Reply To: 3D printing and the enviroment #teamseas

[Wolfie65 1253xp 0]

Metal will always be my favorite material for figures, I try to use as many natural – or at least biodegradable – materials as possible, I even abandoned acrylic (= plastic) paints many years ago and switched to watercolors. They are a little challenging to use at first, but I’ve come to love their working characteristics and the way the figures look finished.

Plastics have their uses, but just like computers have become WAY too powerful, common and ubiquitous – I think they should be scaled back to where they were about 2000 or so, that was just about right – but there is definitely too much plastic in our lives. including even food …….Cancer, for example, wasn’t much of a thing prior to muh1950s, which is when all sorts of artificial additives started appearing in food, drink and everything else.

While I have to admit that I am guilty of buying a bunch of 3D prints and resin models over the past few years, they will never be my favorites. They are, for the most part, horrendously fragile – I’ve had a Rabbit assassin break 3 times in 2 different places just during prep and painting, ditto for some Carnevale figures, Baron von Fancyhat from Moonstone did, surprisingly, not break during this process, but I am afraid of actually using him in a game, his sword and pinky are just much too thin and delicate, a recent shipment of 3D printed Hobbit minis had suffered all sorts of breakage in the mail, etc. etc. etc.

Btw, I am VERY careful with my ‘This Is Not A Toy’ toy soldiers and by no means clumsy…..

In short, the longevity of 3D printed as well as resin figures is very much in doubt. The material itself may not break down for several millennia, but the figure as such….I dunno…..

Give me metal any day, including even pure lead. I have some of the original  .Valley of the Four Winds, Aureola Rococo and Mythical Earth figures from Minifigs, the very first fantasy minis ever made , vintage 1970-something, and except for a few bent spears (lead is soft), they are fine. And they are 100% recyclable. As well as fun and easy to paint, since they do not have 17 straps, 30 flasks and 7 swords hanging off them.

Speaking of painting, while 3D printed figures do often look very cool and dynamic, thanks to the very deep undercuts the procedure makes possible, those selfsame undercuts make painting quite difficult. How do you get even the skinniest brush between the body and that billowing cloak ? If using acrylics, the answer is, of course: BlackPrimer™. Don’t paint what you can’t see…..

I am working on the Heartless Queen https://www.etsy.com/listing/1720570004/the-heartless-queen-great-grimoire?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=Heartless+queen&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&content_source=a87a678adcd481e10348dd8df1e13c0e504b0f6a%253A1720570004&search_preloaded_img=1&organic_search_click=1 right now, in 28 mm scale, she comes in 1 piece and painting her lower body and the inside of her hoop skirt is kind of a nightmare. Don’t paint what you can’t see indeed.