"3D printable forts, castle and more for miniatures. " Topic

"Build your own fort, castle, fortress, village and many more with your own 3D Home Printer…."

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So the geek in me likes this. But for one to build a castle like the center picture above, what does the printer cost? And then what's the cost of the software? lastly what does the material cost and are there any other expenses? Yes I am sure I can figure out all of these but I rather hear folks who have actual experience with this kind of thing.

It really depends. I would recommend you Prusa MK II, which costs about 1000 dollars. Software is open source, so its free and about materiál… it heavilly depends on infill. If the castle is made for 28mm with 30% infill (I use this as standard for buildings) the materiál would be about 30 dollars. What would be more problematic is printing time. If you want fine details, it would také enormous amount of it, like 40+ hours of print time, so other expense is just electricity.

A printer will payoff for any tabletop wargamer within a year.

This Kickstarter is for the software.
A Prusa i3 MK2S is now $900 USD assembled, $600 USD for the kit. Plus shipping.
A Prusa i3 MK3 is $1,000 USD assembled, $750 USD for the kit. Plus shipping. prusa3d.com
I second Fox's recomendation of a Prusa. The Mk. 3 is intelligent for those of us still learning 3D printing.
Other printers start around $200. USD
Any gamer who handy enough to assemble and base his own miniatures should be handy enough to follow the directions and assemble a kit. (Remember, if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy. R. Green)

I highly recommend the MK3. The magnetic print bed alone saves so much time and aggravation. Just lift the metal plate off, flex and the model usually pops right off.

Puster such comment is full of assumptions, can you put numbers behind it?

now also with OpenLOCK:

new Pictures added from our worked files:

I hope you like it?

I'm in on the Asian package. Looking forward to it.

@dapeters … saying a 3d printer will pay for itself in a year of course depends on how much terrain you want.

Some numbers: My 3d Printer cost $260 USD on sale. Not a kit (but slight assembly). A roll of filament cost about $20 USD-24. You can get it on sale for $17 USD and you can pay more (like $28 USD-30 on up). But figure $20 USD for a standard roll.

You can probably print out 5 "standard" houses for that one roll. By standard I am talking about a 2-story with roof building of a typical Normandy home or shop scaled for 280-0mm minis.

Call it $4 USD per building. Maybe I am a little off, so call it $5 USD per building. Buying one of those in resin is probably 3 times that much.

Say you want a 4x6 table top of a village in France, so the allies and axis powers have something to fight over. Figure 10 buildings, some walls, a town square with a fountain, some cobblestone roads, etc. Could probably print that out with three rolls, so $60 USD total. Buying that as resin terrain is probably $200. USD

So the 3D printer just saved you $140 USD for that one project. If you have two such projects, you just saved the cost of the 3D printer.

A side aspect, you bought those "files" from a kickstarter. You start to game in 28mm but come upon a club and they all game in 15mm. They have no terrain though. You can scale your files and start printing in 15mm. You think the originals are a little on the small side, so you scale them and print at 18mm. You tinker uuntil you get the "right" size for you.

No waiting untilt he manufacturer who makes great 28mm buildings starts a 15mm line. You have ht files, they can be any scale you want them to be.

And you can print as many as you like.

Right now, in my opinion, 3D printing is terrific for terrain. Not su much the actual troops themselves, although things are improving. But buildings, walls, streets, etc. They look great, are low cost, are light weight, are hard to break, and can be printed whenever you want.

And the files are usually quite detailed. As printing technology improves, those same files can be used to print even better looking replacements in the future, if you are so inclined.

If you have a couple of foam hills, and a few trees, and you have enough terrain, then a 3D printer is not going to pay for itself. It becomes just another hobby expense. But if you like having lots of nice terrain, and like the idea of printing your own, then it will pay for itself.

last hours on KS

stretchgoal unlocked and new added

new picture from a 3D model:

Thanks SeattleGamer, that's what I thought. Is there maintenance and does that have a cost? Do these prints use a lot of power. Is their any toxic related isuues?

Fox 666111, I am surprised you use 30% infill, even on structural items like the bed support I only use 15%. Have you tried using lower infill? I agree minimal cost change but itvwould be a much faster print and assuming you do not hurl your models about, plenty strong enough and lighter to carry about en masse.