ooh very nice aduck! Well done on getting a resin printer. I am keen on one of these too! The print looks great to me. Hefts well compared to the airfix figure.
Is this a 32mm upscaled figure? There's a whole bunch of potentially useful additions if you can get the scaling right
How have you found using the printer? I look forward to seeing what else you find that's 1/32 compatible
Thanks! And yes, this is a design meant for Star Wars Legion, which is nominally 35mm I think (link here:
gumroad.com/skullforgestudios). This one is paid but there are a ton of free options on sites like Thingiverse, or even individual creators like this guy who has some great-looking free Stormtroopers and Halo figures:
gumroad.com/kawassass00 Yes for sure! Here's the printer I got on Amazon:
amzn.to/3iiC8aMI went for the Elegoo Mars 2, instead of the Mars 2 Pro because the added stuff on the 2 Pro (a built in charcoal filter, slightly bigger build-plate, and metal instead of plastic vat) weren't worth the extra $70 to me. The filter supposedly is very poorly designed and is built integrally so it's very difficult to replace once it's been used up, and the plastic vat that comes with the regular Mars 2 is very sturdy and thickly built and I haven't once regretted not having a metal one.
In terms of general principles for selecting a printer, ideally you should get one that has a mono LCD screen (NOT a colored one) as the mono screens last longer, and print faster than the older color screens. Elegoo, Anycubic, and Phrozen seem to be the main companies in the space, and I went with Elegoo because I read stories of them having better customer service than Anycubic (and their products were cheaper than Phrozen at the time I was looking).
In terms of the printing process itself, you do need a fair amount of "ancillary" items to clean and cure a print safely. I did a lot of research on this and the list of things I bought, in addition to the printer are:
Cheap plastic tablecloths/covers for the table you plan to use.
Nitrile gloves (medium duty)
99% isopropyl alcohol (IPA) to clean the prints (I actually use 90% since Walgreens doesn't carry 99% and it's fine. Others get away with 70% plus a longer cleaning time)
Safety glasses
N95 masks from Home Depot
Lots of paper towels
Microfiber cloths to cut up and clean the vat with if you have a failed print
Tin foil roasting trays or cafeteria trays (1 wide for printer to sit in and catch any spills, 2 deep ones for used tools/as a workspace for removing print supports)
2 pickle jar containers with inner basket to clean and agitate print in IPA
2 clear tupperware tubs, 1 for cleaning, 1 for curing (if planning to cure outside)
Paint strainers/filters (the Mars 2 came with these)
Metal scraper to remove prints from printing bed and clippers to remove supports (the Mars 2 came with these)
Silicon spatula to clean vat
Old toothbrush for cleaning prints
Big funnel for getting resin back into bottle and IPA back into bottles
A bottle of resin, obviously (I use Elegoo ABS-like gray)
Because I live in sunny Colorado and cure my prints outside in the sun I didn't opt to buy cheap UV lamps or a nail drying station, but for you blokes in the UK it might make sense to do so given how many cloudy days you get...
On to the actual print itself: I didn't do the digital design/sculpting for this, just downloaded the digital .STL file, but beyond that the process looks like:
-Open the digital STL file in Chitubox (a free software for adding supports and slicing the model)
-Add supports in the software so the model prints correctly (3DPrintingPro on Youtube has a whole video series on how to do this)
-Click "slice" so the software converts the file to one where there are discrete "slices" of the model the printer uses to determine when and how long to turn on the LCD screen)
-Save the file to a thumb drive
-Add resin to the printer vat (after shaking the bottle vigorously) and insert the thumb drive
-Click the file on the printer touchscreen and click "print"
-Wait 7 hours for the print to be done (this was a longer one because the 54mm height takes longer, but you can print things in parallel so I added a bunch of other stuff to this print that didn't add any time to the process. Usually my prints are 3ish hours).
-Remove the build plate and use the metal scraper to pop the finished prints into a high-walled tin foil tray (sometimes requires some force)
-Plop the prints (supports and all) into the first pickle jar filled with IPA and swish around for a good minute.
-Plop them into the second pickle jar of IPA and swish around for another minute and use the toothbrush to scrub them just to make sure the last of the wet resin is off
-Plop them into a tupperware tub filled with scalding hot water to soften them a bit to make taking the supports off easier
-Pop the supports off
-Pop them back in the water-filled tupperware container, set on a sheet of aluminum foil out in the sun for 2-3 minutes to cure et voila!
Total time is probably 8 hours, but 7 of that is printing time where I'm either sleeping or doing other stuff, 30 minutes for adding supports/setting up, and 30 mins for post-processing/curing.
Sorry if that was WAY too much info. I'm planning to write a blog post on 3d printing for wargaming that's a little better organized and has pictures, but that's the gist of the process.
Lots of great Youtube videos and other resources out there for learning as well and happy to answer any other questions you have on the experience!