Saturday 13 January 2018

Printed Hayland Terrain 3D Scenery Items 01

Late last year, I mentioned that my brother, Mikey, had been printing out some 28mm scale scenery items for me on his 3D printer. A few of you expressed an interest in seeing what he did for me and so in this post I'll show you my recent acquisitions, courtesy of my very talented brother. He is far more tech savvy than I'll ever be! Note that he printed them out in a lurid green colour. I didn't mind what colour he used because I knew I'd be painting them. The transformation from unpainted to painted is remarkable. Next time I do one of these posts I'll show you the printouts in their natural state.
These items are from the first Hayland Terrain Kickstarter set, which mainly concentrated on modern day furniture items. The basic pledge of £40.00 netted you over 230 different models, which works out at about 17 pence each. This particular set was an optional add-on - the sci-fi generators and powercells set. It was the first set that I asked my brother to print out for me. Note that I have only shown a few of the powercells he printed out. He printed four large cells and eight small cells. They are stackable.
The set came with two sizes of generator - large and small. I asked Mikey to print out one large one and two smaller ones. Note that to customise them further, I have added control panels to them, taken from my Battle Systems Sci-fi Terrain sets. If I hadn't told you, I doubt if you'd have noticed. To me, they really make them look a lot better and they blend in seamlessly.
As you can see, the two generators are identical in all respects except size. Whilst the set did come with the two variants of the generator, it should be noted that one of the cool features of a 3D printer is that you can rescale objects to print them out to whatever size you want, given the constraints of your printing area.
 I painted them in the three shades of Foundry Gunmetal 104 with a wash of Citadel Nuln Oil.
 To add a splash of colour to them, I painted the hexagonal lights in Foundry Vivid Blue 22
To give you a sense of scale to these items, in this photo I have added my 28mm scale figure of Vampifan. I have to admit that I am very happy with these. Once they are painted, they do look superb. Look out for these appearing in the engine room of The Ace of Spades on my WOIN blog and possibly in other sci-fi games.
From another Hayland Terrain Kickstarter (I have backed all of his terrain Kickstarters so far), I got a number of sets designed for Wild West games. This particular set was from the Forge. It consists of, from left to right, a tool cabinet, a water bucket, an anvil, a forge with fire and bellows, and a coal bucket. Once again, the paintwork really brings them to life. I'll be adding these to my Sarissa MDF Blacksmith's model, once I get it painted. Vampifan appears again just to show you how big these scenery items are.
I have a whole load of furniture items I want printing but I'm a patient person and I don't want to overwhelm Mikey with my wish list, so I send him a few files at a time for him to print out when he has a moment to spare. The hardest part for me is prioritising which items I want printing first, given that I have such a huge backlog of items. Regarding the painting of them, they painted really well. I under-coated them in matt black primer, then just painted them as normal. No problem!
3D printing hasn't taken off yet but I'm sure it will. This post just gives a small insight into what can be done, but really, the sky is the limit. From what I've seen so far, 3D printing excels at scenery items but is not so good for printing out miniature figures. Mikey has printed out a few 28mm scale figures for me, some which I will show you, but they are just okay. Unfortunately they lack detail on their faces, which can look very indistinct. But, it is still early days and I'm sure it won't be too long before that hurdle is surmounted and we can get crisp, finely detailed figures. Just look at the way plastic figures are produced nowadays compared to those of twenty years ago.

22 comments:

  1. Definitely some useful terrain items, there, Bryan.

    In the past I've relied upon buying such items from Ainsty Castings when at shows, but solely using their resin limits and does create repetition, unfortunately. I've also dabbled in spaceships from Shapeways, but never progressed further with 3D prints. I'll have to see what 28mm terrain is available from Shapeways (I doubt I'll ever have access to a printer, myself), as it could just make furnishing a table that much more easier.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many thanks, Roy. Once you start looking into the world of 3D printing it is a revelation. There is so much stuff available and new stuff is coming out every day. But even so, there is still so much available in other forms such as card, metal, plastic and resin from a large range of companies. We are blessed with so much choice.

      Delete
  2. These look really smart Bryan - especially with the paint job you've given them, amazing stuff, and it makes me wonder how big a change it will make to the hobby when 3D printers are common items in the home! (Just think back to when downloadable PDF terrain took off).
    We certainly live in "interesting times" :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, yes indeed, Greg, we do live in "interesting times." I'm convinced that 3D printing will have a huge impact on our hobby. Who knows, in ten years time maybe 3D printing will be a lot more common and affordable. Such a change won't take place overnight but it IS happening, Just give it time.

      Delete
  3. Nice 3D printed terrain Bryan, if your brother wants to get a smoother finish he can use different wire, but this obviously depends on his printer. Very nicely painted by the way

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers, Dave. He has almost finished building his second 3D printer, which should give better quality print-outs. There's not much he doesn't know about the subject. I'm very happy with all of the stuff he does for me.

      Delete
  4. Not got my head all the way around 3D printing yet. 1 think I do realise is that it is in its infancy and will get better and better as the years pass. Kudos to your brother. Like I am sure many others seeing them in the raw would be good so thanks in advance for offering that. Totally brill painting as usual and they would grace many a wargames table.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers, Clint. I must admit that the whole concept of 3D printing is mind-boggling. I'm just grateful that my brother is so knowledgeable about it and is able and willing to print out stuff for me. Lucky me, I know!

      Delete
  5. This is the future and no two ways about it. From what I can gather material costs are relatively low compared to buying commercial scenery and once printer costs fall, as they will, we will all be doing this at home.
    Some very useful stuff here, look forward to seeing more, I do like the western blacksmith stuff, the fire is painted very believably. Cheers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, John. This is indeed the future and as times passes it will become much more common and a lot cheaper. I'm sure it won't be too long before I have my own 3D printer. Probably not this year, but beyond that, who knows? It is certainly something I would like to get into.

      Thanks for the compliments on my Wild West Forge furniture. I was delighted at how they turned out.

      Delete
  6. What a thoroughly enthralling posting, Bryan. I'm just dipping my toe into 3d printed terrain myself (as you know), so found this a fascinating read as to what is already out there. Terrific stuff and I especially like your wild west stuff. Very useful indeed :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kind of you to say so, Simon. This will be the first of a regular series of posts as I acquire more and more 3D printed scenery items. I have fantasy, Wild West, modern day, post apocalypse and sci-fi items waiting to be printed, so I'm well covered for most needs. I very much look forward to seeing your own 3D printed items. As John said above, this is the future.

      Delete
  7. Very nice mate. I have to agree 3d printing for minis is not good at the mo but the terrain is top notch

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Andy. You are absolutely spot on... but it's still early days.

      Delete
  8. These look good Bryan. Check out iron gate scenery they have a large number of items at a reasonable price. I can see this becoming more common place in the next few years. I admired there printed scenery at Derby Worlds in October and Pulp Citizen has picked up numerous items.

    http://www.irongatescenery.co.uk/onlinestore/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for that link, Simon. Some interesting stuff there. As you say, the prices are reasonable.

      Delete
  9. Good post. I've backed Hayland's Fantasy KS and what he produces looks really good. Printer down at the moment but intend to get a new one, and the lumber mill and gold mine from the Fantasy KS is high up in the printing queue.
    Really nice to see painted printed stuff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many thanks, Joakim. I have been very impressed by all of the Kickstarters run by Hayland Terrain. Once they get painted they do look amazing.

      Delete
    2. and just an hour ago I got the fricking printer running after tinkering with it for an hour. Trying out a test-print now to see if intends to continue working. Fingers crossed...

      Delete
    3. I wish you well. Best of luck!

      Delete
  10. It did not want to live... :-(
    It failed in three diffent ways during five test runs. That printer is now officially dead

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bummer! I feel your pain, Joakim, and I'm so sorry it didn't work out for you.

      Delete