3D Printing - Day Three - Patreon And "Cyber-Forge Miniatures"

Three Star Force crewmembers with separate heads by "Cyber-Forge Miniatures" 

These miniatures were created using "Elegoo" Water Washable Resin on a Mars 3 Pro 3D Printer and are available as STL (Standard Triangle Language) files from "Cyber-Forge Miniatures" on "MyMiniFactory". The figures, heavily influenced by Gene Roddenberry's American science fiction television series "Star Trek: The Next Generation", are from the sculpting team's "Titan City Stories" range and were part of a much larger monthly "Patreon" reward during October 2022.

Having previously used the "membership platform" to support wargaming content creators which I watch on "YouTube", I was already quite familiar with "Patreon" and its tier subscription system. As a result, I was able to quickly become a member of the "Cyber-Forge Miniatures” Page at its First Contact level and gain immediate access to all the relevant postings – including both a link to where the relevant STL files were housed, as well as the password protecting them.

The fully-supported Copernicus Shuttle by "Cyber-Forge Miniatures"

I then simply downloaded them all as a ZIP file onto my home computer and decompressed them using WinRAR. Delightfully, all of the models are supplied with supports (as well as without), so it really was just a case of plonking each model onto the build plate using "Chitubox" Basic and only stopping once I had run out of room. Each plate's worth of STL files were subsequently sliced and saved onto the USB stick which came free with my Mars 3 Pro as a CTB file.

Due to my love of "Star Trek" I really was like a 'kid in a candy shop' with these models, especially as "Titan Forge Miniatures" had given most of its Star Force crewmembers the option of several alternative heads - most notably one of Jean-Luc Picard, William Riker and Spock. These were actually the first multi-piece figures I had 3D printed, so I was rather surprised by how many supports each 'noggin' needed.

A Dahar Conversion booth, along with two single-piece Dahar by "Cyber-Forge Miniatures" 

In addition, the release also gave me the opportunity to print the rather large Copernicus Shuttle, which literally took up most of my machine's build plate. Indeed, being rather wary of the towering vessel's height, I soon decided to simply have my Mars 3 Pro focus its efforts solely upon it - rather than surround it with a handful of additional miniatures. This tactic seemingly worked, as overnight the printer successfully did its magic and provided me with an awesome-looking spacecraft.

Enthused and emboldened with this triumph, I then settled down to produce a couple of batches of Dahar robotic adversaries, and the Cybermen-like automatons’ impressive Mobile Conversion Unit. Admittedly, this tracked land vehicle took a while to print as due to its sheer size I was forced to produce its numerous components throughout the remainder of the day. But this did allow me to ‘squeeze’ in more Dahar figures on each build plate, as well as decide that I preferred the ominous contraption to carry two fully converted androids, rather than have it transporting a hapless victim in mid-transition…