Space ship themed 6x4 board

[john549]

So im putting my lil solidoodle 2 3D printer through its paces lately in an effort to create an ambitious project. A fully detailed scenic board done up to be the factory floor and its surroundings inside a manufactorum/forge ship. The idea is to have something to play crazy house ruled mix of ZM / 40k and just to have a sweet board that still works for regular 40k.

So far its mostly been a design process and getting models scratched together on the computer and seeing what works and what doesn't on the printing side of things. Things are juuuust starting to take shape both on screen and in real life as I come closer to a master design. I never fully considered how difficult it will be to balance an open enough map  that the game feels mostly normal and cramped enough to feel like your in a spaceship.



This was an early idea to test the waters but im not super happy with it so more iterations to follow. Ive got to run at the moment so I will finish this up later with a couple more photos. Thought i might as well start sharing the crazy adventure!

[Planes]

Sweeeeeeeet.

[Aegwymourn]

I am very excited to see how this turns out.

[Roland]

Those are sized to hold the Cities of Death kits?

Looks sweet... and ambitious.

Is that software that comes with the system, and can you import from AutoCAD/MicroStation/SolidWorks/etc?

[john549]

I just wanted the size to accommodate dreadnoughts comfortably and rhino/preds well enough. All doors will be at least 3" clearance but the one in that pic is 5" clearance. The software I'm using is the free 123Design from autodesk. Anything that can export to .STL formate works though. Blender is a popular one for more artsy based designs tho I'm sure if I knew how to use it better "tight" design work could be done as well in it. Coming back home tmrw so progress to follow

[john549]

here is the new layout as well as an icon im working on for toms drop marines.





With acetone and sanding you can smooth out the print surfaces so im going to have to experiment with that. Over exposure to acetone will melt the plastic so im thinking some battle damage could be easy to do after its built :DStill need to design some 45 degree wall connectors and the 3 inch doors but going to be in a printing spree soon. Probably going to do toms tactical icons 1st. More pics to come.

[Planes]

I hear a quick acetone vapor bath does wonders for a quick smoothing of everything. It involves whatever you are bathing, a little bit of acetone, a mason jar, and a hot plate. You somehow suspend the object to be smoothed inside the jar, with a little bit of acetone in the bottom of it. Applying heat from the plate causes it to release vapors, which evenly effects the whole object. If done briefly, it should get rid of just the annoying bits of edge. If done for a long time it makes the object look right smooth and polished, but kills a lot of detail in doing so.

[john549]

So Originally I wanted some mechanicum units to represent dormant sentinels and for themed missions they'd actually be used in some fashion. Now my resin addiction forces me to build an army of them. So since they're partly involved with this board I wanted to throw some pic up of them.

The board has hit a point where i need to figure out the acetone smoothing to move forward. Working on it ill let yall know how it works out.

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