newbie requiring some spoon feeding

[johnk78]

Hello all,

I come looking for advice and pointing in a correct direction.

So recently i have been getting the itch to get back into building models and after looking around online the thought occured why not build the models yourself on a 3d printer. Double the satisfaction of creating and building from scratch. I do have a bit of backround using autocad from my days working cnc machinery although that was some time ago im sure i can pick that up again. I am interested in naval ships, planes, scifi ships etc to start to tinker with.

So to my questions:

1 firstly is 3d printing a good option for what i want to do.

2 is it possible to download models and print / modify them.

3 is software included with printers and if so any recomendations so far i have my eye on a robo 3d r1

Any suggestions / info / critisism welcome and thanks in advance

JK

[awerby]

A 3D printer would be a useful tool to have in your model shop, but probably not the only one you'll want. Knowing about modeling software will definitely help. Most downloadable models are in STL mesh format. That's not an especially easy one to modify, although some software makes it possible. You can, of course, always print things out and modify the physical models using other tools. Most printers come with slicing software (usually the kind that's free) but not with modeling software.

[curious aardvark]

1) yes
2) yes
3) usually - but not always easy to use (I'm thinking of Cura here)


Why the robo 1 ?
Given what you want to print, a dual extruder system would probably suit you better. You'll be regularly making models that need support, with a dual extruder system you can use a soluble filament - Vanish - is good. Which makes removing supports a lot easier.

What's your budget ?

[johnk78]

First of thanks very much for the replies!

I am thinking the robo simply because looking over its specs it seemed to be good bang for the buck, no real budget but i dont want to be spending mega bucks on something i am just starting out on.

I will look into the vanish though thanks.

JK