3D-printing Feudal Guard... pt. IX

I have been printing a Feudal Guard Baneblade... 

Picture courtesy of TMC...

Printing this beast has been quite a challenge. All the parts are cut to fit small scale resin printers like my Elegoo MARS. Even so, the bigger parts were pretty tricky to get right. It turns out that orientation and support are a lot more crucial when it involves large items. I lowered the lift speed and switched to heavier supports. 

Exploded view... Picture courtesy of TMC...

Most of the parts... Still waiting on the final print to finish...

Everything combined, the printing took well over 100 hours. I also managed to botch one of the bigger pieces so I had to re-print that as well, adding almost 20 hours to the total tally...

Sub-assembly... 

Due to some warping I had to sand and file a bit and I will have to fill some gaps. Apart from those little things the whole assembly went smoothly.

Size comparison... Next to a FG Leman Russ, it's pretty huge...

The shrine is easily one of the best detailed bits of the whole model...

After finishing the last print, the model is finally completed... It has taken me two weeks to print all the bits and pieces, but that was totally worth it!

The Baneblade in all it's glory...

Even though I was very carefull with the settings, some of the bigger pieces warped a bit while printing and curing. I needed to sand and file certain parts and the model needed some filling between the larger pieces. Even so, these were very minor adjustments; the kit is designed and cut very well. As far as I can tell, it is easily as detailed as the plastic GW kit, it looks A LOT better and only cost me half as much... Besides, printing things this big, gives a real kick...

The white lines is where the model needed some filling...

The models weighs just under a 1000 grammes... 

As can be seen in the picture above, the Baneblade almost weighs a full kilogramme. As all parts need supports, printing it has taken me a full 1 liter bottle of resin and a good part of another... 

Having completed this complicated and very big model, it is safe to say that there will be more; pulling something like this from my printer has given me quite a kick... I do intend to add a Stormlord to the printing que, but not before I finish dome smaller projects first...

 

Orange everywhere... EVERYWHERE!!!

I love the whole 3D-printing my own army thing, but, believe it or not, there is a downside to it all... Well, no, there isn't, but at the moment I am printing a lot faster than I can paint, but I am trying to catch up. Really... 

That involves painting a lot of orange, and I mean A LOT of orange... 

A Chimera, Hellhound, some 40 infantry models, a squad of cavalry and the last pieces of my first Leman Russ... 

3D-printing Feudal Guard... pt. VIII

It has been a while; work has been keeping me busy, but even so, the printer hasn't been idle...

I have printed another two squads of Guardsmen to back-up my first squad. I also replaced four guardsmen who I accidentally equipped with the wrong style helmet. 

These three units will be forming the backbone of my growing Astra Militarum force. For now I have equipped two squads with a meltagun and the third with a plasmagun. One of the Sergeants is armed with a laspistol and chainsword while the other two have been issued a boltgun. 

Three Vox-casters...

The second half of TMC-Patreon for this month contained another set of Feudal Guard upgrade bits. Included in this set are bits to equip a Vox-caster with the new styled arms. The set also includes all the bits needed to upgrade the Heavy Weapon Teams (I will be printing these soon). These upgrade packs have been extremely useful in making the FG range even more complete and flexible. 

The second part of the FG reinforcements for this update is formed by a squad of Rough Riders... As with all the Feudal Guard models these are very well designed. 

While these models aren't supported anymore by GW, I think it's still possible to field them in my force (or at least, I hope so)... If all else  fails, I still have a very good looking unit.

I designed custom bases for my cavalry, too...

Right now, I am looking at all these freshly printed models with a mix of wonder, pride, anticipation and growing dread, the latter is being fueled by the prospect of having to paint all of them... In that regard it's just like the old days when I still used to buy all my models, as in that I would buy them faster than I could paint...

The next update will most likely feature a squad of Veterans and some Storm Troopers with my own designed grav chutes... I also have been printing a Valkyrie dropship which just needs some final touches before it can be assembled and painted...

Oh, and I picked up the files to print my own Cerastus Knight, but that's a whole different story...

3D-printing Feudal Guard... pt. VII

After the last update, I picked up the Feudal Guard Troop Transport (counts as Chimera)... The kit comes with just about all the options you could possibly want for a Chimera and is just as detailed as I have come to expect from TMC designs.

While the design of this kit is absolutely amazing (I think it's miles better than the GW kit I owned more than a decade ago, which is still being sold today, only at twice the price), I still felt the need to add a little personal twist.

For the Chimera I wanted a wheeled chassis. The wheels were found on Thingiverse and were scaled to fit the hull of the Troop Transport. I also added a new hubcap, more in line with the rest of the design... 

Big ass wheels instead of tracks...

The last thing I changed, was placing a vent over the holes meant for the lasgun array. Can't help it, but I just don't like the way these look. I disliked them on the original model and, even though it looks better, I dislike them on this version. However, thanks to the wonders of 3D-design, it was remarkably easy to convert the model slightly and cover up these holes while still keeping the design intact...

Vents instead of the standard lasgun array...

The finished model is just sooooo gorgeous...

Armed with all the bolters I could fit on...

I also wanted to print a Hellhound flamethrower tank. On the Discord channel of TMC there were a couple of very nice designs made by other users, but they didn't have the look I wanted. Working from the original hull design, I used Tinkercad to create a suitable extra fuel tank for my version of the Hellhound.

The detail on the back of the fuel tank...

I replicated the rivets from the original model as closely as I could and tried to mimic the style of the rest of the model. I ended up with a big, well armoured fuel tank, not bad for a novice designer like me...

The printed version came out very good.

The finished Hellhound... 

The prints came out near flawless; only one of the track guards is slightly bent (just like the Battle Tank did), but that's hardly visible... 

Both models weigh around 200 grammes (the Chimera weighs about 190 and the Hellhound just about 240 grammes) and took four separate prints each. I printed these at a resolution of 0.03mm. While this adds several hours to the printing time, the detail of the prints is very, very good... 

Armoured support...

These vehicles represent a sizable investment in time and resin, but I am extremely happy with the results. My Elegoo MARS continues to impress me...

I will be printing more Chimera's, but first up is an Elite Feudal Guard squad with grav chutes and some Cavalry...

3D-printing Feudal Guard... pt. VI

As part of the TMC-Patreon for August another upgrade kit for the Feudal Guard was released. 

The FG upgrade kit...

Included in the upgrade kit are two whole sets of armoured bodies. The first half are just what I was waiting for to use for my standard Guardsmen. I love the original designs, but their style doesn't match the rest of the range as it is quite rounded while most of the other models are anything but, with sharp angles and edges... 

A comparison of the two versions... 

Both models are still very similar and could even be used together without a problem, at a glance you might not even notice the difference...

Thus far I have printed, and painted, mostly the elite troops (quite logical as I originally wanted to build a Kill team) and I have come to like their particular style. I really wanted my regular troopers to match that flavour... 

As soon as the kit became available for download, I went to work... With the arms and helmets from last months upgrade kit it's very easy to build a full squad of Guardsmen. 

Three full prints yielded a squad of 12 fully equipped troopers, including the same named bases I use for the rest of my models (these add just a little bit extra detail to the growing formation). I left the Sergeant quite basic, with just his standard chainsword and laspistol. It's easy enough to print another Sergeant and equip him with different weapons should the need arise. I cannot emphasize enough how big of an advantage this is as opposed to buying models like this in a box, where special components are always scarce... The same goes for the special weapons. For now, a meltagun and plasmagun are more than enough, but more of the same or different weapon options are readily available. I can remember, many years ago, before the convenience of online shopping, that I had great difficulty getting my hands on enough special weapons to equip my Guardsmen. Those particular blisters were never available and I ended up buying several command squad boxes for just those parts...

These troopers will first be used in Kill Team, but ultimately I want this squad to be one of the first complete units for my new Astra Militarum force for 40K... I might just use the current sale at CG-trader as an excuse to pick up a transport for these guys...

Another model I printed and put together is a new Sergeant for my Storm Troopers. I always liked the classic Kasrkin Sergeant model.

Equipped with a hotshot laspistol which is attached to his backpack with a power cable, just like the hotshot lasguns of the other Stormtroopers. This was a simple digital conversion, I cut the power cable from one of the special weapons and pasted it onto the arm with the pistol. Not as smooth as I would have liked, but it does the job.

The Stormtrooper Sergeant...

A little wink...

Designing and 3D-printing soda can terrain...

Because I haven't played any sort of 40K for well over a decade I have no scenery or terrain for this game... 

Some time ago (before I had my Mars) I printed this soda can terrain piece on my school's Ultimaker 2+. While not very detailed (this kit was designed with FDM-printing in mind), the print upgraded a humble soda can to a piece of attractive and functional terrain. Because I had no 40K at the time, I donated this piece to a gaming buddy, who painted it and now uses it on his battlefield. 

While browsing Thingiverse for terrain pieces to print I came across this very same upgrade kit again and thought of how it could be improved to make use of the capabilities of my Elegoo Mars.

I took more inspiration from another design made by the same user (be sure to check him out as he has several cool upgrade kits). I ended up not using any of his components, but he inspired me all the same!

While I know my way around Tinkercad I lack the ability to draw intricate/organic designs, that's why I used two pieces from this set. Using the gothic grate and the round fan I gradually worked towards creating a set of upgrade pieces. 

I have three kinds of cans available, the standard soda/beer can (be it 0,33 or 0,5L) and two kinds of cans commonly used for energy drinks. Funny thing is, we don't drink soda, beer or energy drinks, so I ended up buying a couple of the cheapest cans I could find and poured the contents down the drain... 

All these cans have different diameters and heights, but I wanted to create kits for them all. All kits are different, but share the same components to create an overall theme (I am a sucker for uniformity). To prevent ending up with a dozen identical terrain pieces, I made the upgrade kit modular, featuring several different versions of key components and several optional components. 

An example of the parts used to upgrade a can... 

At the moment I have sets for the two largest diameters, and I am thinking about ways to do something different with the smallest cans.

I have completed three different cans so far... 

Two of the different front caps...

Two of the different end caps...

Two examples of how to add variety by using different parts to detail the can... 

I have uploaded this modular upgrade kit to Thingiverse, check it out if you are interested!

3D-printing Feudal Guard... pt. V

While I still have a couple days vacation left, I figured I'd print some more Feudal Guard models...

First of all (per request), the recipe of my orange...

From left to right, from base and wash to highlight and edge...

I opted to print the models from the Elite special weapon set... For both the Heavy Stubber and the Heavy Flamer Team I used a couple of helmets from the upgrade set.

I also replaced the rock with an ammo crate I found on Thingiverse. I really like the pose of this model. Don't know if I will be able to use him, but he will be fun to paint!

For the Heavy Flamer Team I decided to use the bodies from the Engineer set as I really like the heavy overcoats they wear. As with the Heavy Stubber, I don't know if I will be able to use them, but these, too, will be fun to paint.

For this team I needed a new base. It was a bit of a puzzle, but worth it as I will be printing some Cavalry soon. 

Getting two names to fit meant I had to use short names...

3D-printing Valour Korps... pt. II

After painting the two test models I am pretty happy with the colours I have selected for my Valour Korps. 

For these models I took inspiration from a historic colour scheme, namely that of 1939/1940 German Infantry. Using Feldgrau for the uniform and grey for the trousers. I further used various browns for pouches, gasmasks and belts and dark grey for the helmets, armour and boots... 

These models, just like the Feudal Guard, are designed by The Makers Cult and are available through their Patreon and their CGtrader website.

Same as with the Feudal Guard, these models are intended for use with Kill Team, but as time goes on I might expand them into a full Astra Militarum army... 

I'm designing and printing custom bases for these models too. It's the same basic shape as the bases my Feudal Guard use, but without the stone paving and with differently styled names. I chose to leave the top empty so I can add some mud (I think that suits the style of the models better than stones)...

For now, the Valour Korps range is quite limited as it has only been started last month. It currently features two character models and a regimental Command Squad. Over the coming months the range is set to expand and include many more units... If the Feudal Guard is anything to go by, the range will be very extensive indeed... 

For now I have based and primed the Marshal, the Sergeant, two Veterans and the Comms Specialist. I have also printed the Banner Bearer, but have no direct use for the model (yet)...

3D-printing Feudal Guard... pt. IV

It's time for yet more Feudal Guard...

Most models in my Kill Team have something that sets them apart, yet the overall style of the Feudal Guard line easily ties the force together (though the orange might help too)...

With the release of the first upgrade pack for the Feudal Guard (as part of the Patreon release for july), the selection of different parts available is increased considerably. Especially the new helmets add a lot of character and are an easy way to individualise an otherwise faceless miniature. The additional arms with weapons make it very fun (and easy) to make your own leaders. 

All these helmets add a lot of options...

After the latest sale on CGtrader I have all the Feudal Guard sets (with the exception of the character models) and the possibilities are almost endless... Currently I am looking at ways to build a Necromunda gang with the Feudal Guard bits...

And to make it even better, another Feudal Guard upgrade pack is set to be released in august...

Technically not a part of my Kill Team, but I couldn't resist printing and painting a Sentinel... Most likely, he won't be the last either...

'Der Schleicher' or 'The Stalker'...

This model is huge, it towers over the regular infantry and it makes even the Ogryn look small. This model is nicely detailed and shares the overall style of the rest of the Feudal Guard range. I tried to give him a dynamic pose.

With the addition of the Sentinel, I can no longer call this a 'Kill Team-only' project, but that's fine by me... Typical, really, the Kill Team isn't even completed yet and I am already looking to take the next step...

And what would be better than to print a whole Tank? The obvious answer would be 'more Tanks', but that's something for another time... Printing this model was done in four full prints, taking me the better part of two days and a fair bit of resin... Totally worth it!

This kit comes with A LOT of options...

All the options are easily magnetized...

I had very little problems printing this big model, only the track guards warped a bit, but not so much that I could not use them... I am halfway through painting this Tank, here's a quick preview...

Yes, it's orange, too... 

This kit comes with all the options currently in the Astra Militarum CODEX for the Leman Russ Battle Tank and thanks to the clever design (which adds the option for magnetizing EVERYTHING) you can adapt the model to every possible configuration...

More Feudal Guard coming soon!