Resin printed Smaug from "The Hobbit" with custom base.

skahtul

Sr Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
My normal go-to for 3D printing and model kits is normally ships and vehicles. But over the last year, I have been trying to expand my skill set starting with an IG-88 and Mandolorian build I did a while back. I have a vinyl Rancor kit I picked up on eBay a while back and so I have been looking for some 'creatures' to practice with before I dive into that kit. My putty skills are pretty terrible so I thought this kit would also be a good place to attempt to hone those a bit.

Other than Star Wars, one of my favorite series is the Lord of the Rings (and to a lesser degree The Hobbit). My daughter is a huge Hobbit fan so I decided to pick up these files from Gambody and give them a try. I did not like the base that came with the kit and thought the mighty Smaug could use something a bit more substantial.

These were all printed on my Mars Pro with several resins from Sirya Tech. If you have not tried out their "Blu" resin it's basically amazing. It takes much longer to print with (unless you have a heated vat) but the strength is pretty incredible. The parts I print with the Blu are much more durable than even my PLA prints. My son and I had fun throwing parts at the cement and trying to break some of them, they almost never broke. This is a HUGE departure from the water washable resins I was using up until now from Elegoo, I found those to be very brittle.

Enjoy :)

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Time to make a mess in the garage!

I used some of that pink insulation used for houses and a bit of spray adhesive. I used a small hack saw and file to get the shape I wanted.

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Once I got the basic shape I mixed some black acrylic paint with Mod Podge to start making the base. This seems to really seal up the foam well. Once this was dry (about 24 hours) I was able to use some 400 grit sandpaper to knock down any small parts and smooth it all down.

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I started with a basecoat of Tamiya Flat Red:

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To finish off the base, I used some light and dark Tamiya Gray and then dry brushed on some Gold and Metalic Silver. For Smaug I dry brushed black, followed by desert tan and then a very light pass of Metalic Silver.

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Nice! I really like how that base came out! Man I'm going to go broke once I finally get a printer. :lol: I've got a ton of kits to print.

Yeah, it's bad, really bad :)

My 3D print 'stash' is 4x the size of my physical kit stash. I started out with a Prusa Mini and now I have the Mars Pro, a Saturn and I pre-ordered the Jupiter.

Good luck, and thanks!
 
Really nice work! I love the Siraya Tech resins. I started with Build Sonic Grey and was super happy with it and just received a bottle of Fast Navy Grey and ran some test prints over the weekend. I need to cure them tonight after they finish drying but on initial inspection last night, I'm blown away with the detail and surface quality. Build was great, Fast is just phenomenal. Both seem very durable and reasonably flexible. I could bend sword blades on minis printed in Build almost 90 degrees.
 
Really nice work! I love the Siraya Tech resins. I started with Build Sonic Grey and was super happy with it and just received a bottle of Fast Navy Grey and ran some test prints over the weekend. I need to cure them tonight after they finish drying but on initial inspection last night, I'm blown away with the detail and surface quality. Build was great, Fast is just phenomenal. Both seem very durable and reasonably flexible. I could bend sword blades on minis printed in Build almost 90 degrees.

Agreed with all points! When I first started resin printing it was all with the Elegoo water washable resins. However, it was always very frustrating as parts would break, and even just the slights tip over on my workbench would snap stuff off.

The Blu has put an end to all of that. If the parts are thin they are flexible, if they are thick then they are super strong. The only real drawback is the print time but that does not bother me at all. I really want to give the Sculpt a try also, which is probably next up on my list.

I did have a really strange issue with their Fast/ABS-like resin. I have not been able to figure out the issue and I need to reach out to Siraya Tech. For some reason, I would get random holes and missing parts in the prints. I thought that maybe the screen was bad or my FEP sheet was dirty, but none of that made any difference (and the defects were 100% random). Exact same model was printed with both the Fast/ABS and Blu and the Blu never had issues. I also used the same settings as recommended on their site.

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Very cool

I was wondering about the Siraya Blu. I may have to give it a try

It's pretty great, though it does smell much worse than the FAST and the Elegoo resins. Even though their site says it does not smell, it's pretty bad.
 
Agreed with all points! When I first started resin printing it was all with the Elegoo water washable resins. However, it was always very frustrating as parts would break, and even just the slights tip over on my workbench would snap stuff off.

The Blu has put an end to all of that. If the parts are thin they are flexible, if they are thick then they are super strong. The only real drawback is the print time but that does not bother me at all. I really want to give the Sculpt a try also, which is probably next up on my list.

I did have a really strange issue with their Fast/ABS-like resin. I have not been able to figure out the issue and I need to reach out to Siraya Tech. For some reason, I would get random holes and missing parts in the prints. I thought that maybe the screen was bad or my FEP sheet was dirty, but none of that made any difference (and the defects were 100% random). Exact same model was printed with both the Fast/ABS and Blu and the Blu never had issues. I also used the same settings as recommended on their site.

View attachment 1502370
Hmm, that's an odd one. Maybe a weird version of bloom? Normally it just results in irregularities in the surface texture, but I could see it possibly doing something like this depending on the viscosity of the resin. If you're inclined and have any more of the Fast Grey on hand try it with some additional light off delay time and see what happens. Here's more info on the bloom phenomenon if you are interested in a little technical reading.

 
Agreed with all points! When I first started resin printing it was all with the Elegoo water washable resins. However, it was always very frustrating as parts would break, and even just the slights tip over on my workbench would snap stuff off.

The Blu has put an end to all of that. If the parts are thin they are flexible, if they are thick then they are super strong. The only real drawback is the print time but that does not bother me at all. I really want to give the Sculpt a try also, which is probably next up on my list.

I did have a really strange issue with their Fast/ABS-like resin. I have not been able to figure out the issue and I need to reach out to Siraya Tech. For some reason, I would get random holes and missing parts in the prints. I thought that maybe the screen was bad or my FEP sheet was dirty, but none of that made any difference (and the defects were 100% random). Exact same model was printed with both the Fast/ABS and Blu and the Blu never had issues. I also used the same settings as recommended on their site.

View attachment 1502370

I remember you reaching out in dm and I had nothing to offer at the time, but seeing the post above about blooming and you mentioning having to heat the vat for some resins, I wonder if it could be air bubbles getting trapped in the resin?

If the resin is really thick(viscous?) like the Siraya Blu, it may not be having enough time to allow the air bubbles to pop and resin to settle back in before starting the exposure?

essentially I guess that would be similar if not part of the effect in blooming, but either way, the fixes would still be the same potentially
 
I remember you reaching out in dm and I had nothing to offer at the time, but seeing the post above about blooming and you mentioning having to heat the vat for some resins, I wonder if it could be air bubbles getting trapped in the resin?

If the resin is really thick(viscous?) like the Siraya Blu, it may not be having enough time to allow the air bubbles to pop and resin to settle back in before starting the exposure?

essentially I guess that would be similar if not part of the effect in blooming, but either way, the fixes would still be the same potentially

The odd thing is it's actually very, very thin, thinner than the Elegoo Water Resins... I had also thought that maybe there might be air getting trapped somehow.
 
Hmm, that's an odd one. Maybe a weird version of bloom? Normally it just results in irregularities in the surface texture, but I could see it possibly doing something like this depending on the viscosity of the resin. If you're inclined and have any more of the Fast Grey on hand try it with some additional light off delay time and see what happens. Here's more info on the bloom phenomenon if you are interested in a little technical reading.


Thanks, I will give this a try as I still have about 1/3 of the bottle left. I do not currently have any light-off delays set.

Also, it's hard to see in the print but when there is a defect it goes all the way through the model like I drilled holes in it. As a matter of fact, when I first saw this I assumed I had somehow messed up the print and inadvertently drilled holes in it. It also does not matter if the print is hollowed or solid, I tried both and had the same issue.
 
If the same model (without being re-sliced) printed successfully with another resin, then it has to either be something settings/temperature specific for that resin

Unfortunately what that is, I do not know
 
If the same model (without being re-sliced) printed successfully with another resin, then it has to either be something settings/temperature specific for that resin

Unfortunately what that is, I do not know

Sorry, yes,I did not mention that it was resliced between the two resins. This is because the Blu settings are a bit different and slower
 
Then it still could be a slicer issue potentially?

That is what I thought also so I took the same part (without reslicing it) and used the same Fast/ABS resin and the defects were different from print to print. So even if I just took the print off, cleaned the build plate, and re-printed the exact same file the defects were in different places and or not as bad or worse depending on the print.

I only re-sliced it when swapping the resin type...
 
When you guys say some 3D printing resin is brittle are you talking you touch it and it crumbles, or you throw it to the floor and it breaks? I'm just curious because for models/statues I wouldn't think the latter would be that big of a deal, but for a prop replica definitely.
 
When you guys say some 3D printing resin is brittle are you talking you touch it and it crumbles, or you throw it to the floor and it breaks? I'm just curious because for models/statues I wouldn't think the latter would be that big of a deal, but for a prop replica definitely.

Not super brittle at all, it's all relative. Some resins just have more give and or rigidity to them. I would not say any of them are super brittle, it just varies a lot between the different types. Even the 'more brittle' resins, especially if you print something that has some solid structure to it will be pretty tough (at least that is my experience).

A good example would be those small wingtips on the Smaug print above. Some resins it would be pretty easy to snag them on something and tear one-off. Others, like the Blu, would have a lot more give and or be more rigid and less likely to break off. But the thick part like the primary neck structure would be pretty tough. Trust me, we printed a view different ones and tried to break them :)
 
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