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Printer Shenanigans IV

Today, was the club day and with my father in Laws birthday today Time was a bit short on the old printer time.

I therefore watched the Fat Dragon Games video on bed levelling, I followed the instructions ( well sort of – I just needed a bit of a confidence boost) it was really useful as it categorically states that turn clockwise to raise and anti clockwise to lower. It also reminded me to level it twice as raising one corner will lower the opposite one.

So I levelled the bed and then tried printing the square floor again as it was one that I had run into issues over. I started printing the raft and noticed that the idler wheel wasn’t turning. I unscrewed it a smidge and it made no difference, so then I screwed it up a smidge and it made no difference. I then, by accident, pushed the arm outwards and the wheel instantly started turning. I let go and, Lo and behold, it stopped turning again. I grabbed a screws and pushed it into the spring and turned it to change the spring length. Still nothing so I shoved another one in and it started turning.

The one that wasn’t turning is the silver one at the front you can see the screws embedded in the springs in the background.

This was how it was starting to look as the wheel began turn…

To be honest, the bed is a smidge low, but it is working and is making a nice raft.

I scrubbed and scrubbed the bed but I couldn’t get the shapes off. Once they get covered over with rafts etc then they should eventually disappear.

So as for why the spring was too short… I don’t want to blame anyone in particular, but someone, who shall remain nameless, forgot to add a small item that makes all the difference!

So, once the print on the bed is finished, I will nip out and add it to the extruder spring. I will then be able to remove the springs.

Soooooo after holding my breath for ages…..Two hours and fifteen minutes later we have this…..

PHEW!

I am now printing some rickety platforms…. wish me luck.

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3D Printer Shennanigans

Tonight I fiddled a bit more with the printer. I checked all of the bits that I could. So to test it I gave it the big square base that it totally cocked up yesterday.

I pulled a fair bit of filament off the roll to allow it to have as little drag as possible and the print came out like this.

Problem is it had a bit of a naff crack in it. I shoved some superglue into it to help out. I have also sliced some rocks and things that I will glue over the crack to help strengthen it. So next thought was much better than this….

So that was a start. I do reckon that this weekend I am going to replace the extruder. Luckily I purchased one about 2 months in to owning the thing and it has sat in its box for ten months!

The other thing I did was to increase the temperature by 10 degrees. I was going to print another one off with the new temperature but being the pillock that I am I forgot to add it to the memory stick!

So instead of redoing it I printed what was on the card…

Townsfolk… from what I remember top row left to right:

Guard, porter, passer by

Barmaid, priest, lady one and two

Blacksmith, traveller and farmer

This lot were printed at 210 and have an infil of 50% (I think) .

They are pretty solid but some still have a slight delamination on the outer layer.

I also decided to print some dwarves, sadly, or not, I ended up starting to print some dungeon dressing, which will be great, but will take 3 hours instead of one..

It looks like I will be playing Hunter Call of the Wild for a bit longer…

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Little Steps

Only managed a smidge of hobby time tonight…

The light in the kitchen is now dire since I moved things around in here.

Luckily I moved one if the lights around just now and providing I kneel on the floor then I can take some photos in light…

Teddy bear Trooper is getting there as are my CHAS proxies

Hopefully I will get these three finished tomorrow and get on with my elves, my poor forgotten (again) elves!

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Odds and Squads All Done

Well that is this lot all done,.

First up the Heresy Miniatures Inspectors.

These were painted up for my mate and to be honest I am rather pleased with them. They are for his secret project so I can’t say much more about it 😉.

Next up are the cultists…

I decided on a blue and red robe for this lot, my original idea was to have a dark red robe, but as I was severely lacking in dark red so I went blue instead. These still need varnishing but the ground cover has been sealed (something I often forget to do).

Finally for this month is my weird hand monster. There are only 4 needed for the game but at some point I might add some more, that is if I can remember what colour I used for the skin! 🙄

Again, like the cultists these need varnishing to protect them a bit.

I still have a few figures to paint to complete the full game. I need a couple of heroes finishing as well as the winged beastie then the game is ready to play.

One thing on a totally different track altogether was to start thinking about the desert village, I am getting a laptop back tomorrow the other was destroyed, well it was £120 to fix it or get an upgrade for £200. So more houses can be printed.

This is a sketch plan for one of the villages I am considering…

As you can tell, drawing plans is not my forte…

The houses in the foreground are two joined together by a courtyard. My plan is to have 6 to 9 houses in three villages. These will also have palm groves and the like to add further cover.

Regarding tanks I am going to go for some mkII’s as well as some Marder 2 and some Italian tanks too, then More British tanks including some M3’s.

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Odds and Squads III

Almost there on this lot….

Cultists all but finished…

I might try a bit more highlighting on the red as you can’t really tell I did any!

Inspectors…just need basing up as tonight I varnished them…

There are a couple of cock ups on them which need sorting, the blue splodge on the green cup being a case in point. The lady also has a ring that needs some paint on it. Hopefully my mate will like them.

And finally the weird hand warriors…a bit of highlighting on them but otherwise nearly all done, well apart from the basing.

As for basing of the printed miniatures. They are on a flagstone style base, but to be honest I think I am just going to use the standard flock I have been using recently.

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Odd Squad

With one thing and another I only managed a bit on the cultists today…

It was mainly a bit of tidying up and getting some paint on the armoured one. I would have liked to have got more done but sadly today was a bit busy with going to the cinema to Watch Alita Battle Angel, which I thought was rather fab, even with a bit in the middle where I went ???

I then attempted to buy the weekly shop, it’s a bugger when the boat is off and panic buying sets in. No veg, no fruit and no bread. I managed to get the things for tea, my wife said she fancied bacon egg and chips the other day, luckily the shop had those bits in.

Tonight I was forced by my son to watch the Last Airbender with him. Perhaps if I was 8 I would have enjoyed it, but it was a chore. It was so bad I really fancied going off to paint some more 10mm elves.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get these finished and the inspectors based up.

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Odds and Squads II

Managed a bit of painting tonight whilst watching Enemy at the Gates. With musical accompaniment by the Minions…

A surreal mix of soundtracks coming from the other room…

Anyway the squads….

First up the inspectors from Heresy Miniatures…

Second up are the printed Cultists downloaded from Ill Gotten Games…

And finally a small ‘squad’ of Hand Monster things again from Ill Gotten Games…

The inspectors are pretty much done apart from the bases. The other two sets still have a bit of work to go…

And Finally… my daughter’s dwarf is ready for basing….

Off to see Alita Battle Angel tomorrow afternoon, but should still manage a bit of painting.

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Painted Dwarves

I have decided to call these two finished…

I feel they definitely look different from the originals.

I also took a photo of the rear…

I added a crossbow to one and a coil of rope to the other.

Being evil parents that we are, we forced the kids of technology to do something creative, Lucy wanted to paint a figure, and so did James so off we went.

Lucy started her rabbits last year and decided to crack on and try and get them finished. James chose a chaos marine to practice on.

Lucy has started using washes and dry brushing. She was also really good at tidying up bits she had overpainted. Still a bit to go, but they were both very pleased with their results. Lucy has now asked for me to print her a dwarf too as that is what she wants to paint next. So tomorrow we return to the shed and get some painting done.

The other thing was my good mate from the North if England phoned up to say he had been watching Bolt Action YouTube vids and wished I was still down there so we could get a game in. It must be 25 years since we had last played a war game together.

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More Dwarves

Well, I finished my first three dwarves and took them outside for a photo shoot…

I then decided to print a couple more to see if I could make them look a bit different.

I think I achieved my goal of changing their look. The beard and fur was made from Greenstuff the plastic bits and bobs are from the original Mordheim plastic sprue.

I added a bit to the back too…

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Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s off to Work a They Go…

Okay not very original when discussing dwarves.

These three are from Ill Gotten Games from the pre Kick starter tester we were given. I intend to have seven for completeness… well okay maybe not seven…

I decided to do the third one at 0.06mm layer the one on the left is at 0.15, the middle one is 0.1. I forgot to record the time but the highest quality was an hour and 40 minutes. The middle was somewhere round the hour.To be honest for the print time difference between the higher quality and the mid quality there isn’t much real difference. I will fiddle around a bit more to see if I can make it better.

I also painted lots of bits and pieces on various figures. I would have photographed them, but it didn’t seem much point.

The rest of my evening was spent trying to find costume parts for my two youngest for bloody World Book Day!