Art De La Guerre

[madaxeman]

I've finally finished some 3D printed, 3D Breed-designed Numidians I started back in April with a "wargaming standard" quick and easy paint job, and what a jolly nice - but jolly brittle - bunch of fellows they are too.



I've based some up as "Cavalry" at 3 figures to a base, and some as "Light Horse" at 2 to a base - they are great looking figures, but OMG these particular prints are really brittle. So far I think I've completely broken 7 of the horses off their bases (ie legs snapped, superglue comes out..) simply in the process of painting and photographing them, and I've lost count of the number of spears that have pinged off, usually into god knows where.



The saving grace is that they do glue back together again very easily, but with this second batch I've deliberately attempted to position all of the figures such that they can be superglued to an adjacent model at some point, in the hope that it makes them a bit more robust.



Part of the problem is no doubt that they are so light, which means it's super easy to knock them off the table, or see them slide off a tray when you are carrying them around. I've also ended up using far less magnabase on each base compared to metal figures, as otherwise I feared that I'd break them almost every time I tried to lift them out of the tin.

I suspect there are better, more flexible and robust resins out there that would make these a bit more survivable - and in future this will get even better as materials technology improves as well.


I also saw that the eBay seller I picked these up from no longer has any items listed for sale, after what looks like a lot of negative feedback for late deliveries in recent months too. My guess is that suspect he's found the whole "setting up a 3D printing business" a little harder than expected, and has thrown in the towel - somthing I can imagine will happen with a number of other sellers on eBay and Etsy going forward. Perhaps this brittle resin lead to a higher volume of returns than expected, and that also contributed to him stopping too - who knows?



But, despite the missing javelin-ends, and bits nipped out of some of the horses legs, all in all they are still nicer looking figures than any metal 15mm Numidan range I've yet found. Whether I am confident enough in them to pack them up and take them to a competition though is something that needs much more careful thought!
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www.madaxeman.com

[Mark G Fry]

I recently had a similar issue with some 3D printed 28mm figures - if you so much as brushed them with your hand accidently any bits that stuck out just shattered.
Like your experience, the Ebay seller disappeared pretty sharpish, although it did take nearly 3 months for just 6 figures to arrive.

One thought on securing the Numidians, might be a trick I ended up using for some 15mm nicely painted metal late roman horsemen I acquired many years ago (I cannot remember the manufacturer but I think they are also long-gone).
They horses kept on snapping off at the horses ankles (I am sure there is probably a better equestrian term for this area).
So in the end I found some long(ish) very thin screws and drilled a small hole up through the MDF base and the metal figure stand and into the stomach of the horse.
I then countersank the hole underneath the MDF base and (very carefully) screwed the screw through the MDF & metal stand and into the belly of the horse, supergluing it in place at both ends.
I then disguised the screw with flock and grass tufts.
It worked well and as the screw was metal (iron or steel) it was adequate to allow the base to be secured to a magna-based carrying tin.
But it was a lot of work!
However, the cavalry figures had been very nicely painted and I resented that I'd just have to throw them away otherwise.

But your Numidians do look the part
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'He could have lived a risk-free, moneyed life, but he preferred to whittle away his fortune on warfare.' Xenophon, The Anabasis