More rabbit holes to go down into...

Way back in early 2020 (when all was normal and the world hadn’t sunk into a collective funk yet) I got a cheapo Anycubic resin printer and played around with 3D resin printing, and I really liked the results. I thought this was the way to go!

Then the world basically went topsy turvy for 2+ years and I was separated from my printer for that long. I knew I couldn’t set up my printer where my son was due to the toxic fumes… and determined that oh well. FDM printers are safer and non-toxic with the PLA filament. In the end, I shelled out for one, and got it set up and just started printing.

My goodness! If you thought resin printing was complex… FDM printers are even more arcane! Once you get resin printers set up, essentially you just need to learn about your resin settings and how to support your minis (less of an issue with most minis being pre-supported nowadays).

But FDM printing! So many settings to tweak in Cura! I thought it was just layer and infill settings but noooooo… different filaments have different optimal settings. I’m trying to figure out why my current PLA brand is producing strings like crazy. If I ever want to print a haunted, cobwebby house… my printer will be perfect for the job!

Still, this is a minor issue as they can be burned away with a flame. 

And so I’ve been busy printing terrain for my upcoming Star Wars Legion game session. I have SOME thematic Tatooine terrain… but not enough. To fill the table would cost the price of a printer using a 3rd party printing service. So that also led me to my purchase decision. 

And my goodness FDM printing is SLOW. Any savings you’d see compared to printing resin is soon eaten up with electricity costs. Still, they’re only a fraction of what I’d pay to either get them from a printing service… or getting resin/MDF buildings which are too pricy to even consider what with the current international shipping charges and taxes.

So it’s FDM for the forceable future as I play with different brands of PLA and tweak the printer and filament settings in Cura to obtain a BALANCE between speed of printing and acceptable quality.

Some shots of a combined effort to get some desert terrain printed for my upcoming 4 player Pulp Alley Tomb of the Serpent campaign. (I didn’t print the orange buildings).

The terrain will also do double duty for my final Conan/CROM campaign games. And much of my fantasy will now be desert-based Arabian Nights milieu games instead of the generic D&D western medieval milieu.

I’ll also be printing some seaside secret Moroccan pirate port style terrain for some variety.

The Tatooine-themed buildings will also do double duty for my Star Wars Imperial Assault-based Pulp Alley China Station solo campaign.

I think 2022 is gonna be jam-packed gaming-wise with so many projects pending. Fun times!

BONUS: I spent the last week painting my Mantic Star Saga minis, because the last time I played the game was Dec 2018... and I stopped because, yes. "I won't play until I get the minis painted." (Bonus, bonus... Dungeon saga zombies in the background. They've been hanging around primed for years.)