Nice write up, thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum.

+1 
Your prop work is amazing.

As far as software you may want try the cubify line the basic software is only $ 49 and 14 day try before  you buy.

If you have  not tried evercoat 100% talk filler  give it a try dries hard and fast for small work.

I too put in 24 years military  National Guard and did almost five years Civilian law enforcement.

Also painting, fiberglass work aircraft sheet metal ,machining , welding, graphic arts, etc  .....

Tin

About Me:
I am new to all this. I have some experience with graphics software such as Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, and Gimp; however, my experience has been limited to 2D and self-taught user level. In the real world I am a detective with a metropolitan Atlanta police department. I am retired from the Army after 24 years. I have my AA and BA (Cum Laude) from Saint Leo University in Criminal Justice specializing in Homeland Security. All this really means is that I make next to nothing, so when considering a 3D printer I was very cost conscious.

In my spare time I build models, make tactical nylon gear, gun smith and fabricate stuff. All of this is for myself and friends so I don’t make any money from it, although, I have been told several times that I need to sell my products.

Anyway, I have had to fabricate many things in the past few years. Many of these things could have been printed if I had a 3D printer so it was a natural progression for me to acquire one.

So, being new to 3D printing, I was not really sure what I should be looking at to choose from. I read a lot of forums, watched a lot of you tube videos and found several lists that compared the tons of choices out there. One such list can be found here: http://www.3ders.org/pricecompare/3dprinters/

When it came time to decide, I wanted the following specifications:
Price under $600.00
Large build platform (at least 8”x 8”x 8”)
Non-proprietary filament
Non-proprietary software
Capable of multiple medias (ABS and PLA, etc…)
Heated bed
Layer heights of .1mm and greater.

Additional considerations:
Fully assembled
Made in the USA
Technical Support
Expandable
Ease of use
And at the time I really did not consider this but in the end it proved to be very important, a local company.

I crunched my choices down to the following list:
Printbot Simple Assembled $599
-The heated bed version costs $749
-the build platform is only 5.9” x 5.9” x 5.9”

Prix Original $599
-no heated bed
-The build platform is only 6.2” x 9.84” x 5.9”
-Made in Poland
-Kit not assembled
(Note: the current versions of Prix are over $1,000)

Mbot-3D Cube $559
-no heated bed
-The build platform is only 7.84” x 7.84” x 7.84”
-Made in China
-Kit not assembled

Solidoodle 4 $599
-no heated bed
-The build platform is 7.99” x 7.99” x 7.99”
(Note: the current versions of Solidoodle 4 are $799.99 and now has a heated bed)

Plastic Scribbler Asterid 2100 $569
No negative issues

In addition to no negative issues, the Plastic Scribbler is made in the USA and the company is local to me in Georgia. The build platform is 8” x 8” x 9.5” so again it beats my requirements. All things considered, I called the company and spoke to the owner Tim Manasterski who was extremely helpful and went well out of his way to answer my questions. I decided to buy from Plastic Scribbler and placed my order over the phone. I placed my order on February 6th, 2015 and I was contacted by Mike Manasterski (Tim’s brother) on February 12th, 2015 to notify me that my printer was ready. I chose to pick it up rather than have them ship it so I could ask more questions.

One of my concerns was that all my computers are MacBooks and most of everything on Plastic Scribbler’s web site is for Windows computers. Both Tim and Mike assured me that the open source software would run on Macs as well. When I scheduled a pickup date and time with mike, he offered to go over the basic operation of the printer and help me configure the software on my MacBook. So I brought my MacBook with me and headed to Mike’s house. The workshop was not that impressive but all my concerns were abated in the 2 hours mike spent with me. I took my printer and headed home, very happy with my purchase.

When I got home, I set everything up and did a test print on the traffic cone that Plastic Scribbler provides, everything went perfect.

So I really did not have a clue as to when and how I would put my printer to practical use. I started to learn about 3D rendering software and played around with three programs in particular. Rhinoceros for Mac, SketchUp, and Blender. I really liked the features of Rhinoceros but the Mac version was a free trial until the official release for Mac that would happen later in 2015. So I did not want to get too attached to a program that would cost about $400. SketchUp did not seem as robust as I was looking for, so I settled on Blender. This is a very complicated (well at least for me) program to learn; however, once you have the basics down, it becomes easier. There a ton of YouTube video tutorials and lots of support out there for this open source program so I am glad that I settled with Blender.

I spent the next few months working on my 3D modeling skills and realized that the hard part to 3d printing is not the printing but the building of 3D models. In any case, recently I had the first real opportunity to use my printer in a practical sense.

While building a costume for Dragon Con 2015, I wanted to employ my printer. The 2 items I decided to make were the grips for a gun and the antenna for a helmet. I should state that this costume is a retro Science Fiction (think 1940-50s ish). The entire build is documented here is you are interested: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=244683

Anyway, before I had this printer I would have made these two items out of basswood or foam covered in resin but since I had a printer and newly developed skills in 3D modeling, I put both to use. I built the models for each in 2 halves in Blender and exported the .stl files. I ran the files through Slic3r and exported the Gcode files. Then I put the Gcode files in Pronterface and sent them to the printer. I decided to print everything in ABS and I did experienced some warping around the edges but I planned on filling in any gaps with bondo when I glued them together so this was not an issue. Here are some pictures of the prints: BTW, its not me in the last picture, rather my good friend DAC.

Overall I am very pleased with how everything turned out. I am looking forward to using my printer more in the future. For anyone looking for a 3D printer, I highly recommend the Plastic Scribbler Asterid 2100.