As described in yesterday's post, I knocked up a basic Roman Legion base in 3d Builder. This had the overall dimension of 120x80mm by 2mm deep and used the medium sized infantry strips from Braedzero's Thingiverse files to build up the 10 infantry blocks.
This was printed on my Creality Ender 5 Pro using a 0.4mm nozzle and took just short of 5 hours to complete. I've ordered a 0.2mm nozzle to try to see what difference this will make to the resolution. The downside being it will take even longer still to print.
As ever, given that this was an FDM print, there was a certain amount of "stringing" at this scale. To overcome the worse of this I use a disposable cigarette lighter flame. I just pass the print quickly over the flame and the bulk of any "stringing" will vanish.
When dry, I sprayed the entire base with Wilko's Matt White primer.
This gives a great basecoat for the next stage, painting using Citadel Contrast/Scale 75 Instants paints. The base was coated using Scale 75 Ogre Brown, which is actually a yellowy/brown that I think makes for a good mediterranean ground colour.
When this was dry I painted each infantry block in Citadel Contrast Black Templar. This soaks into the recesses between the "heads" of the infantry and forms a nice shadow between the figures.
Finally, to finish them off, the infantry blocks were dry brushed with Vallejo Gunmetal before the individual shields were picked out by dabs of Citadel Blood Angels Red.
I then deliberated whether to add flock or not to the bases. The shortest flock I had was 2mm long, so in effect would have been 6 foot tall grass on the base! I therefore decided just to add some blotches of Scale 75 Instants Corrupted Stamina Green to give the impression of some greenery.
The base was finished with a quick squirt of Matt Varnish.
I'm quite pleased with this as a starter for 10. I'd intended using my Irregular Miniatures figures on MDF bases (and probably still will at some point) but this method will allow me to produce army bases reasonably quickly for very little outlay. Hoping to have two forces ready for when the rules finally launch in April.
The other files on Braedzero's pages cover things like Wagons, Chariots, Pikemen and Elephants so the world is your oyster. I've already knocked up Auxilliary Cohorts and Cavalry bases (based on the Roman Army on Jim's Wargames Workbench.) so just have to get them printed out to complete this army.
Better get that printer fired up........
That looks excellent! Nice work.
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