- 2 gun crews each consisting of an officer with telescope and 4 crew.
- A single Rocket battery base consisting of an officer and maybe 3 crew.
By making a couple of the crew figures open handed it should be possible to create the 10 gun crew figures from 3 gunner masters plus the officer master, and the rocketeers from the officer and the open handed figures. Thus, I need a total of about 14 figures only.
Being from back in the days of metal dollies and solder I was unaware of just how far the technology of 3D resin printing has come, and recent research has really sparked my imagination, and so prompted by my partner in this little venture we are now exploring the possibility of going down the digital rout to create our gun crews. Here's what I didn't know a week ago!
Masters can now be digitally created on a computer, and the resulting SDL (?) file can be used to print out the master in resin on a 3D printer that can then be used to make a mould. Having seen a few examples of just what can be achieved I have to say that I am very impressed with the technology, and a test sample of a RHA officer has been commissioned to see how it turns out. More will follow as things progress.
A few related links:
Griffin Moulds. - Rubber and silicone mould making and centrifugal casting.
Digital Sculpts Sweden. This is the guy who is doing the test RHA officer.
Graham Cummings has been experimenting with his 3D printer on his excellent Scotia Albion blog, well worth checking out these links if you are interested in the technology.
Meantime I'm painting a battalion of Les Higgins French infantry for 'Tony, very nice little castings they are too, and working on finishing off basing the 40mm cavalry in 4's on 120mm frontage for DBA/ C&C. The results are slightly chunky looking, but these are weighty figures and need a thick base in order to pick them up safely. Pictures will follow hopefully tomorrow.
I finished off my battalion of French for Tony. I enjoyed putting paint to the Les Higgins figures too!
ReplyDeleteI saw those Jonathan, they look great. Lovely old castings I agree.
DeleteLee - I am the first to admit that I know less than nothing about this stuff, but it does strike me that if you have an accurate mathematical model to run off on a 3D printer then it can be tweaked to produce a resin master in any size you want - my point is only that such a model does not have to be limited to the 40mm market.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who wishes may now point out my stupidity - this is called education!
You are correct Tony, so the 40mm RHA crew could also be printed in 28mm making them more commercially viable. However at this stage we are considering using the 3D resin prints to crew our guns rather than having them produced in metal if they are robust enough. Does sound weird all this talk of printing model soldiers though.
DeleteLee, using the printed resin figures was the first thing to come to my mind but then I've painted and played with a lot of plastic figures. My WWI Homecast Germans had a unit with printed bicycles. A first for me.
DeleteAha... you already had the same idea.. I've no idea how strong they are, but if you only needed 14 or so then print them rather than go the whole hog of moulding and casting..
DeleteRoss/Steve - The resin prints must be pretty robust if they can be used for mould making and with artillery figures no fragile muskets or bayonets so could well work. It's also quite economical this way, the digital sculpt is about £70 per figure (split between two of us) but the actual prints only work out around 25p to 30p per figure in resin cost according to Graham Cummings. Graham told me that print time is 6 to 8 hours, but that doesn't change if it's 1 figure or 10 figures. Has to be done in a well ventilated area due to the resin fumes.I'm fascinated by all this and to be honest I would be happy to have just a single 5 man gun crew and the rocket battery stand.
DeleteFascinating to me too... the 3D printers are a whole new ball game in our kind of hobby (the model railroaders as well will probably benefit).. looking forward I can see whole hobby changing... props to Graham as I think he sees it coming and is ahead of the game, but as the printers improve, and become more affordable, how long before we are buying our troops as digital plans and then printing our own?? Exciting times....
DeleteAll sounds very cutting edge to me! I know I'd just hack something existing about and then live with it but best of luck with it,I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
It is all new to me Iain. I started by trying to find another 40mm collector to share the costs of the crew with traditional sculpt/mould/casting in metal until this way forward was suggested to me. I can't wait to see how the officer sculpt comes back.
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