[original draft: 2019-09-24]
As fun as (actual AC) deploying by aircraft is, there is a limit on how many AC you can take for my BT list... 33% to be specific.
Any deployments beyond that need to be either teleported, deployed at the start of the game as ground forces, or have the Planetfall rule - and of course Drop Pods.
It's fairly safe to assume that i'm in a printing not painting place at the moment.
Over the weekend (and onward) i've printed all the dreadnoughts i needed (4x tactical, 2x hellfire) included a bit of 3d modelling. These turned out 'acceptable'.
Printed the last Thunderhawk (the third, i wanted 3 in the army) which turned out a bit iffy (warped and some 'thin bits') but usable none-the-less.
And thence onto drop pods (DP, DPs DP's... from here on out).
Now, technically you only need 6 of these models for your army. You place them, then unload the troops within 5cm, then shoot etc, then remove them. Next formation rinse and repeat using the same DP models.
What i'm making/going to make is 6x closed-door models, 6x open-door models, 2x oversize closed-door models - dreadnoughts can DP too - and then there's 6 deathstorm DP as well.
Although i had a closed-door model already (from thingiverse - used for previous armies) i wasn't super happy with it, or more to the point i wanted to trace-model it and then use that to make an open-door variant.
Not sure precisely when i got all this done... friday-saturday i think. wasn't overly complex anyway, model 1/5 of the model, copy/paste and rotate 72o five times then cleanup the intersect issues. And i then made the open-door model off of that.
Lots of models/work for something that spends a minute on the table, but that's all part of the fun/process/joy of the hobby.
Over the weekend i was able to get the 6x closed-door models made (still need extra bases) and in general i can print 2 DP per print run.
Each print run (for closed-door) takes about 4 hours - so a full day for the batch
So far i've printed one open-door set (2 models) - they look rad - and that takes somewhere in the 5-6 hour range. Bloody long print by comparison. They're relatively tall but don't use a huge amount of resin so as long as they don't misprint i'm happy.
Will just keep churning out prints at a batch a night and should have the DPs done by end-of-week. yhay!
Feel like i'm really procrastinating with the next infantry prints though :)
Printing Roundup
Turns out that at the moment the base layers of the print are REALLY sticking well to the print face. I have set the first layers to a longer exposure that the default but it seems that the print face might also be 'worn in' or something.
To the point that it was difficult to chip/knock the DP models off. The scraper now has chunks and divots so off to bunnings for a new (metal) one.
Seem to have gotten a handle on rafts and supports for slicing - at least far better than when i started.
My current technique is to put a 0.2mm raft under the model, and also extending the width and length of the raft around the model by 2mm. Then make sure everything on the slicer software connects by these rafts.
Having individual small pieces on the print face seems/seemed to cause more issues than one monolithic print.
the down side is the 0.2mm is added to the bottom which then requires extra clean up... if it's going to show anyway. things like the drop pods which have astrogranite etc basing need not be done.
[Update 20190925]
Something about 'telling a deity your plans'... aka, suggest a piece of machinery is performing admirably and it will sh1t itself.
Went to print some pods last night and got a tonne of memory errors. So frustrating, but at least it happens within 4 layers, so not 4 hours into the print which would truly make me explode with eversor-esque fury.
Printed a set of bases which seemed to 'warm it up' and then it printed some pods. Got up at midnight for cleanup. Only half stuck to the base [rolls eyes so loud you can hear it]
So one was warped rubbish, and the other was more or less fine. Which means i have odd numbers of pods unless i get another failed print...
Entirely the opposite of my previous assessment. Ar$ehole machinery.
This is the 'results table' so far (sans Stormbirds)...
I have no idea why the machine gets the memory errors or what clears them. It's definitely nothing 'physical' and the files obviously print (the first set of 2 printed just fine). Can only assume it's something buggy with the arduino-eq tech running the software. My (mostly pointless) guess is that it might have some kind of memory leak or something that eventually just craps out and instigates a refresh of the machine's memory.
As well as the memory error is also didn't allow me to exit out of the failed job once and i think it also just restarted twice after an error. Not happening consistently enough for me to hit it with a hammer, but it's still early days. The annoying part is (aside from the apparent randomness) is that i know it CAN work fine, as evidenced by the pic above.
[ed: there was a noticeable change in weather temperature around that time too, i.e. got colder.]
In other news i picked up another litre of print juice (orange this time, no maroon and the colour makes no difference as everything is painted).
The prices are loony: may2019 $59, july2019 $120, sep2019 $77
Makes no sense but at least it's a reasonably price this time. Guessing it's end of the shipment and no one wants these colours... which suits me fine obviously.
Based on these resin prices alone it's still probably cheaper to print your own than it is to buy 3rd party models.
[Update 20191001]
The pic above doesn't show it but there's even more pods than that... they were still underway at the time. Anyway done with the pods.
Pulled the proverbial finger out and started printing infantry.
These are for basically Tactical stands (Crusaders in BT parlance)...
The desired goal for this 'batch' is 5 sets of 6 stands (already have 1 set of 6 stands). So have i have 2 to 3 sets done (and also need to do a bunch of missile launcher guys). aka, a bit more to go.
The print results are mixed. not from model to model but from type to type.... so all of one model type will have 'issues'.
Below: the guy on the left is 'good', the guy on the right is 'not bad'.
The difference is that on the 'not bad' guy the magazine is missing from the model.
I have no idea why. The 3d model has it, on the slicer it looks like it's there, but during the print process it's a no-show [shrug].
I'm reasonably sure that my previous prints also had these issues but i kinda overlooked it given there were larger issues to work out at the time.
Fluff-wise i can just write this issue off as 'they have shorter mags that don't extend a long way out of the gun.' done. But there are other similar kinda issues with other models too.
I potentially could chop up some little pieces of plastic and given them mags but that's super fiddly, plus there are a lot of models, plus it adds not that much to the end result (at arms length etc).
Aside from that the model has printed perfectly.
The other, other ones had far less success with the guns. Which is annoying as all other aspects worked fine - auspex and grenade dudes as examples.
As the rest of the model is perfectly fine i'm considering printing off some bolters by themselves and gluing them on. Seems a waste to ditch the model due to this issue. Fiddly.
I'm also probably going to experiment with adding supports for these particular models and seeing what the result is? Perhaps they just need a support under the bolter. Perhaps there's something dodgy with the bolter on these models... doesn't look like it from the slice though.... confusing.
[Update 20191009]
All printery since last update has been re getting these infantry sticks done.
Below, a visualisation guide, cos numbers work, but why not...
these were the 'perfect prints'. 4 per base and then requires a missile launcher guy.
this is including the 'not bad' prints, so missing the sickle mag basically.
i ended up printing off 'just bolters' as postulated previously. more work, but gets the printed models * 'complete' as much as possible. [* if not the 3d models]
these were then added to the 'a bit shit' models. so i now have 'auspex guys'... 'grenade guys'... 'go this way' pointing sergeant guys... 'stylin one hand aiming' guys... and that's it. ended up with a few more than in the picture, but not that many.
these ones are either sergeants to mix it up with the existing sergeants, or to add some flavour to the sticks of regular dudes (grenades etc).
i then went through and add the extra mags to most of the 'not bad' guys too (all but perhaps 10). so the 'not bad's are not 'goods'. worth the effort i think.
so this is the 'good' and fixed 'special' models. the specials bulk the numbers a bit which helps.
then printed a bunch of bases- and the missile guys.
and have everything ready for assembly. needed to chop the models off all the support/raft. which took a while, just with clippers - the brittleness of the resin helped a bit. the final bases are a bit rough but they'll all be covered by astrogranite eventually anyway.
so 4 bags; good, special fixed (sergeants), regular fixed, and missiles. will definite have enough models for the bases now.
[Update 20191010]
On to assembly. Have 2 formations of 6 bases done. all the others have sergeants and missile guys.
The final 3 models added to the stand are often the trickiest. finding models that look good in the various slots.... sometimes chopping the base from the feet and repositioning 'manually'. takes a while to get them presentable. not saying they're all perfect by any means but they're acceptable. Given the number of stands, if one or two stands are a bit 'not so great' then they kinda blend in with the crowd.
[Update 20191011]
Ok, and, done.
had about 20 or so marines left over after all this... not including the ones from previous prints. reasonably happy with the configurations, plenty of variety, nothing too derpy.
bit over infantry for now.
so they're all sitting on this box lid and i thinks to myself, 'probably should bag and box those so they're out of harm's way'. great idea, however as i lifted the tray it snagged and spilled sticks everywhere. now, resin may be many things... but shatterproof it isn't. the emperor was looking after these brave warriors however and only 3 sticks had dudes snap off. was a relatively painless fix.
To the paint table...
The first of the new prints have made it to the paint table.
One set of rhinos, the vindicators and the dreadnoughts for starters. So far 2 coats of null oil. Next dry brush light grey, then leadbealcher and onward.
Also started green stuffing the landers and thunderhawk. Pushed some solid green stuff into the bigger gaps on the landers, then for all models brushed some liquid green stuff into the lesser gaps. Another couple of rounds of liquid filler will be required.
Next for these will be some scraping, sculpting and sanding to clean up the surfaces and get things presentable.
Until next time...
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...
