Paint Table Saturday 29 October 2022

 

Well, it took me a little bit longer than anticipated to finish the test paints of the spaceships. Apart from the priming and gloss varnishing, everything was done by hand-brush.

They're OK, but using an ink wash after glass varnishing just made them look dirty. I think the best option for when I do the good prints of the ships will be to prime them black (or dark grey, followed by a black wash) followed by a grey drybrush to catch all the panels and raised details, then a final light drybrush of white to catch panel edges. And then to apply thin airbrush coats, which means masking. That should keep the recessed panel lines darker than the raised panels.

3D Printing

Since Wednesday I have printed some more pool tables (finally of the correct size), some Shadowrun "jackpoints" and a whole load of small cargo pieces - crates, barrels, drums, boxes.

To use up what is left of this spool, I am currently doing some prints to test printing speed settings to see if I can decrease the time it will take me to print future 28mm starships.

Wednesday Workbench 26 October 2022

 

I've begun work on some test paints of the 1:270 scale starships. These were early prints from before I had my printer dialed in which I kept for this purpose rather than binning them. 

I spray primed them all this morning, then used my airbrush to prime three of them grey and one black. This afternoon I also tested the colour shift paint on the black-primed ship. 

It works nicely, but I might get some other colours to try - the copper/violet tones don't contrast as much as I'd like.

I'll do some accent detailing on the colour-shift ship tomorrow and start work on the others.

I've also primed a 28mm test figure I've printed. I'll have a go at painting it this weekend to see how it comes out.

3D Printing

Since the weekend I have printed some more cargo pieces ranging from luggage items up to shipping containers. I also printed some more "bitz" (not shown - it's the same stuff I printed before, just in a different filament colour). I've got a few more cargo items to print, and some other terrain bits. After those, I'm not sure what I will decide to print - I think I've got enough terrain bits to be going on with!

Kickstarter Campaign - 28mm Scale Beowulf Free Trader

I've been looking forward to this Kickstarter campaign for months now and it launched a few hours ago.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2nddynasty/free-trader-beowulf-starship/description

It's for the 200 Ton Type A Free Trader "Beowulf" from the Traveller RPG, designed for 3D printing at 28mm scale (technically 1:59 scale/1 inch = 1.5m). Fully printed it will weigh 5.25kg and measure 83cm long, 45cm wide and 25cm high. For those who want something smaller, it can always be scaled down before printing. 

Here's the pitch video:

For Traveller players who don't want to 3D print a ship, they have also done detailed deck plans for the Beowulf and their previous Type S Scout/Courier and Type J Seeker designs which are available on their own at the lowest pledge level, Those will be available as PDF files and also VTT files for use with the various online tabletop simulators that people use.

There are also a range of add-ons that can be purchased (or that are included with higher pledge levels), some of them new to this campaign and some from previous campaigns.

Paint Table Saturday 22 October 2022

 

My trip down to Sussex didn't come off. It was for a funeral and there were likely to be vulnerable people there, so on Thursday morning (just after packing for the trip) I thought I'd better do a lateral flow test as I'd had cold-like symptoms for a couple of days. It was positive. I suspect I picked it up at SELWG.

With my trip off, on Thursday I took photos of the SYW Russians (they are for a new edition of the King of the Battlefield rules). Once those had been processed, I had a think about what I wanted to do next. In the end I decided that this would be a good time to do some tests on the scrap pieces from the Type S Scout - I'm thinking of painting the hull with Vallejo's colour -shift paints. 

One of the large panels got sanded with 120 and 180 grit blocks. Both were then spray primed, lightly sanded, spray primed again followed by using the back of a craft knife blade to redefine the panel lines.

Yesterday I primed them black with the airbrush and gave them a gloss coat of Klear. That was when I had another thought - how would the pieces look without any sanding? So, I grabbed the nose piece, spray primed it, black primed it and glossed one of the primed faces - you're meant to apply the colour shift paints over gloss black, but I wanted to see how they'd come out over matt black as well.

Today I used the airbrush to apply two thin coats of the colour shift paint. I was pleasantly surprised with the effect. It seems to have worked just as well over the matt black as over the gloss.

The effect looks much better in real life than in the photos, but I think you can see the shift from violet to a red-ish hue.

3D Printing

I was also able to get a few more things printed. The purple items at the top, some benches and up-sized pool tables finished off the spool I'd been having problems with. Unfortunately it seems that I messed up on the re-scaling and they aren't quite wide enough.

Today I put on a spool from a different filament manufacturer. As it's a brand I haven't used before, I decided to do a full battery of test prints to see how it compares. So far, it seems to print much better. It's also not tangled, so I can put long prints on and leave them running unattended without worry. Since finishing those test, I've been printing some extra "bitz". I'll start doing some longer prints tomorrow to see how they come out with this filament.

Wednesday Workbench 19 October 2022

 

Shock horror! There's nothing on my workbench...and there won't be until some time next week. I'm going down to Sussex for a couple of days and when I get back I'll be taking  a load of photos of my SYW Russians.

After that, I think it's about time I got some of my 3D prints painted. The first job will be to get them primed, then there will be a fair bit of airbrush work prior to detailing them by hand.

3D Printing

I've got some more bits and bobs printed:

Finished: 28mm Leather Coated Waffen SS Officers

 

And they're done. That's the last of the Waffen SS figures for now. I suppose at some point I will get around to finishing off the bases (and those of the British Airborne at the same time).

Senior Leader

I needed a second senior leader and this figure from The Assault Group screamed out to be used.

The original highlights on the leather coat looked a bit too stark, so I toned them down with a black glaze.

Jump Off Point

This figure was part of my original purchases from Artizan. It didn't really fit for an "active" figure, but it works well for a Jump Off Point.

SELWG Show 2022 - The Games

 As promised yesterday, here are the photos I took of the games at SELWG 2022.

DMB Games - Rosebyrne Manor

Cheshunt Wargames - War of the Worlds

Deal Wargames Society - Luxembourg 1940

Gravesend Gamers Guild

SELWG - The Sundering of Monfort (Warhammer)

Essex Warriors - Starship Troopers

South London Warlords - All Quiet In The Neutral Zone

Lost Ark Wargamers - Ding Dong (WW2 Bolt Action)

Milton Hundreds Wargames Club

Newbury & Reading Wargames Society - Tewkesbury 1471

Retired Wargames Reloaded - Eagles and Lions at Carentan WW2

South East Essex Military Society - Attack of Eagles (Battle of Britain)

Simon Miller - Second Battle of Mantinea (To The Strongest)

South London Warlords - Aliens!

Streatham & Tooting Wargamers - Siege of Luckpore 1857

Not sure - SWC Pathfinders - Fistful of Lead?

The League of Gentlemen Anti-Alchemists - Ducrot's Day Out (Napoleonic)

Spalding Wargames Club - Necropolis

Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society - Spanish Gold, C18th Naval

Shepway Wargames Club - Hahausen '89 (Cold War Gone Hot)

1/72 Wargames - Battle of Maldon 1910

Wargames Workshop - The Troll Bridge

SiLC Studios - Science Fantasy Skirmish

Prince Rupert's Bluecoats - Storming of Bristol (English Civil War)

Society of Ancients - Battle of Gaza 312BC

Parable Games

Too Fat Lardies

Chain of Command - Northern Perimeter at Oosterbeek 1944

Strength and Honour - Spartacus Revolt

O Group 

I had hoped that the floorplan would have helped, but it seems that a lot of the games weren't where they were meant to be. Not helped by a couple of no-shows and one being there that wasn't on the list.