DEVLOG 1 - research and Trello board link

I decided to do some research into how 3D printed models are made, some tips to bare in mind, and the general process i will need to follow to create my 3D print. Below are some videos and websites i looked at and the corresponding notes from each.

Notes:

Setting up the resin printer:

- Good ventilation, use nitrile gloves, use a 3m mask to avoid inhaling fumes
- Resin tank and build plate can touch resin, everything else shouldn't
- Soap and water wont remove it, you need isopropyl alcohol.

Chitubox:

- some miniatures can be printed upright with minimal interference [don't rely on this though, its always best to print at an angle] , the auto support tool is pretty useful.

Cleaning models:

- Fill cleaning machine with isopropyl alcohol.

- Small models can be washed in a two cycle process, with the initial stage with a duration of  5 minutes, dunk it in another vat of isopropyl alcohol, then back into the main cleaning device for another 5 minutes.

Removing models:

-use a scraper to remove your models from the build plate.

- gently remove supports while wearing gloves, for fragile elements, use pliers to remove supports

- cure in UV light for 2 minutes [for small miniatures], you can do this before removing supports so that you can remove the supports without having to wear gloves.

- if you have anything that needs gluing on your models, use superglue as no other kind of glue will work.

Notes:

- can use z-brush to add details to your models made on maya/blender

-Dynamic topology

- you dont need to worry about topology for 3D printing, just focus on support placement 

- if you need to decrease polygons, just simply use decimate tool

Sizing guide

Mahajan, P., 2023. Sizes of DND Miniatures: A Complete Guide [online]. SelfCAD. available at:

 https://www.selfcad.com/blog/what-size-are-dnd-miniatures [Acessed 14 October 2025]

- miniatures are usually 28mm tall [the website also has a good height chart]

- take into consideration the size of your model to decide what size base it should have, this website has a very good size recommendation chart.

- The base size is very important when making miniatures for tabletop games as the models will be used on a grid map, as such the bases should be small enough [or be representative of the scale of the creature] on the grid.

I will include any more information i gain onto this post. My next step is to decide what i would like to model, and begin making some sketches and orthographic references to aid me in the modelling process.

I also created a Trello board to track my progress for this project.

https://trello.com/b/r2pzodtd/my-trello-board