The First Prints

First evening of actually printing and I ran a calibration test. My eyes might not be very experienced but as of right now it looked pretty good to me. It was a bugger to get off the build plate which the internet tells me is because the bottom layer exposure times are too high. Reducing them, it would be sensible to run another calibration test but here’s the thing… I’m an enormous child who just wants to play with her new toy properly. The same way I follow the quick start guide and never look at the rest of the instruction manual, I picked out some STLs that I had downloaded in anticipation and went about filling the build plate.

Worth staying up past midnight to wait for the print to finish? Absolutely! They were much easier to get off the build plate, the scale is largely spot on, the prints are clean and, with the exception of two support heavy areas leaving a bit of detail lacking on their little turtle butts, the models are great. I’ve got them on bases and primed waiting for me getting in from work tonight.

I know there’s so many detractors for 3d printing in our hobby but honestly I’ve been grinning ear-to-ear since taking my turtles out of the curing station. Yesterday these models didn’t exist in the world, now they do. There’s a folder of STLs on my hard drive just waiting to be explored, most of them free, a couple of them not. I have plans for this weekend’s printing and my first full army beyond that. Just need to find a way to keep on top of the painting so I don’t end up with another pile of shame!