Television is rather a frightening business. But I get all the relaxation I want from my collection of model soldiers.
Peter Cushing

Thursday, 30 May 2019

The Future is Now

The other thing that's been keeping me occupied alongside my new Napoleonic project was a new bit of kit. Having played with them at work quite a lot I decided it was time to get myself a 3d printer.

Building it was the first job - and as it was a job requiring quite a degree of precision it was quite outside my usual slapdash wheelhouse - and then working out what to print.





I started simply with some Necromunda walls; the first test piece was successful so I will be printing a full set of these in due course.






Next, a dragon for my youngest to test organic shapes. Pretty good again and a couple of important lessons learned about how to slice the projects for printing.







Finally, a house. This will have three stories, including interior details. This has obvious applications for AoS, Middle Earth, Mordeim and Historical.







All of the above were from a single roll of filament; about 750g in total, so cost about £10. The electricity cost is negligible, about the same as an old 60w incandescent lamp. Overall I am very impressed; as long as you have good stl files to work with, the possibilities are endless. It's like have a Star Trek replicator for wargames terrain. 

The first major project will be, I think, the gatehouse to match the medieval house and then a full set of Necromunda walls. Then I think I'll be looking for a model of the Nostromo....

Wednesday, 29 May 2019

"The Scum of the Earth"

"The French system of conscription brings together a fair sample of all classes; ours is composed of the scum of the earth — the mere scum of the earth. It is only wonderful that we should be able to make so much out of them afterwards."
-Arthur Wellesley, 1813





Starting a new project is always fun. I currently have two new projects on the go, the first of which is 28mm Napoleonics.



I'm starting with the British - specifically the South Essex (latterly the Prince Of Wales' Own Volunteers).

These are a mix of Perry and Warlord plastics to provide some variation in height; I also painted various shades across the two ranges to ensure that there were subtle variations in colours to reflect the fact they've been in the field for a while.









Batch painting has always been my weakness so this was all about finding a system that wasn't too painful. The old lollystick approach and lots of washes and glazes was the main way although I am looking forward to the new Citadel Contrast paints as I reckon these will speed things up enormously.





Next up some