Ulvheim buildings by kristof65

[kristof65]

So these are the two terrain pieces I finished up last night. The core of both these models are from Terrain4Print's Ulvheim modular terrain system and printed in PLA at 0.2mm on my Prusa.

 

This was a quick "gazebo" made exclusively of pieces I printed:

 

This is a hybrid piece. The foundation and walls are still Ulvheim pieces, epoxied together, and Magic Sculpt used to blend the seams between the pieces on the outside. The roof was made by me using card board and card stock, while the strips for the upper floor are just plastic card.

 

The reason I went with the handcrafted roof is because while the T2P roofs are nice, the number of pieces available limit the roof options. By hand building my roofs, I can get as complex as I want.

 

I'm really enjoying this hybrid approach of 3d printing and hand crafting.

 

My next building is a larger church.

[rubegon]

That roof looks fantastic!

 

Can you explain how you made it a little?  Is it strips of card with a zig zag edge laid down on the cardboard “decking” like shingles?  How did you get the shingles cut so consistently?

 

R

[kristof65]

22 minutes ago, rubegon said:

That roof looks fantastic!

 

Can you explain how you made it a little?  Is it strips of card with a zig zag edge laid down on the cardboard “decking” like shingles?  How did you get the shingles cut so consistently?

 

R

Thanks. 

The roof starts out as two pieces of mat board glued together with some right angle triangles.   The shingles were cut out of plain card stock in strips by my Silhouette SD craft cutter. That's how they're so consistent.   Note that you don't have to have a craft cutter - before I bought mine, I used to do the same thing with scrap booking scissors, it just took longer to make the strips. 

Those strips were glued to the roof using a glue stick, then a piece of square plastic rod added for the roof ridge.  When I lay the strips, I just overhang them, and then trim off to the edges. I got impatient, and either didn't use enough glue to begin with, or didn't let the glue set enough on the top rows when I cut that away, so that's why some shingles are missing up near the ridge. 

The whole thing got primed matte black, then drybrushed heavily with two successively lighter shades of blue using a large 8 or 10 brush.  Then each individual "shingle" point was given a dot/stripe/blot of an even lighter blue with a small brush. 

 

I'll see if I can remember to take some photos of the process when I start on the church, since I'm doing it's roof the same way. 

[Ironworker]

Nice!  I need a printer.

[kristof65]

28 minutes ago, Ironworker said:

Nice!  I need a printer.

Be forewarned - they will allow you to add projects to your hobby shelf of shame faster. 

Even though I'm building more terrain and models faster than I ever managed before my 3d printer, I'm even further behind in my hobby projects than I was. 

[rubegon]

Thanks for sharing your process.  Do you use these as terrain for TTRGP?

 

Youve got me curious about craft cutters now.  I want something like that so I can design and build my own craft station if it can cut thin plywood.  Did you cut that unicorn I see with it as well?  

[kristof65]

7 minutes ago, rubegon said:

Thanks for sharing your process.  Do you use these as terrain for TTRGP?

 

Youve got me curious about craft cutters now.  I want something like that so I can design and build my own craft station if it can cut thin plywood.  Did you cut that unicorn I see with it as well?  

I use my terrain for miniatures games like 40k, Song of Blades & Heroes, Warlord, Mordheim, etc.  Occasionally I'll pull a piece or two out for D&D, but I mostly use 2d stuff for that - Chessex mats, TerraTiles, etc. 

The plywood unicorn/mermaids you see there were laser cut items I bought at Hobby Lobby. I'm supposed to be painting them for my wife and daughter, but I'm procrastinating. 

The cutter I have can only do heavy paper and vinyl. I'm pretty sure most of the Cricut and Silhouette models are similar. I've heard of people using them to do scoring on thin plasticard, which they can then snap apart, but I've never tried that.  I bought mine years ago specifically to make detail parts for my foam core buildings, but I've mostly used it for projects for my wife, such as vinyl for signs/decorations, and personalized Christmas boxes on glossy photo paper.   I have used it to cut accurate templates out of card stock that I've used to mark up things I'm building out of wood
 

If you want to do thin plywood, I think you're going to need more of a laser cutter. 

BTW, if you want to design yourself something custom without investing in the equipment, look into Shapeways (3d printing only) and Ponoko (3d printing and lasercutting).  Price wise they're not the best, but they make it easy for one off projects. A lot of cities also have Maker clubs that you can join to get access to more expensive equipment and help using it. 

[kristof65]

@rubegon - last night my wife sent me a link to the new Silhouette Cameo 4, which is coming out in October.  It's supposed to be able to cut thicker things than ever before.  Probably still not enough for thin plywood, but they're talking leather and balsa wood now.  The price range looks to be about the same $300 or so that I paid for my Silhouette SD back in 2011/2012

[kristof65]

Here's a work in progress on the roof of my next building, showing the strips.

 

 

 

[kristof65]

Here's another pic showing my progress before I stop for the night:

[rubegon]

That’s looking great @kristof65!

 

I’ll look into these machines to see if they can do what I want.  I see the new Silhouette can cut balsa, so that might work, and at $300 it’s not bad.  I’m sure the kids and I would find many other uses for it (leather!).

 

The immediate application I was thinking of is some custom storage pieces.  I’ve got an awkward hobby station.  It’s an antique secretary desk with a decent amount of space, but not configured optimally at all.

 

It might make more sense for me to look into Ponoko for that instead though, and see if I can convince my wife to let me buy a resin 3D printer ...

[Darsc Zacal]

Your buildings are really looking good. 3D printers are improving quickly, but I don’t think it’s a part of the hobby for me.

 

I really do appreciate you taking the time to show and explain how you did the roof tiles though.

I have some medieval buildings from a kickstarter from long ago and I want to redo the roofs.

Yours look great. I’m going to look for those cutters you mentioned.

 

[WhiteWulfe]

Able to cut balsa... Oooooh.  How thick? 

 

Because I've always wanted a Silhouette cutter.... 

[kristof65]

26 minutes ago, WhiteWulfe said:

Able to cut balsa... Oooooh.  How thick? 

 

Because I've always wanted a Silhouette cutter.... 

No idea yet - this was all the feature sheet I was sent said:
 

Quote

Increased Downward Force - up to 5kg (5000 g) to allow for the cutting of thicker materials including leather, matboard, balsa wood and craft foam

 

It doesn't start shipping until Oct, so it's unlikely anyone will really know until after that. 

[WhiteWulfe]

50 minutes ago, kristof65 said:

No idea yet - this was all the feature sheet I was sent said:
 

 

It doesn't start shipping until Oct, so it's unlikely anyone will really know until after that. 

Either way, sounds nice.