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Nice! I agree with you. The bottom right Sgt has a cool look.

It is now officially spring. Rattlecan was feeling light, so I didn’t want to do too many things, but got a sample of stuff sprayed and good to go.

More of a War Jogger. Didn’t have enough top mount catapults for him to have 2, so he gets starcannons instead. I should have 5 of each gun total for top mounts, and the other WW and a WL got two each. So I can field the pair of walkers all with catapults, just not at the same time as the charging WL with a pair.

Perhaps the most dynamic Walker I have seen. I like it.

Man I really do like the Eldar War Walkers. I feel they've aged reasonably well. Though the forge world variant does look realllllly tempting. The wasp I think it's called?

youwashock wrote:Perhaps the most dynamic Walker I have seen. I like it.

Inevitable_Faith wrote:Man I really do like the Eldar War Walkers. I feel they've aged reasonably well. Though the forge world variant does look realllllly tempting. The wasp I think it's called?

For being ancient the old Eldar kits hold up well. The WW didn’t have the same issues as the falcon with the soft detail. Tons of posability with both the WW and WL. Easy to get a lot of character out of them.
FW makes a lot of neat looking Eldar stuff. But I’d worry about it on two fronts. One is the cost, which is high, and the other is spindly resin bits. A lot of the delicate Eldar aesthetic seems like it would be prone to bending and warping. Still a few things on my wish list over there though. Never going to happen, but a guy can dream.

Aye, cracking sense of movement you have achieved with the War Walker. Wonder if anyone dared try to get movement like that with the old metal kit?

Great looking dynamism on that walker, I always found with mine the "wings" on the weapons always broke off so it's refreshing to see them on again!

ListenToMeWarriors wrote:Aye, cracking sense of movement you have achieved with the War Walker. Wonder if anyone dared try to get movement like that with the old metal kit?

If they did, they are a better modeler than I. It should be doable, but would require a lot of pinning, bending, and a careful awareness of center of gravity and counterbalancing.

Tyranid Horde wrote:Great looking dynamism on that walker, I always found with mine the "wings" on the weapons always broke off so it's refreshing to see them on again!

I almost didn’t glue them on. But I did for the first one, so I added them here. They are insanely small little contact points for something stuck out just waiting to catch on a sleeve.

I need to figure out what to build next. Eldar or Deathwatch most likely. Piles are looking pretty even. At this point I’m working on keeping a good mix of stuff on the ready pile so I can keep at the competitions.

Put you hands in the air like you just don’t care; Dance! Dance!

Almost done with those two arcoflagelents. They’ve been a back burner project for a while now. Just need a little BftBG on the purity seal wax, maybe pick out some of the silver a bit more, and black the bases.

Started to put some layers on primarnus. Once the dancers get off the posts, his guard will join him in the paint queue.

Finished up the Arco-flagelents. Not that much change from the last pic, little extra silver, glossy seals, and simple black bases. But this year I can actually check of a little progress on one of my long neglected goals.

Have The Boy this weekend, got a game in. He’s going to start using more of his stuff, painted or otherwise. I know the desire to get my minis on the table is a great motivator to getting paint on them, hopefully that will work for his as well.

I’m taking out Bobby G with a cadre of primaris, and some tacs and SG in pods. A little light on AV, just the hellblasters, Melta tacs, and melee. Jump captain and LT to support the pods, apoth to fill points


He’s going with a mix. Sniper scouts, 2x intercessors, reivers, a squad of proxy infiltrators to test, VV, SG, pair of captains, pred and SR.

Mission is relic, I win the roll to choose deployment, and also the roll to go first.

I forgot to take the start pic, but here is turn 1 after my movement:

He had deployed a solid backfield firebase, with the infiltrators starting on the relic. Starting on the relic was a risky move. He had less drops then I did, so if he had gone first, he could have started legging back to his DZ turn 1. And gotten it up the hill so his firepower could be brought to bear on the football. But I go first, and evaporate his squad before they can skedaddle.


At this point he knows he needs to get some boots over to the relic. His vets swap places, The VV can move fine on their own, but the SG need to re-deploy. Luckily the SR is there and willing. Hi snipers plink few wounds off of Guiliman, pred shoots and intercessor, SR mostly misses, kills a HB. He moves up some of his backfield.


I drop the melta tacs behind the SR, with the jump characters to support. HBs move up to grab the relic, intercessors move to positions to cover them. My shooting clears the snipers out of the ruins, and mangles the SR. The jump captain finishes it off with his hammer. His SG take position on the hill after brushing the wreckage of their ride off their armor.


He reivers show up off to the side and plink a pair of wounds off of G-man with their pistols. Making up for that luck, his sternguard, with the strategem active for +1 to wound, only manage to take one wound off my captain. Dice: our fickle little friends. His VV blender my HBs, he shoots up my intercessor squad on the side. Things look possible at this point.

(Missed a picture here)
My SG land off to the side, while my remaining two intercessors from that squad take position in the ruins his scouts started in. They shoot up his stuff on the hill. Guiliman moves up the hill and shows the VV how close comabt is really done. He’s more then just a pretty aura. My tacs pull back to cover, and the HQs redeploy to be closer to the relic. My apothecary grabs the prize.


He shoots up and then charges my SG. He continues to move up troops, shoots a wound off the apoth, moves his SG up and shoots my central intercessors.

(I need to get better about pics. But the game normally speeds up around this point, and I’d rather be playing)

My JP characters go up and murder one of his intercessor squads, I shoot up his SG, the Apoth hoofs it back to safety. CC mess with my SG and his reivers. My remaining sarge piles in, rather then be exposed to fire from the pred.

He’s got a lot of bad options at this point, but rather then just giving up, we talk about objectives and paths to victory. He’s got intercessors on the hill, but they are out of position. It’s pretty obvious that I’m going to charge him next turn. If he charges me, he gets to swing first and gets farther up the table. He manages to put down my LT. My captain chokes and doesn’t murder the lot of them with his hammer. That went well for The Boy. He starts to move the pred up for a better angle; probably should have done this a turn or two ago. His SG shoot up my intercessors. Killing my infantry to try to deny me boots that can win.

While the game seems pretty much in the bag, we play turn 5 to see what happens. My captain finishes off his squad, and the tattered remnants of my flank finish off the reivers. I shoot some more SG off the hill.


His captain decides to take a swing at the big guy. It’s a hail-mary play. If the dice gods are with him, he can put him down, and then consolidate onto the relic/apoth. They are not. He gets one solid hit drawing some primarch blood, then gets bisected by the Emperor’s sword.

Victory Ultramarines.

Fresh paint is the the second intercessor squad at full strength. They did well, anchoring the flank and thinning his reinforcements as they moved up the hill. The sarge helped cut the sterngurd free, although that was mostly a side-show to the main event in the middle. Although that’s the way it should be, when your flanks are properly secured.

Hobby progress:
Before I picked up The Boy for the weekend I clipped a Mk. III marine to be the prototype for my SB/chiansword DW. The plan is to make 5 of them, using the BaC capheracti SBs. Which nicely match the Mk. III aesthetic. We’ll see how well the gun fits. Right now slug-boy is still sleping in my hobby room.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.
--Nev

I'm a major supporter of father/son (or father/daughter) gaming. Well done Nev. Keep focusing on the joy of the game and the hobby. It'll be time well spent!

Speaking of which, The Boy sent me a pic of his latest work:


Not bad! I’m leaning on him to get squads finished. He likes these guys, so that’s what he’s focused on. While some older players disparage the “tacticool” look of some of the modern primaris, he love it.

Getting some paint down myself. Still in the sloppy basecoat stage:

Going to need to do something to differentiate all the golds. Some might step down to a more brassy tone.

Built the DW

Hard to see from this angle, but the arm angle is rough, bad contact on the shoulders. SB is a bit long, the forward grip is a bit far forward. Also wide enough to need to be held far out. With the shoulderpads at arm’s length it’s fine, but close up at the right angle you can see the issues. Some of the other arms might fit better, or I might do a cut in the upper arm on the next few to swing it out a bit more. Aesthetically I like the look though. Can’t really tell the SB was for a terminator.

In other news, I ordered a 3D printer. Fun experiments to follow. At the very least it can mostly pay for itself by printing ruins and pipelines to fill up a table. Best case, custom shoulder pads and weapon options. regardless, it’s a new aspect of the hobby to help distract me and keep me out of trouble.

DW guy looks cool. Looking forward to seeing how Marneus turns out. Will be watching the development on the 3D printer, too.

Good work by the boy, tell him to keep it up! He's painting neatly wich is probably 85% of it. Tricks make up 10% and talent the last 5%.

It'll be interesting to see how your Mk. III Deathwatch turn out; I don't think I've seen anything like that before. Nice to see the Boy getting some paint down; he's definitely got the basics figured out, so now he'll just need to eventually learn some of the cool tricks to make models pop. Looking forward to seeing more from him in the future.

I passed your kind words on to The Boy. Thanks for them.




And so it begins...

Printing a few mods for it right now (display case, feed knob, tool tray, cable clips) which should help me learn the ropes. Learning a bit in tinkercad, downloaded a slicer program, and poked around thingiverse.

This should be fun. I’m a total noob at this, so thoughts, insights, ideas, etc are greatly appreciated.

I've never done any 3D printing myself but it's something I'm very interested in learning as well. Printers are getting more affordable and I keep finding times I'd love to use one in many of my different hobbies. I'm very excited to see how this goes for you Nev and hopefully learn a bit too.

 Inevitable_Faith wrote:
I've never done any 3D printing myself but it's something I'm very interested in learning as well. Printers are getting more affordable and I keep finding times I'd love to use one in many of my different hobbies. I'm very excited to see how this goes for you Nev and hopefully learn a bit too.

Just to share some info, here is the respons from an e-mail I sent to my friend Alex, who set the bug on me about 3D printing:

What was the model of 3D printer you were talking about last week that you said was a good deal for a great printer?

The printer I was talking about was the Creality Ender 3, currently $229 on Amazon. You can find it a bit cheaper elsewhere ($209 on creality3donline.com and $199 on banggood.com) but that doesn't help you much if you have Amazon cards.

The Creality Ender 3 Pro, at $259, has some of the popular upgrades already built into it. Most people think that the Pro isn't worth the extra $100 of MSRP, but that was at a time when the base was $179 and the pro was $279. With the base at $229 and the pro at $259, it seems a no-brainer to me.

In regards to filament, there are lots of different types. You'll want to start with PLA, it's the easiest to get going and doesn't (usually) stink when printing. The downsides are that it's not quite as strong as ABS or PETG and susceptible to warping at high temps so it's not generally good for outdoor use. (Or leaving in your car on a hot summer day.) Expect to pay $16 to $22 for a kilo spool. When buying filament, make sure you note the diameter, as there are two popular sizes. For the Ender, you'll want 1.75mm. Also note the spool size, as some deals look really good and then you notice that it's for half a kilo. Black is probably the most generally useful color. The printer might come with a small sample spool, but don't bet on it. I've not encountered any specific brands that I would warn you away from, but I mostly use Hatchbox, 3DSolutech, and Ziro.

If you think you'll be designing things to print (as opposed to just printing what other people have designed) then you'll also want to get a set of digital calipers that have a sub-mm scale. The cheap-ass $5 Chinese ones are just fine. When designing parts that need to fit exactly, a ruler doesn't measure up. (HEYOOOOO!)

Also, what was the name of the free software? If my computer lacks the umph to run it, this whole thing is a non-starter.

If you're just printing things, the only software you need is a slicer. The slicer takes the 3D model file (typically a *.STL file) and "slices" it into flat layers, generating the commands that the printer uses to move the head, extrude, etc. These commands are called GCODE and are basically just ASCII text. I.e., the file that the printer consumes to actually make the print is just a plain old text file. You'll use the slicer software to generate this GCODE file on your computer, save it to an SD card, transfer the card to the printer, and then use the printer's console to select the file and start the print. The printer does not need to be connected to the pc for any of this. This allows you to put the printer somewhere like the garage or basement in case it's noisy and/or smelly. The most popular slicer is probably Cura. I use MatterControl, but only because I can't get Cura to work with my printer. Both are free and neither require significant horsepower.

If you're designing (or editing) models, then you'll also need CAD software. Windows 10 comes pre-installed with a really simple CAD program called 3D Builder which is OK for really simple stuff but I would just skip it. I mainly use tinkercad.com, which is free and browser-based. Nothing to install and no significant horsepower required. Basic workflow will be: design your model in your CAD program, export to STL, run the slicer program, import the STL, convert to GCODE, save to SD card, run the card to the printer, print. It can be a pain when you need to make lots of little changes, but there are upgrades you can make to be able to print over wifi. (My printer connects directly via USB -- good when you have to make lots of changes, but I have to leave the computer running for the duration of the print.)

I also use OpenSCAD often, which is also free. It uses a bit of an odd design process, in that, instead of manually drawing your model, you write a program which describes it mathematically. It's really good for things that are repetitive and composed of basic geometric shapes, and it's simple to learn if you know any programming. (I used it to design my Cosmic Encounter board. E.g., a hexagon is three rectangles, each rotated 60 degrees, etc.)

More advanced designers will tend to use use 3DFusion, which is not free unless you're an educator.

If you want to get really fancy and start mesh sculpting, Blender (also free) is probably the most popular software for that, but it has a huge learning curve.

Also, to do:

* Make sure you have the means to save to an SD card from your computer. I think the Ender uses a micro SD card. If your pc doesn't have a card slot, you'll want to pick up a USB adapter.

* Make yourself an account on thingiverse.com. You don't need an account to download the models there but you'll need one to upload your own models, make comments, etc.

* Visit reddit.com/r/3Dprinting regularly.

Feel free to chat me up or call me whenever, I'll help you assemble if you like too.

--
Alex


Automatically Appended Next Post:


Still working out kinks. Need to set things so the base layer is smoother. Told the slicer to add a skirt, to help with adhesion, but ended up with spaghetti. Still, not as much cleanup needed as finecast! Some texture on the smooth surfaces. Quick and dirty paintjob over raw plastic. I suspect with pimer and more care, it might be quite serviceable.

That actually doesn't look too bad. I think 3D printing is really awesome technology, but I don't really have a place for one of those nor do I have a particularly pressing need to get one. I look forward to seeing what else you are able to make with yours.

That's amazing Nev! Definitely an fun addition to your hobby toolkit. Thank you very much for the info-dump, it was very informative. I went to college for 3D modelling so a printer seems like a fun way to try and bring some stuff to life. looking forward to see what else you make with this.

ZergSmasher wrote:That actually doesn't look too bad. I think 3D printing is really awesome technology, but I don't really have a place for one of those nor do I have a particularly pressing need to get one. I look forward to seeing what else you are able to make with yours.

One of the perks of the one I have is that while you can hook it up direct, it also works on SD cards. So as long as you have a couple square feet somewhere you can set one up. Unlike a lot of electronics, it doesn’t need to be teathered to your computer.

Inevitable_Faith wrote:That's amazing Nev! Definitely an fun addition to your hobby toolkit. Thank you very much for the info-dump, it was very informative. I went to college for 3D modelling so a printer seems like a fun way to try and bring some stuff to life. looking forward to see what else you make with this.

If you have the skills, make it happen! Might be a way for you to make a little hobby money on the side. Design bits to have people print.

Right now I’m just looking at stuff already out there to print. Got my eye on some ruins and tanks/pipes/barrels I want to give a shot. I want to try to design my own whirlwind turret. It’s just boxes, cones, and a few vents and grubbins. Seems to be within my skill set. Also I want to try my hand at designing a VP/CP tracker. I like the twin spinner format that GW has bundled with some of their collector’s editions.

Anyway, a tiny bit of progress:

He needs a base on his white, and some wires. But that’s it for the basecoats. No progress on his buddies.

Spent the morning printing and trimming cards:

2 decks for maelstrom. One with the SM cards, one with the SM and Eldar ones. Plus the basic cards for both. This should give The Boy and I some more options for missions.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Love the idea of making up some terrain using a printer, could scale things properly for GW models and make the shapes you need for easily identifiable LoS blocking and whatnot. Also would be easier to design in a 3D builder program such as Maya.

I have a dual disk cp/vp tracker I picked up at a convention, those things are gold, love them. I'd love to have some single disk trackers that go up to 10 or 12 to use as wound trackers for vehicles and monsters. Dice on the base can be too prone to toppling and losing what you were tracking, I'm amazed GW hasn't made wound tracking disks yet to be honest, it'd be almost like printing money for them since every single army in both game systems can use multiples.

I love the printed cards, so useful and a speeds many things up. I've recently printed and cut out some cards for AoS that a fellow Dakkite here has made. Would love it if he made some 40K cards too.

One of these days I need to sit down with MSE and make templates for full stat cards. I had a thought to design and print a card sleeve-esque status tracker for vehicles, Spinner dial for wounds, with a sliding stat bar to show how it degrades. Mabey some toggles to show charged/advanced/moved/shot. Pie in the sky idea, but I’ve got the tools and skills to make it happen. Just need the drive to do it. But then you could print out the cards for the tanks you want to use, slot them up and are good to go.

So, had some more fun with the printer. Got it leveled better, so less problems with the first layer turning into a scrambled mess. Printed out some barrels and a sci-fi shipping container.

Some visible scan lines. Little curious how they would look after primer/paint. Barrels are not the scale I like, and show how hard it is to see RL scale detail on 28mm scale items. The ridges could be higher so you can actually make them out. Right now they are kinda hiding in the layer lines.


Painting side, got some washes down on the big guy, started on his buddies and accessories.

My first instinct on the scan lines issue was that you should just file them down smooth, but then I saw all the fiddly detail on that shipping container and realized that just wouldn't be possible. It doesn't look all that bad though, and maybe once you prime it the lines won't be so obvious. The barrels are a bit on the small side, but not horrible. Space Marines should look massive next to everyday human objects, after all!

Calgar's coming along nicely too; I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Thanks for sharing your adventures into 3D printing Nev and your set up info, like many others its something I'm interested in but haven't quite taken the plunge yet and found your post every useful

Good Luck with Calgar.

ZergSmasher wrote:My first instinct on the scan lines issue was that you should just file them down smooth, but then I saw all the fiddly detail on that shipping container and realized that just wouldn't be possible. It doesn't look all that bad though, and maybe once you prime it the lines won't be so obvious. The barrels are a bit on the small side, but not horrible. Space Marines should look massive next to everyday human objects, after all!

Calgar's coming along nicely too; I look forward to seeing the finished product.

I did print up some more shoulder pads on the highest setting, and the lines were a lot better. I did accidentally mirror them, so will need to re-do them. And then prime/paint them. Or just give them to The Boy and let him do the final steps. Cleanup for things with recesses is going to be ugly. I vaguely recall hearing about tricks with acetone vapor I should probably look into.

Midget Gems wrote:Thanks for sharing your adventures into 3D printing Nev and your set up info, like many others its something I'm interested in but haven't quite taken the plunge yet and found your post every useful

Good Luck with Calgar.

Current printing projects is a whirlwind turret I found. We’ll see what it looks like in a couple of hours. It’s boxy nature should make cleanup a bit easier.

Paint:

The more I work on the HG, the more I hate them. They just feel like crappy pushfits. I know they are a step up from that, but for marines of their stature, they should have been in more bits for better detail. They just feel phoned in, as something extra to fluff out Calgar’s box. Doesn’t help that I feel I should have left them in more parts to paint, but there wasn’t really a good option due to haw the capes were cut on the sprues.

Anyway, painting progress is painting progress. More layers down, closer to being done.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wasn’t happy with the resolution on the missiles. Reprinting those bits with the quality cranked.

Also, finished the first draft on a wound spinner. Will slice and print next.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I snagged someone’s gears from tinkercad, and set about modding them up. Besides the gears themselves, this is my first original 3d plot.



Printing now.

Tolerances should be very tight, as I didn’t leave any gaps. Might have to loosen it up so it spins better. But I also don’t want it to shift on it’s own, which is part of the reason I went with gears. Right now it’s designed for monochrome printing, with the numbers needing to be filled in via crayons. If I felt like it, it would be an easy fix to put a colored backer on the number dial, or even slice it into different colored wedges, for degrading profiles. I was also thinking about embossing the stats for a rhino on the back, but decided to keep in universal for now.

That's very cool Brian.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
That's very cool Brian.

Brian is a different thread Just us Matt’s here, with the occasional Jake.



First prototype. As suspected, I need to build tolerances into the plan. 2mm peg in a 2mm slot is not going to work. Took a bit of filing and carving to get that together, but it works. V.2 is printing now. I also cut the knob down a bit, seemed higher then it needed to be. Numbers are just waxed in crayon right now. It’s low-tech, but it works.



Hope everyone is having a nice Easter morning, eating chocolate and looking for eggs. Unless you live on LV-426. If so, stay away from the eggs.

That counter looks great man! How big is it? Should post a pic of it next to a marine for scale if you don't mind.