3D Modeling and Printing for Miniature Gaming Terrain

Greetings miniature gamer, scale modeler and terrain freak. Scratch building is cool! No doubt! I love the way props and scenery was built in films like Dune, Star Wars or James Bond. And I always fight for it in a discussion. But hey! 3D Printing and 3D Modelling is an awesome new technology. It is available for everyone and it is stand of the art.

So I convinced me myself and downloaded several different free 3D Software products. I started with sketch up but finally ended with Blender which is so powerful and accurate. It is not as easy to learn but finally ... it is the best free software you can get. I am wondering if any other software could be better?

I started to make my first models, learn modelling techniques, set up software in scale. And after some days or weeks of try and error I did my first renderings. Which was very satisfying. It is really great to work digital because you can skip forward and backward when you save your project correctly. You should save and think about saving. It makes work much easier.

After another few weeks I decided to give it a try via Shapeways. After passing all tests I printed it in cheapest quality and got my package. It is a little bit like Christmas and it is totally awesome to get a real and solid object that you created digitally. Great!

But when you finally proof your prints you will realize that there are some issues with ``cheap´´ 3D printing for model making. I payed about 60 Euros for this model kit. I will not get a way cheaper poured model kit from any miniature company which makes it really interesting for me.

A disadvantage is that you see the layers of printing and even if you pass all printing checks you do not have the guarantee to get every detail exact printed. But the biggest problem is the surface. Layers are visible more or less intense and you have sandstone like surface all over. Which is not exactly what I was looking for.

After researching methods to work over model surface I decided not to go for acetone. Instead I tried my best with a combination of acrylic paint via airbrush and sanding, sanding and sanding with fine and very fine sanding paper. I went up to grade 1000.

This is the current state of work. I will finish painting and build a terrain base for it. If you are interested to see it with your own eyes you can exam it on RPC 2015 in Cologne / Germany. I will be there with our team from Paint Your Imagination.

But how to improve 3D Printing Quality for model making? 

There are several ways to think about. Using same material but give it a finish with acetone? You will obviously loose material of the print so it gets less exact. Printing in higher quality is much more expensive. But modelling more intelligent to have even more thinner walls will decrease this price factor. Buying a 3D Printer could be great cause you can make more experiments cause material is relatively cheaper. But which printer gives good quality and is affordable?

Many questions do solve but a great way to model and cast bits and pieces which are difficult or impossible to craft with scratchbuilt techniques. Great addition for model making! Simple as that!

Hope you enjoy and I am looking forward for your ideas and input!
Thank you very much in advance!

TT-Lenny aka Philipp Preiser