3D-printing Normandy... pt. I

3D-printing Normandy, one bit at a time...

I have easy access to a 3D-printer at work (actually, the printer is in my classroom), enabling me to make the occasional print. I mainly print terrain/scenery for wargaming. I have a few spindles of PLA I bought myself so I don't have to use the school's material.

The Ultimaker in action, printing a 15mm house...

The files I am using, are from a Kickstarter campaign and feature a complete set of buildings mainly suitable for WW2 Normandy. They can be found here: Jens's awesome 3D-files
While there are plenty of free files to be found online, these are well worth checking out.

I scaled these buildings for 15mm or 1:100 and they are meant to replace or supplement my older, scratch-built houses... The designs are very detailed, including things like shutters, framework for the windows and rainpipes. Most of these will print brilliantly without any supports (or very few).

The Mairie...

A set of ruins...
The middle one is a bit of a failed print, but for a ruin, it will do just fine...

A set of walls...

The ruined walls are my own remix of the original files. With some cutting and pasting these came out great.

A sample set-up of a walled farmstead...

Due to the nature of the printer the prints have some visible horizontal layers, but with some paint and effort these can be made to look pretty good...

Still W.I.P. but getting there... 

So far, I have printed multiple buildings, mostly houses but also a few farms, barns and shops... At a couple of hours each, these represent a few weeks worth of printing. At the moment I am printing a church, to be more precise I am printing a model of the Sainte-Mère-Église church...

Parts of the church, being printed...