3d printing files

[Wulf]

Does anyone know where to get some useful 3d printing files useful for 10mm (-ish) gaming? A local library has a 3d print facility and is asking people to come in & show what it can do. I thought I could find some stuff relevant to 10mm or so gaming, but I'm struggling to find anything really useful... Anything for vehicles, terrain, buildings, etc. in 10/12mm, 1:150-160-144 scale would be useable.

[Aksu]

Hullo, thingiverse has a lot of gaming related free stuff. And an ok search too.  https://www.thingiverse.com
Two things to note: printing is a slooow process and complex models require a bit of manual preparation before and after printing. But it will be worth it.
Cheers,
Aksu

[Wulf]

Hullo, thingiverse has a lot of gaming related free stuff. And an ok search too.  https://www.thingiverse.com

I looked on thingiverse, under 1:150, 1:144, 10mm, N gauge. I could only see a handful of objects, all rather uninspired buildings. Would you suggest another search?

[Aksu]

Hi,
These should be quite good when scaled for 10mm. I agree, finding stuff that has been modeled for 10mm might be a bit of a problem.

Lots and lots of tanks by m_bergman https://www.thingiverse.com/m_bergman/designs
Useful bits and bobs, especially for the GW crowd (i.e. scale down as needed) https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=wargaming+terrain
Bunkers and dragon's teeth https://www.thingiverse.com/Kybynn/designs
N-scale buildings https://www.thingiverse.com/Mfouillard/designs

When you find something interesting, check if the author has done any other designs, or check what other collections or tags the thing you found might have listed. These might lead you to something useful.

Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Aksu

[Wulf]

Bunkers and dragon's teeth https://www.thingiverse.com/Kybynn/designs

I wish these weren't individual teeth, I have some of Pendraken's Dragon's Teeth, but they're a bit expensive for a whole table width! And look a bit too big. Basing every tooth individually is a bit too much though...

N-scale buildings https://www.thingiverse.com/Mfouillard/designs

Now that's useful, both for this search and the idea that N SCALE is a better search than N gauge...

Generally, though, the whole thing confirms that I have no idea how to prepare these files, and I don't know what the library offers in the way of assistance. Might have to approach this one cautiously, if at all.

Thanks though, very useful!

[fred.]

Wow, M-Bergman has produced a huge amount of files for various tanks and vehicles. Seeing this and a thread over on LAF about epic prints, is really making the whole 3d printing thing interesting...

As to the dragons teeth - I think one of the key skills to learn with 3d printing is how to manipulate the files at a basic level. So that you can add a base to the dragons teeth, so that you can print rows of them. I suspect the base doesn't even need to be solid (my 3d printing knowledge is just from reading bits about it on various gaming forums). You can also scale up and scale down stuff to get things to a size that suits.

[Wulf]

As to the dragons teeth - I think one of the key skills to learn with 3d printing is how to manipulate the files at a basic level. So that you can add a base to the dragons teeth, so that you can print rows of them. I suspect the base doesn't even need to be solid (my 3d printing knowledge is just from reading bits about it on various gaming forums). You can also scale up and scale down stuff to get things to a size that suits.

I'm sure some can, but I have no idea how.

As for the tanks, I have sampled 10mm scale professionally printed tanks from Butlers Printed Models, and, although I admire the effort, they're not up to a standard of surface finish I can accept.

[Aksu]

The biggest headache I get when printing something is the preparation of the file - figuring out how to print it properly. Some of the models are beautiful, but in order to get a normal printer to output them you might have to manually split them into parts that can be orientated for printing without a massive amount of additional support structures. For example, if you are printing a tank with exposed tracks, it makes sense to cut off the tracks from the main model and lay them flat on their side. If you leave them on the main model, each "wheel well" will be full of support plastic you have to clean off after printing. As the printers need some plastic underneath (or very near) any new plastic they print, and can not print onto thin air, the empty space under the tracks will get automatically generated supports (or you ask the printing software to create them). Which are hell to clean if the actual part is thinner than the support it has.
Finding models which have been created by talented 3d-printing savvy sculptors can be even trickier than finding models in the first place.
Of course I am in a bit of an envious position, as I have my own (cheap and cheerful) printer and one of my jobs actually involves 3D modeling, so I can experiment quite easily and modify or create models.
Anyway, starting with some simple buildings which are already in the right scale should be a fun intro.
About the dragon's teeth - it is possible that the printing software will allow you to do two things: create copies of the tooth (just plop copies into a position that looks right) and will make a "raft" underneath your print job. A raft is a thin layer of plastic that is printed first, and then the actual print job is created on top of that. If you print any small parts, or e.g. standing figures, you will use this technique to create a solid base for the parts to stick to. Normally you pop the prints off the raft, but in this case it makes sense to leave it on.
Cheers,
Aksu

[Aksu]

A related thread started at http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,17725.0.html