I managed to get a large number of the .stl files for 3d printing a while ago on a humble bundle offer and I have just begun printing the Preserved Red Rocket station.
My question is, as I slice them and ready the files for printing, the measurements seem to be very large. If I am doing my calculations correctly the station will be more than 2’ long and 1’ wide when fully assembled.
Has anyone printed and built this in full? Is it the right size? I feel like I could reduce it to maybe 80% or 90% size and have a more manageable set piece which still works with the minis.
Does anyone have the Red Rocket resin and card box? Can they let me know what the size of that is (end to end length, end to end width, height as well as how tall the rocket is would be great)
It’s a lot of printing to do if it turns out to be too big for me
Chris Birch and others strongly suggest to print the Red Rocket and the Sanctuary Hills house at 80%. It will still look right but won’t take over the table.
I don’t have one of the Battlesystem’s Red Rocket kits, but the Red Rocket scenario calls for a ruined building that’s 2 feet long and 1 foot deep to represent the Red Rocket.
Thanks. I hadn’t re-read the Red Rocket scenario. If that’s the case then the print should be pretty close to spot on.
I’ve been having a think overnight and I think I’m going to go full-sized. The internal design is so nice that you could make a scenario which involves objectives inside. It’s not like traditional scenery where it is a lump which breaks line of sight but which you cannot enter.
I am going to build it so it can be deployed either way (with/without the canopy and rocket) which will make it more versatile.
If I regret it I can always print it again smaller. That’s the joy of 3D printing
I’ve started printing the preserved rocket myself recently - at 100%
It’s going to make for a huuuuge piece on the table.
FWIW wargaming terrain is often a slightly smaller scale than the figure scale in the game, particularly in historical games or games representing actual terrain (FWW would qualify in this regard).
Here’s a link to a video that does a pretty good job explaining this:
At 100%, the Red Rocket is about right, in terms of faithfulness to the video game, but probably too big for interesting tables (even with it as the sole focus).
I do have the cardboard version somewhere - will try and dig it out for a comparison, but if you’re measuring just the main building, from memory I’d say it would be between 1/2 to 2/3 in size?
Ok, so I’m just going to compare the main building between the cardboard version and the stl. Mainly because I can’t find my cardboard canopy, but the differences between the main buildings should give a good idea of the scale at any rate. (I’ve also only measured width to wall not measuring the roof).
The basic measurements are:
CARD
Building: 150 x 150mm
Pavement: 200 x 200mm
Garage: 100 x 100mm
Garage Door: 68 (w) x 36 (h)
Normal Door: 21 (w) x 36 (h)
Corridor/Room Width: 50mm
STL
Building: 285 x 255 mm (about 292 x 257mm allowing for buttresses)
Pavement: 400 x 320/330 mm (building extends another 10mm past pavement on one side)
Garage: 125 x 160mm
Garage Door: 92 (w) x 39 (h) (44 (h) with no floor)
Normal Door: 31 (w) x 39 (h) (44 (h) with no floor)
Corridor/Room Width: 60mm - 70mm
STL @ 80%
Building: 228 x 204 mm
Pavement: 320 x 256/264 mm (building extends another 10mm past pavement on one side)
Garage: 100 x 128mm
Garage Door: 74 (w) x 31 (h) (35 (h) with no floor)
Normal Door: 25 (w) x 31 (h) (35 (h) with no floor)
Corridor/Room Width: 48mm - 56mm
It’s worth noting that the Cardboard version is essentially one ‘L’ shaped room/corridor plus the garage, while the STL is essentially a carbon copy of the Sanctuary Red Rocket - you have the garage, an office and a roughly T-shaped corridor, including the lovely curved interior walls to boot.
The doorways in the Cardboard version are really small, whereas in the STL are very comfortable. See below for some picture comparisons. Space is tight in the Cardboard one as well - cramped if you add decor.
Overall though the scale of the Cardboard one is not gamebreakingly small - it’s functional, and does not appear too odd on the table from a size point of view. The STL is truly massive at 100% and would make a 4’ x 4’ table feel cramped.
Although I’ve started printing at 100%, I think I’m going to stop and change to 80% - it seems to be the best of both worlds.
Wow! Thank you Maxam for such a comprehensive reply. I really wasn’t expecting that anyone would give that level of information and the pictures are fantastic.
Also, very nice prints you are producing there. I assume you have a resin printer (I am using an FDM plastic printer which, while the detail is nowhere near what you can produce, will make my whole print substantially cheaper)
If I could double favourite your post I would. Thank you again
You’ve made the right move printer-wise, not just for the printing costs. Not only is it more expensive to print in resin, but I’ve had great difficulty getting parts to print correctly - for example all of the doorways want to bow out by about 20 degrees. Normal supports haven’t been able to cut it - I’ve had to add geometry in Blender to get them to print straight. Still it’s given me a lot of spare pieces for painting tests/practice.
To be clear, this is not a fault of the model(s), just an issue with the resin printing process.
How is your print progressing? Are you staying the course at 100% or have you switched to 80%?
I’ve decided to stick with 100% size. If it dominates the table then the action can take place inside the station. The LoS rules were built for a reason!
My plan is to build it to be modular so that it can be placed on the table either with or without the canopy (a few neodymium magnets should sort this right out). I also plan to have the roof of the station as a single, removable piece, to allow the gaming to continue inside the station (as well as on top of it)
It’s going to be a long project because of the time a single print takes and the incredible size of the station. So far I have the rocket printed.
The girders need quite a bit more cleanup before they are ready to paint but I’m super pleased with how it looks already (Standard Reference Genestealer used for scale)
Just out of curiosity, how long did the rocket struts/supports take you to print?
I’m going for modular too (as far as the ability to add/remove the canopy - magnets FTW!)
I’m struggling with what to do with the main building though. I want to glue it all together (but keep the roof seperate), and will have to mount it on something, but don’t want anything too thick (the step ‘up’ onto the surrounding pavement is already high!). Had you had any thoughts on this front? What were you thinking of doing?
The rocket is printed in the highest layer resolution my CR-10S can manage; 0.6mm and it took 14 hours to print.
The struts were going to take over a day to print at that resolution so I dropped it to a “normal” print at 1.5mm layer height. They took 10 hours each like that but, because the shapes are fairly basic, I’m confident I can sand and fill them to a smooth finish.
One thing about the wasteland is, if the model isn’t perfect, you can just turn the blemish into rust and ruin
I expect to need to glue and pin the building to make it sturdy enough for regular use. The PLA plastic prints are way lighter than resin but it’ll still be big enough to be at risk of falling apart.
As for the base, I’m not too worried about the bottom lip. The whole model is designed like it’s on the side of a road so a kerb is natural. If it just happens to be a large kerb then so be it. With a smaller building I would base the whole thing on a bit of board to define it a little better (also, because when playing Warhammer, the boundary of a terrain piece is important to the odd cover rules they have in 9th edition) but, between the paving already in the .stl files and the sheer size of the thing, I don’t plan to base it. Time will tell whether it’ll stay in one piece without an additional base. I hope that fixing the pavements to the building walls will be enough to make it stay in one piece.
That’s all well in the future though. I had a print fail last night (blocked nozzle) which set me back a full day so who knows when it’ll all be ready to assemble…
Mine are take about the same - around 13-14 hours each at 100%, about 10-11 at 80%
Never a truer word was said!
Yeeeesh… I’ve glued my walls - still need some cleaning and filling with putty to join bricks together and smooth out the joins on the interior walls, not sure what to do with the floors… they’re… awkward… it’s going to be tough to do - pinning them and lining them up to fit snug (with a bit of filler - they’re designed to be a loose fit I think? - I want them tight so the whole lower level is one piece).
I’ve got half of the Main building roof done - getting closer!
That looks beautiful! A credit to you for the hard work and perseverance.
Just a thought for anyone who is reading this thread and thinking about getting a 3D printer I will add this advice which I read early on:
Don’t even consider getting a 3D printer unless you plan to make 3D printing a whole separate hobby. They are absolutely not set-and-forget items and require constant tweaking and fiddling to keep them running.
It can be very frustrating at times but, if you think about sorting those issues as a hobby on its own, you’ll be fine. If you want to just print stuff, then have stuff, you’ll probably launch the thing out of a window pretty quickly
Which is why I have not bothered getting into 3D printing. I have a hard enough time keeping up with all the painting on the figures that I already have. Hopefully Modiphius gets around to making physical models for some more of the STL figures such as Vault Girl and the other Corvega vehicles.
Sorry to bump this post after all this time, but I’m printing up the Red Rocket (preserved) now. One question – I have both the preserved version and the ruined version, but neither came with the floor STLs. Am I missing something? I have queried Modiphius, but have not heard back.
Which platform did you purchase from and when did you download your files?
There should be five folders in your download (for the ruined RR)
Floors Unsupported/Supported
Red Rocket Unsupported/Supported
Doors
If you don’t have those five folders then you may have missed a download update, go back to your account and redownload and hopefully you will find what you are looking for but if not give me a shout.
Alright, have everything but the roof pieces printed up and finished. All piece printed on my Ender 3 Pro, generally at .12 layer height. Working on roofs now, but have to cut up most of them to get them to fit on my print bed.
Hello !
I’ve read the post for the 20° bending l when printing the pre-supported door frames, I had this issue with the RR garage kit, from the RR drive Thru kit.
Is there an easy fix for it, except using a Blender or else ?
I was thinking of taking the unsupported version, and build all supports manually…
Will it works or is this a waste of time and resin?
