Raging Heroes Ash Tank Gunner and some Heresy Girl Assassins 3D printer experiments with the Snapmaker

 Raging Heroes' Ash Tank Gunner was initially thought of as a torso only sculpt for use in a vehicle hatch but had the lower body included pretty early on in the TGG1 Kickstarter process.  As a result she became useful in a Forward Observer or scout role.  I have a few iterations of her so its possible I'll do a tank crew version of her but I really like having her in stand alone form.

She's painted like the Veteran Jailbirds in a signature prison color scheme.  The orange is Reaper Lemon Yellow a wash of Secret Weapon Orange and Highlights of Reaper Marigold Yellow.

 Ash also sports the Blood Red Rags of Rebellion that were popularized by the Jailbird Freedom Fighter Raven the Chainbreaker.

 Next up are the remaining four proxy Assassins from the Heresy Girls Kickstarter 1.  The Deathshadow was examined here although I think I forgot to mention the name of it.  In a similar vein I've done one each of the factory resin model and a 3D print from my Snapmaker on hi resolution.  The elements of failure are painted blue for clarity and also because I'll use these as active camo/ecm versions.

 First is Black Phoenix which seems like a Vindicare proxy.  The Snapmaker had a hard time with this one and I was unable to get the waist region of the torso to fill in so there is a big hole at the join.  With glue its stable but the poor girl looks kind of undead.

The factory resin, as all of them are in this set, was cleanly cast with little flash and practically no cleanup required.  The bases here are also from the 3D printer and the Snapmaker does good quality on them.

 Ghost is next and was the most successful of the 3D prints.  I used the alternate factory resin head and the 3D print version was not good.  Even on this more successful print there is a lot of printer error and lost detail.

 Ghost look like a Callidus Proxy and its passable in that role.  Its also useful for any sci-fi assassin or operative.

Last up is Jade Devil.  A clear proxy for Culexis psi-hunters.

This one was the most trouble for the Snapmaker and I got zero percent clear print.  Nice stealth field effect but a complete failure as a model print.

Bottom line is that the Snapmaker can't produce acceptable resolution in 28mm humanoid models.  I'm generally happy with its performance for buildings, bases, vehicles,  terrain, and accessories like dice boxes etc... but I'll have to move into SLA printing to make .stl files of 28mm soldiers viable.

Not all 3D printers, or 3D printer formats, are good for all printing projects so don't expect nozzle extruded 3D prints to fill the ranks of your toy soldier armies at this time.  SLA has much higher resolution and I'll get round to it eventually but for now I'll be relying on the printer for the more coarse applications where its pretty reliable.  The right tool for the right job!

Back to the desk!

3D Printed Sci-Fi wheeled APC and wheeled ARV

 The Jailbirds got a couple of new vehicles this week but they, themselves, were out of reach for photos!  We'll make do with some of their potential adversaries like trusty Canoness Veridyan (GW).

The vehicles were 3D printed on a Snapmaker at high quality.  The files came from a Duncan "Shadow" Louca vehicle Kickstarter.

These continue the badlands nomad theme that is basically a Flesh Wash (Secret Weapon) over the standard Khaki workup.

 The wheels were painted Rubber (Secret Weapon) and the weathering was done with Secret Weapon technical paints.  Old Mud, Caked Dirt, Engine Metal, and Rust Shadow.

Rust Shadow makes an excellent liner and gives a "Borderlands" style shadow.  I think it will look really great with some other vehicles colors which I'll get into when I'm doing some of the civilian vehicles pressed into service by the caravan.

 Repo-Man! is a very vital vehicle for the Jailbirds.  Their gear is mostly second tier except for their bikes which are cutting edge.  The Jailbirds basically drag anything they can get off the field although they tend to focus on wheeled vehicles since they are easier to operate and maintain in their caravan lifestyle.

 The Jailbirds are much more organized and uniform that the typical "Mad Max-esque" Badlanders as they also form semi-regular military formations.  Basically they wear uniforms of a sort and their vehicles are identifiable as part of a regular, if somewhat eclectic, military unit.

 "Tailgater" with Mantic Star Saga marines and Forgeworld ripper swarms for scale.  I used magnets for the turret and for the hatches with the idea to optionally use Raging Heroes Ash, Tank Gunner as a vehicle commander.

 Repo-Man shown with Travelling merchant (Anvil Industries) or Trader Joe as he is known to the Jailbirds.

I saw some construction cranes the other day that had all the moving surfaces finished in a rubbery black color and thought that would be better than a shiny metal, attention attracting, surface.

A last look at Repo-Man with Raging Heroes Void Elves for scale.





















Last, I did basing and prep for a couple of Reaper minis for an RPG character.  A halfling Ranger, a couple of big dogs, and a triad of pups.  One of the dogs to be a Saint Bernard the other probably a Rottweiler or something similar to make the dogs easy to identify.

The Order of Vampire Hunters: Upyr and Burrowers plus 3D SF Vehicles and terrain WiPs

 The Upyr are vampire "Daywalkers" that are among the most dangerous of the vampire "trash mobs". While immune to sunlight effects and being, relatively, sturdy fighters they are not dangerous by themselves and can be dispatched by Pete and the Extractor just as any other vampire type.  Their main advantage is ignoring sunlight rooms in the lair and slowing down the Hunters especially when they arrive as a random spawn.

These were painted in the same way as the warriors but have a few extra layers of Sunny Flesh dry-brush and paler red wings.










Unfortunately they are uni-pose and since they will be stored in their formed plastic game tray I didn't want to do any physical modification.  Keeping in mind also that they are board game pieces I kept their paint schemes uniform for easy identification during play.

 The Burrowers were also painted similarly to the warriors with the but for the omission of the red wings.

















Like the Upyr these are cast in a single pose.










Moving into the 3D printed stuff there is a wheeled ARV (Armored Recovery Vehicle) that will join my Jailbirds Faction.  As motorized nomads and scavengers I think the ARV will be an important addition to their motley collection... so I may print up one or two more... can't leave loot on the battlefield!





This is another wheeled APC that the Jailbirds will press into service.  Its more boxy than their other vehicles and I can imagine that it was "liberated" from one of their many adversaries.

One of the benefits of these PLA prints is that they are easy to magnetize.  Since they are not a solid block of resin, or a hollow hard plastic cast, you can easily punch a magnet sized hole in the skin and the magnet will still be supported by the interior lattice structure.

The crane of the ARV and the turret of the APC are magnetized. 

I need to come up with names for these vehicles both as general type and as individuals.  Suggestions welcome! 

Finally some progress in the Kingdom Death inspired columns to replace the 2D cardboard terrain in the Kingdom Death Monster game.

I've been working on some marble-like effects and still want to narrow and define the black veining a bit before washing them and doing some final highlights.

Back to the desk!

Star Saga Rangers, Hi-Tech Bio-Convergence, and an Afterglow traveling salesman.

 I made a push to clear the desk of a few WiPs so I'd have room to start on the Raging Heroes Centaurs (SF) group.

Star Saga is making great progress with the finish up of these Corporation Rangers.  This unit is a lower tier elite group and will go by the moniker "Hostile Takeover".

The six figures, but only two sculpts, painted up fast and I like the crimson and grey combo.  The detail is mixed but I really liked the plate in the back of the heads.  I used it as an ID plate but used letters in place of names as a nod to the high turn over rate in corp forces.

 Next up is a traveling salesman from Afterglow. 

My primary use for him will be as an RPG NPC with a secondary use as an objective marker for the Jailbirds... who have a chronic supply problem and few people willing to trade with them.

The resin for this is a bit on the brittle side.  That seems to be a trend in the miniatures that come out of Poland.  Its very dry and takes paint very well.

 It also comes with an automatic shotgun on a sling but it looked so awkward on the mini that I decided against using it. Its a nice sculpt though and it'll make a good addition to the bits box.

Size comparison time.  Canoness Veridyan (GW) and a Void Elf Hunter (Raging Heroes) for scale.

 Hi-Tech Miniatures Bio-Convergence.  Even though they are tracked their size and weapon load out made me think of them as servitor proxies fro ADMech or even for RPG use.

The weapons are magnetized so I can vary up the loads later if I end up using them often.  The weapon loads are not precisely correct for ADMech but might be ok for Inquisitor retinue or a Dark Millennium/Rogue Trader game.

 I haven't really started work on ADMech and haven't gelled on a marking scheme and Iconography so I'll save that for later.  The paint scheme could go a couple of different ways so options remain.

Size comp with the ever present Veridyan.  I like the size of these for servitors... not too massive.

Fast Panda Sci-Fi Food Truck ready to serve!

 I've finally rolled out the Fast Panda Sci-Fi Food Truck.  Its an Atenociti"s Workshop Kickstarter project and was worked up from a paper model.

Although its "Designed for Infinity" I've included GW's Canoness Veridyan (WiP) for scale... and its primary intended use is as part of the vehicle train for my force of Jailbirds from Raging Heroes...

 The model can be assembled with, or without, the covered dining area... which I've just noticed I left a bit off !! DoH! ... but the model is intended to be one or the other and not to swap between awning and awning free...

I've made some adjustments and the model is convertible enough for my purposes!

 I love the great decals that come with the kit... this has always been one of Atenociti's Workshops long suites.  The Fast Panda  set does not disappoint!

The more mainstream Sci-Fi styling is a departure from the Grim Dark of most of my collection but I picture the Jailbirds are more like Battlestar Galactica nomads than Underhive Gangers so their vehicle set reflects that.

As the vehicle has no weapons... I'll mostly use it as a scenic objective and, of course, to tie my themes together... The Lulus have food, now they need some kind of rolling Schoolhouse and a Barracks vehicle...

I saw an amazing vehicle at the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart.  It was a Rolling Post Office and also provided telephone service via built in booths... I wonder if I can find a model of that thing or if I'm going to have to scratch build it....

I learned a lot from this kit.  I did the test fits a few weeks before final assembly and would have benefited from a refresher dry run. I ended up disassembling large potions of the model twice... real rookie errors... and actually could stand one more parts swap.

 I  got to work with a lot of the new weathering set from Secret Weapon and also a few technical paints from Army Painters Warpaints Line.

I was very impressed with the rust effects a and the "heat" line.

The "heat colors" are kind of like a more viscous, more adhesive, wash in blue, purple, and orange.. as well as a color called old oil which is not "heat" tagged but has a similar consistency.

Secret Weapon rusts had good color while the Army Painter "Old Rust" had some texture to it.  I did a base of Old Rust (AP), a shade of Orange Rust (SW), and a glaze of Flesh Wash (SW). There is also a spot of Brown Rust (SW) here and there in the larger patches.

The Secret Weapon Tire Black, Rubber, and Rubber highlight were also very nice to use and gave a convincing effect.

  Its paper model heritage is apparent in several unexpected ways.  Mostly in that it has a lot of interdependent structures that must be painted, largely un-assembled, and then assembled simultaneously. The main fuselage requires four parts to be aligned and glued in the final step.

 

Canoness Veridyan has located the drink dispenser! Will she choose Zolt!, Code RED, or ZAP! ZAP!?

WiPs in my temp paint space!

 The new temp paint space... the computer nook in the kitchen!
yeah... not long term but, with the actual studio supplies not arriving until mid October... this gets me started!

 Speaking of getting started... I've been working on background narratives for my Raging Heroes Jailbirds for quite a while.  One of the things I wanted to accomplish was defining their rebel faction as a nomadic, survival of the tribe, society.  Because of this focus I've been wanting to include some non-military vehicles to give them the feel of a caravan on the tabletop.

I've finally got a start on this with the arrival of the Fast Panda sci-fi food truck from Atenociti's Workshop!  This is a "Made for Infinity" model so has a very cool "Mass Effect" styling about it.

For my purposes I'll want to produce one that is a little worse for the wear as it feeds the Jailbirds, who are constantly on the move to avoid capture by their House Kurganova tormentors.

 I'm starting with a black primer.  The resin from Atenocitis takes paint very well and the model was pretty clean... requiring little clean up!  Score for Jed and Nadine!

With my paints still in transit from Transylvania I took the opportunity to try the new line of weathering paint from Secret Weapon Miniatures and indulged in a couple of Vallejo skin tone sets (Fairy Flesh Set and Malefic Flesh Set).

 I started the work up of white using the Secret Weapon Handle Wood and Weathered Wood and will finish it off with top highlights using CraftSmart white.

The purple trim comes from the Malefic Skin tone set and got highlighted by mixing in some Purple Heat from the Secret Weapon line.  The various "Heat" mixes appear to be slightly viscous, high pigment density, stains.  I've always been a fan of stains so they should be fun!

  Here I've used them to modify another paint so they are performing more like thin paint with better than average covering qualities.

There is also an excellent triad in the set: Tire Black, Rubber, and Rubber Highlight. These are giving really good effects on the rubber boots and seat cushions.  I see a using these quite a lot in future.

I visited one of the FLGSs in Anchorage and picked up a Reaper Mousling Tavern set.  Its all metal, which I was quite happy with in this case, and was missing a model.  A quick e-mail to the Reaper Help desk saw the errant model arriving just a couple of days later.  Those guys at the Helpdesk are great!

 Some before and after wash shots. I'm thinking about doing some tiny Tartan patterns on these to add some cheery color.

I've been getting more interested in filling out my RPG focused collections and these will be pretty cool for that.

Next up on deck a pair of the new style of cottage from Tabletop World.
I just got an enormous shipment from them and the packing job was amazing!  The boxes arrived in a pretty beat up condition but there appears to have been zero damage as a result... those guys really know how to pack!  I'll put up a post about that a bit later.

Finally... a BIG pile of Raging Heroes from the TGG2 Kickstarter is busy getting sorted and labelled... and one of the Girls is even on the desk for painting!  Zoom Zoom!  You'll see her soon!