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....

"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