3D Printed: Door Frames for Imperial Assault

A friend of mine asked if I could print some pieces found on Thingiverse for FFG's Imperial Assault, and of course I accepted.

The first one I printed without reading the instructions, so it was printed top side up, with supports which would have been all right if the new filament (Fiberlogy) did not require other temperature settings than my other brands (3DE and Spectrum), and caused a lot of bed adhesion problems.

This attempt ended up with a lot of visible stepping, and a slight layer shift close to the base. I also had to remove supports from the narrow slot in which the cardboard door is supposed to fit, which is rather tedious and difficult work. I would say, with a bit of filing and sanding, it will probably be passable, but of course I was not content with this.

The solution to the adhesion issue was to not just print at higher temperature, but only do so on the first layer, lowering the nozzle temperature for the rest of the print - which also means that I can get good adhesion AND print a low speed!

I then read the instructions that said to print in reverse orientation, with raft and supports, and I did so with lower print temperature. Only problem with this method is that the top (bottom) layer does not come out very smooth, and will require some filling/sanding (probably just some filler primer), and I felt that my printer should be able to do better.

So while I printed a second piece with those settings, I pondered how to do it.

I decided to try printing right side up, with raft and supports, but while this gave a nice top, it once more required a lot of material to be removed from the finished model (including the door slot).

So I played around with the Cura settings until I succeeded in printing directly on the glass bed (higher first layer temperature with some glue stick applied), and the fourth door frame is the first piece I have printed that way (but hopefully not the last). I printed it upside down, with supports (although they probably were not necessary), and as the first layer is shaped by the surface of the bed, it turned out almost perfectly flat.

The photo is a bit blurred in the foreground, could not get the focus to work without a proper light setting, but you get the idea.

There will be some cleaning up to do, especially around the small buttons, but nothing an experienced miniatures gamer will find difficult. I think I shall try printing one without supports tomorrow, as I would like to see how clean a result I can get...

Some progress...

I finished painting the first foot-and-mounted set of my semi-commission a couple of days ago.

I shall not be showing pics of them, until the 'customer' makes use of them, though - just a quick heads-up, here.

Shortly, I'll have finished a little batch of something else to show, so stay tuned!

Toiling Away...

I don't have anything new to show at this very moment.

I have added a couple of minis to my WIP Coven, but I have also received my first semi-commission, so I'm frantically cleaning up those models so I can change between painting one (actually, two) of those in between each of the Coven models.

I have gotten myself a sweet deal with a miniature company to paint up some of the models they don't have pics of for their webstore. I get to keep the painted minis, just have to take good photos of the paintjobs to send back to the company.

I get free minis for painting them, and the company gets photos to, hopefully, up the sales. Plus, the minis can be used to re-start a long dormant project of mine. Win-win, if you ask me!

I have 5 sets of mounted/foot characters to prep and paint, and I shall paint a full set at a time to photograph.

I shall not be showing pics of the 'commission' minis here, until they have been published by the company, though, so you'll just have to take my word for it.