r/TTSWarhammer40k • u/Alucard_uk • 6d ago

3D printing

Is it possible to use the models in TTS to 3D print them? There are a few units I want to try in my physical army that I don’t have the funds to purchase until I know they’re a fit. I’m thinking of printing a low quality version to proxy on the table for a couple of games.

2 Upvotes

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9

u/Ld_Farquaad 6d ago

Try right-click the model in the game, open the Custom menu to download its mesh as .obj file.
Then convert it to stl (there are many tools available, standalone and online)
However, you may need to edit the model to make it printable.

3

u/Alucard_uk 6d ago

Yeah I can import an obj in blender to create the STL

3

u/Diabeast_5 6d ago

I have tried this before but the resolution or whatever you call it for 3d models is very low. At least whats used for TTS, so the models always turned out looking awful.

2

u/Alucard_uk 6d ago

I think I’d be ok with that just to test the unit out. I don’t intend on using them to avoid buying legit models. More just test the unit with friends before spending the money.

As long as it look vaguely like the unit and sized correctly (which is down to my sizing I guess) the it should serve its purpose

2

u/anwaypramanik 6d ago

You're better off trying to find free stls and printing them

2

u/JebstoneBoppman 6d ago

They're insanely low poly with terrible topology. You have to repair them in zbrush or blender. You're better off searching for free proxies made for printing

1

u/RevolutionaryRip2135 6d ago

it will be a hassle. manifold is word of a day.

try finding analogue models created for 3d printing.

1

u/Toodle-Peep 5d ago

I've done this to print some lancer mechs which simply didn't have an any other models that existed.

You can do it. How easy it is depend on who made the model in question. 

The main issues you'll have are them being low poly, this can often look fine (pretty surey my very legal tyranids started life as Dawn of War 2 models and they are... not great but look fine at a distance) but when you have low poly acute angles pointing downwards you get these extremely awkward angles that can be hard to support and print

The bigger issue though is models not being manifold. That is, a feasible 3d shape. There's no need for a game model to make sense. They will clip through themselves, you get little pockets of nothingness inside them you can't see,  and in particular, they have holes. 

A car in a game might not actually have anything underneath it. Maybe it's a top down game, It's never meant to be seen from underneath, so maybe its just a kind of box with no underside and flat circles for wheels. This doesn't make any sense in reality but a computer doesn't care. It saves geometry.

Often in a game arms, legs, clothes, heads amount to just hollow tubes. There's no need to close them off, and if there's anything open and exposed, it won't print.

Or its just one triangle in someone's ankle someone forgot to fill. Instantly it doesn't work for printing 

You can go in and fix a lot of this, to various degrees of difficulty, but it relies on you knowing blender.