3d Printed surface tests II

 My results of 3d printer surface testing were a bit disappointing, because the final finish achieved was still rougher than I wanted.  In the comments Heisler suggested that I try fine grit sandpaper and steel wool, so I fired up the printer and produced another sample block.

Since I had five sample positions, I thought that I would have one control, two for black gesso, and two for PVA, so that is what I did. Sanding was done in two steps with sand paper that I had to hand (100 and 220 grit).

1. Bare surface, right out of the printer
2. painted with black gesso and then sanded
3. sanded and then painted with black gesso
4. painted with PVA and then sanded
5. Sanded and then painted with PVA

The whole sample block was then sprayed with off white spray paint, and then given a quick (and sloppy) nuln oil wash. 

Pleasingly, all four of the surfaces are much smoother than my previous attempts, although the hoped for "answer" still eludes me.

3d Printed surface tests

So one of the issues with have a 3d printer is layer lines.  The printer makes models by building layers of plastic, the size of which depends on printer type and printing settings.  For a printer like the Ender 3, layer lines can get under a mm in height, which is small enough that you can not see them from any sort of distance, but you can see them when blown up on the screen, and can feel them a bit with your finger (human fingertips can apparently feel as small as 13nm differences in height). 

So reducing layer lines is something that is worth looking in to a bit, and to that end I produce a small sample, which I treated in various ways to see how it was altered.  I made a test piece with five surfaces, and then sprayed that with a layer of cream spray paint to see how it would look.  I went another step and washed with a coat of Games Workshop's Nuln Oil to see how the finish was for a wash, since I use washes a lot with my figures. 

Initial 3d surface print test with filing and filling

Surfaces are:

1. Raw out of the printer

2. Filed

3. Filed and covered with black gesso

4. Filed and covered with Future

5. Filed and covered with PVA

Sprayed  3d print surface test cream white

Painted with Nuln Oil wash

Honestly, I think the biggest take away is that the surface is easily scratched by filing, and that I need to be more careful there.  This can be seen most clearly on 5, where the filing was very good next to the number, but less good under it.  Number three is similar, but also shows more damage due to scratching since it was harder to reach the middle of the sample.  Since I have two copies of the M5a1 tank, I think I will cover one with gesso, and one with PVA, and then see how the finishes turn out in the end.

 Also evident are the changing conditions locally, since you can see that two of the three pictures are slightly orange from smoky air.  It was actually clean enough to breath for that middle stage!  When of course I was wearing a mask anyway...

Hexed 2 inch

Seems like most of you think the 2" hex size is a good one, with some wise warning from Stew and Sean about number of hexes needed to actually play the game, and total size of the board once you get going with the hexes.

So I printed out a little test sheet, and took a couple more pictures.

For single ships, the 2 inch hex looks like a great size.  Not too big for the little guys, and not to small for the bigger ones.

2" can also fit two larger ships in it, but pretty tightly.  A mess of counters and fighters would fit in there too.

So I think 2" is the way to go, which in a 4 foot by 6 foot board means 24x36 hexes.  Not a lot of space for Federation Commander or StarFleet Battles, but should be sufficient for Starmada, and other home brew games.  (e.g. I realized that an x-wing base ought to fit nicely in there too)

This does make me think that I could abuse the large format printer at work...

Hexed

I find myself wanting a hexagon marked space mat, and so I conducted a little experiment to see what size hexagons would be the best for said mat.  I made a sheet of different hex sizes in MS Publisher, and then printed it out and compared it to a Federation Constitution class Heavy Cruiser. (~3 inches long).  Romulan and Klingon ships are mostly shorter and wider. 

1.25" hex fits the base, but the miniature is substantially larger

1.5" hex is larger than the base, but the ship still overhangs substantially 

3" Hex looks pretty good with two ships

on the other hand, a 3" Hex looks like it would be too large with one small ship and ordinance chits/fighters etc.

Other considerations: a 48" wide mat can only hold so many hexes, and more is generally better.  3" hexes would mean only 16 wide, where as 1.25" hexes means 38.  

Also, if I am marking the hexes myself, having an item to match up with the exterior of the hex is vital, and may preclude exotic sizes. 

So what do you think about hex sizes?

Pigma Micron Pens

Big Lee did a small test of a Uni Pin Fine Line Pen, testing to see how waterproof and smear free it was under different conditions. He then used them to draw tiny symbols on some 6mm Carthaginians, with some very nice results.

The pens in question are apparently not sold in the US, and imported are around $4 each (on Amazon anyway), so I thought it might be useful to do a similar test with some pens which ARE available here, the Sakura Pigma Micron Pens, which aside from being cheaper and more readily available, also seem to come in various sizes and colors.

So, following Lee's example, here are the four tests.
1. Gesso base, Black Micron 0.2mm written over brushed on Flat sealer (craft store)
2. Gesso base, Black Micron 0.2mm written over gloss (Future)
3. Gesso base, Black Micron 0.2mm written under brushed on Flat sealer (craft store)
4. Gesso base, Black Micron 0.2mm written under brushed on gloss (Future)

Conclusions:
Writing on the bare Gesso was very easy, and there was no smearing or other difficulties. Brushing the flat and the gloss over the top seemed to smear the ink, although I did it right away, so it is possible that letting it sit for 24 hours would reduce this. Interestingly the gloss seems to have pulled up the ink more than smeared it, so you have sort of a shadow effect as if you applied a wash, which is actually what I noticed when I used these pens way back when on some TOS destroyers, although at the time I attributed it to the wash I used. Writing on top of the flat and gloss was harder, and although it is a bit hard to make out due to glare, the writing is a bit more sloppy due to the tip slipping as I was writing.

I think that ideally you would put this on as close to bare paint as you could manage, and then spray a flat sealer over the top.  For some paint jobs this may mean adding more paint after you have "finished" a paint job, but I think it would give the best look.