Adventures in 3D Printing

 Its been a busy couple of weeks! I spent a week whale watching and then the past couple of days in the aftermath of having a seriously infected tooth extracted.  In the middle of that the SnapMaker Kickstarter delivered a 3D printer to my doorstep!

Assembly was straightforward and, after a couple of false starts with leveling the print bed, pretty easy to start exploring. The machine is performing pretty well although there doesn't appear to be any kind of auto shut off when a print is finished.  The nozzel and bed cool but the machine otherwise idles and the fan volume is not insignificant... which will hopefully be compensated for when the enclosure gets installed.  It's not hugely loud or poorly pitched its just a PC component fan running all the time the machine is on.

 The SnapMaker software is a beginners set.  Its simplified and requires little to no experience with 3D printing to get started.  Its also sized for the SnapMaker's relatively small print bed which was a big help already.  Once I get a little more up to speed I'll likely look into a more advanced  program.  Snapmaker supports several of these.

The enclosure... seen on the right... was kind of an afterthought and it shows a bit.  I'm assembling it but will probably wait until I finish my large model test print to install it.

 My first job was to print some scenic 40mm bases as my Knights of the Chalice (Raging Heroes) is in the paint process and needs bases badly!  These came out ok and taught me a lot about PLA as a material.  First... the heat from filing a rough edge will melt the PLA so be careful about that... that makes me think that I might want to be aware of the climate when moving, storing and using models and accessories made from this material!  I think the SnapMaker supports a couple of other materials and I'll have to experiment a bit to see what options are available.

 Next up are some scenic bits to make the Kingdom Death Monster board a bit more attractive.  3D replacements for some of the terrain types and a 25mm round with a Kingdom Death stone faces theme.  I'll have to experiment with adjusting these to serve as inserts in the 30mm Kingdom Death bases but I'm happy to have a couple of ways to mount Kingdom Death models on themed bases for use in other games.

I've also printed some blank 25x50mm bases to stabilize some of the more floppy furniture in Star Saga.  I think I'd still prefer to use clear Plexiglas for that because its stiffer at less thickness but ... experiments!

All of these types of bases etc... took about two hours each to print at high quality.

Finally... since I was going to be out of it for a couple of days with the tooth... I hit the start button on a "Dice Box of Death" to have a cool Kingdom Death(ish) theme container for the table!... Since it is forbidden for me to touch my wife's dice... due to understandable fears of "Cursed Dice" transfer ... I *may have to make two of these boxes...

At the time of this photo the print is about 12 hours on... looks like about that much longer? and then the lid will need printing.  After which... it'll be time to tackle the enclosure!

Off to see how the bases paint up!

Star Saga: The Fear, Capt. Erika Dulinski, Francesco "The Devil" Selvaggio, The Survivor, and Alyse

 Back to Star Saga! 

This group of Characters and Adversaries was knocked out while I was working on my first Twisted gang. I have about a half dozen character models left and a lot of terrain to finish up before the core set is completed.

The Survivor is one of those characters that carries his whole life with him everywhere he goes, never knowing which moment will be the his last.  I wanted to represent the ad-hoc nature of his equipment.  His gear is maintained but not beautified and focused on utility.  He seems quite dour.

A lot of the gear would plastic of some sort so some of the things like the webbing on his leg I think of as medical self sealing wound technology and its painted in medical plastic green. The rest of the suit is largely generic white hard-suit without emblems of affiliation

Francesco "The Devil" Selvaggio reminds me of Jayne from Firefly.  The gear is military surplus and the coat reminds me of an old Eldar Ranger.  I figure the coat is his one real possession and shows some evidence of being repaired from time to time.

The coat grey process was influenced by the Twisted Gang I'm working on and the thought that Jayne was once a member of a failed rebellion or lost cause like the Brown Coats of the Firefly Verse.  He's still proud and angry and frequently gets into altercation with Federal representatives who view his open admission of affiliation as an insult. 

Although I think the sack is supposed to have smoke grenades or aomething similar I like to think of Francesco as addicted to soft drinks so the cans are painted the metallic green of Zolt! Which I think of as the child of Monster Energy and Mt. Dew...

Grey is a Reaper grey triad and the lighter areas are Reaper Buckskin Pale and Army Painter Soft Tone.

  Admittedly I haven't read a lot of the backgrounds for Star Saga.  I have read a novel and most of the initial backgrounds for the Warpath Universe where Star Saga is set but the whole feel of the game had such a strong Mass Effect vibe that I just kind of went with that in general.

Capt. Erika Dulinski is a nod to the N7 program of Mass Effect.

Krylon Khaki Base Drybrushed with Craft Paint Sandstone and washed with Secret Weapon Heavy Body Black is the bulk of the scheme.  There are red and Grey accent colors both created with Reaper Triads (Gray, Gory red).

  I envision the base as an N7 black site that is operating under the moniker N7X so that designation will appear on some of the terrain bits and in floor designs when the MDF floor tiles from the Kickstarter eventually arrive.

I really should read the background on "The Fear". Its such an ostentatious name after all! I think of him as part of "The Nameless" faction that seems to be slowly emerging in the Warpath Verse.

The armor reminded my of some old faux Slann models I have somewhere so I did a throwback style for it.

Krylon Khaki drybrushed with Craftpaint Sandstone the a coat of Liquitex Magenta Ink for the bulk of the scheme.  Highlights are Vallejo Pink. Green accents are Vallejo US Army Bright Green and Secret Weapon Verdigris for top Highlights.

There are cool washes (Lavender (SW)) in the shadowed areas and warm glazes (Just Red (SW)) on upper surfaces as well as some basic patterning on the shoulders and underlining with the war or cool highlight depending on the location of the perceived light source.  I still have a long way to go on this technique but its getting better with practice.

Alyse is the final character in the line up but the individual pictures of him/her did not come out very well so I'll have to re take them and drop them in future post.

Tomorrow is photography lesson day which I'm quite amped about!


Back to the Bench!

New Camera test drive, Kingdom Death Surprise Hunt, Augusta and the Void Elves

 Taking a new camera for a test drive.  I'm still having trouble with lighting and focus but, overall, a big improvement.  Next week I'm slated to go get some hands on help with getting the results I want from the photography side of things.

Today was just messing around with the camera and some lights.  I'm still figuring out what all the settings do... or even most of them!

I think I'm going to have to run the steamer on this backdrop to de-wrinkle it.

 I've been taking some more pictures of Augusta, Mother Superior (Raging Heroes) because I wand to get a good read on the yellow metal.  It seems to have survived the sealer reasonable intact. Sealing metallics often damages the final result and I sometimes end up retouching them afterwards.  I could, of course, not seal them... but these are primarily for tabletop use and not dedicated display pieces so I tend to want them sealed against frequent handling.

 Some experiments with wider focus areas as the Mother Superior faces down a pack of Void Elf Hunters.

 A size comparison for the current batch of Kingdom Death Monsters that our settlement is hunting... or being hunted by...

 In anticipation of this weekend's game I quickly painted up the Screaming Antelope and laminated some character and settlement record sheets.  The tactical board getting set up... I'm going to do some 3D terrain elements for the board soon as the card terrain just doesn't show well alongside the miniatures.

 A party of inexperienced survivors set out to hunt the Screaming Antelope led by "Lucky" Amelia.  Amelia at least had one hunt under her belt and performed so well during it that she earned her moniker "Lucky"

The rest of the party were novice hunters although two of them, Yang and Herc were born in the settlement and had some skill/stat upgrades based on that.  One, Flayh, was a survivor that had previously managed to avoid encountering the malicious wildlife of the area and was a straight up newb..

 During the first Hunt event the group stumbled upon the corpse of a Screaming Antelope... did a little scavenging.. and were then interrupted by the monster that had killed it in the first place... a Mature (level 2) White Lion.

This party had been hunting a juvenile Screaming Antelope and was not at all prepared for a Mature White Lion... perhaps Amelia's famous luck had run out?

A couple of pictures of the Screaming Antelope that did not make an appearance in this week's session....

The fight was pretty epic however with Flayh... our group goldbricker getting immediately knocked down and drug off by the Lion, who seemed to be enraged by the group's looting of it's kill... DoH!

Yang managed to sooth the mood of the beast by playing her cat-whisker harp. Yang later proved to be more than just a budding musician when she sliced the lower jaw of the beast clean off!  This early crit helped the party to survive what would otherwise have been a nightmare encounter.

Amelia's famous luck returned almost as quickly as it had abandoned them and she scored a crit on the Lion's brow... damaging it's eye and reducing its accuracy.

The big cat had been charging around the area to either drag Flayh off for a private snack or to escape the incessant rescue attempts by the rest of the group. Yang finally put a stop to this with a precision attack that hamstrung the lion leaving and it nearly dead.

Herc finished the monster off from a safe distance with a well aimed arrow.

All in all a great reinforcement of Lucky Amelia's reputation as the group returned with a pile of resources well in excess of those anticipated. 

Yang turned out to be a competent bard and a very strong combatant to boot.  Some members of the settlement are calling her Yang the Lion Tamer.

Herc calmly wielded his bow throughout the fight and took a couple of opportunities to land big hits with a Zanbato which really sped up the fight. He's taken to referring to himself as "The Tactician" which has not been as well received by the rest of the settlement as he had imagined...

As for poor Flayh... He was grabbed so often by the Lion during the fight... and subsequently rescued by his companions at great risk to themselves... that he's being referred to as "Catnip"

Time to go paint some stuff! The Phoenix has been added to the Quarry list.... and the Knights of the Chalice just came out of the sonic cleaner!