3d-printable terrain for all your xenos wargaming needs
Our second design for the Taui sci-fi terrain range is now available for download - the Taui Teleporter!
This hi-tech chunk of machinery is mostly a one-piece print, with a few extra smaller options printed separately to let you customise it to fit your army.
I decided to customise my model with this arrangement of shapes for the teleport pad, to match my Tau army for 40K.
Continuing in the same styling as the recent Taui Landing Pad, this teleporter features similar asymmetrical shapes, with rounded edges and smooth curves.
The small curved flatscreen control console can be located anywhere around the rim of the pad, and I chose to paint a typical "sci-fi" display on mine. Beam me up, Sco'Ti!
The central pad is 73mm (3") wide, so you can place most large infantry models on the teleporter.
BUT the cool sci-fi shape of this teleporter is not the only unique thing about this model - it is also hollow. So, if you print this model in clear PLA filament, you can then add some LED lights inside to create some truly awesome effects......
..... like this!!!
The stripes and vents on the towers can be left unpainted, to light up various parts of the model. There is even space underneath the pad and inside the control console to add some LEDs!
So why not intimidate your opponents by making them fight on your home turf, and awe them with the superior technology (and hi-tech glow!) of the Taui?!
The Taui Teleporter is available for download today!
We have a new top-secret samurai terrain piece coming out soon, and I thought it would be a great time to finally model some cherry blossom trees to go with it. So here's a how-to guide, for which you will need:
Start by printing a tree base for each of the armatures. The wide 60mm bases work well at both 0.2mm and 0.1mm layers, without much difference in quality.
Use super glue to attach an armature to each base. The bases are modelled to fit the diameter of the tree trunks. I also glued a rare earth magnet in the base of each tree, to help transport them when finished.
Woodland Scenics trees are made of some magical plastic that can be bent and twisted into all sorts of shapes with just finger pressure, and then I smeared on a little bit of wood filler putty, to hide the seams between trunk and base.
This next step involves gluing on fronds of seafoam, which I bought as a pack from my local train shop. I aimed for about 4 or 5 fronds for each tree, attached with super glue. This helped to give some more coverage and body to each tree.
Once the seafoam was attached, my trees were ready for paint!
I sprayed my trees with matt black, then a quick patchy spray with some leftover dregs of dark green and dark brown, just to "un-blacken" it.
Cherry blossom trees (sakura) are usually quite dark in colour, which contrasts brilliantly with the light pink blossoms I was planning. I drybrushed the earth on the base with light brown and then a very light grey, which I also lightly drybrushed onto the bottom of each tree trunk to highlight the texture and the roots.
At this stage, the trees looked pretty good on my usual gaming mat - the wide bases blended in very well. I may use this technique again when I make some wintery trees!
The next step was to brush on patches of thin water/pvc glue to the base, and sprinkle some static grass.
This is how the trees looked with some static grass added to the bases. Happily, still a good match to the battlemat.
This next step was something I saw suggested in a youtube video. Rather than have just pink on the trees, the video suggested adding some patches of green to the tree tops, to provide realism. It also helps to add body to the tree, to help with the next stages.
Unfortunately, I used a can of very cheap spray adhesive for this stage, which turned out to spray thick strands of yellow glue across my lovely trees!!!! Oh well, at least I can hide most of that, and buy a different can for the next part! So be careful - make sure you use spray glue that dries clear - I recommend 99 by 3M, even though it's a little more expensive (one can will easily do this whole project).
Finally, I could start to add the famous blossoms to my trees. I used white and pink sponges, which I purchased from my local train store. Somebody on facebook also mentioned putting cheap sponges in a kitchen blender does the same thing, so that may save you some money!
The picture above shows my first layer of sponges. Each tree (not the base, obviously) was sprayed with clear-drying glue, and sponge bits sprinkled over the top and sides. You could stop at this stage, if you wanted to show trees that are just starting to blossom.
I repeated the previous step, by spraying more glue on the tree and adding sponges. I actually rolled the top parts of each tree in a tub of sponge to make sure it was thick enough.
The end result at this stage looked nice, but the pink sponge was a bit too bright for my tastes. The cherry blossom trees at my local castle are a lighter and more uniform pink, so I had one more step to do.....
This is a bag of light pink flock I found at my local train shop for a few dollars, specially tailored for cherry blossom trees.
So once again I sprayed clear-drying glue over the trees, and sprinkled this flock over them to dull down some of the more violently pink areas. It also worked quite well to show an effect of sunlight on top, with some of the pinker sponges still visible from underneath, which I liked.
One last touch was to spray glue over the base of each tree, and carefully sprinkle some flock around the roots of the tree. I tried to avoid going right up to the base edge, so the bases still match the battlemat.
To finish up, I sprayed all the trees and bases with some matt varnish to hold everything together. My trees were, at long last, finished!!!!!
I'll be using these trees in my next battlereport, but in the meantime here's a couple of angry young women in an action pose, as the blossoms fall around them!
After a couple of weeks' delay due to one of the step motors on the 3d printer jamming, I've finally managed to get it working enough (while waiting for a replacement motor) to crank out this great print of the new Taui Teleporter!
It's pretty much a one-piece print, with a few separate parts for the various customisation options....
Starting with the teleport pad, you'll need to print a pad surface and surrounding ring. This has a little space underneath for adding LEDs, of course!
The photo above shows the standard hexagon pattern pad.....
... while this image shows my own customised arrangement, to match my Tau models. There are various geometric shapes, none of which are sculpted on to the model. So you'll need to print the shapes you want and arrange them yourself to match your own army.
Next comes the large body of the teleporter! This is mostly hollow, with 1.5~2mm thick walls, allowing you to add LEDs inside the teleporter structure, should you wish to.
The last part of the print is the control console. The console has a large curved surface (touchscreen?) and curved stand, which can be added to the outer rim of the pad wherever you want.
The console even has a hollow pipe underneath, which means that if you drill a small hole in the surface of the pad's outer rim (once you've decided on the location of the console), then you can poke LEDs through to light up the console screen!
Here are the contents of the Teleporter set. I decided to glue my console onto the left of the pad steps, to keep with the asymmetrical feel of the Tau design ethos.
This model will be hitting the paint desk tonight, and should be ready for release this weekend!
Watch this space......
It's spring here in Japan, and that means cherry blossom season!!! Our next samurai terrain project (still TOP secret - sorry!) is being worked on right now, but I thought it would be a great opportunity to model some cherry blossom trees to go with it.
Sadly, it's not easy to 3d print a tree, as the number of branches that will actually print is limited. Not to mention supporting those branches during printing....
So instead I've decided to use bendable tree armatures from Woodland Scenics, and print up some wide 60mm bases to give them more stability and also provide a surface for attaching fallen petals. Hopefully these will look good!
I used a free download from Thingiverse of a dead tree, and sliced it to just the lower trunk, then resized it to fit the 7.5mm diameter of the Woodland Scenic trees. Add a hole for the tree's pin, and place it carefully on a 60mm textured base with some small stones.
This photo shows a light dusting of white spray undercoat on two prints. The one on the left was done at 0.1mm layers, and the one on the right was printed at 0.2mm layers. There's not actually much difference - perhaps the deeper indentations on the ground surface are more defined on the 0.1mm layer version, and the rocks certainly look better.
Obviously the finished trees will be MUCH more twisty and gnarly, as cherry blossom trees tend to look in real life. But that's for another blog......
I included a small magnet hole in the base too, as this will help when transporting them, I thought?
These 60mm tree bases are available on Thingiverse for free download:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4204227
Looking forward to modelling and painting these up!
It's time to stock up on blue LEDs! Yes.... that's right, we have another hi-tech Taui design coming for you soon!
Designed in the same vein as the recent Taui Landing Pad, this 10cm (4") tall Teleporter has the same smooth, advanced sci-fi look to it. 
It's mostly a one-piece print, with a few extra pieces printed separately for customization. The control console is printed separately and can be glued in place anywhere on the rim, and central 'pad' comes in a hexagon motif or a variety of simple geometric shapes.
You probably won't be surprised to hear that the structure is hollow, so if you print this in clear PLA filament you can add small LED lights in the side towers, to shine out of the vents, side lines, and the hexagon wall facing the middle.
You can even run LEDs under the pad itself if you need to, and the console also has a hollow space inside if you'd like to try lighting up the display screen.
This Teleporter will be printing in the next few days, so watch this space for pics soon....
Taui Teleporter 
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