Printing Pond life

Today I sliced all of the bits to go into the pond. I printed the pond at 100% but all of the flora and fauna at 50%. It made some really small things!

I was surprised at how well the fish and turtles etc came out. To be honest the Lilly pads struggled a bit at 50%

I shoved some of them into the smaller pond too…

I am really chuffed at how well they look. I have actually bought some resin so that I can add ‘water’ to these. It is so long since I have done anything like this it will be interesting to give it a go. I am also going to add some to the paddies and if there is anything left then I can make some canal pieces up too.

I had a print failure today. I started printing some building pieces for my mates birthday and for some reason I had a failed print. One of the end pieces came partially adrift and was threatening spaghetti monster everywhere. Now in hindsight,as it had been just under 2 hours, I could have actually kept it going instead of cancelling the print. The piece hadn’t fully come adrift. I could have done a rescue ‘hold it in place’ rescue so that the rest could have printed…. ah well hindsight is a great thing.

Printing a Pond

I decided to do a full sized pond today, but to make it a bit different I took the Teahouse rocks and blended them into the pond in 3D builder.

The 50% one took about an hour and ten minutes. This one took five and three quarters. I did have a bit of printer problems to begin with. First off nothing was printing so I changed the spring on the extruder (well not exactly) I removed my two screws and added the proper bit in. I also re levelled the plate as the front right corner was pretty much out and nothing was printing there at all. So eventually when everything was tip top. I started again and voila, it came out properly.

Where I added the rocks is pretty obvious when I compare the two. I fully intended to stretch one of the axis too, but forgot.

Tomorrow I will print off some reeds and water lilies and possibly a fish or two, but there will definitely be a turtle in there too. These will be done at 50% again so that I don’t have a man sized koi swimming around in the pond.

Today was spent reading stories or rather a story lots of times for a video for the bairns in my nursery. I had an able assistant…

Louis kept messing up and I had to redo it so many times. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

Printing Things

Today I was busy quite a bit, but the printer was a bit busy too!

Free Map tiles from the Kickstarter

I decided to download the free test map tiles from the Kickstarter. There are actually four on their but the fourth didn’t interest me. To be honest the castle doesn’t too, but I decided to give it a go.

These interlock quite nicely and are about 60mm across. I am very excited to get these. I decided against the city tiles, although they are pretty good value at £20. I just felt I didn’t have a need for them.

Other things done today are a pond from 3DAlienworlds. Yes I bought a pond, complete with fish and turtles! I also printed off another wooden fence for the shrine and completed the second of four bits for my daughters mask (the next lot are 20 odd hours to print).

Ooh look… A pond!
Parts of the mask

Putting the Shrine Together

Tonight I finished the last piece of the shrine and decided to glue it all together.

So this is where I got to. Gaps to fill etc, but it is all glued together now. The base bits are all glued together the things on it are just in position.

The next thing to do is to decide whether or not to put a wall around it or put it into some kind of natural terrain. He idea is that the far bit will always be separated to allow for more flexibility. I tried the teahouse on it and it like kind of funky on there.

I do really like this set. It has combined well with the other ones to make something different.

The other thing I did was to print some nobori for the army. I went for a plain pair, a Mori clan pair with a triple mon and a Hokosawa clan pair with a single mon.

They are probably a bit on the large side for the 15mm. The stand certainly makes them look huge. They don’t look too bad next to a figure without the stand.

I never did get anything painted tonight. The glueing of the shrine took longer than I expected.

I hopefully will get onto the Ashigaru tomorrow.

Working on the Shrine

I managed to get all the bits printed today…. well that isn’t exactly true… I finished printing all of the bits today. Each bit takes a good old while. The centre bit, for example, takes 2 hours 48 minutes to do, the corner is speedy in comparison at only 38 minutes. I have become a bit anal in recording everything, but it is really handy to know how long a particular print will take…

I just hope I don’t lose this book…

As can be seen I write all the times down, it makes life easier knowing that I can go and do the horse and get back before a print finishes. Anyway enough of this jibber jabber… here is where I have got to with the shrine so far.

The rear left corner is finished too.

I am in two minds whether to put the building on the raised section or leave it off. A second thought I had was to build a separate raised section connected by a bridge. This other section would have the Buddha on it.

I will glue this lot together tomorrow sometime ready for undercoating.

I decided that I would purchase some more bits and pieces from 3DALIENWORLDS. So I am now the proud owner of some bridges, some ponds and the large banners that came out today. I have kickstarted a couple of STL makers, one is making some Mighty Empire style tiles and another is making some interesting roadways. Luckily I have managed to sell my Lizardmen to pay for my new addiction!

Further work on the Shrine

I printed a few more bits today and put bits together to test them out to see what I think about how it looks.

This is half the depth I want it, so the Buddha is a bit close to the front at the moment. The more astute of you will recall me talking about adding a tiled roof to this Torri gate…. errr I forgot and superglued it in place before I remembered!

The outer area will have a low hedge using clump foliage and where the Buddha is now will have the prayer wall. The whole thing will hopefully be surrounded by a stone wall with a gate.

I am hoping that it will fit in a box file as that is my storage option of choice as they stack easily. If not I will have to improvise. I did just have a bit of a daft thought. If I have the wall on one base and this on another then I will be able to Mitch and match what is within. Something I will have to think about or more likely- totally forget.

Teahouse Take 2

Nope, fear not I have done anything wrong with the first one, that is still fit and well. I want to use the building part for my shrine and am printing off a second. The building should be just about finished in 10 minutes…

Today was spent printing the various bits for it, I printed the roof overnight and the building this evening. The only thing I need to print now is the water feature, as I seem to have messed up savings file. The stone bench is called water feature on the memory stick! As it took only 6 minutes to print I am not that bothered. I needed it anyway.

Apart from that I think I have got everything done to get the teahouse build in its entirety.

The other thing I printed last night was a doggy!

Down Boy! Where is Barbara Woodehouse when you need her!

Sadly he is now a three legged doggy as some pillock snapped one off today!

Teahouse Build

Today I spent a long time printing the teahouse. Okay I did little more than press print. The roof took just over 5 hours to do and the building itself just under 4 hours in total the building took most of the day to print.

Once again theses are amazing models with lots of details. The set comes with all the bits you need for the teahouse. I made a start on the fence too. I got as far as the gate and a corner piece.

There are lanterns as well as water features and the interior in the set too.

As can be seen in the background I added gates to the wooden gateway…See below for a closer look.

Whoops one of the lanterns is sideways!

The other thing I printed was the test Sashimono at 100% this time.

The one on the left has a Tokugawa clan mon on it.

I had a punt at these as they only cost a couple of dollars so it was worth the test. I have enough of the ones from Thingiverse printed then I doubt I will use these ones. Having the mon on them would make my life easier, but it would mean more time on the printer for something I already have a lot of.

Tomorrow I will carry on with the teahouse fences as well as the other bits too. I will also need to start on the canal pieces for the raised area of the shrine. I will then need to find a Buddha or something similar to add.

Start of the Shrine

I de died not to paint anything tonight, no real reason, I just decided to print some bits and pieces instead. I also had a look at my new toys 😂

So the above is the start of my shrine idea. It will have a raised platform in the centre and the Torii gates will be outside of the main gateways.

I am printing off The tearoom as I type this. The main building should be ready in about 2 hours and I will print the roof off tomorrow. It will become the small building in the corner of the sketch below.

I am so pleased with these STL’s. They really are awesome and well worth the money I paid. I will definitely be on the look out for some more bits from them as they come along.

The other thing I tried was the sashimono. Now I decided to shrink them to 50% as they are for 28mm miniatures. I think I might have shrunk them a bit too much!

That’s a peanut…not a jumbo peanut 😂

Now on the up side, I am really pleased that the printer managed something this small 😁

My new Samurai miniatures came today and I am really chuffed with them. Don’t get me wrong I love my Tin soldier ones. These will be for Skirmish gaming.

My plan is to get the Tin soldier Army finished before moving onto these.

More Work on the Houses

Tonight I did a pile more work on the houses. Most of it you probably can’t see on the photo, but in all honesty I am really chuffed with these.

A huge thank you to David who suggested a bit of brown wash for the raised area and Woah! How right he was. The raised bits have all but disappeared! If you compare this photo and the following one you will see what I mean.

So today 3DALIENWORLDS brought out the teahouse set, which I purchased along with a few others…

So I went for the:

Teahouse

Canal set

Lanterns

Bridges

Zen Garden

Torii gates

And a sashimono set.

I was going to get something on the printer this evening but ended up spending about two hours trying to help my daughter with her maths home learning.

I have a plan for a small shrine using some of these…

Awesome artistic talent on show!

I got the idea from a video on YouTube. Walking in the Nikkō village from the Edo period. It was great for colours etc. The guy filming it walked into a shrine that was up some steps with a small hedge around it. On the right was a small building and on the left some form of fence with ‘offerings’ on it. Not sure what they were, but they had some form of text on it. At the back was a golden statue on a plinth. it will give it a try with my sets I have got as well as the new ones.

Tomorrow I will get some more things sprayed, ready to go for the weekend.

On a totally different note, I thought I would share the picture my daughter drew on the iPad. She did a tribute to the NHS. I am really proud of her because she spent hours doing this…