The largest portions of my workload are in two free programs, the aforementioned TinkerCAD, and Sculptris. Starting with a few orders through Shapeways (another service I still use) and, not long after, the purchase of my first 3D printer, a single-extruder MakerBot Replicator 1, I was on my way through the trial-and-error phase of learning to design for 3D printing methods (a journey which continues to this day, I assure you). It didn’t look like much, but it was a start, and 1,500 TinkerCAD designs later, I’m still using the program (along with a few others). Taking an assortment of multi-colored primitives, and as I played with them, more complex shapes started to take form, first in my head, then on the digital platform.īefore long, I had made my first model, a spheroid, trans-dimensional doorway from the tabletop roleplaying game my friends and I had been developing (and would successfully crowdfund through Kickstarter a couple of years later). Jumping in, I would liken the experience to playing with blocks or Legos. Best of all, the program was completely free, which fit nicely into my budget. I had never done any 3D design (unless you count gluing plastic junk and disembodied pieces of gaming miniatures together) and I was promised that the program would be accessible. The first program I found was TinkerCAD, a little start-up based out of Finland that had just exited its beta phase. After a quick search on the availability of designers for 3D models (both within my extended friend circle and in the open randomness of the internet), I came up with two unfortunate takeaways: one, most of them were terribly busy, and two, I didn’t have the money to hire one. I’d been an avid gamer (and amateur game designer) for years, but hadn’t yet found a medium that allowed me to fully express my ideas.
When I first heard about home-accessible 3D printing waaay back in 2012, the possibilities struck me like a lightning bolt. He’s here to share the process so that you too can design your own custom miniatures for your tabletop needs, and finish them off on your 3D printer! Him and the folks at Ill Gotten Games have had tons of experience with gaming models optimized for 3D printing.
Today we’ve got Arian Croft, or, as you probably know him better as, Dutchmogul, with us on the blog to share some tips and tricks of designing and printing out detailed miniatures and tabletop 3D models.
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