Having a 3d printer can sometimes exclude you from conversations with other hobbyists. Not that they actively shun you or anything like that... more along the lines that things that affect them don't affect you in the same way.
Everyone seems to be trawling through ebay and 3rd party sites, hidden mums-the-word forum-ware providers, scratch-building, sculpting and casting, waiting desperately for bring-and-buys at tournaments and events etc...
For a modeller/printer you find a file you like or make a model, then print it. done.
Yeah, it's that easy :p
Although we're aware of the discussions and understand the situation they don't need to affect us, unless we specifically want to get an official this or that model... and/or can't find a suitable file.
this isn't about being elitist, there's usually a lot more work involved in producing whatever it is that 'regular folk' just buy - it's harder and it's sometimes quite a drag. also if have a printer you feel obliged to use it - it was probably a substantial investments... and if you don't you're also doing your own barking.
that said... sometimes it's nice to actually get something without having all the finicky, fiddly work involved.
so, as i mentioned in a previous post i ordered some mdf terrain walls from battlefield-accessories for the necromunda board.... and it arrived (took a while, but no great rush)!!
sure, there will be a bunch of assembly work [ed: not that much really] and then painting etc, but the 'heavy-lifting' of the project is more or less done (at least through the eyes of a printer).
Additionally, it's nice to get a box of this size and for it to actually feel like there's something in it - and this one certainly fits that criteria.
While the product isn't floral or gothic or even fancy in anyway, i guess... it feels like you got something substantial for your dime.
Portable flame dispenser for scale (...or maybe for if i get frustrated with assembly).
So yeah, a whole much of mdf and also heavy cardboard sheets. lots of assembly ahead!!
As my necromunda buddy is currently unavailable there's no super-urgent rush to get this done but it's one of those 'break-up-the-tedium-of-painting', or 'while-waiting-for-a-print' type projects... aka procrastination.
[Update 2019-10-01]
Ok, so this got done. Just chugged away with little bits without thinking about it too much and viola it is done. [yes, the musical instrument... or a type of flower]
Started by just pushing everything out of the sheets - all easy expect for 1 single piece.
And then it somehow got assembled. All straight forward processes.
Dry fit... because how can you not ??
Painted in two colours: blocks with the now-standard matt 'charcoal', the panels with matt 'navy something'. Painted separately then panels glued onto the blocks.
And that's it.
Set the board up for a game but didn't play.
Totally impressed with the product. The blocks were (as stated in the assembly video) quite a snug fit into the pillars (once you add the panels).
None so much that they didn't go at all and you could slide them in - other's were relatively loose, but overall, solid enough to remain stable for a game.
There is of course the option of dry brushing the pieces to add a bit more zing to them, but i'm totally not wanting to do that at the moment (zero care factor, plus a lot of work for so many pieces). If i put them out for a real game under better/alternate lights and they look smeg i'll reconsider it, but for now they add a tonne of atmosphere and are 100% better than a flat 2D board IMO.
With this particular configuration there were several pieces left over - perhaps 4 of the pillars, 6 small blocks, and 2 large blocks... something like that. While there are 2 more (floor) of the boards/tiles that aren't included here you could probably have enough for a full 8 boards. More than enough for my gaming requirements anyway.
Very much looking forward to running a game of this now.
Took roughly a weekend to get it done (and there was other stuff happening as well)
Very pleased with the result. Thanks battlefield-accessories, highly recommend.
[update 20191113]
we're due for a game at the thursday night session (tomorrow) and this kind of prompted me to add a little bit of grundge to the walls etc. just a splodge of agrax here, a smear of null oil there, a dab of leadbelcher elsewhere.
some of the block have no features, some have a small amount, some have a fair bit. not sure how well that will all work. if it doesn't i guess i'll look at adding a bit more across the board.
Until next time...
Air Support - Part 2
managed to get myself motivated. pulled out the printer and got cracking.
started by printed off effectively the other half of the stormbirds.
and these bad boys are BIG!
now, compared to the thunderhawks and infantry they're more or less in scale. compared to other/original 6mm Epic gear they're BIG. by comparison (not show) these are longer than the Warlord titan i made is high. they're about 13.5cm length.
I'm actually pretty pleased with the overall scale for the army, however yeah, just worried they might be a bit of an anomaly on the table.
Fluffy-wise they're potentially too small!! the stats has them carrying 8 armoured vehicles (i.e. rhinos) which is clearly impossible unless they're flat-packed. similarly (depending on which version of fluff you're reading) they're ALSO meant to be able to carry 50 or 100 standard marines - so 10 or 20 stands - again unless there's some tardis action happening here it's gonna be 'notSoSqueezy'.
In practical terms i'm happy with it carrying 12 sticks of troops plus 5 landspeeders, which is my standard lander loadout.
The blocks that made up these prints did NOT fit together seamlessly. There's a total of 10 components per model. so there is a lot of green-stuff'ing sanding, scraping and fixing to be done.
while it would be nice to have the models just come out perfectly i'm not that worried about fixing them. The wargear is meant to be ancient and battle-worn so replacement bits and battlefield repairs are the norm.
So, alot of repair work to be done before it even gets a spritz of paint.
End result: i think they're gonna look rad when they're done.
[Update: 20191011]
Just a quick and successful print... xiphons....
this was a bit of a weird scaled model off thingiverse (someone elses) that i just set to width 36mm. turned out fine, single piece print. nice model, not bagging it at all. my one is fine for filament but am looking for nicer pieces for this project.
looks reasonable scale compared to the thunderhawk. am happy with the result.
counts as stormtalon, but i'm not a huge fan of stormtalons.
i also ordered some clear 3mm perspex rod. will use these and some left over 30mm disc bases for mounting this aircraft. decided against wire and a terrain base for my 'true' ac pieces.
the land speeders will also get perspex rods, but will have printed and terrain'ed bases (square not round).
i also have in the design phase a very (hopefully) cool idea for my space craft for this army (not to mention complex, time hungry and potentially frustrating...). and no, i'm not buying a trailer for my car to carry a full epic scale frigate.
... and Vehicles
so the printer cranking through the weekend and into the week - finishing off last night, tuesday.
my goal here was to finish off 'everything with a vehicle base', i.e. the 32x32mm square bases. This was just 2 squads of 6 rhinos, and 1 squad of 6 vindicators.
So basically, (ground) vehicles done. Again, these probably aren't going to see much use, but it's nice to have them available as options if required.
i had extremely few failed prints and only one 'memory error' during the entire print span.
these can pretty much get a spray of paint and get on the paint table right away. probably not worth waiting for the Landers.
Something i did, and am not sure about (as is always the way), is scale up the vindicators to 110% original size. i'm slightly concerned that they're not a little too chunky. They're clearly 'visually' larger than the rhino when placed side by side but not by a huge amount - it's just a couple of millimetres.
my thoughts on that were that being primarily an attack tank rather than a transport they should be a bit beefier in order to handle recoil etc. it's probably on the grader on the front that actually makes them feel 'perhaps a little too big'.
definitely couldn't be bothered doing a reprint on them. wasn't happy with the 100% model either. i think in time, once they're painted (and never used anyway) i'm probably going to care even less.
And that's that. the weather recently (apart from yesterday) has been quite warm (being spring and all) but we're back into a rain and cold spell. i think ambient temperature and humidity definitely have an effect on the consistent success of the prints.
also picked up another 5L bottle of iso. was cleaning with pretty grubby stuff, and bunnings is an absolute rip of for this product. $30 for a 500ml bottle, compared to 29 for a 5 Litre bottle.
Also replaced the vat film, 2nd time doing this and it's none too tricky. the old one had some scuff in the middle. wasn't seeming to effect the print result but in the print job before the change there was some potential leakage on the lcd that i had to polish off carefully. not 100% that it came through the film but not worth the risk considering i've got a few spare. plus don't want to ruin the lcd with caked on resin.
printing, printing, printing... and more to come.
Until next time...
No, i didn't cave and get more models.
Storage
The plain plastic storage box i was previously using was too small for 4 sets of models. Technically i could fit them in there but they were kinda jammed unceremoniously with bits entangled (horizontal, vertical and all ways in between) - a sure fire way of snapping things off when you pull the models out later.
Anyway, i discovered that super cheap auto have plastic 'safe cases' but in smaller sizes. The smallest being about 20-something-cm on the long side - much smaller than the briefcase sized ones from bunnings. Picked up two of the second from smallest (all they had in stock).
Pluckety pluck on the plucky foam and managed find a workable configuration.
Was planning on this being the end of it, but after some brief testing the models clumped and moved around too much when the box was tilted etc - and kinda defeating the purposes of having a safer box for them.
I started with a substrate of mdf hot glued to the bottom of the recesses.
My flgs (tower games - currently in windsor) had suitably small magnets so these were super-glued in - mostly success though a couple pushed in a little too far (but the still generally stick).
Then some cheap metal building tape from bunnings cut to length and epoxy to the mdf.
With the exception of the pushed in magnets this all worked as planned.
The box front got a paint job; this is the aquila as used on the necromunda box/packaging. Looks better in real life. Yes, there is a non-too-subtle skull worked in the aquila (as emphasised with background pattern).
CoD Game Day
Toward the end of game day (sat 7th oct) we managed to run a quick/small/beginner (plus some advanced rules) game. Just two of us (plus bonus rules reader). I'd trial gamed a number of times which definitely helped and my gaming buddy had read the rules enough to know what was going on. Think this was the first 'live' game for both of us.
So we had enforcers (me) vs Escher game. The durability of the models was about the same (contrasting with the most recent trial of Goliaths - who are far sturdier and resilient).
We tried out as much as we could think of though sometimes at the expense of the more tactically sound options. So a number of shooting actions, a few close combat actions thrown in, rolled for pinning, injuries, recoveries, ammo, bottle tests and fleeing models. Basically we wanted to be actually trying out/using the mechanics in order to learn them. Fair to say it worked.
As would be expected we were referring to the rule book a fair bit but mainly for stats and weapons special rules etc, and occasionally to confirm core rules (no point learning it wrong).
Overall it was an entertaining roll. Will definitely have another crack at it and it could end up in rotation for the thursday night sessions too (same game buddy). Will also be taking it as default to CoD days as a end-of-session wind down after doing Epic or whatever my main game is.
Until next time...
Following closely on from the newly finished Orlock Gang... Enforcers.
I caved * and picked up the 'enforcers' models and book etc. There's a small but surprising good FLGS nearby and being able to pick them up in store (even though order and wait) is worlds apart from getting an annoying 'pick up your sh1t' card from ausPost (my local post office has the most rubbish open hours despite the sign on the (usually closed and locked) front door blatting on about their levels of customer service).
* on my intention not to invest in Necromunda for the foreseeable future. Me, cave? WHAT?!
Anyway, hopefully seeing a whole bunch of zang models on the table will inspire more people on game day.
Assembled...
Black undercoat, then elshin grey (a mid to dark grey) undercoat on anything not a weapon.
Null oil washes. Weapons with leadbelcher, then null oil again. A lighter metal base coat on armour plating then two washed of green over that.
Added an extra contrast colour on the weapons (a dark grey blue), saw it on the box pic and it looked ok (doesn't show up in the pics much).
First couple of models trial the yellow/green highlight. Pic lighting doesn't really capture it. It's ok, was a bit worried it would look JANG! on the eyes, but it's ok. Probably better than a pastel green which was my other line of thought.
And that's them done. Yhay.
Pleased enough with the result. The camera doesn't capture the shading particularly well but they're table-worthy.
And this is pretty much all the 'side projects' i've got on the go done. Kinda keen to get the printer running again anyway.
[slightly later]
Ran a trial game vs goliaths. The enforcers are/were largely underwhelming with the goliaths noticeably more resilient. i'm sure specific enforcer tactics and features might make them a bit more utilitarian once i work that stuff out... for now it's just getting stats on cards.
Both sides were down 1 fighter out of action by turn 3 or 4. Goliaths bottled 1 turn earlier than the enforcers but their cool stat of 5+ vs the enforcers of 7+ resulted in the enforcers having only seriously injured fighters left at the start of (roughly) turn 5. Given these would be coup de grace easily by the remaining Goliaths i called the game there.
Retrospective
So started this way back when. Reasonably happy with the bits i've accumulated, and almost at a point where there nothing i want to add for this particular game system.
One of the 'annoying' bits of tabletop games in general is that they come in parts.
Imagine if you wanted to play monopoly and the 'pack' you got had a quarter of the board, the chance cards, 1 player token, 1 dice, and hotels. You can't play the game with that.
Point being, i like having enough bits for the games i'm interested in to be able to play a full game without relying on other people to have bits too. Also makes demos feasible.
Cards
Given the enforcers (and the orlocks) do not have pre-printed stat cards for the gang members i copied and printed out some blank ones from the pack.
Lots of scissor work later i ran them through the laminator.
Chopped these out into cards - 15 all up. Turned out reasonably uniform so happy enough.
Not sure what i'm going to write on them with. Pencil will leave graphite everywhere after a while. Permanent marker (sharpie) will need chemicals to remove for reuse and might destroy the laminate plastic too. non-permanent marker (whiteboard) is likely to smear all over the place too. so dunno. Given their load-outs are whatever is glued to them (i.e. permanent) might go the sharpie and reprint if required.
Terrain - on order
Also ordered the battlefield-accessories sci-fi under city walls (mdf) from the FLGS, which will 3Dify the board and should add to the experience substantially.
Was thinking about the feasibility of 3d printing these. It's certainly possible but the hours involved are simply not worth the hassle. On the assumption that printing everything takes 3 spools of plastic at $30 a spool (probably an overestimation), the price difference adds to the mdf being a far better option.
Given i still haven't finished the space hulk project and i can still recall the hours invested in that... one day.
Until next time...
Well it's been a long time since i last looked at the Necromunda stuff without thinking 'dead project'.
The CoD group has some (small) interest in the game so have dragged the undercoated orlocks out of stasis and started painting them up (plus nothing on the paint table, plus anything but printing...).
WIP...
So this is the new project to date. All the main colours are blocked in. Nothing fancy, used basically similar colours as per the box... not trying for anything creative here, just functional/board-top ready.
A heavy-handed null oil wash. Will do a more detailed wash session next to highlight the facial features and also darken areas like the boots and armour plates.
and done...
and into the box. back out of the box later when i remembered to give them a stormshield brush over.
Until next time...
