This week, I are mostly been printing... A Nimbus!!
A birthday print for my clubmate Paul. Sculpted using the heroforge app and then downloaded as an STL
The Heroforge Design
Paul got very creative using the heroforge and came up with this design. The challenge for me was to try to print and then paint him without turning him another famous grey haired blue skinned chap... Papa Smurf.
It is also refreshing to have a render to paint from, relieving me from the complex task of designing a colour scheme.
Words of advice from a 3D Printing perspective
Whilst I love that heroforge exists there is a temptation for the wannabe designer to cram every facet of the mini with detail. From a printer's perspective this is a bad thing. Everything is possible when you have a $20,000 Selective Laser Sintering machine and you are making minis out of exotic materials like metal or resin powder.
However, when you are commissioning a print for an SLA printer you really need to consider how the model is going to be printed. Typically this is going to be at 45 degrees on it's back as no one wants to be dealing with support material all over a character's face.
If you have sheathed swords or capes try to keep them close to the body so that they are supported rather than dangling in free space. Don't go for the Michael Jackson pose where his cape is streaming out behind him in the wind as this will cause your printer do pull their hair out as they try to find somewhere to support the mini.
Large volumes of cloth streaming out from behind a mini also mean that they have what I like to call a high "snapping moment" this is where there is a lot of resin supported only by one small section. One false move or indelicate pick up and "click" there goes your cape leaving you to pray to the Glue Gods that it can be stuck back on again.
Merged Accessories and Paper Dolls
The other main gripe I have with Heroforge is that it is easy to model things that blend into one another. For example, in the case of our boy Nimbus, his cape sprouts out of his pauldron and it is very difficult to tell where one piece starts and another ends.
A real sculptor would understand that it would sit over top or underneath, a human form of collision detection, and appropriate sculpting would take place to remedy the situation. Sadly this does not happen with Heroforge and there is no priority system in the software which detects these edge collisions and does something about it.
It is effectively the digital version of the vintage Paper Doll toy.
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