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I’ve only had one hiccup with the GW paint pots and that was from me being tired. Then again I’m not a prolific painter and I do a lot wrong , but the shark fin looks neat.

First world problems with having a 3D printer . One day I’ll get one, till then I’m letting all of you smart young’unz figure out all the problems so mine doesn’t flash 12:00 for two years after I buy it .

Good progress on the terrain.

I'm loving your creativity as usual Meer_Cat. That paint pot holder is pretty cool also, I would find that useful, I have some old paint pots from before they had that weird little nub on the back to hold the lid open (plus those don't always work well).

Thanks Theo and Syro, for stopping by!

I'm actually old enough that I wanted to avoid the whole 'learning curve as art becomes science' thing, so I went with an inexpensive (comparatively) but proven model in the Ender-3 Pro. Almost three months of trying different print profiles and almost two months now of working with Creality to figure out what's wrong. I've seen pictures of peoples' prints using the Ender-3 and -3 Pro and they are great. Some of the designers I back on Kickstarter use the same printer themselves, so I know the printer itself is probably not the problem, unless I have a defective component, like the temperature sensor, or something. I'll keep at it- this is too close to the Star Trek (Original Series) replicator for me to give up on it!

And the way to fix any device with 12:00 blinking on it is to cover it with electrician's tape.

Syro- I have a lot of trouble with these stinkin' paint pots- especially the washes which are what I use of Citadel's the most. Much of my current cutting mat/desk blotter is covered with Carroberg Crimson from a mishap- I grabbed these as soon as I saw them to avoid repetitions in future. I may actually glue the plastic base to a broader foam board base to make it even harder to knock over!

I'm hoping to get one of the weapons platforms done tonight on the E.A.T.M.E., but there is a lot going on, we'll see.

More follows soonest.

You want some of these:

https://gameenvy.net/product/wash-wizard/

I have the x1 and the x5 holders, they're a miracle.

--B.

Thanks, Brian- I'll one or two to try, but I really need help from something that holds the lid back; not in opening or fitting the little nub to hold them open, to get the nub out of the way to close the blamed thing again! I'm not very clever with my hands at some things, I reckon. These holders look interesting though, I'll give them a try.

Okay, end of an era- I've got five separate project builds going and have more new Kickstarter infantry to paint plus I'm finally getting successful results from my 3d FDM printer (more on that in a separate entry- three months of empirical troubleshooting to find a factory fault).

Here's the start of another PVC Desert Outpost build, originally inspired by kestrel and his use of an old smoke detector. Just a bit ago, I posted my own Desert Command Post with Mega-satellite uplink antenna; this new piece will be some sort of courier rocket launch facility. It starts with US$7 worth of PVC pipe fittings:



In this next shot, you can see the wire nuts added to the perimeter to house the guidance lasers, but I wanted to show off the 'scorch marks' from hot take-offs and landings:



This starts with Warhammer TV's recommended washes (applied through my air brush) for doing muzzle burn: Drakenhof Nightshade in the center, Druchii Violet next out and then Seraphim Sepia outermost. The whole thing then dulled down with Minitaire's Ghost Tint Oil Discharge. I like the look for a start, but want to add more Violet and Nightshade and make the whole thing more darkly grubby. It's amazing what you can see in a WIP photo of your work that you can't see looking directly at the piece.

The PVC pieces are glued together and primed with Rustoleum 2x Ultracover Tan and then basecoated with Scalecolor's Metal 'n' Alchemy White.

I've already added and basecoated a bunch of Maelstrom's Edge kitbashing parts from their first sprue (need to buy some of the new ones), with those and some base scenicking, this will be done,and I can move on and finish up the Desert Outpost Defense Turret Position.

More follows soonest.

It's amazing what you can see in a WIP photo of your work that you can't see looking directly at the piece.

This! So much! Every freakin' time I post a pic, I think that exact same thing...


In other news: like where you're going with the launch pad

I reckon the lesson is, take more WIP pics!

Thank you for the encouragement. I should have recognized the colors of the flag symbol by your avatar pic earlier- but didn't put two and too together until I saw another comment you had made in a different thread- my wife is a countrywoman of yours, from Bas Wavre, near Bastogne. So, you're almost like a cousin-thrice removed, or something !

I wouldn't have expected running washes through an airbrush to work but clearly I was wrong!

This was pretty much a case of "I didn't know enough not to try" it never occurred to me until _after_ I loaded the airbrush that maybe washes were a bit off for it, then I thought about how thin the tints I've been using are, so fired away. I'm glad it worked!

I was constantly finding people discussing the subject of spraying washes through airbrush like a kind of color filter, or ink, to tint the base color or even freehand below it. Never tried it myself, but some examples were quite thrilling. Obviously, it must have been the difference in experience, but still...

And, definitely - more WIP picks!

Thank you Wirecat- will do! I noticed that the violet and the blue 'puddled' like a wanted, but the sepia really did enhance the light metallic white underneath it- a very interesting color came out. Now that I know this is a thing, I'll have to mess around with it some more (once I recover the horizontal surfaces in my little apartment from all the half-finished terrain projects going on- I want to paint some more infantry, by golly!)

So, I managed to complete one more terrain project before the holiday period really starts getting busy- here's the (as) final (as it's going to get) Desert Outpost Deathstrike Missile Launching Facility:



Learned a lot, tried a lot of new things, some worked, some didn't. Here's a close up of the main entrance; I wanted to try OSL from the light in the upper right hand corner. I could have done easily when the door was loose, I'd have hit it with the air brush. Glued in place, a much more difficult proposition, so it didn't get done this time:



I did try something different for the basing material and paint: the 'board' is a chunk carved off a Doller Store clipboard, per Warboss Wazaagh, I used crackle finish for the base material and then hit it with Burnt Sienna in the flat spots, Yellow Ochre in the crackly spots and then a very light overbrush with Antique White, all through the airbrush, all were $1 a bottle craft paints. The lighting in these pictures doesn't do them justice, they actually came out better than I had hoped.

Used some interesting bits that you can see in this next pic: in addition to the highly recognizable Maelstrom's Edge Original Sprue components, you see a wire nut that acts as the housing for an LED socket and real LED bulb plus the female connector from an old 25 pin computer plug:



Now here's a view of the launch rail for the missile (had trouble priming the first one, so I'm putting this out and will finish the missile later to go with). I used all bits from the trash pile on my painting bench, the rails themselves are an old 3d print ladder. I still like using the violet, blue and sepia washes from GW for blast wash- where the blue and the violet overlap becomes very sooty black:



Here's the back wall, the decal 'graffito' is from Greenstuff World:



Now here's the left side with it's appropriately officious warning signs (that the local gangbangers clearly do not respect):



Close up of the signs, I need to add some Decal-Fix to the paint blob on the right (those are also part of the graffiti decal sheets from Greenstuff World):



Another shot of the base of the launch rail- I'll need to add just a scooch more blast-wash-effect behind the base of the platform to look a little more realistic. I was meant to put some of my many extra gears under three points of the round base (which is the formerly adhesive base of one of those pens attached by a chain to a counter top) to make it look like the rails could be rotated to change the launch azimuth of the rocket, but oh well:



And a last look at the facility:




Total cost was under US$15. Had a lot of fun, and now I've got four urban/Necromunda/Desert Outpost terrain pieces. Without even meaning too, I've accidently started completing a gaming board!

Every other horizontal surface is still covered with a partially completed terrain project, but I'm glad to have gotten this one wrapped up before I head off to the farm for Christmas. Your constructive criticism is always welcome.

More follows soonest.

This looks great. I agree that there should be a bit more exhaust blast behind the missile ramp where it would be concentrated. The base turned out well.

Thanks very much for your feedback- it helps a great deal! The nice thing about adding the burn marks is that, with the airbrush, it can be done easily without disturbing anything else. I may add some rust weathering to the beacon light housings as well. I like working with the PVC pipe, electrical and guttering components because there is so much that can be done, for relatively cheap investment.

Now, if I can just get the darn Deathstrike built, we're cooking with gas!

More follows soonest!

Nice piece, those silly gangers disrespecting the Man . Where are the Arbites when one needs them.

Clearly, I require Kid Kyoto's assistance!

Very good! Grating is slightly out of scale, but nothing that cannot be handwaved away, Your efforts clearly paid off - that is the real investment here! Congratulations, and be careful - airbrush blasts don't cause a lot of disturbance but they can cause addiction.

Thanks Wirecat- and you're too right! When I first started messing around with the airbrush, I never thought it would become other than a specialty tool for me- there are some things you just can't do with a brush, but the maintenance, clean-up, etc with an airbrush seemed such a chore. Plus, I had invested a lot of time learning workarounds for techniques that simulated the effects created with airbrushes, and was quite satisfied with (most) of them.

Now, I can field strip that sucker in the dark, blind-folded, with my eyes closed, hanging upside down from a bar and wearing mittens in less than 3 seconds. I find myself using it more and more frequently, especially for basecoating and especially for vehicles and larger terrain.

I'm anxious to get my three (for the moment) remaining terrain projects done so I can take a crack at air-brush-applied camouflage and weathering on a proper tank- a Soviet WWII-era T-35 (the one with five turrets). That's going to be quite the project, I think!

I always appreciate you're stopping by and dropping the kind word for my meagre efforts; as when I started posting on Dakkadakka, it is wonderful to be able to share a bit of one's efforts in the hobby even though busy, far from FLGS, etc. Haven't had that ability since the mid-90's.

More follows soonest!

Wow, I just went back through some earlier pages and there is a lot of great stuff buried here. Those old Rouge Trader marines with the cat-camo schemes (I guess you have always been a fan of felines). And those Dream Forge dudes also look really nice. I have had an eye on them for a long time and it seems I might have missed my chance to get one of those awesome vehicles they make. Lesson learned: when you see a great kit, you better get it because they don't stick around forever. And those rough riders with the guns strapped to their backs are quite interesting miniatures. So many great conversions and useful ideas for "found" bitz and whatnot. I'll have to read through the rest when I get time.

Thank you very much for the kind words, Riddle of Steel! I've had a lot of fun for a lot of years just painting and converting- one of these days I'm going to have to give these games a try!

I also like the Dream Forge vehicles- I backed the sturmgeschutz/hover tank one (both times!) but we just couldn't hit the funding goal. Hopefully, he'll give it another go- many of us backers had suggestions on how to make the campaign more attractive, it remains for someone smarter than me to make 'enthusiast backer dreams' marry up with 'financial reality'.

I've always enjoyed converting and using found bits- I get a ton of inspiration from all of you'ns here on Dakka on both.

I've enjoyed perusing your blog as well- the drop troops are very good and you've got enough of them done that there now is 'perfection through mass'- so, double whammy: individually and collectively well-executed pieces that are fun to see and play.

More follows soonest!

Dreamforge... this brings so much sadness. Offers were great, but the shipping has killed it for me in all his projects. Having followed the author and creator here and in other places I do wish him well with new enterprises.

But enough of that - Meer_Cat, Thank You for Your entertaining and inspirational blog! Happy New Year, may it bring more happy kit bashing and painting!

Thank you for the kind words, Wirecat. I've related in this blog before how much it means to me to have a place to share my efforts. I'm a bit remote and often 'temporally challenged' (got no time ) and so can't get as involved with a group as I might like- I'm not kidding when I say I would love to actually game using my own pieces! When I started with Warhammer 40k- late 80's- I was a single soldier in barracks: I could spend all my paycheck (such as it was) on gaming things and still have a place to sleep and enough to eat, plus plenty of mates who were into the same games to get some great events going, right there in the dayroom. We never had enough time to get things painted properly, so a lot of 'ghost' troops showed up- white primer and the type of weapon written in Sharpie marker on the equally white base. The rules were all first edition, and we were all trying to learn them. Now, I have massive amounts of painted troops, vehicles, artillery and support- plus 'eye-candy', and no time to play. I've purchased the most recent edition of rules for Imperial Guard, but must admit I need an interpreter to help understand how everything works together. They're written fine, as far as I can tell, but you can't skip six editions and just plunk back into Ed. 7 (or is it 8?) without a brief, but steep, learning curve.

If you gain some amusement looking over my modest attempts, then you are my target audience. The opportunity to create something, share it, receive feedback and then try something new based on that feedback is a treasure beyond measure.

Many thanks to you for all that you do to keep me hacking away and trying new things. Sooner or later, I will give sculpting a try as well- your pages are full of inspiration!

Your blog is a lot of fun to keep up to date on Meer_Cat. You are very creative with your ideas and make cool scratch builds. Thanks for sharing what you do with all of us. (Sorry you have no one to play with, a lot of us are in that boat).

Thank you for dropping in Syro- it means a lot to me. Your recent adventures with Beholders has me wanting to get into DnD figures for a bit; I think I'm a little too sui generis for my own good!

I'm glad to hear that Meer_Cat. I say go for it with D&D It can be a fun change of pace from wargaming figures, for D&D figures are expected to be more crazy, homemade, and less detailed. Something we all struggle with as wargamers is finding enough people to play with, I've been able to start three different groups playing or returning to D&D in the last three years. During that time I haven't managed to get a single game of 40k in. So if you're looking for people to play with, my personal experience is it's easier to find with D&D.

Appreciate the tips and will look around to see what's available in my area. It's funny, I got my first boxed Dungeons and Dragons set from Walden Book Store sometime in 1978, I think. We played HeroQuest at the Coast Guard Academy, mostly because that was the games system that the guy who was willing to be the DM used. I never really kept up with RPG type games after that, because in the enlisted Marine Corps and Army, there was a definite pre-conception as to the type of 'guy' that played those sorts of games- they even looked askance at people who knew how to play chess!

What I particularly like about doing miniatures for RPGs (I've painted many for friends, and even did a whole chess set up in pieces suggestive of the John Carter of Mars stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs) is that they can be handmade or heavily converted and they are expected to be one-off- you don't need twenty of the same type to form a unit (usually, town guards get that way sometimes, but that tends to be for larger games, in my limited experience). Each piece can be unique and get a higher level of detail.

I most particularly like using 'found' items for our hobby- n any capacity. I get a ton of ideas on new things to try here on DakkaDakka, but especially from you and Fifty. It helps me break the paradigm of "when you're young, you have no resources but all the time in the world; when you're older- you have the resources but no time". Here I am older, with the resources, but still getting excited over the newest thing to use a milk pull for!

Toujours en avant!

 Meer_Cat wrote:
Appreciate the tips and will look around to see what's available in my area. It's funny, I got my first boxed Dungeons and Dragons set from Walden Book Store sometime in 1978, I think. We played HeroQuest at the Coast Guard Academy, mostly because that was the games system that the guy who was willing to be the DM used. I never really kept up with RPG type games after that, because in the enlisted Marine Corps and Army, there was a definite pre-conception as to the type of 'guy' that played those sorts of games- they even looked askance at people who knew how to play chess!

What I particularly like about doing miniatures for RPGs (I've painted many for friends, and even did a whole chess set up in pieces suggestive of the John Carter of Mars stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs) is that they can be handmade or heavily converted and they are expected to be one-off- you don't need twenty of the same type to form a unit (usually, town guards get that way sometimes, but that tends to be for larger games, in my limited experience). Each piece can be unique and get a higher level of detail.

I most particularly like using 'found' items for our hobby- n any capacity. I get a ton of ideas on new things to try here on DakkaDakka, but especially from you and Fifty. It helps me break the paradigm of "when you're young, you have no resources but all the time in the world; when you're older- you have the resources but no time". Here I am older, with the resources, but still getting excited over the newest thing to use a milk pull for!

Toujours en avant!

You and I began DND around the same time, same year at least. Walden’s was where we got our set too. I remember the lecture I got from the old lady clerk about being a devil worshipper .

RPGs do have their draw. Wish. Had a decent schedule to be in a group again.

Got the same look from the clerk when I checked out- like she expected me to pull a small farm animal out of my coat to sacrifice right then and there. Hard to believe how much of a culture change that game was. I still have the original box and manuals that came with, not to mention the cardboard cut-out numbers for people that didn't have dice- you used an egg carton and sorted them out by what odds you needed (six sided, eight sided, etc). Plus first editions (we called them 'new', back in the day) of the Monster Manual, DM's manual and Player's guide.

My introduction to D&D was in the 90s. Luckily, the "satanic panic" nonsense was long gone, but D&D and other RPGs had a different bad reputation of being for people so nerdy that they can't function in society. I miss Walden books, that was a good store. That's really cool that you have all that original D&D stuff, it might be fun to play that with some people. Or, if you chose to sell it you could probably afford any amount of RPG stuff you could want