I'm a big Transformers fan; about the same level for them as for GI Joe. The one thing I've always wanted was to be able to display my Joes and Transformers together. Alas, Joes were too big or TFs were too small, depending on how you look at it. With the Masterpiece Transformers line (and various 3P additions to it), I've gotten close, being able to do my Mega Blok Joes to go with them. The problem there is that the MP figures are big, so it's hard to do large displays with them like I like.

I like the size of the Legends class Transformers, but I thought I'd be forced to get HO model figures and paint them up as my Joes and be happy with static-positioned figures. Then Takara released the Dianauts, who are 28mm tall and look fantastic with the Legends TFs. The problem with them is that the figures are expensive to come up with and require a lot of carving to get them to not look like guys in high tech armor.

So, I decided to try my hand at printing some figures. There are limitations to what can be done with the typical home printer, so allowing for those limitations, I've settled on some compromises with the figures:

• Limited detailing - I'm not going to try to give the figures every bit of detail the original had, just try to evoke the image of the character
• Limited articulation - These are just too small to do ball joints or complex cuts. I'll have 8 or 9 articulation points - pivot jointed shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, along with possibly the head (sorry, Suntzu, no swivel-arms)
• Going the Lanard route - At this size, most of the detail will be more noticeable as paint apps, so I'll only have a 4 or 5 figure types I use for the various characters ('soldier' for characters in fatigues; 'bare top' for characters in vests, t-shirts, etc; 'female' for the women

I found a WWII soldier model on Thingiverse and downloaded it to use as my base. I'm taking it in steps to try to get the articulation down, but here is my first stage, with the shoulders cut in. This initial print is at a low resolution for speed until I get this fine-tuned and paint apps are a bit sloppy because I just wanted to see how it looks painted up. Over all, I'm going to call it a success that should give me results I can live with, once I slim down the shoulders and do other tweaks:









And a pic comparing his size to a Mega Blok figure:

Impressed with the ambition of the project but also the mastery of the medium to get that refined of a print at that small of a scale

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Thanks for the kind words. I've worked to get my printer dialed in and am thinking about doing the mods required to show me to use a smaller nozzle (.2mm instead of the stock .4mm). This would let me get to a .044mm layer height and give better X and Y resolution.

interesting project and really great start!

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As a test that turned out great. Can't wait to see what you can do at a higher reoslution print.

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Thanks, guys! Weather is supposed to be nasty this weekend so I should have some time to work on the next step.

So I got to work on this a bit more today. Here is a rough print with all articulation cut in except the head:


The hinge pins are cut down from paperclips. some are a bit long, but for this test, they're good enough. You can also see where I accidentally broke off the left arm and had to do a repair on it:


Here he is painted up:


Showing some of the articulation:








Here is a print out at higher resolution, but not assembled yet:


He could obviously be better and I've found some improvements I can make on other figures as I continue this series. However, I'm actually pleased enough with this one that I think he'll become the gunner in one of the Miniature Editions HISS tanks I have.

That shot of the paper clip joints really shows how small that guy is. They look like giant rebars going through his knees.

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Yeah, I'm actually thinking about resizing the holes and switching to using scrap Cat6 24ga I wind up with from installs and such. The paper clips are 1mm thick, while the 24ga copper is .51mm or .52mm (depending on brand). It will make the 'rivets' less noticeable and the pieces should be sturdier since they will have more material to them.

I dug out a Joe figure to show the size of this guy relative to a ~1:18 figure:




I also made him a little robot buddy. I downloaded Jabberwock's SNAKE armor from Thingiverse. It is designed to be used for miniature gaming, so the arms were meant to be glued in place and he provides a right and left arm with each attachment instead of just the four attachments. I didn't want to glue it together, so Igave it shoulder ball joints, then made the attachments separate pieces with pegs to attach to the arms and back, like the original toy. I had a mishap while painting and lost the missile attachment, so I'll need to reprint it.




Showing the arm articulation, ability to peg to the back, and swapping attachments:

that snake armor is pretty cool!

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What would one have to do to procure a SNAKE armor from a future print run?

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I could print one up and send it to you if you'd like.

This is fantastic stuff!!