Printing continued on the Custodes army.
I remodelled the spear guys into the other weapon variants. Unfortunately i only realised that the bolter variation wasn't meant to have the topknot until after i'd printed them out. I have since carved them off each model - should still look ok, if a little choppy from very close viewing range.
I have pretty much finish printing off my troop or infantry options.
At the moment i have...
- 12 stands of Custodes Guard (spear)
- 8 stands of Custodes Sagittarum (bolters)
- 8 stands of Custodes Guard (sword and board)
and...
- 12 stands of light bikes
- 6 stands of heavy bikes
I also have enough left over individual models and bases to bolster any of those groups. But i'm trying to keep the models, stands and overall numbers to a smaller level. The stands above allows 2 formations of each type with their base numbers.
Each of those formations allows 1 or 2 additional units (bases) per squad so i could have, i.e. 1 squad of Sagittarum and include 2 stands from 'the other' Sagittarum formation, making the used formation up to 6 stands. I didn't want to end up printing 12 stands for each to include the possible additional units (though i current have models to probably do that) - it's just too much bloat.
This is pretty much everything except vehicles done. So remaining on that line of thought is...
Pallas - speeders (land speeders eq)
Coronus - transports (rhino eq)
Caladius - tanks (predator eq)
Also a set (or two) of Xiphons (air support), and one (token) Orion Air Transport (Thunderhawk eq)
Update 2020-02-18
Printing progressed almost of its own accord... things just seemed to keep emerging.
With the result that i'm almost done.
I've add...
1 x 4 Pallas formation
2 x 4 Caladius formations
10 Coronus models (transports)
1 x 2 xiphon formation
This is pretty much the end of the resin [* refer note at the end] so i'm about done with the project and printing for now. Not entirely disappointed [ed: to be done with printing for a while].
I guess i'll try to give them (the army) a run on the table and see what, if anything, might help boost their performance. i haven't done any 'unusual' formations such as the commander but i actually have enough left over models to make that a thing if required.
Insights and Learning Always
I'm sure that weather (/temperature) has a lot to do with it but during this entire print i've has zero print failures. My technique or approach has not changed.
Actually the closest i came to a failure was due to a momentary blackout with 2 minutes remaining of a 4 hour print! So 2 of the tanks have a layer or 2 less somewhere than all the others from when the printer reset... not that you can tell!
However, i discovered something with (especially) vehicles. Historically i've done no or low amount of support. For this project i've been letting the project do 'auto-support' and also all the vehicles are 15o nose up, so tilted with the nose 15 degrees up from the tail.
Obviously this approach leads to more sprue cut offs and surface marks (on the underside) but there's been invariably no droop in the undercarriage.
Will be adding this to my print rituals on going.
[Later 2020-02-19] I've also developed a 'ritual' for replacing the memory stick. making sure the power is off at the wall and leaving bare minimum files (as practical) on the stick. Don't know if it really helps, but the results have been good.
Update 2020-02-19
This is apparently a print run blessed by the Emperor himself.
With resin to spare after finishing the Caladius (the last official models i planned on doing) i printed off first one then two xiphon sets (just after 2 models) and both were mis-scaled somehow. payed extra attention the third time i did them.
Anyway i thought to myself, Orion, why not? i already had the model sliced and set it a-running. Around 11pm last night we had pretty serious storms through (snapped a sizeable tree in the neighbours yard in half) with huge winds and tonnes of lightning and thunder.
At the heart of the storm i had 17 minutes remaining on the job, of a 7-8 hour print job.
The overhead lights were actually flickering but the power remained on and the job completed. Might actually have been something with the neon tubes rather than mains instability, anyway I now have an Orion.
As the job finished the storm actually dissipated and trundled off to the east.... literally as the job finished. Almost a murphy's law scenario, but instead the second case of print jobs surviving (or close enough to) the weather.
Sydney is prone to plentiful lightning storms in summer.
After cleanup i set a properly scaled xiphon printing. done now, so that is ALL the models i had on my rather vague wishlist done. yhay.
i'm using up the remaining resin doing some vehicle bases in part because i want to be done with printing for the time being. I want the contraption boxed away by COB. [now also done]
And this is it... army done...
Infantry and transports. the transports are big. Guess they're the equivalent of a skimmer Land Raider so follows an internal logic.
Tanks and bikes and other stuff. Orion and Xiphons will go on transparent perspex mounts.
Observation
Maybe professionals with extended experience will find this dubious but i often find i often underestimate the resources for printing. As in i'll have what looks to me like a small amount of filament or resin left after whatever project i've been working on, so i just do 'this and that' jobs to use it up. but it seems to last a lot longer than i anticipate.
in this case i was expecting the resin to run out during the Caladius prints. Glad it didn't of course but that last little swish seems to last a lot longer than it should. As in, if it were the same amount at the bottom of your milk container it wouldn't cover your cereal, but you might slightly lighten your cup of tea...
there you go.
So, what's next? I've been cleanup the models as i've progressed (mainly) so probably can get straight into printing (yhay). There's no great rush on this project, and to be honest i don't have a defined plan for what i'm going to do with them paint-wise. will probably need to experiment with finding a suitable gold-based or gold-esque colour scheme to start with.
Oh, and of course all the vehicles etc need basing before that starts.
Until next time...
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