A Brief Update

Not a lot happening on the bench at the moment, life and other pastimes getting in the way. So by way of a brief update I thought I should post a couple of items.

First up is the painting of some of the 3D terrain pieces I recently printed. These come from Fat Dragon Games, and are some of their basic dungeon walls and flooring.

These were painted with cheap hobby acrylics from the local craft store. I then went over them with some Vallejo pigments to try and add the look of dirt and moss. I was a bit heavy on the red/browns but happy overall.

Also recently completed is a Necromancer figure from Mantic Games. I painted some of their skeletons a number of years ago to use in the game Song of Blades & Heroes and finally got round to this one. He will be used as the new leader for the group.

MOAB and Minecraft

Finally, after an eight month hiatus, I get to put figures on the game table and play some DBA. I was able to play in the Samurai DBA Campaign held on the Sunday at MOAB. Briefly, this a fun event played over 4 rounds, with each player winning or losing gold coins based on the possession of objectives and other criteria at the end of each round. At the finish, the player with the most gold is named Shogun and winner.

Players may move their army and attack in any direction, so allegiances and deals are made and broken during the course of the game, with it possible to be fighting 3 or more opponents. Veteran DBA player and game organiser Greg Kelleher put the table together and also ran the competition, doing an excellent job all round.

My Early Samurai being attacked on two fronts

Armies engaged on all fronts!

Not much happening one the modelling front. I have managed to base up some more figures for the Minecraft HOTT project. Llama and Pig hordes, more Chicken Jockey Cavalry and some Polar Bears as Beasts.

Not much of interest on the 3D Printer front either, but I have kept it busy making some dungeon tiles that I will use to setup a display cabinet for my 28mm figures. That's if/when I get time to paint them beyond the primer stage.

3D Printer Musings

Just a couple of quick updates as I have been away from the hobby desk for a bit.

So, after experimenting with various models and printer settings I find there is still a lot to learn. Whilst most models now print nicely without much fuss, occasionally there are hiccups.

I have been printing some 15mm tanks for my WW2 Japanese, and while the body prints OK, the turret and main gun have been problematic. Picture below is of a Chi-Ha medium tank.

One thing I have learnt is to think out of the box a bit when deciding the orientation of models during printing. Unlike the Jadgpanther printed previously, this one was printed vertically. This reduced the number of supports needed, making clean up quicker, and also improved the overall quality, especially around the tracks. The turret is a different proposition. Will need to try a different orientation as the main gun looks awful.

Also on the production line are some modular terrain pieces like this hobbit hole, scaled to suit 15mm.

The Blitz and Jadgpanther from previous posts have now had some base coat applied. One thing I have noticed is that painting can make the print layers more obvious in some places.

On The Desk

Just a quick update on a long time project - A 48 point Minecraft themed HOTT army. Been buying up these little figures for a quite a while now, however only when the local Coles or Big W have them on special. Too expensive otherwise.

So here is the first 20 points based and ready for action. They are mounted on 60mm wide bases. I blame a certain gentleman gamer now based in Thailand for coming up with the idea of using figures like this to make HOTT armies, it becomes addictive. Wonder how they would go against his Simpson's?

Skeleton Hero leading Pigmy zombie chicken jockeys - all armies need a unit or two of those!

Just a few more to base up

My First Post

So this blog will be my attempt at showing off my various painting attempts, and also my venture into the world of 3D Printing. Might even post about any games of note that I play.

So we start this post with the new toy, a Flashforge Finder 3D Printer.

The figure sitting on top was something I found on Thingiverse, and thought would make a good god figure for my Dalek Hordes of the Things army. Printed in PLA and stands about 40mm high.

I painted this before deciding on writing this blog, so no "before" photo. Not the first thing I printed, as I did a few test prints of basic pieces before moving on to the more complex prints shown here.

Here are some figures, also from Thingiverse, that were an experiment to see if 28mm figures could be printed. The results are what I would call adequate, but not up to the standard of most commercial figures. I have since learned some techniques to improve the print quality, and will post those latter.

And something a bit more ambitious, an Opel Blitz in 1/144, 1/100, and 1/72 scale, along with a Jagdpanther in 1/100.

None of these have been fully cleaned up yet, with the Jagdpanther and 1/100 Blitz straight off the printer.