3D Printing - "Lost Heresy Miniatures" - Vulgorn Guards

"Lost Heresy Miniatures" WIPs - Three of the Vulgorn Guards currently being progressed

All of these models were created using "Elegoo" Water Washable Resin on a Mars 3 Pro 3D Printer and are available as STL (Standard Triangle Language) files from "Lost Heresy Miniatures" on "MyMiniFactory". The rotund extra-terrestrials are part of an eight-figure collection, whose sculpts have clearly been heavily-inspired by the Vogons as seen in Garth Jennings' 2005 movie "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

I've actually had a bit of an 'on-off' relationship supporting this creator on Tribe in the past, as I've found their (predominantly science fiction) range to be a bit smaller than most modern-day models - probably being 25mm as opposed to today's 28mm scale. Happily however, I'm a bit more knowledgeable about the data preparation software programme "Chitubox" Basic than I used to be, so these days tend to upscale most of the smaller STLs I print out by 108.41% (measured using the Colonist Marine Cyborg Hero E-900 Exterminator figure by "Papsikels Miniatures" as the new eye-line height - also known as 'Arnie Scale').

"Lost Heresy Miniatures" WIPs - Three more Vulgorn Guards which have been primed, shaded and dry-brushed

This did admittedly make the aliens somewhat larger than a normal-sized human. But having viewed several photographs of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, it's clear that in the film (at least) the intergalactic civil servants are a lot bigger than mere Earthlings anyway. Regardless, as soon as I saw the set I simply had to get some printed out, especially as they're appearance was something of a welcome surprise - considering that up until this point recently "Lost Heresy Miniatures" had been focusing upon producing a splendid range of characterful Napoleonic Russians for "The Silver Bayonet" rule-set by "Osprey Games".

What I was not prepared for though, was just how difficult it would prove to print out some useable models to paint - and much of this frustration was unfortunately down to me as opposed to anything else, though it took quite a few failed attempts over an entire week before I realised what was happening. To begin with I thought that my upscaling had caused the pre-supports to become unstable, as several appeared to break away from the print mid-way through the production process.

The Vulgorn Guards pre-supported, then supported by "Chitubox", and finally with my (Large) supports

I'm always a bit sceptical of pre-supported files at the best of times, so subsequently tried adding some additional Large supports to the sculpts where-ever I felt there was a weak area. This helped produce a couple of working figures, as well as two which required some Green-Stuff repair work to make right. But was still largely creating failures. Indeed, having initially envisaged a plate of five nicely printed Vulgorn Guards every time I was now almost down to trying just a single miniature in case there were any resin flow issues occurring with an over packed plate.

I even tried completely doing my own supports and repositioning the models at a 35 degree angle - my failsafe placement. But even this caused repeated fails. Fortunately, I then spotted that the FEP (Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene) was actually touching the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) mono 4K screen by the end of the printing process - indicating that the FEP's tension was no longer as taut as it should be - not a surprise considering that I last changed it almost a year ago. A quick swap of the resin bed for a factory-made one, and things finally started to work...