⚓️ The True Cost of the Skies: Time, Material, and Strain When 3D Printing Sordane Airships
- Trystan Doyle
- Dec 12, 2025
- 3 min read
Sordane Publishing has captured the imagination of the tabletop community with their breathtaking line of 3D printable airships, like the majestic Roshan Cruiser or the massive The Gleaming Shard. The promise of a fully playable, multi-deck terrain piece for your 5th Edition or other TTRPG campaigns is a powerful draw.
However, the journey from an STL file to a finished, tabletop-ready vessel is a monumental endeavor. As one of the most ambitious 3D printing projects you can undertake, it requires a significant investment in time, material, and—crucially—trust in your 3D printer.
🕰️ The Time Investment: Weeks, Not Days For Sordane airships
The short answer, is that printing one of these large-scale airships requires a few weeks, if not a whole month, of dedication. This is not hyperbole.
For a large ship like the Roshan Cruiser, some hobbyists have reported print times ranging from 500 to 1,000 hours at standard layer heights (like 0.15mm).
Continuous Printing: Because the ships are modular and broken into many pieces, your printer will be running almost non-stop for the duration. An 80-hour total print time is common for large parts, and a failure late in the process can mean losing days of progress.
Layer Height Trade-Offs: Printing at a finer resolution for higher detail will push the time much higher. Conversely, trying to rush and change settings to save a few hours on a multi-day print often introduces a risk of failure that outweighs the time saved.
Post-Processing: The print time only covers one part of the project. You must also factor in the time for:
Removing supports and cleaning up parts.
Assembly, often involving brass rods and magnets for modularity.
Sanding, gap-filling, and priming before you even get to the fun part of painting.
🧶 The Material Cost: Spools and Gallons
These ships are beasts when it comes to material consumption. The cost will vary drastically depending on the filament you choose and the scale you print at.
Airship Size | Material Type | Estimated Quantity | Source of Cost |
Large Airships (e.g., The Gleaming Shard) | FDM (PLA) | 5–6 kg of PLA filament | Filament spools |
Large Airships (Resin-Printed) | Resin (ABS-like) | Up to 15 kg of resin | Resin bottles |
Smaller Ships/Miniatures | Resin (ABS-like) | Approx. 3 kg of resin for smaller vessels | Resin bottles |
Resin vs. FDM: While FDM (PLA) is generally cheaper and lighter, Resin printing offers ultra-fine detail, often at 0.03mm layer height, comparable to cast miniatures. However, a full resin-printed ship can be significantly heavier and more expensive, with one hobbyist estimating the full-scale resin for a large ship to be quite costly.
Infill Strategy: To save on material and print time, you can optimize the infill density. However, reducing infill too much can compromise the structural integrity needed for a large, playable piece of terrain.
🔥 The Strain on Your 3D Printer
A long, continuous project like a Sordane airship puts a significant mechanical and thermal strain on your 3D printer, especially FDM machines.
Wear and Tear: Hundreds of hours of continuous operation accelerate wear on key components:
Nozzles: Constant extrusion of plastic causes wear.
Belts and Motors: The high volume of movement will test the durability of your printer's motion system.
Thermal Management: The tendency for plastic parts to curl and warp is pronounced on large parts because of temperature inconsistency.
A heated build platform helps, but a full enclosure is often recommended for better consistent temperature control throughout the entire build chamber.
Stability and Accuracy: As parts get taller, the printer's natural vibrations can be magnified, potentially affecting dimensional accuracy. Using extra support material can buttress these taller structures, though it adds to the material cost and print time.
Reliability is Key: For multi-day prints, you need a printer with high reliability. The longer the print duration, the higher the risk of a problem occurring. This is why many experienced builders recommend a well-dialed-in FDM printer (Ender 3 size and up) or a large-format resin printer for the biggest models.
🌟 The Final Reward
Despite the massive commitment, the end result—a fully playable, multi-tiered ship that can be enjoyed for years—makes the daunting task worthwhile. The ships are designed to be broken down for storage and table use, making the final product as functional as it is spectacular.
If you're ready for the challenge, few 3D printing projects offer a more impressive final payoff.
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