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Hey folks, Kalle Bowo here. Some of you might still know me as the guy who worked on the graphics for the Renegade mod "CnC Reborn" or who dressed up in his Nod uniform at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany (the Avatar, yes, that's actually me, 10 years ago ^^). I thought you might be interested in my latest CnC related project. Since I bought a 3D printer this year I started building a miniature base inspired by Tiberian Dawn and Renegade. If you want to see more, you can visit my website www.printed-armies.com And if you want to stay in touch, you can follow me on Facebook and Instagram. I heard social media is kind of the new thing ... here are some examples of what I did so far, enjoy

Indeed! Since I still got all the 3D files from the days working on Reborn on my PC, you will totally see that stuff one day ^^ But just to make it clear, the printing doesn't work that way "extract 3D file from game -> throw it at the printer -> success!!". I basically have to model all the stuff completely from scratch. But having resource material in 3D helps of course to speed up the process, since I got already the right proportions. By the way, want to see the latest stuff I'm working on? ^^

The elders told of his return ...

Yeah I heard about that stuff. But I think my models are quite too small and detailed and would rather suffer from the procedure than actually benefit. I am also already quite happy with the results of the Ultimaker. The layer hight is set to 0.1 mm, which is quite fine already. Plus I've heard the procedure is actually not that good for your health, which wouldn't be beneficial if I would be mass producing these miniatures. Yes, the material I'm using is biodegradable. But so far I haven't noticed that my models melt away I guess if I would throw them in the garden, leaving them exposed to 'wind and weather', that wouldn't be beneficial. But so far, they look just fine sitting here on my desk. About the printing process: You either get a 3D model (from a game, download it somewhere etc), load it up with a so called slicer application (I'm using Cura, the standard from Ultimaker) which basically converts the vectors of the 3D model into the different layers, from bottom to the top, which will guide the print head. In this step you can tweak all kinds of settings, like the layer hight (the more layers, the more details), temperature, speed etc. and afterwards you export the data as a so called GCode to a SD card, put it in the printer, turn on the printer, select a model and wait a couple of hours until the model is finished. But. Not everything can be printed as you might imagine it. First of all models from games are barely printable out of the box. They are optimized for gaming (therefore have usually few polygons = your model will look edgy), the geometry isn't closed, normals are inverted, all kinds of problems. I figured out the only way to get proper results is to model everything from scratch, giving you full control over every detail. If something doesn't work in the printing process, you will know why it doesn't work. In general the printer works additive from bottom to the top. Going upwards up until a 45° angle gives you still nice results, but everything in between 45° and 5° just doesn't result in smooth surface areas. Printing additively also means you can't print stuff that's floating in the air. You could tell Cura to print so called support structures underneath otherwise floating objects. But you have to remove them manually afterwards which results in an unclean surface area as well. That's why I like to cut the models into different printable pieces and glue them back together afterwards. Moreover the slicing software works also as a kind of previsualization. You can actually see how your model will turn out. Here you can already see if certain details are too small or if they clump together, if they are streched somehow etc. Which means now it's back again to your 3D modeling program to work on those details again. So it's a back and forth until you're happy with this previsualization and actually start printing. And normally you will see a couple of details you are still not happy with only after you hold the printed model in your hand. I mean In the end it's molten plastic, it behaves still a bit different than the software predicts. That means it's a constant loop of rapid prototyping until you are finally happy with your model. Let's use the Construction Yard as an example. Step 01: Decide on a model you want to make. Step 02: Gather as much as possible reference materials. Step 03: Modeling. Keep in mind that floating stuff isn't possible. And if you don't want to use support structures, you need to disassamble those critical areas, such as the crane. Step 04: Previsualize in Cura. See critical areas, go back to your 3D software, work on those areas. Repeat until you are happy. Step 05: Export GCode, print this thing, wait a couple of hours and hope everything turns out fine. Step 06: Glue the parts back together.

My favorite RA memories were actually the skirmishes, though the campaign was a ton of fun. I just remember the AI being insane, throwing massive assault forces at you to wear you down. I rarely won, but that made the few victories I did have even more special.