Monotonous to Monolithic

[original draft 2018-06-25, original publish 2018-06-29]

This is a description of ongoing projects so might be a few sessions before it evolves into a post.


The Monotonous
So i churned out effectively 5 full medium sized swarms of Termagants. Plus extra Warrior sticks.

[assembly session 1 with available desprued models]

Which means that at the moment i'm despruing hundreds of cookie cutter gants. It is really boring.

12 sticks per medium swarm x 5 = 60, with 5 gants per stick = 300 termagants... that's a lot of boring.

But... as the sticks are glued up and the swarm become more than just flat bases it's going to be cool [ed - it was]   (if monotonous [ed - it was]).

[assembly session 2 with more desprued models. not long now...]

[assembly session 3 (final!!!) with the last of the critters, including the warriors finished off.]

So the assembled hordes are now sitting on the paint desk awaiting inspiration to hit there [yawn].

I wouldn't mind running a trial game now that i have the models built. Probably only a 2k'er rather than a full game though. time to start assembling a list.


The Monolithic
Am i overstating? well probably.

I'm looking at building a SWL scale Hwk-290 as a terrain piece.   I already have an x-wing scale STL from thingi but obviously i'll need to scale that up to Legion size.  Which will then mean cutting the model into printer-bed-friendly chunks.

So far i have worked out the scale and started on the chunking.

Scale:  According to the interwebs a HWK-290 is 16.5 meters in length... which to me seems small for a 'freighter' but as some fluff-tard suggested it's probably specialist/high-end goods, i.e. space-drugs. Fair enough i guess.
Also, according to wwweb Legion runs at 1:47 scale
Which, according to my poor maths, means that the model should be 351mm long, or there abouts.

Chunks: this is dual function of 'low-enough geometry to load into sketchup'  and  'needs to fit on the print-bed'.

A Handy Discovery
i discovered that the on-board windows 10 3D viewer program can not only break a model into chunks (split - which i actually knew and used before)  but it can also lower the poly-count of a model, which is a nifty feature.

So by the end of the first session i had a HWK in 4 chunks. 'nose', 'mid', 'back' and 'wings'. The 'back' and 'wings' are only the left side as i will clean them up and mirror the objects for printing.

I will be breaking some or all of these chunks down further to facilitate smaller/better print jobs.

Additionally i'm getting to the end of the PLA spool so i may need to swap to my spare ABS roll before the job is complete.


The Monolithic - Somewhat Later

On a whim i printed 'segment 1'. A simple piece and it turned out ok (not too much striation, no bed-lift).

The model was clamped down as it was fairly cold and to insure against lift (doesn't hurt).

Then a couple of nights later i printed 'segment 2'.

I'm not sure if part 3 will have enough plastic. Had a false start on part 2 as the roll was 'locking on itself'. I'm potentially going to try a swap over or if i'm sensible (funkdubious) i'll just set up for ABS and roll with that.

I have broken down the rest of the model into bite-size chunks so i think ABS might be ok. maybe.

 

And a night on from the last i printed out 'segment 3'.

Something looks not quite right there...

For some reason the model had an aberration and i wasn't netfabbing the stls or anything so it is what it is.
No biggy; a little sandpaper and plaster (or other filler) and it shouldn't be noticeable in the final result.
i will be fixing this piece up before attaching it to the rest of the model though - should be easier to handle.

Although i didn't come down to the last inch of filament, it was pretty close. Definitely not enough for another block.

With multiple logical breaking points I'll call it an end to this post. 

Until next time...