Mid-Winter Progress

[Original Draft - 2018-06-02]


Overview
This is a mid-project update - where the majority of the leg work gets done; it's not all glamour and cocktails like the other posts make it out to be...


Epic - Bugs
Currently working on 'everything gets a coat of black'.

I also put together a starter list at 2000 pts. turns out i only printed a single stick sample of Biovores so i printed out another 4 sets to get the requisite 5 sticks for the formation. Fascinating stuff.

[later]
At least there's blue happening now.
If this looks like it's mind-blowingly dull there's a good reason for that...

[later later]
yawn...

[later later later]
blue... yhay!

[even later than that]
have moved on to light blue highlights.  too boring to even take a photo of it.   i'm using a different blue to the original set so the original set are getting a new-blue face lift as well.
SWL - HWK290
The weekend saw further progress on the terrain ship project.

I made the switch to dedicated ABS gcode and was getting passable results. Ambient temperature definitely affects the print so as the afternoon petered out i called it a day with the body done... also the last stl i started was dodgy so i'd had enough by that stage.

just the 'tails' and 'wings' to go of the big bits, though these will be multi-prints per item.

i had thought i might have had the ABS fooled but turning up the print speed to 125% - hoping to create a solid enough base before the curl started taking effect - however this seems to only work if air temperature is suitable as well (i.e. not bloody chilly).
it did provide some very good results during the middle of the day.

Terrain: so i was thinking about how this piece should function 'as terrain'. I'm intending to keep the landing gear quite low so even though you could technically see under the ship i'm planning on using it as 'area terrain'. so basically the entire footprint of the model is LOS blocking terrain. 
It will be permanently attached to a piece of mdf and i'll possibly put some crates or other incidentals around it as well to add some panache.


[later]
don't look at it from too close a range and it looks fine...

just three blocks to go (rest of the 'wings')... oh, and then landing gear etc.


[later still]
the printing is complete!!   i modelled up some (very) basic landing gear, which have been printed and added and i printed the underbelly canon as well.

it's extremely rough and ugly in places but i'm hoping some filler-primer will hide some of that, and possibly a reasonably dark paint job might help too.
re paint:- i'm considering using the metallic brass that i used for the storage case symbol. it's dark enough, i like the colour, and i still have the better part of the pot left... (to be decided/concluded).

needs to be permanently attached to an mdf sheet (will probably just follow the (top-down) silhouette with a margin) and then work out some scatter effects before starting finishing/painting.
yeah, like this...

some size comparison pics. with models...

and me holding it...

for reference i'm of regular humanoid size; so if you were to conclude that it's a little larger than a tournament frisbee and a little smaller than the average show beagle then you're probably about right.

which brings events here to a reasonable break point.


A Thought
something i was thinking about while i was painting last night is that it's not like i often spend hours and hours at a time on any given project.
sure, sometimes i get into a hobby 'zone' and bust out swathes of work, but usually it's just (i.e.) paint up a few sticks of nids after work, or start a print job and then go and read or whatever.
Eventually all those little sessions will get you there and frankly sitting down for a mega-session with the paint is super boring and not something i bother with unless i have a formation due for a tournament the next day etc.


until next time...