So you’ve heard of 3D-printed miniatures (or you’ve heard of us) but you’d like some stuff cleared up before you commit! We totally understand you on that, so we’ve made a little guide to us and this scene.
Wait, how does this work? What is Shapeways? Who is Imperial Terrain?
Hardware Studios has it’s manufacturing done by two different sources to take best advantage of what’s out there. Imperial Terrain is an extremely reputable, local printer that specializes in FDM printing and focuses on 28mm-35mm scale terrain. They manufacture all of our FDM products, which means the bigger stuff, as well as the resin bits that go with them. Shapeways is a large 3D printing marketplace that hosts and prints a lot of our vehicles and smaller, high detail models. While their price-to-volume ratio is quite expensive compared to Imperial Terrain’s FDM, the high detail and multi-jet technology they use gives us access to printers that cost more than most houses, as well as the support staff and quality guarantees they offer. It’s an unconventional, distributed system, but it works well for us and our customers.
What’s FDM? PLA? Acrylic?
FDM is Fused Deposition Modeling, a type of 3D-printing that extrudes a tiny (.25 mm or less in diameter), hot noodle of plastic in layers. PLA is the plastic formula we use for our FDM printing. Because of FDM’s relative low material cost but long print times, we can offer large vehicles and structures in this material at a cost we could never hit with acrylic, which is used for Shapeways Detail plastics. FDM is ridiculously strong and lightweight, but has visible print lines, while Shapeways acrylic is more brittle but rarely shows print lines.
Anything I need to know about PLA?
PLA is durable, doesn’t need to be cleaned, takes hardware store primers beautifully, but it is susceptible to heat. Be extremely careful when using a hair dryer, and don’t leave it in the sun (even on cool days) or in a hot car. Direct sunlight can bring a piece up 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit with ease.
I’m scared of print lines. Should I be?
Nah! Print lines on FDM are visible, but we have tutorials on managing them. For structures and topographic terrain, we tend to leave them be and simply hit the print with a textured spray before painting. For vehicles, we use Perfect Plastic Putty, a few layers of Rustoleum oxide red primer, and sandpaper to smooth them out. For relatively large models like our Dropships, this step is typically 30 minutes to two hours of work, depending on how nuts you are. While it does take some prep, FDM doesn’t suffer from the poor fitment, flash, or dimensional problems that can plague resin casts, and smoothing print lines is not dissimilar to filling bubbles. It’s best to think of print lines as digital wood grain, and the first stages of prepping a print as a carpenter smoothing out wood.
Do I need to clean them before painting?
FDM models are good to go out of the box, but Shapeways Detail plastics often require a bath in 99% isopropyl or Simple Green and a gentle scrubbing. One thing to watch out for is that there’s sometimes still wax left inside the Shapeways models from the printing process. Make sure that after their bath all of this has leached out (which can be done by simply waiting a day or two and wiping the bottom off with an alcohol wipe), as it will migrate through the plastic while the solvent remains.
When are my new toys showing up!?
I know you’re excited to get them; we’re excited to get them to you! Shapeways will give you a shipping estimate at check out; for items fulfilled through Imperial Terrain time can vary a bit based on the size of the item. Large items like the Monitor Dropship take the better part of a week just to print. Overall, a safe bet is expecting it to ship about 7-10 business days after ordering.
STL?
If it’s on the digital page, then yes! If not, no, but thank you for your interest!
What comes in my order?
The stated quantity of vehicles, unpainted and (when assembly is necessary, which is not very often) unassembled and without bases. If the main render doesn’t show a turret, then the turrets are sold separately. Any other vehicles, terrain, bases, etc. shown in gallery pictures are for scale and reference only. Links and sizing for accessories like magnets are often shown, but these are not provided.
Are you associated with so-and-so game/company?
Nope! It’s just us and Imperial Terrain. We make quite a few things that are stylistically and scale compatible with fantastic games like X-wing, Battletech, and Adeptus Titanicus, but we aren’t and don’t pretend to be sanctioned by, owned, or associated in any way with them. These are games we love and we want to support them, and we encourage you to do so as well!
Who made this bad-ass site?
Shawn of Wroth Studio, wizard/genius/tech-priest extraordinaire.
