Kalle Bowo

That would have been awesome, indeed but at least now I get to feel the same happiness as a grown man again I am using the Ultimaker 2+. When I bought it about a year ago it costed aroun 2.300€. From my experience I have to say if you want to have a good quality, you really need to spend a lot of money. Before settling for the UM2+ I ordered a couple of test prints from different websites made with different printers, basically the same scale model over and over again (which somehow happened to be the Hand of Nod). And the UM2+ really had the best quality. Sure, by now there are also cool machines like the Formlabs Form 2, which use stereolithography instead of fused deposition modeling, which gives even nicer results (and are also much faster!) but they are also a couple of thousand bucks more expensive Sadly, no, even though the body and the turrets are printed seperately, they are glued to the body. I haven't come up with a way to make them rotatable at this small scale. But I always have to print 2 tanks at once because this gives the molten plastic more time to cool down (printing on that small scale is really tricky, I can tell you) so there's basically always the possibility to glue one turret straight looking forward and the other one looking to the side, to give the whole thing more variation. Plus I also plan an making a larger scale Mammoth Tank which will indeed have a turret that can be rotated, even barrels that can go up and down. I already made some sketches about the functionality, but I still need to work on that.

I thought about this as well. But I believe that I would rather decrease the quality because I would lose a lot of those tiny details instead of gaining quality due to a smoother surface. I mean, just look at it, the Mammoth Tank without its antennas is 8 freakin milimeters high ^^ (with antennas 14mm). There won't be much left after the chemical smoothing but a small deformed blob. I mean, I will surely give it a try at some point when I start printing with different materials (at the moment I use PLA and I think I've heard that this acetone smoothing doesn't work with PLA) but it's not my prio one. As I said, keep in mind just how small this stuff is. It might seem on the photos as if the surfaces are super rough since you can see the layers quite clearly due to the immense zoom, but believe me, holding them in your hands in real life it's far from that. Some friends actually told me after holding this stuff in their hands "man, i'm impressed, I thought 3D printers make ugly surfaces, but yours is quite fine". To put it in perspective again, here's a photo of the last photo displayed at 100% true pixels as seen on my flatscreen monitor with the actual model in front of it ^^ I would say EVERYTHING looks rough if you zoom that much in on it

Thanks! Here's another photo of the GDI Guard Towers + Mammoth, just to give you an impression of how tiny all the stuff gets. It still baffles me that the Ultimaker can print those delicate details.

GDI Guard Towers are ready

Thank you yes, I'm planning to paint the stuff. I already got a good airbrush pistol and a couple of colors from a friend of mine but I'm still kind of avoiding to touch that stuff but yes, I want to paint it! Maybe when the Tiberian Dawn base is completed, we'll see ^^ I know the printers you are talking about, but they are not affordable for a person like you and me. I'm talking like 100.000€ or something, Plus the color actually doesn't look so nice, it's always kind of pale.

Meanwhile the Titan isn't done, here's an old photo Remembering the time when it was still warm enough to take that photo out on the balcony

Thank you very much, Monkey! For me it's an absolute nobrainer, making all that CnC stuff. I mean, I grew up with it, built a board game version, modded on Reborn, dressed as a Nod soldier at the GamesCom, it's just a part of me. Doing this stuff brings back so many great memories of childhood, friends and youth. Plus I practice 3D modeling and people appriciate that stuff. CnC still got a huge fan base out there. Making polls about the next model might be an idea. At the moment I'm simply taking notes when people are requesting stuff, for example the RA2 Soviet Missle Silo or the Nod Crawler from TT. Lot of people want to see the Mammoth Tank from TW. I think making an actuall poll wouldn't work. the "fans" of printed armies are scattered too much. Some follow me on Instagram, some on Facebook, in different forums ... I guess it would be easier to just ask on all those different platforms straight out "Hey suckers, tell me what you want, pronto" and then I just add their suggestions to my list. But yep, I thought about the TD MCV as well, I mean it's super iconic and I totally like the look ^^ the cutscene where the MCV unfolds and transforms into the ConYard is permanently burned into my brain ^^ I mean it was super cool back then, wasn't it?! cheers

Happy new year, folks! I'm back and working on something bigger this time, the GDI Titan. Modeling is nearly done. Afterwards I need to cut it into printable parts. Stay tuned! cheers, Kalle

Hey folks, do you have experience with the eSports? I am applying for a position as a designer in that scene and I need a quick crash course about that topic. Things that would be interesting to me are: - What are these things: LCS, ECS, OW, 4-pool stand? - Is there something about eSports that connects these games? League of Legends, Counter Strike GO, DOTA 2, Starcraft 2, Call of Duty, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone and World of Tanks -> If not, but you still know something about one of these games in connection with eSports, feel free to just share your personal experiences and opinions. - Maybe something like a small introduction or resume about that topic in general - Everything else that you find interesting or worth mentioning Thank you very much! cheers, Kalle

Do I look like this or what?!

Thanks! I will probably start with TS next year. I'm so close to finishing the TD set. Only the civilian hospital, GDI's Advanced Comm Center and Nod's Bio Research Lab are on the list. But I somehow just don't find the time at the moment. And then there's already Christmas next month ... curses ! ^^

I guess someone flipped a coin much german, such accurate, wow ...

Hey folks, by now I'm growing pretty tired of this damn Muslim/Koran/refugee discussion that's going on here in Germany. Well and since I consider myself a rational person who likes to make informed decisions, I thought to myself "let's read the Koran" ... "and THEN judge those refugees, muahahaaa" ... No, honestly, I'm an atheist. I believe in science and facts, in freedom, harmony, I am pro tolerance and against violence. Let's say I try to be a decent human being. Anyway, one point on my to do list was also always to read the Bible. And now might be a pretty handy time to read both and compare what they say. So to put this short: Are there any different versions of those two books, the Bible and the Koran, I should care about? I mean I have literally no idea about that, I just heard that there are different versions for example of the bible because they were translated by different people at different points in time or something. Let's say I don't want to order "Bible version 1.2" on Amazon when there's already "version 1.55 extended edition + hotfix" on the market. You know what I mean? So if there's something like a standard or go-to editon of both books, please tell me more about it cheers, Kalle PS: Please, PLEASE don't start any religious discussion down here ^^ everybody is free to believe what they want to believe. And I know many people take these things pretty seriously, so I don't want any bad blood between you guys ^^

I'd say maybe upload them somewhere, send me the link and I will have a look if they are printable out of the box or if they need much work. Thanks for the compliment and also for the offer. Your models look nice, indeed! I will ping you when I'm approaching AR2 for printing

At leats not until now. Some people already asked for the TW Mammoth Tank, one dude wanted the Soviet Nuclear Silo from RA2 ... but I'm really feeling like finishing the TD stuff first, so I got a complete collection, a finished project. But I put these wishes on a list for later. The tricky thing with jumping from game to game is also the scale of the objects. I want to build everything that way that every piece from every game fits together with the all the other pieces from the other games. By the way, why do you ask?

It's not solid. It doesn't have to be solid. It's filled with this grid pattern, which is called "infill" and is calculated by the slicer software. Default settings are 20% infill, which means the grid pattern consists of 20% PLA and 80% air. This doesn't sound like much, but I think the models are already quite durable. I didn't try to break one on purpose, but they don't seem that fragile to be honest. And I mean in the end they are just miniatures, you put them somewhere and look at them. Having a 20% plastic grid inside makes them already stronger than all the models of tanks and planes and whatsoever that you buy for instance from Revell, which are all hollow. These will actually break more easily than my models.

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.

I'm printing with PLA. I really like this greyish / silverish look. I tried also white PLA and a cheaper silver PLA so far but both don't look even close as good. I mean one day I will also paint all these models but at the moment it's just nice if they can look really nice even without being painted ^^ I used to be a web designer, but than I took an arrow to the knee ... well, I bought a template on themeforest called Hyper X and made all the design adjustments on my own.

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? ^^

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