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Author Topic: Dwarven Forge...  (Read 5256 times)

TheShadowSpawn

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #30 on: September 14, 2021, 12:43:52 PM »
what's the quality like for 3d printed figures?

Edit: you bastards are pulling me into a new hobby... must... resist...

They can be really high quality. I just started printing this last summer, so if I can help at all let me know.

If you want smaller terrain, then resin can be a good way to go. You want FDM for terrain though, as its just a hassle to print those larger pieces in resin.

Oddend

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #31 on: September 14, 2021, 01:19:21 PM »
3D printing miniatures & terrain often makes a lot more sense with a resin printer; you can print a whole tray-full of minis in the time it would take to print a single mini with the same printer (just a few hours), and at much higher quality than FDM (the heated nozzle printers). These days, you can get jewelry-grade resin printers for ~$200.

Maybe worth going resin for miniatures - but definitely not for terrain. The printer itself may even cost less than a higher-end FDM printer, but that ignores the extra process involved such as needing UV lights and cleaning up the minis with an alcohol vat etc.

And more importantly for something bulky like terrain - the resin itself is WAY more expensive than FDM printing something like PLA. For miniatures the slight upgrade in quality may be worthwhile (though with my *meh* painting skill - probably not for me personally) but definitely not for terrain. (Note: I don't have a 3d printer - but I've been on a binge of youtube videos about it recently and it may be my next big Christmas gift to me - maybe in a year or three when my kid is old enough to justify it by making little toys for him.)

Yeah, I should have said "small scenery props" or something. FDM definitely makes sense for large structures. Even minis are achievable if your expectations aren't too high, or if you can go with a larger scale than usual.

For me, I'd rather print even-smaller-scale stuff (like the old Battle of the Five Armies wargame). I live in a small house. :'( ;D
« Last Edit: September 14, 2021, 01:23:27 PM by Oddend »

Charon's Little Helper

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #32 on: September 14, 2021, 02:35:56 PM »
Even minis are achievable if your expectations aren't too high, or if you can go with a larger scale than usual.


Yeah - my mini painting skill is 'fine' - so the boosted mini quality I'd get from a resin printer would largely go to waste anyway. Though Kanyenya is probably right that I'd have to give up on printing some of the more extreme fine-pieced miniatures as well.

As a Prusa MK 3 Guy - 3D printing of any kind requires dedication, time and space....And some level of money.

Id say go FDM for minis unless you want something like a Wargame minis quality.

Nice - Prusa is the brand I've tentatively wishlisted due the apparent quality control - though I'd probably go with the mini. Both because it's about half the cost and (per reviews) is closer to a plug-and-play, taking only an hour or less to set up.

Any major complaints with your machine?
« Last Edit: September 14, 2021, 02:41:15 PM by Charon's Little Helper »

Kanyenya

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #33 on: September 14, 2021, 04:56:38 PM »

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The learning curve for operating a printer is high enough that it won't be worth it for many people, but if you've learned your way around Photoshop or Adobe Premiere or a similarly-technical software (and you wouldn't mind learning something new), 3D printing is definitely something to look into.

Both you and Kanyenya make some strong cases for me to seriously consider 3d printing. I'm a "technical" guy by trade, I love learning new stuff if it is of interest - and 3d printing has been of interest to me for a long time and I've avoided it because I'm leery of how much it would swallow up my small amounts of free time. Grrr... you guys are making this hard for me in a good way.

:) I've found the learning curve depends a lot on the printer you get. They all require some kind of maintenance, but for some it's minimal, others a lot more is required. I have two FDM printers, a Prusa MK3 and a Prusa Mini. The MK3 has been chugging along for over two years and the only thing I generally have to do is wipe down the print bed with isopropyl alcohol every couple of weeks and lube the rods maybe twice a year. I did have to replace the nozzle once, but otherwise it's mostly fire-and-forget. My Mini has been down for awhile due to a bad clog I've been too lazy to do anything about. Since I can print on my MK3, and I have more than enough to paint yet, I haven't been in a hurry to get that one up and going.

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@Kanyenya - love those setpieces you printed. Is that building modular? I assume you can pull off the roof and do stuff inside it right? Man that looks awesome.

Yep; it's actually two separate buildings, with the middle piece designed to join them into a single building. The interiors are all detailed. Most of the buildings I've run across are like that, which is nice. Here's a picture of the floors disassembled:




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Dragonlock - I've watched some reviews about it, and they say it's very good but it's comparatively brittle. A couple of reviewers have said the wall pieces separate (i.e. break) from the floor tiles very easily. I'm not sure when those videos were made and if the quality has gone up.
I've been using Dragonlock tiles for years now and I haven't had any issues with breakage. They probably would break if I dropped them on a cement floor, but fortunately that hasn't happened :) The material most people use for terrain is PLA, which can be brittle, but there are other materials you can use that are more durable, like ABS or PETG. They're not quite as easy to get good results from as PLA from what I understand, though I haven't tried ABS myself (I did try PETG but I didn't have good luck).

GeekyBugle

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #34 on: September 14, 2021, 07:50:06 PM »
As a side note: For resin terrain I would go the true DIY way, crat a few tiles, use them to cast silicone molds, use the molds to cast an almost infinite amount of tiles with way cheaper resin than the UV curing type.

Hell you can even use color straight into the resin so you need to paint less.
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Oddend

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #35 on: September 14, 2021, 09:51:07 PM »
As a side note: For resin terrain I would go the true DIY way, crat a few tiles, use them to cast silicone molds, use the molds to cast an almost infinite amount of tiles with way cheaper resin than the UV curing type.

Hell you can even use color straight into the resin so you need to paint less.

I recently stumbled upon a really cool channel around casting: https://youtu.be/Rw1NzWHwqH8

Myrdin Potter

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #36 on: September 15, 2021, 02:07:24 AM »
I do a lot of 3D printing.

Dragonlock terrain is high quality and prints well. They are running a Kickstarter now and the existing art is super cheap as an add-on. It is meant for FDM printing and they do have some miniatures specifically made for FDM as well.

I own 3 resin printers (elegoo Mars, Mars Pro and Mars 2) and they each work well. Resin printing much better for miniatures. A little messy but if you are careful no big deal.

The initial printer cost plus learning curve is about $200 to $250. After that, terrain is very inexpensive.

I find that for set piece battles, terrain makes it special.


Omega

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #37 on: September 15, 2021, 03:42:47 AM »
Last crafting project I had for gaming was making some foamboard tiles and twist-tie minis as my own method ends up at about 25mm scale and can make pretty much anything.

Foamboard is fairly cheap to get from any dollar store for a dollar. Is light and thus easy to transport.

tenbones

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #38 on: September 15, 2021, 05:02:46 PM »
I think what I'm going to do is paint up my figures I currently have.

Then I'm gonna buy some basic DF sets, and get some 3d printed pieces for accessories before I eventually dive into 3d printing. That'll be a ways out. I have some major purchases to make for some of my other hobbies that are currently taking precedent... but I think 3d printing will dovetail with them too.


palaeomerus

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #39 on: September 15, 2021, 05:14:13 PM »

Nice - Prusa is the brand I've tentatively wishlisted due the apparent quality control - though I'd probably go with the mini. Both because it's about half the cost and (per reviews) is closer to a plug-and-play, taking only an hour or less to set up.

Any major complaints with your machine?

Prusa makes nice machines with some friendly options but the biggest part of their price is support. You get to call them and email them for advice. That's even if you buy one of their kits and build it yourself.

If you go with Creality or a re-badge place like Monoprice then you are stuck with talking to fellow users online to get your problems solved. So if you choose one of those budget brands make sure it is a popular one that is widely bought and used  so you have a lot of fellow customers to serve as a knowledge base to learn from.

And if you are a curious inventive self starter who sees the thing as a lab project and you might even want to look into hacking it or improving it THEN you can buy one of the weirder ones confident that you will overcome anything that might serve as an obstacle to your using the thing.
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palaeomerus

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Shrieking Banshee

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #41 on: September 15, 2021, 07:34:14 PM »
Then I'm gonna buy some basic DF sets, and get some 3d printed pieces for accessories before I eventually dive into 3d printing. That'll be a ways out. I have some major purchases to make for some of my other hobbies that are currently taking precedent... but I think 3d printing will dovetail with them too.

Again try out Fat Dragon games EZ terrain first. It will let you get a 'feel' for terrain first. In addition its WAY faster then 3D printing.

Bunch

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #42 on: September 16, 2021, 12:19:19 AM »
If you go with 3d printer and FDM get an Ender 3. It's exceptionally well supported by Fat Dragon.

estar

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #43 on: September 16, 2021, 05:03:42 AM »
Galactus help me... I may be getting into Dwarven Forge.
You are officially damned


I'm actually painting figures again and having some of my players over to the palazzo on Friday nights for grilling and painting (can't paint without beef in the stomach it's a Texas law). So I'm seriously considering picking up Dwarven Forge stuff in the very near future.

I'd like to hear any and all opinions on where to start?
Because I like running sandbox campaign I want to build things on the fly. After getting in on several of their dwarvenite kickstarters, their current offering break down into two categories. Modular Stuff you can build on the fly with and stuff you build dioramas with. The Diorama sets require to preassemble something set it aside and then pull it out complete when you want to use it. While technically modular, the assembly process is such you can't assemble it in a reasonable amount of time during a session like you can the modular kit.

This show the result of using a modular set which I could (and have) built on the fly without bogging down the session. You have to be organized and have practiced before hand.


This is the one diorama style set I got the Dwarvenite City. I was disappointed as it didn't work out well for how I use Dwarven Forge. But if prebuilding stuff works with your style then it is very good. Because of this when I had the opportunity I bought two more Resin Medieval building sets which are better for modular builds. The slowdown is a result of using pegs into a base then sliding walls in between. I will say if you have the $$$ the result can be spectacular and eminently usable during a session. As long as you prebuild it.



Modular
Dungeon (Dwarvenite or Resin)
Cavern (Dwarvenite or Resin)
Medieval Building Kit (Resin only)

Dioramas
City (Dwarvenite)
Castles (Dwarvenite)

Painted or unpainted?

I went with unpainted for the Dungeon, and painted for the Caverns. It is straightforward work but a lot of it. I recommend using the paints they sell. You get a lot paint in a bottle, it applies wells, and holds up.

Storage?

Ah you come to the master. What you need is the below. A tote with sterilite containers. I have three of them that contain all my dwarven and I can transport them anywhere I game.


One set I used with the Dwarvenite City Stuff.




Should I buy used?
Sure especially if was prepainted from Dwarven Forge.
Any issues I need to know about?
So if you opt to build on the fly with the modular sets then have to practice to get a feel for the grain. When you draw a dungeon on a piece of graph paper, the walls fall equally on either side of the grid line. This is not the case with Dwarven Forge. The walls are on one side. For different sets you need to practice assembly them so when different section line up you don't get a discontinuity in the wall. It is not hard to learn it more of a side effect that most are not immediately aware of.

If your dungeon are all rooms and passages and not a compact maze then this won't be an issue. In general caverns are just rooms and passageways so this is not an issue with the cavern sets. 

Next I think prebuilt layout with cloth covering the unexplored area are for the birds. In general I build out as the players explore tearing down stuff as they leave an area.



I have a wooden yardstick I use to shove a section over to keep building. Mind you not the entire layout just the section behind the part. Also note I describe while I am building so while their is additional time, I am not stupidly doubling what it takes to setup an area.


My current plan is to pick up two sets of the Cavern Core megapacks then build from there. Once I have enough for all the underground crawling I'll start working on the Dungeon and Wilderness then City stuff in that order.
Sure if caverns are more common adventuring local then that sounds good. If you do what I do you will find you only need enough for a) to build out the party area of awareness and b) variety of pieces to handle what you want to depict.

Hope this is helps. And here are some additional pics from my blog.

While I don't use this box any more this give you a sense of how I nest things in a tote.



A compact maze built using Dwarven Forge. This was after the session as I built this on the fly. The place was small enough that I ruled that the party didn't lose situational awareness of the layout so I didn't tear anything down.



tenbones

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Re: Dwarven Forge...
« Reply #44 on: September 16, 2021, 03:59:46 PM »
Awesome! That's pretty much exactly what I was wondering.


Now... I'm walking away thinking, not only am I going to do Dwarven Forge... I'm eyeballing 3d printers. Galactus had no chance...