"3mm (or 1/600) Sci-Fi Minis" Topic

A while back, I had made some alternative "map-scale" minis for use with O.G.R.E., which were based on 1/2" wide, 5mm thick hexes. In response to a recent request to remove the bases altogether, I whipped up some packs of those minis that should be suitable for 3mm sci-fi use, such as Future War Commander or Dirtside.

I currently have uploaded three varieties -- tracked, GEV, and anti-grav -- and have a wheeled faction in the works. I have not yet ordered any of these, so I can't speak to how well they might or might not print in 3D, but I've tried hard to be careful of minimum wall thicknesses and whatnot.

Here is the GEV force, which currently includes 118 vehicles. Pretty obvious that they are inspired by the OGRE GEVs, I'm sure! I probably need to add some vehicles to bring this force up to the same strength as the other two.

Next, the anti-grav force, with 112 vehicles. I couldn't find a pattern of greeblies that I cared for, so I finally decided just to make these as smooth and clean as possible. I'll probably add an additional type of vehicle to bring up the numbers in this pack.

Thirdly, the tracked force, also with 131 vehicles. I like these the best so far, although I'm concerned about the barrel of the artillery piece. I may need to reinforce that.

So, the wheeled vehicles are in progress and I'll soon be removing the bases from the air support stuff I'd made. Anything else people would want to see? I also have some terrain I had made for OGRE, but it's going to need some adaptation for use with free-form 3mm sci-fi.

Thanks,
jav98

link

Shoot… just realized I completely overlooked walkers. So, wheeled, air support (to include dropships), walkers… anything else?

On the terrain, I had developed for OGRE two different HQ buildings, an ammo depot, a fuel station, a field hospital, nuclear plant, factory, refinery, large and small bunkers, a POW camp, an orbital relay, and an orbital defense cannon. Those are all based on 1/2" hexes, but it shouldn't be too difficult to re-purpose them for hexless gaming.

Will you also be removing the bases from the BOLO-type tanks that are currently available? And maybe adding some super-heavy sized tanks?

Yeah, I was planning on doing that with the BOLOs as well, and I had also started work a while back on a "land-train" style supertank, such as the Squats used to drive around in Epic 40K. Each car would be a specific element -- an engine, command car, heavy tank gun car, artillery car, ADA car, etc. I have a couple other projects on my plate that I've committed to doing for other folks, so it'll probably be a month before I can get the land-train done.

Good old shapeways.

Like the look of the anti-grav army. $4.97 USD for WSF polished. Add it to cart.

Now $24.96 USD to get it delivered to me!

I may be mad but I'm not crazy.

Nice design and execution. At 1/600 I'd just as soon use chits than miniatures, though.

Jav..98, Are you going to do infantry to go along with them? I know Odzial Osmy does modern and ACW infantry in this scale and I suppose I could use them if they are compatible.

PatrickWR, Each to his own but I have found the 3mm modern and WWII offered by OO to be quite workable. If you have any interest at all check out the pictures at Pico Armor to get an idea of size. OO does not do SF so Jav's stuff fits a great niche.

Al

Hi, Al. I can certainly give it a shot, but at this scale, Sketchup is fairly limited in its flexibility. That, and I'm not that great a sculptor of human forms even at a larger scale! Maybe I can find a dolly on the Sketchup warehouse and use that to build some infantry from.

Shoot… just realized I completely overlooked walkers. So, wheeled, air support (to include dropships), walkers… anything else?

On the terrain, I had developed for OGRE two different HQ buildings, an ammo depot, a fuel station, a field hospital, nuclear plant, factory, refinery, large and small bunkers, a POW camp, an orbital relay, and an orbital defense cannon. Those are all based on 1/2" hexes, but it shouldn't be too difficult to re-purpose them for hexless gaming

For a very sci-fi feel, how about a "slitherer" robotic worm like vehicles with weapon pods/sensors.

You've been very busy. Well done, good work.

For a very sci-fi feel, how about a "slitherer" robotic worm like vehicles with weapon pods/sensors.

Huh… never even thought of something like that. I'm sure I can find a way.

Very nice my friend.

Stupid (?) question, what is the difference in the materials on the Shapeways site?

Those vehicles look pretty cool.

Actually, quite a bit. There is a whole section describing the materials here:

shapeways.com/materials

The most popular ones for gaming minis are White, Strong, and Flexible (WSF), White/Black/Green/Frosted/etc. Detail, and Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD). There are also things like ceramics, stainless steel, glass, and so on, but most of those lack the ability to print the fine detail present in most minis.

WSF will print most things just fine, but the surface is very rough and smaller details will be muddled or lost. On the vehicles above, the smaller details (hatches, lights, etc.) will be greatly obscured. In one of the Detail materials, or especially in FUD, the detail will stand out quite well. The details on a lot of my models are measured in tenths of a millimeter, so almost down to the level of a human hair (okay, maybe a human whisker). For instance, I have some 15mm computer consoles that have QWERTY keyboards on them (and that was quite an effort, I can tell you!). The individual keys are generally .2mm thick with a crevasse between them of .1mm or so. In WSF, those keyboards will be unrecognizable, but in FUD, they stand out pretty well. There's a pic or two on these boards somewhere showing one of those consoles primed and washed, and you can see the FUD level of detail. I'll see if I can find those.

Javelin98 – thanks for the info and the link. That makes sense now. I've never used Shapeways before.

For a very sci-fi feel, how about a "slitherer" robotic worm like vehicles with weapon pods/sensors.
Huh… never even thought of something like that. I'm sure I can find a way.

When the range below was produced by Gladiator, there used to be a giant robotic worm, but it doesnt appear in the Baccus inventory now. I was thinking of some worms errupting out of the ground Dune Sandworm style, maybe with separate tail which could be glued elsewhere omn the base. Alternatively some "shallow" worms witht eh central section breaching and a fairing/pod mounted artillery piece or MLRS. A tail mounted MLRS or AA pod would also work nicely.

link

Would those giant worms be like the old Epic 40K Squat tunnelers, popping up out of the ground and disgorging hordes of infantry?

Hadn't thought of that. I was thinking a little more outlandish. A cross between these:

auction

link

link

Ordered the 3 army types , looking forward to the wheeled one , revised BOLOs and air support . Steve

Shapeways came back and the gravs have not printed in FUD , which actually surprised me but there you go !
Have retried in white detail and see what happens next .

I'll be interested to hear how they come out. My experience of Shapeways has been varied.

Really? They wouldn't print in FUD? That's weird… Did they say what the problem was?

My apologies to everyone who was interested in these, but I'm going to have to re-tool them. They turned out to be far too small to be used with existing 1/600 ranges. I'll be increasing the size and re-posting them for sale on Shapeways pretty soon, though, and I also have the wheeled force about ready to go (based loosely on the Dutch Army's YP-408 APC, and which will look familiar to anyone who bought DLD Productions' Komodo APC when he was still in operation), so that will be up for sale soon, as well.

Thanks,
jav98

Looking forward to them jav.

They do look good ! BTW, GZG carries a 2mm line of vehicles too … link

I see new things on Shapeways that aren't 3mm sci-fi. :P

2mm armies! I'm wondering how they will print out though?

Oddly enough, even though all I did was scale up the models, parts disappeared of them when I uploaded them to Shapeways. It's a complete headscratcher, and Shapeways' tech support is trying to figure out why. Hopefully I'll have an answer by this weekend, as I want to finish getting these all converted up.

It's odd how Sketchup and Shapeways seem to have times when these things happen. I scaled up some cargo from 15mm to 1/87 scale, and the bottom halves of a bunch of barrels just vanished upon upload. I still have yet to figure that one out.

Weird. Are you planning on going straight 3mm from now on or will you be doing 2mm and 3mm versions of all the designs?

You know, once I get it worked out in one scale, it isn't hard to offer it in multiple scales, other than the phantom disappearing-parts phenomenon I described above! So, yes, I probably will offer both 2mm and 3mm. Heck, maybe I should scale them up to 6mm, as well, although then I would have to add more detailing.

I uploaded the 3mm grav-tanks last night, and lo and behold -- half the turrets failed to materialize, as did most of the sprues I had mounted the minis on. Back to that drawing board!

Here's a screenshot of what went wrong with the scaled-up versions. I still can't figure out why it didn't do this in the 2mm scale but decided to do it in 3mm.

Maybe the hulls are expanding past the turrets? They're inside the hulls in other words? Looks like buggy software there or with Shapeways either way.

Looking forward to them, and deciding which scale to go with. :P

I thihnk there might be an internal wall between the hull and turret that I missed. I'll play with it some more this weekend and see what I can make of it.

Also, the larger minis will cost significantly more. Do you think that the size and mix of vehicles should be reduced, and if so, how many of each kind would be most useful?

I'd go with multiples of three I think. After that I think the ratios you have with the 2mm ones now work.

Hey Jav,

Any update? I sent you an e-mail, not sure if you got it.

Dave

Thought I would bump this up to ask too if there is an update. Robert

Yes, indeed! The above problems have all been resolved and those packs are available to print on Shapeways. The wheeled vehicles are available now and I've been playing with some ideas for Commanderroj's robotic worms. Sadly, I keep getting a result that looks oddly like a cybernetic sperm cell, so… yeah. More work needed on that front.

I've rescaled everything to fit with the minis available from Oddzial Ozmy, so most vehicles are around 13mm long. I ordered a sample pack from PicoArmor and used a high-precision caliper to make sure I was staying in scale.

I'm talking with an established manufacturer to get these into production in pewter, which has included retooling somme of the pieces to mould and cast better and getting a new run printed from Shapeways for a final quality check.

There are now 6 factions available -- anti-grav, tracked, wheeled, two different GEVs, and a mechanized contingent (see below), and an air support pack. I've also been working on infantry, but it's hard to make everything mesh when you're working in tenths of a millimeter.

With regards to the new GEV faction, which I fondly refer to as "Hallett's Mallets", here is a shot of those designs:

And here is the newest faction (almost ready to release!) that combines tracked, half-tracked, and wheeled vehicles, plus an armored bridgelayer:

Finally, I have about a dozen modern/sci-fi buildings that I'm finishing up on. The aforementioned manufacturer has already expressed interest, so hopefully that will pan out, as well.

I'm simultaneously working on three or four projects for other people, so this is a catch-as-catch-can situation, but I think I'm making decent progress.

Thanks!
Andreas

Here are some pics of the new mechanized force:

MBT, mobile howitzer, and MLRS:

Heavy IFV:

ATGM, Scout/light APC, and air defense:

Combat engineer vehicle, AVLB, and bridge:

Test-fitting the bridges:

TOC:

And another family photo:

Sounds and looks great!! I look forward to seeing them in metal. Cheaper is always better LOL . Robert

My 3mm-1/600 Wargaming Yahoo Group
link

3mm_miniatures · 1/600_miniatures Yahoo Group
link

Thanks, Robert! Here are some of the buildings I'm working on:

The ziggurat-style building on the right is modeled after a credit union here in my home town:

This one is modeled after a Shriners children's hospital:

I'm not sure how well the balconies on the apartment building will print:

This hotel or office building has a landing pad and exterior elevators:

The building on the right is modeled after the doctors' office I used to go to when I was a kid:

The center water tower is modeled after a common design in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia:

And finally, a military or industrial garage:

Very nice(invoking the great Borak)

Oh, need to talk Shapeways to add the dk green, tan and the dk gray colors back to the Strong & Flexible series too

My thread over on the Dirtside Board on 3mm-1/600 miniatures,
TMP link
Robert

Yes, indeed! The above problems have all been resolved and those packs are available to print on Shapeways. The wheeled vehicles are available now and I've been playing with some ideas for Commanderroj's robotic worms. Sadly, I keep getting a result that looks oddly like a cybernetic sperm cell, so… yeah. More work needed on that front.

Cybernetic sperm? When can i buy those? ;-)

Seriously though i cant wait to see the Worms. They could be somthing very different to game with.

I've rescaled everything to fit with the minis available from Oddzial Ozmy, so most vehicles are around 13mm long. I ordered a sample pack from PicoArmor and used a high-precision caliper to make sure I was staying in scale.

I'm talking with an established manufacturer to get these into production in pewter, which has included retooling somme of the pieces to mould and cast better and getting a new run printed from Shapeways for a final quality check.

Excited to see what comes out of this. I'll hold off on ordering until i know about the metal version.

As soon as the order arrives and I QC it, I'll be sending it off to them to do some test moulds. I wish I could give you a better time estimate, but I don't really have one.

As for the cybersperm, what you do on your own time is your own business, compadre!

By the way, the mechanized force is now on Shapeways:

link

"By the way, the mechanized force is now on Shapeways"

Once again it looks good javelin98. Robert

Really nice stuff.
The vehicles look inspiring to me, while I see many uses for the buildings even with other miniature ranges.

BTW does anyone have a comparison photo of this Shapeways generated vehicles and O8 vehicles?
I would like to see how they compare in size.

Kind regards,
Ben

Dear Javelin,

Seeing a few of these in a comparison shot with O8 figures would definitely be the decider for me as to whether or not I'm going to order them. They look great, but I can't use them if they're too distinct from the O8 and DP9 stuff which forms the basis for my sci-fi armies.

If you want me to paint, photograph and review your figs, I'll be up in the U.S. between the 2nd and 6th of April – next week. If you send me a small sample, I will photograph them together with O8 stuff, unpainted and nicely painted. I'll place it on my blog, here and encourage the guys at Pico Armor (who are using some of my blog's content) to post it, too.

I think it's fair to say that I'm currently the guy who's been doing the most 3mm sci-fi in the miniatures sphere. Here's an example of some of my work:

If you can't make the tight mailing dates for the States, slip some figs in a regular envelope with a bit of padding and send it regular mail to me in Brazil. It'll take a couple of weeks to get here, but that's OK. Don't UPS it, however, or I'll get slapped with the flat fee necessary to get stuff out of hock in customs.

Here's my e-mail if you're interested in doing this: macunaima30@yahoo.com.br

Here are some Shapeways gunboats I bought as GEVs. Based on my experience with them, I suggest polished fine white detail or frosted detail:

Well Mr.Javelin is getting me into the 3mm mood. So much so that I am taking all of my 6mm schtuff and converting to see how it translates to 3mm. Will let you know.