My friend Marion recently bought a new kind of 3D printer. This type uses liquid resin instead of those pesky spools which I think remelt the stuff. Regardless, the spool version leaves very noticeable lines or layers, giving away how it was made. I like how the new one functions too, you just buy a bottle of the goop/liquid and off you go. Marion was generous in printing this file I bought from Hero Forge, my favorite place to have D&D minis made of my players’ characters and key NPCs. Since Hero Forge will sell you the file to print what you design for $8, I bought my first attempt at how I see the Ithklur soldiers seen throughout the Hive Federation from Traveller. I think GDW finally had illustrations of the famous “allies” of the Hivers, I can’t remember them and what few I did see were lame and disappointing. If you’re not familiar with Traveller, the Ithklur are a reptilian-looking race who live in the Hive Federation and their main purpose is to provide troopers given that Hivers stink at physical combat…in addition to their preference to avoid it. Despite them being assigned such a role, the Ithklur don’t mind as they’re originally a warrior race when the Hivers first encountered them. You don’t need to feel sorry for them neither, billions of other Ithklur have careers outside the military, the Hivers aren’t monsters.
The iPhone photograph doesn’t do this mini proper justice. The level of detail probably doesn’t look as strong as it could be as it’s not in color (the original design). However, I would like to do some cost-benefit analysis with Marion to calculate what’s the price per trooper. So far the software model is $8 (give/take tax), 500 g (or is it ml) of resin is $20, throw in latex gloves for handling after printing (no idea), maybe some other stuff and lastly, normalize the printer’s price which will decline per mini. Then I’d have a good cost per mini estimate to see if it’s worth bothering with or more importantly, I’m not wearing out Marion’s printer.
Hoping to have more to show off in the near future! I think the printer is a great solution for shock forces. Different colors for different ranks.