I've got a new toy

[Philipp Gross]

Yep, it's a 3D printer.

It's an Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra, I got it as a birthday gift from my family. Over the last two months I've been experimenting with it, and things have escalated ever since It really does transform how you approach model building. No more scavenging for spare parts, just go and print it. As often as you like

This was my first test print, hobby related, naturally:



Then I bought and printed a 3D file for Panther tracks:



The file cost me about 5 euros - the resin used for printing amouts to about 50 cents. My printing programme kindly calculates the cost for every print

At this point things got a little out of hand.... I discovered a free 3D design software....and made this:


All of that because I needed a few better looking Panzer III wheels for a build


And while I was at it (and possibly under the influence of resin fumes), I dug up an ancient E-100 hull and made a new turret for it:



You can download everything here, by the way. For free

Thanks for looking, and sorry for neglecting everything and everyone else during my newfound 3D mania

Philipp

[Vincent Power]

Sorry for missing your post Philipp.

So you have entered the 3D world. Well done. The future beckons.

How have you found the process? I have no experience with this technology at all. I see the things other modellers are doing and the advantages are obvious.

Cheers,
Vincent

[Philipp Gross]

Hi Vincent,

no worries, I haven't been around much either....sorry for not writing you in ages, I'll remedy that ASAP.

3D printing has a certain learning curve I'm afraid, it's by no means a plug and play process. It starts with properly calibrating the printer for the resin, since they tend to require different exposure times, layer heights etc. which need to be entered manually (the manufacturers have charts for that...). Even if you get a finished 3D model from somewhere, it usually needs some preparation work in the "slicing" programme before the print starts. Placing supports on your model is a science all by itself and it usually takes some trial and error to get the best results.

And once you have printed something, it takes a bit of getting used to the materials. The resin needs to be washed to remove all liquid remains, then it has to harden properly. There are machines that help you with this, but sunlight and a bucket full of soap water work too The fully cured resin is fairly brittle and needs to be glued with superglue, so that's a change from styrene too.

Printing times depend on the layer thickness and the height of the model. For parts with fine details I print with 0.02 mm layers, which takes about one hour per cm of height.

Oh, and the whole process is smelly...a lot Seriously though, I recommend a powerful air filter, unless you have a separate room for the printer or you can have the windows wide open for the whole process.

But once you get all this figured out, it's an absolute game changer for the hobby. There is a lot of stuff available online for free or very little money, and there's more coming every day. And once you buy a file, you can print as much as you want, forever. And once you get started on making your own designs, there's virtually no limit on what you can do.

I'll post a few photos of my first project in a separate thread

Cheers,
Philipp

[Vincent Power]

Thanks for the comprehensive summary Philipp. I'm not sure whether I should be excited about the possibilities or apprehensive about learning all the new processes needed to print something.

No matter what, it's clear that 3D printing will become a major part of our hobby, sooner rather than later.

Cheers,
Vincent