Paint Table Saturday 13 August 2022

 

Errrmmmm.....

As you probably expected, I still haven't finished working on the German AFVs. 

"What on Earth has she gone and done to them?"

I suspect you are worried that I went completely mad. However, this photo was taken a few minutes later:

I was doing oil dot filter weathering. After applying small dots of oil paint, you then take a dry (or barely moistened with thinners) brush and scrub like mad. The end result is somewhat faded and varied base colours. During the scrubbing process a few bits did come off the StuG - those have since been re-glued.

I have prepped the figures from The Assault Group and made a start on the basing (OK, I've glued the figures onto the bases - I still need to add basing gunk and then prime them).

3D Printing

Over the course of this week I've printed a few more 1:270 scale Traveller ships:

I've got a few more to print, but they'll have to wait as I'm going on holiday. My next post will be a Wednesday Workbench on the 24th. Hopefully the break will help me to regain my focus and I'll swiftly finish work on the German AFVs.

Paint Table Saturday 06 August 2022

 

As you can see, I'm still working on the vehicles for my Waffen SS force. I added the decals this week (I had to remove the stowage from one half track as it was in the way, then re-attach them once the decals had set), painted (most of) the non-airbrush details, then today I glossed them and did panel lining with thinned oil paint. Tomorrow I will hit them with a coat of matt varnish to seal in the oils.

Progress has been slow, mostly because I've been busy reading a very big book - a volume of the official history of the Australian army in WW2. However, I do plan to kick myself into a higher gear over the next few days and should get them finished before Wednesday. I also plan to get the reinforcements prepped and primed before next weekend.

I'm still busy with the 3D printing. I printed two more starfighters this week:

I had to reprint multiple parts due to print failures. The failures were a result of one thing for sure and another that I suspect. The suspicion one is that the stringing I was seeing was the result of the slightly higher humidity we had mid-week. That wouldn't have been enough on it's own, but would have exacerbated the real culprit which I discovered when I swapped filament spools and did some general cleaning and maintenance. 

It seems that a couple of the tightening wheels had loosened since I last checked them - the one on the right hand side of the X-axis gantry arm was free spinning and the one for the print head had loosened enough for the head to wobble. 

The first wouldn't have been a problem on a dual Z-axis printer, but mine is a single Z-axis so a loose wheel on the other side can cause the X-axis gantry to sag down to the right as the print head moves across, resulting in the nozzle catching against prints and pulling them off the print bed. The second can also cause catching, but is usually less of a problem.

I got both of those tightened and checked all the other wheels - they were all fine.

After loading new filament, running the auto-leveling and printing my standard test pieces for new filament I started work on my next printing project:

These are the 1:270 scale models of Traveller ships which I bought through a Kickstarter. Well, the first few anyway (and the two identical ones are actually parts of a larger model). I've got a lot more to print, and then I have some non-Traveller ships as well in the same scale.

Paint Table Saturday 30 July 2022

 

Errrmmm...yes, well. It seems that the brief heatwave we had here in the UK hit me a bit harder than I'd realised. Mostly the lack of decent sleep on those hot nights. As a result, it's not been until today that I felt up to painting. That being said, I've managed to do a decent amount of work on the half tracks and StuG today; just a few metallic bits to do tomorrow before adding decals.

On the 3D printing front, I've been busy. 

I did reprint a load of parts for the Type S:

In addition to the fuselage parts, I also reprinted the landing gear, turret and landing gear bay doors at the reduced flow rate I'd determined I needed.

With those done, I decided to print out some small craft that I'd got as freebies:

Fury Starfighter

Invader/Interceptor Starfighter

I also printed a small landing shuttle:

That was actually the first one I printed. While I was printing the two starfighters I realised that I could potentially add weapons from them to the shuttle. Then I thought about adding seating into the rear compartment to make it an assault shuttle - I had seating tiles from the Type S so I printed some of those. Then I wondered about making a stretch version - the top and bottom of the rear compartment can be printed repeatedly, so I printed an extra set which also allowed me to add more weaponry. I could stretch it further by adding another section, but that would probably need some extra engines...

I've got another set of seating tiles printing right now, taking it to 16 troop capacity. I might take a look at 2nd Dynasty's store to see what other tiles they have which might be useful for other shuttle variants - I'm sure there must be med-bay tiles to make a Casevac shuttle for example.

Wednesday Workbench 20 July 2022

 

She's finished! Well, the printing of her at least. OK, and maybe the re-printing of a few parts. the smaller bits are the rear cargo bay ramp and the landing gear bay doors - I'm leaving those off for the moment.

I took the last set of prints off the printer late on Monday morning, then switched the printer off for the rest of our "heatwave" to remove one source of additional heating in my flat.

Removable sections removed

Clearer shot of the landing gear in "down" state

Top-down view of main section

View of the bridge/cockpit

View of cargo bay

Upper and main engineering sections

View of crew commons/galley

View of rear cap

Now that the heatwave has passed I have switched my printer back on and run some calibration models to check my flow percentage. It seems that I need to reduce it to about 86-87%; I'd been running at 98% which probably explains why I'd had issues with some prints not fitting properly. 

As for the half-tracks and StuG, I haven't touched them since Saturday - I woke up late on Sunday and didn't feel like painting; Monday and Tuesday were just too hot for painting and today was spent recovering. However, I should be able to make a start on the hand-painted parts tomorrow.

In other news, the correct pack of MG42 figures arrived today:

Definitely not Aztecs!

Paint Table Saturday 16 July 2022

 Progress has been made on the half-tracks and StuG. Not much, but progress nonetheless. All the initial airbrushing has been done. Tomorrow I will try to get all the initial non-airbrush work done - tires, tracks, benches, MGs, etc. Then everything will get a quick gloss coat before I add decals, followed by another thing gloss coat, panel lining, a thin matt coat, weathering, a final thin gloss coat and a final matt coat. Depending on how hot things get here in London I might get them finished by Wednesday, but suspect the end of the week is more likely.

Whilst on the subject of my Waffen SS, my order from The Assault Group arrived on Thursday:

OK, there's a pack of WW2 Japanese casualties in there as well.

And then there was this pack:

Pete's told me to keep them and is sending me out a correct pack. Once those are here, I will get them prepped and ready for priming once the vehicles are done. On the vehicle front, I suspect that I will end up ordering a few more to give "options"...

3D Printing - Type S Scout

She's very nearly there!

I've only got three/four more steps to print (depending on whether I print the two rear landing gear assemblies in one go or separately). Assuming no issues, I should have them all printed out by Monday morning, at which point I will probably turn the printer off for a couple of days.

There are (thankfully only) four or five pieces where sharp corners lifted during the print and which I might want to reprint. If I do decide to do that, I have the files ready to go, but it's about 3-4 days of printing. The "lifted" parts can always be used to test things out (best size of OpenLock clips; paint schemes; etc).

Wednesday Workbench 13 July 2022

 

As you can see, the Type S Scout ship is coming together nicely. I've started printing the upper fuselage parts, but realised that I didn't have enough filament left on the current spool to print the next set so opted to spend today printing a load of smaller bits that I'll need for later steps.

The main engineering section:

One of the Jump Drives broken down into parts:

I've also made some progress on the SdKfz 251s and Stug III:

Not as much as I'd like to have done as I've been feeling rather lethargic in the heat. It should be a little cooler for the next couple of days, so I should make good progress on them. 

Finished: Waffen SS Supports 2

 

I've finished the last few infantry figures for now - a squad leader and a tripod MG42 team redeploying. Why a redeploying team? Well, you never know when you might want/need one.

Junior Leader

This chap will be the Rottenfuhrer of the support squad.

Redeploying MG42 Team

The junior leader and the two with MP40s are from Artizan, the other three figures are from Warlord Games.

As my order from The Assault Group hasn't arrived yet, I decided to assemble some plastic kits yesterday afternoon:

I've just finished priming them and will begin the airbrush painting tomorrow.