So when they launched the Mantic Vault, their 3D subscription service similar to Patreon, I had to jump in. I got the early bird discount too, so it’s cheaper than my One Page Rules patreon. It’ll take time to properly evaluate the value proposition of course, but so far it seems pretty good bang for the buck. A lot of Armada ships have already been released in the first three month’s packs, along with some full kits (halfling balloons!!) and upgrades for existing kits.

I think this is very exciting, it needed a big company like Mantic to take the plunge and try to augment their range with 3D files, we’ll see where it leads. Whatever happens they’re making GW suddenly look very old fashioned.

Here’s what I’ve printed and painted so far, the start of my dwarf fleet. Then I’m going to do an Empire of Dust one, and a Basilean one, then my gaming group can try our first battle and see if it sinks or swims.

Oh and like all good subscription services, the Mantic Vault has an ever growing welcome pack which has an interesting collection including two upgrades for the goblin Giant.

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The original RT rules even talked about how the gretchin pilots are so used to being bullied by orks that when they get their hands on a little power they tend to go crazy. First time they get into hand to hand range with an enemy they MUST charge in and let off some steam. Fun, characterful, not a WAAC in site. Love it.

So when I was rummaging around the web, as you do, and I found a rather fantastic looking 3D print version of the now long oop dreadnought I had to get myself a copy. Produced by Fanath Miniatures, it has all the similar components as the original, with clean sharp lines and a couple of fun extras.

Even just seeing the 3D render above makes me grin. Oh and it’s about the same price as a Starbuck’s coffee. Nice.

I printed one out and decided to make the smaller version that appeared on the old Rogue Trader era advert. Painted up in Bad Moon colours of course and here’s the result.

I’m so happy with it. The details are so sharp, miles away from the old lead model. And of course the exuberant pilot is a new twist.

So of course the wonder of 3D printing is you don’t just have to print one. I decided to do one for each of the ork clans. I’ve already started the snakebite and evil sunz ones, full photos to follow. But for direct comparison, the 3D print vs the old lead.

Now I’m as nostalgic as the next middle aged bloke, but for me this is everything great about new technology. The old charm and fun, but far superior quality. I’ve never been one for getting into bidding wars with other middle aged blokes over a small piece of metal. I think my opinion on this is probably why my post was removed from the Oldhammer facebook group!

Oh and I should add, I am most definitely not a fan of the generic ‘space mareen’ 3D models that get churned out by every other hack on Patreon. IP theft is a shady business. But when it comes to something that’s out of print for 20 odd years and the only route is to pay about £50 on ebay (none of which goes to the IP owner), then my pov gets more relaxed. Let your own conscience be your guide.

Rogue Trader Ork Dreadnoughts, gotta love the little egg shaped bastards!

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As always, the parts were printed on my Elegoo Mars 2 (still loving this little machine), in thankfully the last of my grey Elegoo resin. Holy crap that stuff stinks. Thankfully I got another bottle of Beige/Skin colour and it’s back to sweet smelling printing for me. Lesson learned.

Paint job was pretty straight forward. Needed a reasonably steady hand to get the lines, but after many touch ups I got something I’m happy with. I then did some edge highlighting to pick out the panels a bit more. The windscreen was a random technique I saw on FB, someone had done a female Mad Max character with chromed glasses. I think it works ok, bit more interesting than just black anyway.

I also got myself some Dirty Down Rust for painting all this series, seemed fitting. Going to take some getting used to, but the girder on the back I think works particularly well. Finally a liberal coating of sandy weathering powder and tis done.

Really happy with the completed Mad Max Interceptor, next up is a post apocalyptic VW Campervan/Bus. Already printed and assembled, just needs a spot of gap filling then it’s off to the paint table.

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First I printed out a few of the Fat Dragon Games models I’d previously printed on my Ender 3. The difference was staggering.

Next I late pledged to an EC3D kickstarter and got a load of sci-fi models to print. I also found a few free star wars models I want to use in Legion (if I ever get to play).

Then at the end of July I decided to finally join a patreon. I want for One Page Rules, they’d sponsored a few content creator videos around that time and having seen what people were printing I decided I wanted in. Since then I’ve printed out a decent sized Mummified Undead army, and with more great models coming in October’s release I think it’ll keep growing.

To date I’ve printed 115 miniatures using a single bottle of resin costing about forty quid. The patreon is less than a tenner a month, the Kickstarter was a bit more, about 30 dollars I think. But value for money with a 3D resin printer is insane.

I should also say if you’re contemplating your first printer and thinking of going for FDM because resin is complicated, or you have an FDM printer and are worried about moving to resin, don’t be. Resin printing for me has been a factor of 10 more straight forward than FDM. I was constantly tweaking my Ender 3 trying to get decent enough settings for clean prints. In a resin printer there’s really only one mechanical aspect you need to focus on, and that’s levelling the build plate. Something I did every print on my Ender 3, and have done a total of 4 times on my Mars 2.

Clean up requires a process, but mine is pretty straightforward. Sensible safety precautions like gloves and a respirator as obviously a must, but same applies to a lot of what we do in this hobby.

Overall 3D resin printing is such a phenomenal tool, and my Mars 2 is easily my best hobby purchase of my 30+ years of doing this. It’s even encouraged me to paint more!

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Simply because of the massive user base, and therefore huge numbers of people to help me pick up the mess, I went for an Ender 3. Ender 3 Pro to be precise. Tom Tullis (of Fat Dragon Games) has some awesome videos starting from assembly through to calibration and how to get pretty damned decent quality minis off an fdm printer. I really recommend him (and his awesome support facebook group) thoroughly. And to reinforce that I bought most of his STLs :).

Here it is, just starting printing the test dog (which failed half way through, hah, though in the previous few months I’ve learned how to level the bed properly).

This is my current secondary hobby station I built which contains a crap load of GW games. Sat on top are the printer and my cheap eBay special foam cutter. Do wish it still looked this tidy.

Here’s a selection of my first prints.

The above are all printed using the Fat Dragon terrain profile for Cura, which means thicker layers, less infill and therefore much faster prints. However the downside is the lines between layers are more noticeable.

The Skeleton was printed using the Fat Dragon miniatures profile, so took a lot longer but it smoother. The Ender 3 can do better quality minis, I am working on getting my calibration dialled in. But when printing terrain it doesn’t matter so much.

There’s no denying 3D printing is a hobby in itself, it takes a lot of fecking around to get it working and working reliably. I still get failed prints. But there’s no denying the magic of watching a model literally being created right before your eyes!

I’ll be making more posts about this new hobby, I want to talk about the mods I’ve bought and the new Blender skills I’m acquiring. In the meantime here’s a teaser of my Star Wars Legion terrain

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