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Longest Print… Ever

Well I think it is… I decided to print a Twylite samurai castle that came with the samurai buildings already printed. So I ran it through Cura and sliced it. Total print time 26 hours 51 minutes

It is a lovely model, with one major flaw… I made it too big. I bumped the size up to 140%. I know castles are big, but this seems very big. It’s not really a problem as it can go with my 10mm Forces if needs be.

Another flaw is that the stairs don’t actually go anywhere. They meet a blank wall. I am sure that I can make something and stick it on. Next question…what colour to paint it 🤔.

If truth be told I am lucky to have it at all. I popped in at the 18 hour mark and found this dangling from the side…

It is actually the base of the layer above the first roof line. I haven’t got a clue what happened, but the layer that was being printed was a bit of a mess. So I snipped off as much of the spaghetti as I could with the only thing handy, a pair of kiddy scissors! Structural integrity will be compromised to some extent, but at least I got a completed print.

Now part of me quite fancies printing this again at 100%. Print time should be faster, possibly 40% quicker.

I deliberately haven’t painted this evening as I have spent a lot of today hammering and sawing and my arms are buggered, on the upside I managed over 10,000 steps 😂.

More of the same tomorrow. Hopefully the bloody midges won’t be out, they were a nightmare today.

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Small Japanese Town

Today I set the Ender away and printed myself half a dozen new houses to go in the town.

I must remember to add the roof to the gates!

The buildings are from Twylite games and the walls are from my favourite maker of Japanese things 3DAlienWorlds. I dropped the size to about 18% or so and I don’t think they look too bad.

I would have undercoated them but it has been up to 40mph winds today so no spraying for me. Weather is better tomorrow so hopefully they will get done soon.

We will see how the resin and filament compare when they are painted. The resin weighs at least twice the weight of the filament.

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Village Walls

So the walls finished overnight only one failure and to be honest I don’t actually know what it is 😂. I had to do some speedy repairs to save the bottom left gate. Luckily two layers of the blue tape pretty much matched the base that had pinged.

The other problem I had was stringing. Before I went to bed I bumped the temperature up about 10 degrees. I think it was too much. I used to do this over the colder months, so just automatically did it last night.

When I did the test print I had no stringing, so I reckon the change in temperature was the problem. Easy enough solved with a lighter…

I have been busy constructing the sitootery again today. It was meant to be heavy rain, but thankfully we had a couple of twenty minute drizzling and that was it. Strong winds are forecast tomorrow so I might not get any more done.

Next on the printer are the paddy fields…

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Teeny Tiny Walls

I took my print off today and have enough bits to make my small town. I will need to print some more houses as six do not a town make!

I bumped the gate up to about 200% and left the walls at 140 and they seem much better (I had originally shrunk them down to 15% in 3D builder but they looked too small so I increased the small size by the above amounts).I can make the compound for the temple separate from the town as I have extra walls knocking about.

I also shrunk the wooden fences down to fit the 6mm scale too these were a bit trickier to print, luckily I did a test run of all the different bits, before the mammoth 13 hour print (3D printing certainly isn’t a fast affair).

Unfortunately the gate posts couldn’t take the strain at the top and both came off. I improvised with a bit of plastic rod…

These wooden fences were the ones I built in 3D builder to allow me to print them pre constructed for my 15mm village… I never thought I would be printing them for 6mm too.

So where do I go from here. First up some rice paddies. I am actually just going to print the 4’s that I did for the 15mm village (without the rice) I will give it a go with static crass as the crops and avoid the resin pour stage. I really do need a better system of making the static grass, that does not involve forking out £55 for a WWS one. I will have a play around with my cheap (tea strainer) one and see what I can come up with.

I also intend to see if I can build some of the 3DAlienWorlds farmhouses in 3D Builder and then shrink them down too. The ones I have really only work as town houses and not ones you would find in a rural setting. To be honest I could just buy the ones on 2D6 world’s, they aren’t that expensive but to buy enough for a couple of hampers then I am looking at over £30. Interestingly enough they have just brought out the stone walls in resin. But 3DAlienWorlds ones are spot on for me and I can also print as many as I like for pennies, plus it gives me a bit of a challenge 😂.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 9 Comments

Monks and the Walls

Tonight I finished the monks, added some of the tufts I made, rather than add the ones I bought as they are totally different. They are nice and irregular shaped, but wouldn’t match in with the ones before.

Here are the monks amongst the hills

The other thing I did was to work on some of the 3DAlienWorlds walls. Rather than print then build I decided to build in 3D builder and then print them. This was a bit fiddly. Once the tops and bottoms were merged I Shrank them down to about 16% and printed them. This is them in the foreground.

Now I felt that they were a bit small so I bumped them up to 130%… Seen at the back of the photo below.as

As these are a bit tricky to see, I put them side by side.

Personally I prefer the larger one, but wondered what other people thought. The Files are saved so it isn’t a problem to bump them up,. Part of me thinks make them a bit larger again as a man on a horse would never get out of that gate 😂

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Monks Nearly Finished

Tonight I worked on finishing the Monks. I still need to get the bases flocked but otherwise I think they are done. No doubt as soon as I look at the photo I will realise that I missed something!

I also cracked on with the individual samurai. They are going to take a while I would imagine

Pete asked how the road wars miniatures compare to Irregular. Well I don’t have any of the Irregular vehicles but I can compare the miniatures…

Tomorrow I will try and get some more done on the Samurai, before my Baccus ones arrive!

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Teeny Tiny Monks and the Village

Today I was working on the monks and I got a phone call from a friend and colleague who moved away and was sitting on his own down country so they didn’t get as far forward as they could have done. But that’s okay, I would rather talk to him than finish these.

A bit of work tomorrow should see them finished, that is if I can move. I was mixing concrete by hand today and I have discovered muscles I never knew I had.

I put the buildings I have together so far…

This is what I aspire to …https://tenkafubu608971038.wordpress.com/2020/07/20/another-watchtower/

This blog is set up for Sengoku Jidai in 6mm so naturally I am following it. Some amazing terrain and minis not to forget some really interesting posts too.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 1 Comment

Teeny Tiny Monks

Tonight I Set about getting some paint onto the 6mm monks.

What with the resin printing and not baring able to be bothered then these got put onto the back burner a bit. There is still a long way to go with them, but at least I have made a start. The majority are in saffron robes, but I have thrown some grey and red in there too to add a bit of variety. I also added some Caucasian paint to the bearers at the back as they have now become my peasant bearers for my samurai army. I will probably cut off the armed man at the front and replace them with a samurai or Ashigaru miniature instead.

My Baccus order should be getting cast this week sometime. I am 20 orders beyond the last update so unless there are some massive orders in then I should be getting it next week.

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Undead Finished

I got these based up today, but sadly I have no tufts to add to them like all of the rest. So I will need to put an order in. I tried making my own but the least said about that The better!

I also got the bases levelled on the new stuff… some of them were worse than others…

I rest my case…

I got all of the Irregular stuff ground down and a pile stuck onto lolly sticks. My priority is to get the monks and samurai heroes done

I am going to use some of the mounted ones as messengers with the large silk ‘Horo’. I will make it out of Greenstuff a small ball should do the trick 😂. I also want to do the battlefield Maku screens as well as field defences and more terrain.

My first castle has been shipped from Japan, so it should arrive within the next year I reckon.

Tomorrow I will get the above sprayed white then make a start on them on Friday.

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6mm Samurai Finished

Tonight I got the mon put onto the sashimono and the tufts stuck on. I am really pleased with how they have come out. I might change the colour of the mon, but I will see how the white grows on me.

I might have to search through my tufts as I have about 15 left of these ones. Problem is I can’t remember where I got them or what they are called!

I made a start on the the halfling army by spraying them white, along with some orc chariots and a couple of ogres too. I will get some paint on them tomorrow. They might take a while as they are going to be in lots of bright colours as befits a halfling force.

I also got a small file onto the Battle valour samurai. I hadn’t noticed before but the mould lines are really bad on some of them. It was only when I sprayed them white that I noticed.

So it has been quite a productive day. I spent a lot of it in the big shed, sorting it out so that we can set it up more as a craft room. The resin will go out there. My wife has her office out there so I can’t put the resin printer in there. That will go into my bottom shed, once I sort it out!