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I just finished printing the Evil Sorcerer’s Tower – haven’t even finished trimming and touch-up yet, but I already have a few observations and suggestions. Let me start by saying that it’s a great model created with skill: everything that follows should be read with that as context.
First, I printed the EST immediately after printing the Lighthouse, and in both cases I noticed that doors are scaled a little small. If you print the models at 100%, the doors’ scale makes them look like they’re 4 or maybe 4.5 feet tall. I each case, this persuaded me to print the buildings at 125%. That resulted in doors that (just barely) cleared the heads of my minis, gave the towers more presence and a better sense of scale, and as a byproduct gives more play space in their interiors. See attached photos for illustrations of door scale at 125%. This makes the windows seem a little tall, but I can live with that more happily than I can small doors.
Second, w/r/t settings, for those thinking of trying a larger print like I did, FYI, I found that 125% is the absolute largest size that’s printable on a stock Ender Pro 3. FWIW, I used black Inland PLA+ at 215 degrees first layer and 200-205 for higher layers (I switched it around for different sections), 0.2 layers with adaptive thickness, 10% infill, no skirt. The 125% scale worked well – it certainly makes the final EST very imposing, but it also took around 13 days and most of 2 spools to print.
Third, there clearly was a lot of artistry and thoughtfulness in designing this model, but I strongly suggest that a couple of things be reconsidered. most importantly, Roof #1 really is building level 3, as it suggests a high-ceilinged interior space with 2 regular windows, 2 dormered windows, and a turret with 3 more windows. In short, it is or should be represented as a fully inhabitable level of the building with probably 300+ sq. ft. of space. Yet the print design treats that level as a simple “hat” for the rest of the building. There is no representation of a stairway or of a ladder that would access that level, and no thematic way of getting to it from the Tower. In fact, there is no way of representing that room *at all* for play purposes. Sure, I could sketch it out on a battle map or something and ask people to rely on the theater of the mind, but that sort of runs against the grain of printing this kind of model in the first place. In short, I’d like to see some way of using the third level of the building as a playable third level. The Roof #2 section is similar – it has a turret and 3 windows, implying around 100 sq ft of interior space, but one again this roof section is just a “hat” for the tower beneath it. Final design-related comment: both the timber frame building and the tower have prominent chimneys, but there is no internal representation of a fireplace or stove that they’re hooked up to (unlike the fireplace in the Lighthouse, which connects with its chimney).
Fourth, I saw that some previous people ran into problems printing the level 5 balcony spindles – some failed spindles and spaghetti effects especially on the left side. I experienced the same thing in the same place. To avoid reprinting the whole large piece, I used Meshmixer to chop off the balcony, and then I reprinted just the balcony railings, this time at 0.1 layer height and +5 degrees. Came out perfectly. I’m going to clip out some of the good spindles and graft them onto the large model using superglue. I also noticed some people claiming that the cornices print a little thin if you have any underextrusion problems at all and break easily. I had to perform surgery to repair two cornices on my model, but the rest were fine – it’s possible that printing them at 125% made them stronger.
- This topic was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by .
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Cheers for the input James. We will see what we can do to improve the ease of printing. I will add it to our ongoing updates board and see what we can do about the other bits too.
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