3d printing crew figures

[Dave_E]

How do you paint something so small?

[Gabek]

12 minutes ago, Dave_E said:

How do you paint something so small?

Good question! I've had a lot of practice…I've been painting miniatures for close to 50 years.  This is where my Warhammer hobby comes in handy.

A good, pointed brush and good acrylic paints that are slightly thinned allow you to paint with light touches.  Using the side of the brush lets you paint raised features without touching the background. After painting base colours you can use washes, inks or contrast paints which settle in low areas to give you shading effects and a better three-dimensional look.  There are tons of "how to" videos on YouTube.  If you want, I can list a few.

 

Clear skies!

Gabe

 

Edited February 11, 2022 by Gabek
Grammatical error

[Keith Black]

 Gabe, good to see a post from you! I hope all is well with you and yours. Are you able to print 1:96 figures easily?

 

 I thought I might populate the Tennessee with a few of the crew but I can't find any 1:96 US Navy figures from the 1850 to 1900 time period. If someone has a lead, please advise. 

[Gabek]

2 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

A question?  Why are War game figures misproportioned?  The only reason that I can think of is that by making them intentionally too short they are more stable.  The better proportioned 54mm figures are easily knocked over.

 

Roger

I think you’re right about stability.  It could also be that "chunkier" models are more durable and details can standout more.  
 

Here are some side-by-side comparisons:

 

My Heroforge bosun and a metal Artesania Latina l'Hermione figure at 1/89:

 

 

Clear skies!

Gabe
 

And here is a HaT British sailor at 1/72:

 

[Gabek]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

…Are you able to print 1:96 figures easily?

 

 I thought I might populate the Tennessee with a few of the crew but I can't find any 1:96 US Navy figures from the 1850 to 1900 time period. If someone has a lead, please advise. 

Thanks for the reply, Keith!  Things are ok - just going with the flow to cope with this wild time.  How’s things on your end?

 

Honestly,1/96 printing was quite easy. Once you have a .stl file you can make it any size you want. Resin printing becomes an art as you try to avoid failures.  You begin to see how to best position the model, tilt it off vertical and add supports.

Although they aren’t perfect, why don’t you go to Heroforge.com and create a few figures.  This design step is free and you only pay when you order a print or ask for an .stl file. 
 

Clear skies, sharp tools,

Gabe
 

 

Edited February 11, 2022 by Gabek
Wrong name

[Keith Black]

 All's well here, Gabe, thank you. Just trying to teach these shaky old fingers how to rig in tight quarters. It's a slow process. 

[Gabek]

3 hours ago, wefalck said:

However, I find that these Heroforge figurines look to much like 'wargaming' figurines (which they probably are) - their proportions are too stocky built, too long extremities and too big head for the body.

 

Also the trousers look a bit strange, the crotch sits too high to be comfortable not to say that they would impede the movement up in the rig. At that time trousers were cut very high on the waste, so that the body is well-covered by the relatively short 'monkey'-jacket.

Thanks, Roger.

I agree. While there are many options for dress and body in HeroForge you really can’t do anything lifelike or historically accurate.  I plan on working a bit more in the application MakeHuman (http://www.makehumancommunity.org/).  FULL control of proportions and you can create any style clothing.  It is very community-based and people share their designs readily.  If I manage to find or create something that looks good I'll share it here.

Clear skies!

-Gabe

[wefalck]

A couple of years ago or so I became aware of HeroForge through a figure-forum I think and looked around a bit. Apart from the proportions, I didn't find the options available very suitable to create mid- to late-19th century naval figures, so I gave up on that idea. 

[mtaylor]

I think the style of the figures and proportions go back to the lead figures for both war gaming and AD&D.  Probably to add some thickness to them to keep them from being broken.    My dad had a friend who did a lot of those figures back in the 50's-60's for dioramas and they were all "stocky".looking.

[Roger Pellett]

I have a 28mm Phoenix bagpipe band.  I believe this would scale approx 1:64.  I have painted the pipers and posted the results on the Shore Leave section of the forum about 1-1/2 years ago.  I still have the other members of the band in my stash to paint. These are quite nicely proportioned. Phoenix is another brand that seems to be unavailable today.

 

Roger

[kurtvd19]

I just attended my local IPMS club meeting - virtual yet - and a guy showed a figure of a Scottish warrior who had plaid pants on - what a paint job it was just on the pants.  Hand painted of course and he said it took three tries to do them.  The rest was just as impressive.

[Roger Pellett]

Here are my bagpipers.  The guy on the far left is commercially painted; bought in Herrod’s Toy department in London while on a business trip in 1980.

 

The eight pipers next to him are the exact same castings that I painted. These were given to me by a friend two years ago. They are 28mm.

 

The guy on the right is a 54mm Fusilier that I painted back in the 1980’s, don’t remember the brand.

 

Roger

[highlanderburial]

I agree that making these guys is really distracting. The HF website gives you lots if opportunities to "slim down" your mini or to make it taller or shorter. Additionally I was able to change it up in the slicer software as well. Your figs look good!

[Gabek]

On 2/12/2022 at 12:47 PM, Roger Pellett said:

Here are my bagpipers…

Wow! The tartans must have been a real challenge!  Well done, Roger!

- Gabe

[Patrick Matthews]

On 2/11/2022 at 1:21 PM, wefalck said:

A couple of years ago or so I became aware of HeroForge through a figure-forum I think and looked around a bit. Apart from the proportions, I didn't find the options available very suitable to create mid- to late-19th century naval figures, so I gave up on that idea. 

Forget Hero Forge, see elsewhere here about Daz (and probably others).
I was able to get a WW2 army uniform for a figure, pose him, and he's now on my printer. Big guy, for my 1:8 scale DUKW. 

[Patrick Matthews]

More of the DUKW driver: 
Daz file cleaned up and made printable by Game Print. Bad gaps all filled in with no serious loss of detail. 

Pics show the figure fresh off the printer and post-cure, no fettling yet. But depending on the skill of the digital sculptor, some amazing detail can be included, as evidenced by the lacing, cuffs, collars, face. Of course a lot of this would be lost in smaller scales... this big boy is 1:8. BTW, I didn't bother buying the hair package! But he'll be wearing a helmet anyway.
 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Patrick Matthews

[Gabek]

Excellent work, Pat.

Just so happens that Daz is sitting on my desktop ready for me to soak hours into!  Glad to see the fabulous results you’re getting.

Clear skies!

Gabe

[Patrick Matthews]

It sure is hard to pin down the correct shades to use for faded and well-worn US uniforms, but here are my choices for my 1:8 GI DUKW driver and leatherneck hitchhiker. 

I'm no figure painter, and I want to make more improvements on the faces and eyes in particular... but I still have to finish building the rest of the DUKW!

 

- Dressed and posed in DAZ;
- Messy stl's cleaned up at GamePrint;
- More clean-up in Blender;
- Hollowed in Fusion360;
- 9" figures printed on an EPAX E10
- Mostly Lifecolor paints.

Edited March 17, 2022 by Patrick Matthews

[Patrick Matthews]

p.s.:  As a white guy, I feel I can take any liberties when painting a Caucasian... but somehow I feel- uneasy? - trying do a creditable Black soldier (who by the way were operating many of the DUKWs, with for example the 476th Amphibian Truck Co at Iwo Jima). And it seems that available skin tone paints just don't go here. 

This paint is too "chocolate" imho... darned if I know how to fix it.

[lmagna]

3 hours ago, Patrick Matthews said:

darned if I know how to fix it.

Makeup 

[highlanderburial]

I just recently used white primer on some AfAm troops in 54mm. I then built up layers using sepia and brown inks in light coats. I dont know if it would work on your scale though. Worth a try?

[wefalck]

Painting skin is always a challenge because of its translucency. Building up the colour from washes is what artists do indeed. The darker the skin is the more difficult it becomes, as the contrast range dramatically decreases compared to fairer skin. I believe there are books available on the subject and surely also tutorials on on the Internet on portrait painting (rather than figurine painting).

 

The Old Masters, it seems, often used an underpaint of pale green for skins as this increases the brilliance of the following reddish washes. Whether this would work with dark skins, I don't know. However, as one can see from the not too many paintings available, the Old Masters were struggling with the low dynamic contrast range of dark skins, which then often looks flat.