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Changing the FEP

Anyone who has a resin printer will probably dread the thought of the FEP giving out with the vat being full of resin. My original Mars Vat FEP was looking a bit worse for wear so I ordered a pair of new ones. Now this is, I suppose, one way to do it. The pair cost £35 so not the most cost effective method, especially when you cock up and put one of them on a bit of cured resin and scratch it.

So to be a bit more eco friendly I decided to order a pack of FEP sheets… what is FEP? I hear you cry…it is the clear ‘plastic’ bottom to the resin vat. It is a fully fluorinated polymer,

The polymer used has low adhesion and is somewhat flexible meaning that the model sticks to the build plate not the vat.

I gave it a go and to be honest I thought about just getting another pair of vats. To replace the sheet you need first remove eight screws followed by 24 grub screws that hold the FEP between two metal plates. These screws are about 5mm long.

So I set to work and got everything tickety boo on the removal stage. Read the FEP instructions and removed the protective film placed the sheet between the metal plates. As the grub screws were blunt I needed to puncture the sheet to allow them to match up with the hole underneath. I battled on with about sixteen of them when it suddenly dawned on me that the FEP had a protective sheet on both sides ( the instructions never mentioned it). So I took it all apart again and set to work putting them back on.

A lot of swearing later I had the 24 bloody things back in situ. I was worried that it was still a bit loose, luckily putting it back on the vat tightened it up nicely.

It is £30 cheaper and next time instead of using an Allen key I will use a screwdriver with the appropriate bit in.

A total faff, but financially worth it, plus I had a warm fuzzy feeling that I had achieved it.

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New Books

I have received a plethora of books today…

I see lots of reading ahead… I got Burrows and Badgers as it was reduced and I fancied seeing what it was like. At a quick flick through it is like Mordheim or The Silver Bayonet but with magic and animals. (Probably a total oversimplification… but it was a quick skim).

I also got some FEP sheets to repair my resin vats. On the printer front I am still printing some things for Ironclads… this time an asteroid field (okay three asteroids may not be technically a field). There is a little lightship to go with them…. Oh and a comet!

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Geek Club … Day Two

I had to run the club today as one of them was off yesterday and the rest were desperate to finish theirs.

We got sand onto the bases today and metallics onto the gun barrels.

We will get the bases painted and flocked/tufts tomorrow.

I am really proud of them as they tried so hard.

Here is my effort…

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Into the Aether

I eventually got around to downloading the Ironclad miniatures. If you remember I got a test run from my mate and did a Grrman and British group… you can see the British HERE

Well this time I decided that my kitchen table is a bit on the small size for the bigger models… my solution… print at 50% size. I love 3D printing! Now to be honest it comes with inherent problems aka the guns won’t be magnetised any more so once they are on, they are on. Now I could be clever with a pin drill and some thin wire, but sod it …life’s too short.

So on the blue we have a British battleship at the rear (without guns) and a cruiser. The right hand picture shows a number of civilian ships at the rear and some British destroyers front right.

These were technically test prints and I have actually re sliced things so that each ship will come with suitable armament as well as a corresponding base. For the destroyers it means three to the build plate instead of four. But to be honest I have one battleship, two cruisers and four destroyers… I probably will have enough to keep me going for a while… unless I go for the Aether version of Jutland!

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Geek Club

Well today the first day of the school club went well. I had five in and they all got a long way on with their first miniature.

I am really pleased with how much they tried and also how much they really enjoyed it.

Here we have the results after half an hour.

They were really into it… the rest of the kids came in after lunch and this lot sent me down to talk to my cover teacher to negotiate an extra ten minutes!

They have made me promise some more time to get them finished tomorrow.

So it would seem an initial success…

Next stage paint another bear in a more complicated pose then onto the other animals if they are up for it.

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If You Go Down to the Woods Today

You might see some deadly teddy bears….

I am printing some Urzans for the kids at school. I have decided to do each child a couple of bears to practice something a bit easier than the anthropomorphic miniatures.

This will allow them to get used to the paint and paint brushes. To make their life a bit easier I increased the size to 175%

All six of the kids want to join the Geek club. They got the choice of which beastie they fancied.

We kick of on Tuesday…

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More Animals Anyone?

Tonight I decided to print another set of anthropomorphic beasties.

The Hedgehog riding the corgi is from Goonmaster Miniatures and the pair of armoured mice are from Naga Miniatures..,

The corgi looks weird as the saddle fits into the gap on the back.

As of next Tuesday my older half dozen kids in the school are going to paint up a mini each and then make a mini diorama on an old CD. I will run this over a number of weeks as a little Lunchtime club… I must be bonkers!

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Down Another Rabbit Hole

Yes I am off again with another hare brained (get it?) idea.

Well technically it could be a rabbit, weasel, frog or scary fish hole!

Yes I found some freebies on Goonmaster Miniatures. I am really drawn towards the red pandas… but I have something to work with right now.

I also have a hedgehog knight riding a corgi… I mean why not? It was free too.

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Proactive Tidying

This evening I decided that I needed the bottom shed sorting out. This is for two reasons… firstly it is an absolute tip and secondly I want to remove the miniatures out of the big shed to avoid the white mould Armageddon from last winter.

Mid tidy… most of the stuff on the floor is to get rid of.

On the up side I have found loads of things that I have forgotten about…

15mm FIW French and Allies

On the down side I have found a load of things I have forgotten about and now want to do something with them…

15mm British and Sudanese

I found boxes of things like the FIW above along with another smaller box full of unpainted woodland Indians and militiamen. The Colonial stuff above was for Science Versus Pluck to simulate an officer getting attacked by the Ansar. I mean will I actually ever, ever use them. These were from about 2014 at the very latest. We played one test game at the club then with one thing and another I never really got back to play it again.

I have Advanced Heroquest and other such miniatures in a box file. A pile of boxed Prodos Aliens miniatures. All in all far too much stuff. If I lived South I would take a mountain of things to a bring and buy at a convention.

Living up here I have really only the option for eBay of Facebook sales groups.

Anyway I shall carry on with the shed tomorrow round the Parent Council meeting at 19.00.

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Painting an Otter

Last night after posting, I decided to get some paint on the 28mm otter. Now this guy came from Naga Miniatures and is one of many anthropomorphised animals in their collection. I honestly cannot say what he is meant to be representing. It has him down as a paladin. He does have a mix of dress and equipment. He has a macuahuitl and a metal shield as well as landschneckt style pantaloons. I don’t really care as I really like him.

I got him finished this evening… I might go back and do the cordage on his quilted gambeson.