostly interested in wargaming stuff that is not really a limitation but I can imagine it could impact many.

 

In fact a friend has asked me to print a 28mm longship for wargaming - think that would only be possible on an FDM printer.

 

My printer BTW

 

Base - Ender 3 Pro

Glass bed - the stock magnetic bed soon got ruined

BL Touch - for auto-leveling, not convinced I get much out of this

Fixed aluminium bed spacers - got rid of the springs, found the bed levelling kept drifting out with them

New control board - not an upgrade as such, manage to blow up my Creality board when I accidentally shorted the bed thermistor.  As a replacement I got the SKR E3 Mini v2.0 which is a huge improvement over the Creality board

Dual drive extruder - bit of bling, not convinced whether it actually improves things

 

With all of this I have finally got a stable set up which is repeatable and the first layer sticks like hell to the bed.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Mattlow]

I'm also impressed by your output.

 

In terms of machines, can you not sell off one of your existing ones? No idea what the second hand market is like for these?

 

Matt

[ratsmitglied]

On 8/5/2020 at 1:20 AM, Schwarz-Brot said:

Resin printing gets rid of most of these lines for sure. Layer height and resolution are way better even with entry level machines. Your model is looking pretty crispy for a FDM machine, btw.

I'll agree on both of these statements - damn good show on the Ender3, and yes, the layer line issues do mostly disappear with a resin printer.

 

23 hours ago, nheather said:

Is there a clear must have budget SLA printer like there has been over the years for FDM printers?

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

Elegoo Mars (regular or Pro) or Anycubic Photon (or Photon S, NOT the photon Zero) seem to be the go-to choices for wargamers (with the Elegoo Saturn which has a larger print bed being due later this year). I may represent this comment.

 

11 hours ago, nheather said:

Oh no, I have watched a video of an affordable SLA printer, the Elegoo Mars Pro and I am blown away by what I saw.

 

If I didn’t have a printer I would be ordering an SLA soon.
 

My hangup is that I have already spent £200 on an Anet A8 (which I never got to work properly) and then another £250 on an Ender 3 Pro (plus upgrades), now thinking of £200 on an SLA pinter, so these cheap printers can soon get expensive - how long will it take me to print £650 worth of wargaming tanks.

 

I can see that the size of SLA printers is very limiting - when they did the famous 3D Benchy ship it took up a good proportion of the build plate.

 

For me, mostly interested in wargaming stuff that is not really a limitation but I can imagine it could impact many.

 

In fact a friend has asked me to print a 28mm longship for wargaming - think that would only be possible on an FDM printer.

 

My printer BTW

 

 

I found the same as you, the A8 wasn't worth the shipping materials - sure you can get a good print out of them, if you want to spend significant amounts of time and effort getting it tuned - unlike the Ender which gets pretty good prints out of the box, and almost perfect prints with only a relatively small amount of tuning.

 

Smaller layers definitely helps with getting better prints, I know I've printed at 0.08mm on my Ender3, and I've heard of people going down to 0.04mm, but at the same time there is a trade off in speed

 

For larger items (and terrain) FDM really is the only way to go, and a 28mm longship definitely counts as that! But for smaller items (such as people) I find the resin printer is significantly better (and easier even with the post-print cleanup etc) - this photo is of a 28mm wargaming figure printed on an Anycubic photon at 0.05mm layer heights, primed and drybrushed so you can see the details. 

 

 

Larger copy on these forums at 

 

I used to default to the FDM machine for printing, but now I've used the Resin printer a lot more I only really use the FDM printer for things that won't fit on the printbed!

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by ratsmitglied

[qn30jEkPz7]

1 hour ago, ratsmitglied said:

If you're on faceb

...? 

[nheather]

3 hours ago, Mattlow said:

I'm also impressed by your output.

 

In terms of machines, can you not sell off one of your existing ones? No idea what the second hand market is like for these?

 

Matt

The A8 went to recycling - hopefully it is living a new life as something useful now.  I did consider selling it but decided that I couldn’t with clear conscience make others suffer with it.

 

The Ender 3 I’m happy with.  It is really whether I can justify an SLA printer to sit alongside it.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel 

[ratsmitglied]

7 hours ago, LostCosmonauts said:

...? 

brain fart, fixed 😉

[qn30jEkPz7]

1 minute ago, ratsmitglied said:

brain fart, fixed 😉

Dang! I thought you were going to link something cool and just building up the suspense

[ratsmitglied]

9 minutes ago, LostCosmonauts said:

Dang! I thought you were going to link something cool and just building up the suspense

Not really, just to my business's page on Facebook where there are a few more photos of that particular model and a few other things I've printed in resin - facebook.com/FlyingGoat3d if you're interested.

[Hole in the ground]

On 8/4/2020 at 11:37 AM, nheather said:

A Soviet Komsomolets in 28mm for wargaming

 

 

This was done in on an Ender 3 Pro with PLA using a 0.12mm layer height sliced using Cura.

 

Overall, pretty pleased with it but obviously, it is a shame about the layer lines.

 

Clearly they are part and parcel of FDM printing but wondering if anything can be done.

 

Sanding is really awkward and PLA resists - I think if I valued the time taken to sand I’d be better off just buying a commercial model.

 

I’m aware that ABS sands easier and there is the cooks it in a steam of cellulose thinner trick.  But also understand that printing in ABS is more difficult.

 

And then their are the resin printers - do they solve the problem - not sure I’m up for buying another printer (already had two) at the moment.

 

Interesting in any advice on getting rid of or minimising layer lines.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

 

What nozzle size did you use for that? Was it the stock 0.4mm?

[nheather]

9 hours ago, Hole in the ground said:

 

What nozzle size did you use for that? Was it the stock 0.4mm?

Yes, stock 0.4mm.

 

Layer height = 0.12mm.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Hole in the ground]

Thanks Nigel, can I bug you again please? What orientation did you print the model and did you print the tracks separately?

 

I keep looking at that picture you posted. The details are very impressive. Have you got a pick of it painted up?

[J.C. Bahr]

Anyone considering a resin printer (at least from Anycubic) should look at investing the extra money for the Mono/Mono-X series... their print bed screens will last longer than the earlier models.