{"id":26816,"date":"2017-01-17T10:25:22","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T15:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=26816"},"modified":"2017-04-21T10:26:04","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T14:26:04","slug":"this-3d-printed-high-elf-miniature-is-downright-incredible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/this-3d-printed-high-elf-miniature-is-downright-incredible","title":{"rendered":"This 3D Printed High Elf Miniature Is Downright Incredible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late last year, we made our Black High Definition Acrylate (BHDA) available for sale by our Shop Owners, enabling them to market incredibly detailed models. Since then, we’ve been watching with a ton of excitement as miniature makers prototype and iterate their concepts to prepare them for sale. Shapeways Shop Owner\u00a0Gareth Nicholas<\/a>, the multitalented 3D designer and award-winning miniature painter, shared his thoughts and process around designing for and finishing BHDA on his blog<\/a>, and we were so blown away that we had to share.<\/p>\n

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Nicholas took his already expert-level experience in painting Warhammer and Reaper miniature figurines to the next level by creating his own figures with 3D printing. On his blog he explains:<\/p>\n

“Concept-wise there\u2019s nothing particularly original here. Games Workshop have been starving me of High Elves recently (at the moment it\u2019s starting to look doubtful they\u2019ll ever return, but I live in hope) so I decided to make my own. As I usually do when I sculpt something, I spent a while with a pencil and paper sketching various designs for armour and so on. I rejected a few designs that I thought looked cool on the grounds that they probably wouldn\u2019t print very well or look good when painted.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"SEO<\/p>\n

To start the design, Nicholas blocked out the character with simple shapes in (free software) Blender<\/a>. We strongly recommend emulating his process here because he kept the overall model at the same level of finish throughout his process. This allows him to make good judgements as he improves the model through iterations, working from the most general forms to the most finely detailed.<\/p>\n

“I roughed out the proportions in Blender and spent a fair bit of time viewing the model from every angle until I was happy that the anatomy wasn\u2019t too awful. I then went back and refined each element, and made decisions about how the hair and the cloak would flow.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Black<\/div>\n
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Afterwards, Nicholas describes how he took the smooth finish of BHDA and made it glow with simple paints (check out his blog for more awesome expert painting tips<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n

“I elected to go with\u00a0non-metallic metal when painting\u00a0as there are some interesting shapes and I wanted to explore the reflections. For the steel parts I used my tried and tested method of highlighting with cyan and shading with red added to the mix.<\/p>\n

“Overall I am quite pleased with how the miniature has turned out for a first effort at this scale and I\u2019ve learnt a lot that will hopefully lead to better results in the future.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Finally, check out the finished product below, and find more of Nicholas’s original miniatures in his Shapeways Shop here<\/a>. This High Elf would be an impressive addition to your next Warhammer battle or Dungeons and Dragons campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Black \"Black \"Black \"Black<\/p>\n

Looking for more custom-made miniatures? Check out Gareth Nicholas’ shop here<\/a>, Tabletop & Wargaming\u00a0accessories here<\/a>, and the Miniatures marketplace here<\/a>. And, let us know in the comments what figurines you’d like to see in the marketplace in the future!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late last year, we made our Black High Definition Acrylate (BHDA) available for sale by our Shop Owners, enabling them…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":28906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[510],"tags":[1085,1258,624,1522,492,537,1588,1556,1557,1587],"class_list":["post-26816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3d-printing-industry","tag-3d-tools","tag-custom-characters","tag-figurines","tag-finishing-techniques","tag-16-miniatures","tag-painting","tag-reaper","tag-tabletop-gaming","tag-wargaming","tag-warhammer"],"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/dragon_maiden6-451x534.jpg","yoast_head":"\nThis 3D Printed High Elf Miniature Is Downright Incredible - Shapeways Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Late last year, we made our Black High Definition Acrylate (BHDA) available for sale by our Shop Owners, enabling them to market incredibly detailed\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/this-3d-printed-high-elf-miniature-is-downright-incredible\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew Simon Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/this-3d-printed-high-elf-miniature-is-downright-incredible#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/this-3d-printed-high-elf-miniature-is-downright-incredible\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Andrew Simon Thomas\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#\/schema\/person\/296cc2b04bcf3ccb8811ad574bb734de\"},\"headline\":\"This 3D Printed High Elf Miniature Is Downright Incredible\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-17T15:25:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-21T14:26:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/this-3d-printed-high-elf-miniature-is-downright-incredible\"},\"wordCount\":520,\"commentCount\":6,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/this-3d-printed-high-elf-miniature-is-downright-incredible#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/dragon_maiden6-451x534.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"3D tools\",\"custom characters\",\"figurines\",\"Finishing Techniques\",\"Miniatures\",\"painting\",\"Reaper\",\"Tabletop Gaming\",\"wargaming\",\"Warhammer\"],\"articleSection\":[\"3D Printing Industry\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/this-3d-printed-high-elf-miniature-is-downright-incredible#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/this-3d-printed-high-elf-miniature-is-downright-incredible\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/this-3d-printed-high-elf-miniature-is-downright-incredible\",\"name\":\"This 3D Printed High Elf Miniature Is Downright Incredible - 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