Wednesday Workbench 15 February 2023

 

Over the past couple of days I've been painting a few figures for my Friday submission - they're finished and the post is waiting in the queue to be dealt with. 

Today saw me begin work on some of the interior pieces for the Type S Scout. I decided to start with the partitions and bulkheads, which all received their main colour by airbrush. As one was the upper engineering section which combined the walls and floor in one piece, I decided to do all the engineering floors - the floors and doors of the different sections will all be in different colours (engineering = red, crew accommodations = green; bridge = blue; other areas = blue-grey).

This evening I've done a test piece, using one of the cabin partitions. I'm not happy with that green, and I'm not keen on the copper band on the walls; I think I'll use a different green and do the band in that colour as well. I suspect that the blue I was going to use will have the same problem

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.

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).

Paint Table Sunday 03 July 2022

 

I've started work on the next batch of Waffen SS, this lot from the core platoon. I should finish the painting tomorrow and might even get them varnished, although that is more likely to be a job for Tuesday.

3D Printing

Since Wednesday's workbench post I have done quite a bit more printing. On the left you have the sections from Wednesday with the new stuff on the right. There's one piece missing as I managed to break it - it's being reprinted as I type. There are also a couple of small bits in front:

On the left is the cargo bay ramp which will be fitted later on. The bag on the right contains all the doors and iris valves I will need for the interior.

Putting the new and old bits together:

The underside

On Wednesday I mis-stated the final dimensions of the ship - the sections printed so far come to 21" tall and 15" wide. I have one more set of pieces to print to complete the lower fuselage of the ship; I should have those done in time for my Wednesday Workbench post.

Paint Table Saturday 11 June 2022

 

Today I have mostly been...

Running more test prints on the 3D printer. I also made time to give another junk piece a single light coat of filler primer and do some more sanding tests. I took each quarter to a different level of grit - none, 120 grit, 180 grit and 240 grit.

No sanding

120 grit only

120 and 180 grit

120, 180 and 240 grit

Since Wednesday I have printed a few more (wider this time) sanding blocks and added sandpaper strips to all of them:

I'll probably spend a bit of time tomorrow working up through the different grits on the piece I was sanding today.

Yesterday I primed and dry-brushed the pieces I'd sanded on Wednesday:

No filler primer before sanding

Filler primer before sanding

The drybrushing helped to show that the one with the filler primer was a fair bit smoother. It also made the sanding much easier, apart from recesses being a bit clogged.

Paint Table Saturday 21 May 2022

 

Well, that's the black priming done. I started dry-fitting the bits ahead of doing the zenithal priming, but soon realised that my idea of painting everything un-assembled wasn't going to work. As a result I have been gluing the stairs and railings this evening.

I've solved the problem I was having - it seems I'd set my Z-offset too low, so the first layers were getting squished. Yesterday I reprinted the 1:270 Scout Courier; I also printed a 30 Ton Gig and some flight stands.

I did some more printing today. I had received a couple of 28mm ship crew figures as freebies and decided to try rescaling them down to 1:100 and 1:270. 

The 1:270 scale figures are a bit spindly and fragile - I think I'll need to rescale the X and Y axes less so that they end up a little chunkier.

I also printed the 1:270 scale 200 Ton Free Trader:

The ships are from a Traveller RPG Kickstarter I backed last year. I've got a lot more to print over the coming months, including some 28mm ones (with interiors). I'll start with some smaller prints first until I get used to the printer.

Paint Table Saturday 30 April 2022

 

Although the paints I'd ordered arrived yesterday, I decided to spend today priming some of the new stuff. I still need to do a zenithal prime on the interior walls, but ran out of time today so that will have to wait until tomorrow. I've got a few more bits to prime after that's done, and then I can finish off the street tiles.

If all goes well, I should have all the airbrushing steps finished by Monday evening. Unless there are any hitches, I should get all of the detailing done by Thursday.

Paint Table Saturday 09 April 2022

 

Well, that's all the assembled terrain primed. It took me a little bit longer than expected and I'll need to order some more primer before I do the prefab buildings. I'll make a start on airbrushing the base colours tomorrow.

Looking at the walkways, I think I might order a couple more sets...

Paint Table Saturday 26 March 2022

 

I've done a fair bit since Wednesday. All the terrain has been painted; I just need to varnish it, but that will have to wait until tomorrow morning. Looking at the photo, I do seem to have gone a bit OTT with the rusting on the shipping containers, but what the heck?

I'll only be doing the varnishing tomorrow as this weekend Rebellion/2000AD are livestreaming a series of panel discussions to celebrate 45 years of 2000AD, so I'll be watching those in the afternoon. 

Paint Table Saturday 12 March 2022

 

Well, that's what's on my paint table right now. Three droids for Judge Dredd which I'm partway through airbrushing the main colours onto. I realised as I was doing two of them that I really needed to go back and re-whiten one of them and do the same for the shoulder pads of another as the base zenithal priming was too dark for the yellow. I got that done, but then it was too late for me to be airbrushing, so I'll need to finish them off tomorrow.

Yesterday and today saw me airbrushing the main colours onto the SciFi terrain:

Over the next few days I'll be doing the detailing on them. Despite appearances, that shouldn't be too much work. I've also got a few more figures and vehicles to paint - my plan is to alternate between those and the terrain.

This evening I did photo sessions for two posts, which have now been written and submitted. They should get published tomorrow.

Paint Table Saturday 05 March 2022

As you can see, I am set up ready to paint some figures. I'll be starting on them tomorrow; there's also a vehicle which I've started but isn't in the photo. If all goes well, I should have them all finished and varnished on Tuesday. Which will leave me clear to start work on painting the SciFi buildings.

I've finished the first two sets of character figures, taken photos and submitted the posts which should get published tomorrow.

When I ordered more black primer, I also decided to order the starter set of Army Painter's "Speed Paints". 

They arrived on Thursday and I tested them on a white index card to see how the colours look:

Zealot Yellow, Fire Giant Orange, Blood Red, Hive Dweller Purple, Highlord Blue,
Orc Skin, Pallid Bone, Crusader Skin, Hardened Leather, Gravelord Grey

I do have some figures in mind to test them on, but that might not be until after the Challenge.