"28mm Missile Turret" Topic

One takeaway of 40k 8th edition is that since it's harder to get cover, it's really good to just be out of sight entirely but still able to fire back. Accordingly I'm adding some Whirlwinds to my Space Marines. Unfortunately, official Whirlwinds are not only expensive ($58US versus $38 USDUS for the Rhino chassis), but seemingly hard to come by. They're actually out of stock right now even on Games Workshop's website!

So I designed a reasonable model for 3D printing. The STLs are now available for free on Thingiverse:

link

As a cute touch, the missile ends are magnetized to switch between high explosive and wide area styles. As usual the whole thing is designed to print easily & reasonably well on typical home printers, no supports needed.

Just as a matter of interest, how much does it cost to print an object of this size?

Do you think that 3D printed 28mm miniature figures will reach the Quality Level that painters want?

Mick

looking good

@Mick: Cost depends a lot on how you calculate it.

I ran this design through Shapeway's tools and even with hollowing it out and such (not worth it on my printer, worth it on theirs), I couldn't get it below $40. USD

On a home FDM printer (the most common type), the material costs for this are less than a dollar. But then you may or may not want to consider the cost of the printer. Then there's the time you spend calibrating and maintaining it, pulling off the finished print, etc..

So cost valuation depends a lot depends on the quality you need, how quickly you need them, and whether you view all that as a chore to get to the rest of the hobby, a fun hobby in itself, or a commercial enterprise.

Is arguable, but there are already printers even for home use that I think can produce very high quality minis for display painting and such. They're just a good bit more expensive, the materials are more expensive, etc..

Thank-you