3D print wonderful fashions to your video games room on a Bambu Lab A1


As players all of us need a cool-looking gaming area we are able to name our personal, however what does that appear like? A pleasant gaming chair? An adjustable gaming desk like one from Flexispot? Copious quantities of LEDs and lighting options like those from Nanoleaf? However how will we stand out from the gang – particularly if you wish to change into a streamer or simply need your mates to see you could have one thing they will’t?

3D print issues your self that’s how. There are an absolute ton of 3D printable fashions on the market, some free, some paid for and when you’ve got a 3D printer, or are pondering of getting one, you possibly can set to work creating your personal bespoke gaming paintings to your room.

Which 3D printer?

For this undertaking, we’re going to use the brand new Bambu Lab A1 which not too long ago got here out on the finish of final 12 months. With its multi-material AMS Lite add it could possibly print in a number of colours on the identical print simply, which, whereas you are able to do on different printers, the AMS makes it a lot simpler.

Having mentioned that, in the principle, we’re going to print our fashions in a single colour and try to color them to an ordinary that appears half-decent. Due to this, we are able to print them in any previous filament we have now mendacity round that we perhaps don’t use that a lot.

One more reason we’re utilizing the A1 right here is as a result of, proper now, we don’t need to tinker and mess around with settings. For essentially the most half, the A1 simply works out of the field. Many different 3D printers want fine-tuning and tweaking to get one of the best out of them, even maintaining a watchful eye to ensure nothing goes unsuitable. Except you’re unfortunate the A1 ought to allow you to print and return later when it’s accomplished (though it’s good follow to recurrently test on what’s occurring, simply in case.)

Our mannequin right here is that this wonderful chibi model of basic gaming hero Duke Nukem from 3DXM. As a result of we’re going to paint him, we’re simply going to make use of some inexperienced filament we don’t thoughts utilizing up.

Popping the mannequin into Bambu Studio – the slicer software program that comes with all Bambu Labs printers, sizing it to the dimensions you need to your desk or shelf, including helps, and slicing it able to print ought to take solely a minute or so.

From there you possibly can ship it over wi-fi to the A1, select the colour you need to print in when you’ve got the AMS Lite, hit print, and sit again. This Duke Nukem took round 5 hours to print at 100% however had we pushed the printer into Sport and even Ludicrous mode it will have been a lot quicker.

If you’re new to 3D printing it is best to know that any a part of the mannequin that hangs suspended in mid-air will want helps whereas it prints. Your A1’s nozzle can’t simply make issues seem in mid-air. Which means this help materials is a) a waste of filament and b) must be eliminated when the print is full. It needs to be a case of simply pulling it off, however it may be sharp and you may reduce your self so perhaps pop on a pair of gardening gloves and even washing up gloves for a bit of safety. Having mentioned that you just haven’t lived till you’ve got your blood throughout that good mannequin printed in white filament that you just simply spent 9 hours printing.

An image of the 3D printing process of Duke Nukem model

As you possibly can see from the image the helps pulled away properly, leaving a great-looking mannequin., even when at this stage he appears to be like a bit just like the Hulk due to the colour.

At this stage, you possibly can select to frivolously sand him all the way down to clean out the traces between the layers and take away any anomalies from the printing course of. For this characteristic, we didn’t hassle however you possibly can spend as lengthy on this part as you want till you’re completely satisfied.

With the print of the mannequin full and the A1 having carried out admirably we set it occurring our subsequent mannequin for our room, a free Jigglypuff Pokemon from Makerworld. Whereas that is printing in simply over two and a half hours we are able to hit our Duke Nukem with a few coats of white primer to prepared it for portray. We used Military Painter Matt White however any gentle primer will do. We particularly use white as a result of we’re going to paint him with Military Painter Speedpaints 2.0 which works finest on a white primer.

Due to the inexperienced filament used, we ended up needing three gentle coats of primer to cowl out the inexperienced fully

After letting Duke dry we took him over to the workbench and used a base coating brush for essentially the most half to use speedpaints for a (very, apologies) down-and-dirty paint job so you possibly can see what is feasible in round half an hour. Clearly, you possibly can spend rather more time in your portray in case you like.

By now you possibly can see the Pokemon Jigglypuff was full and the Bambu Lab A1 did a unbelievable job and got here up with a extremely clean ball form. There was a small quantity of stringing for no apparent purpose however you possibly can take away that by hitting it with a lighter for a second or two to burn it away. Now, you possibly can simply paint it and have a print of one thing else going when you do.

By the top of a day of printing, you might have a shelf stuffed with actually nice fashions from about half a roll of filament (which can price about $22.

a 3d print of a jiggypuff

Is the Bambu Lab A1 one of the best 3D printer for inexperienced persons?

On this undertaking, we simply wished great-looking fashions as a part of our Video games Room redesign. We didn’t simply need to exit and purchase the identical Funko Pops everyone has so we would have liked a frustration-free technique of getting our sport characters out. As a result of the A1 not often appears to have points – no less than in our expertise – you possibly can set a mannequin going and head off out if you might want to.

You probably have extra expertise with a extra hobbyist quite than newbie printer you would possibly be capable to do the identical, however if you’re new to the 3D printing maker area then the power to only get out of the printer what you anticipated is a boon.

The A1 shouldn’t be a big format printer and the dimensions of fashions and busts you possibly can print is perhaps a hindrance. We might be wanting on the spectacular Elegoo Neptune 4 Max quickly, which is a helmet-class printer that wants a bit of extra consideration to get nice outcomes, however if you wish to print a lifesize model of the man from Fortnite for the nook of your room, you will want to up the dimensions of your printer.

An image of Duke Nukem and Jigglypuff 3D printed models

Bambu Lab A1 settings for Bambu Studio

If you need greater high quality prints it is best to change your layer top from 0.2 all the way down to one thing like 0.12 and even 0.08. This will provide you with finer element however will take considerably longer to print.

You possibly can additionally put money into a 0.2mm nozzle to swap out the bottom 0.4mm that comes with the A1. They solely price about $15 from Bambu Labs, will be swapped in seconds not like different printers, and it’s at all times good to have in your printing arsenal.

Hopefully, you could have been impressed to make a few of your personal sport room decorations and even to select up a 3D printer for the primary time. We might be bringing you extra options that will help you degree up your gaming area sooner or later.

Paul McNally

Gaming Editor

Paul McNally has been round consoles and computer systems since his dad and mom purchased him a Mattel Intellivision in 1980. He has been a distinguished video games journalist because the Nineties, spending over a decade as editor of fashionable print-based video video games and pc magazines, together with a market-leading PlayStation title printed by IDG Media.

Having hung out as Head of Communications at an expert sports activities membership and dealing for high-profile charities such because the Nationwide Literacy Belief, he returned as Managing Editor answerable for massive US-based expertise web sites in 2020.

Paul has written high-end gaming content material for GamePro, Official Australian PlayStation Journal, PlayStation Professional, Amiga Motion, Mega Motion, ST Motion, GQ, Loaded, and the The Mirror. He has additionally hosted panels at retro-gaming conventions and might recurrently be discovered guesting on gaming podcasts and Twitch reveals. He’s obsessive about 3D printing and has labored with a number of main manufacturers previously to create content material

Believing that the reader deserves truly to get pleasure from what they’re studying is an enormous a part of Paul’s ethos on the subject of gaming journalism, elevating the websites he works on above the norm. Attain out on X.

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