Paint Table Saturday 10 December 2022

 

And...I'm back. I haven't had anything to post, apart from 3D prints. I still don't really, but thought that I ought to post something anyway.

At the moment I'm getting myself sorted for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge which begins in just over a week. That has meant getting the various bits together for my main project. Then deciding that I need to reprint some of them. There are a couple of parts that I'm having a big problem with; hopefully I'll finally get them right this week.

I ordered some more primers and paints and they arrived a few days ago:

That should be enough to see me through the Type S Scout Courier.

3D Printing

I've carried on with printing Traveller cargo containers, in between printing other things.

Standard Containers:

Sealed Containers:

Controlled Environment Containers:

I've also printed some alternative partitions and bulkheads for the Type S Scout Courier with the doors fused in place - they should be easier for painting.

The Beowulf Kickstarter campaign I backed has released the ship files and also most of the stretch goals - not bad when you consider that it's less than a month since the end of the campaign. I've been printing some of the smaller items.

Grav Bike, Emergency Low Berths & Air Raft Van 

Rampart Light Fighter

I've shown it on the stand but I've also printed landing gear in case I decide to put it in a hangar diorama.

Well, that's all for now folks!

Paint Table Saturday 26 November 2022

 

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. I haven't really had anything worth posting about until now.

Over the past few days I've been testing out priming, pre-shading and paint schemes for when I paint up my Type S Scout Courier. 

The piece on the left was primed "grey" (more of an off-white, actually) and the panel lines were shaded using a dark grey with the airbrush; the piece on the right was primed black, then the panels were gone over with the "grey" primer avoiding the panel lines as far as possible. I think that darkening the panel lines over the "grey" primer works best, but might be better done by hand rather than airbrushed. I've primed another piece and done the panel lining by hand to test this out:

I primed a couple of other pieces that hadn't been sanded to test out different colours for the paint scheme:

This was just to see how different colours work together. The brighter colours will be for accents/details; I think I'll go with one of the yellows as the main colour.

I've also done a zenithal prime on a couple of interior pieces to test out colour schemes:

I went with a dark grey primer as the base rather than black as it should be less stark. It also shows up over the black plastic, which all the ship parts have been printed in.

3D Printing

I finally got around to printing the last of the 1:270 scale Traveller ships:

I had to reprint a few parts to replace ones which broker or didn't quite fit. I also had to switch filament spools as I didn't have enough of the black to do the top half. The little bags in front contain a radar dish and various antennae to add later on - I'll need to drill out the holes the antennae go in as they are too snug at the moment. All told, that took about four days to print.

As well as the ship I've printed some more shipping containers (you can never have enough after all) and some air raft variants - the original 2-seater, a 4-seater coupe, a 4-seater saloon and three pick-ups (2-seater, coupe and saloon).

I decided to take advantage of the Black Friday deals on Amazon to stock up on filament, so I've got plenty to keep me going.

Paint Table Saturday 12 November 2022

 

At the back of the photo above you can see what I'm currently working on:

These are two ship parts which I'd run off while testing print speeds. After mishaps while applying the first round of spray putty, I printed the parts they are sitting on.

Before the first coat of spray putty I did an initial sanding pass with the coarse and medium grit pad. I then did a second coarse & medium pass after the spray putty had dried, followed by re-scribing the panel lines. I think the initial spray putty coat was a bit too heavy - it took a lot of sanding and the panel lines were well and truly clogged. after washing the parts down to remove sanding dust and letting them dry completely I gave them a second, lighter spray putty coat which hasn't clogged the panel lines as much. I'll be sanding them with a medium & fine grit pad tomorrow.

I'll be using these to test different priming and pre-shading methods. One will be black primer, followed  by dry-brushing; the other will be light grey primer, heavy black wash, then dry-brushing.

3D Printing

After doing several more tests, I've finally worked out why I was getting such bad stringing. It was a result of the lower ambient temperature and/or higher humidity. I've been able to resolve it by placing the in-use spool in my filament dryer and running it directly from there to the printer:

There are only two potential issues with running it like this:

1. It's not possible with this dryer to see how much filament is left on the spool

2. Whilst it's being used for the in-use spool, you can't dry the next spool

Anyway, here are a couple of  "before and after" comparison prints:

With that issue finally solved, I've started printing the last of the 1:270 scale Traveller ships. I'd left it until last as it's huge and will take a few days to print. I suspect that I'll have to switch spools as I've used so much of the black trying to sort out the stringing. As I've got a few other bits that I want to print in black, I'll probably do those before  do the main body sections.

Paint Table Saturday 05 November 2022

 There has been a little bit of painting done this week. One bit will get posted tomorrow or Monday, the other you will have to wait for - it's a gift for someone who might read this blog and I don't want to spoil the surprise.

3D Printing

I mentioned that I'd been doing some test prints. These (the items on the front left) have shown that I can increase the speed to 60mm/s without any problem. I did try printing at 80mm/s but that seems to have been too fast. Now I need to test whether I can increase the acceleration value. I did test a higher acceleration at 80mm/s - the results were worse, but I want to check if that is also the case at 60mm/s.

For the 28mm spaceships, increasing the print speed to 60mm/s will save me 10-25% on the time required; increasing the acceleration will save another 10-15%. Now that I'm more confident with my printer I'm happy putting multiple items on the same print bed which should save a bit more time.

I've printed a couple of dice towers this week to see how they come out.

This month's freebies for Tribe members from 2nd Dynasty included two 28mm starfighters:

Starfire:

Talon Interceptor:

I've been having some issues with the printer for the last week or so - "zits" and nasty stringing. I suspect that the fix I did a couple of months ago when I had similar problems hasn't lasted. I've ordered (and received) a replacement hot-end which I plan to fit tomorrow. At the same time I ordered a better fan for the processor board which will also get fitted tomorrow - the one that comes installed is an el cheapo job that is very noisy when the printer starts to heat up (it only seems to do that when the ambient temperature is under 25C or so; it was fine during the summer!).

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.

Paint Table Saturday

 

I got distracted again and didn't do any painting yesterday. I have made up for it today as this batch is all but finished - I just need to drybrush the bases and paint the metal details. They'll be finished tomorrow.

For some reason, despite the range being "Late War", the medics and casualty seem to be in early war uniform. Ho, hum!

I've been 3D printing more "bitz" but I'd packed them away earlier on so didn't get to take any photos of them.

Paint Table Sunday 25 September 2022

 

After easing up on Thursday, my cold returned with a vengeance on Friday so I ended up not being able to crack on with the next batch of Waffen SS until today. I've actually got them much further along than I'd expected to:

I just have the camo dots, metals, eagles and the base left to do. However, I don't expect to finish them tomorrow as I need to head into central London for some bits and pieces; I'll also be out gaming in the evening. They should be done by Tuesday evening though.

3D Printing

I'm still busily printing off "bits" and small scenery pieces:

You might have spotted some box girder bridge trusses - those are actually for my jungle terrain. I want to do an engineer-made bridge to add to my collection (they were used in the 1943-44 campaigns).

Paint Table Sunday 18 September 2022

 

I've made quite good progress on the third squad of Waffen SS today:

Assuming no interruptions tomorrow, I should have them finished on Tuesday.

3D Printing

Here's what I printed today:

I decided to print a "slice" of the Judge Dredd helmet file I have to see if it will fit me when scaled down to 90% to fit on my printer. It does, with just enough space for foam padding. Printing it did highlight a few setting issues which I'll need to address when I do actually print a full helmet. Overall, I think I might wait until I have a larger printer so I can print it full size.

Inside the slice is a bust of Old Stoney Face himself:

It's scaled down to 25%; I've got another one scaled to 50% printing right now.

During the week, while browsing on Thingiverse (a site for free 3D printing files) I stumbled across a few pieces that evoked a strong nostalgic buzz. I've printed a couple of them since Wednesday:

No, not some kinky toys. Those who are old enough (and likely British) will recognise these as props from Blake's 7 - a teleporter bracelet and blaster from the Liberator. At some point I will reprint the coiled bit and "wand" stem in clear filament - I did them in this purple to see how well they printed. I'll also need to order some DIN connectors and black curly cable to complete the blaster. I might even get some leather to do the belt for them...

Paint Table Sunday 11 September 2022

 I have made progress on the figures you saw on my workbench last Saturday. Not as much as I'd have liked because, you guessed it, I managed to distract myself...again. There's actually not much left to do on these - paint the base, add the camo dots, paint the metals and a couple of details and varnish them. They should be done before Wednesday.

3D Printing

The distraction

In my last post I mentioned that I plan, at some point, to print a full sized (OK, scaled down a bit to fit on my printer) Judge Dredd helmet. Well, I decided to do a test print of a half-size helmet to see how it would look. I opted to print it upside down as that would require much less support material.

I spent ages trying to get the support material off, but what remains seems to be permanently fused. So, I decided to do some more tests prints on even smaller versions to hone in my support settings. I thought I had them honed in, and printed another half-size helmet:

Better, but still an awful lot of fused material - I think the extra weight compared to the smaller tests was the problem. Cue a few more tests before I decided to see how well it would print in the normal orientation rather than upside down:

Left - printed without dome support
Right - printed with some dome support

The one printed with some dome support (support angle threshold set at 70 degrees) came out very clean where the support was, but around it there was some sagging - I think I need to set the threshold at 60 degrees. Or just not worry as  it won't be seen...

Of course, the lesson here is that I could have just printed the helmet upright and the material wasted on supports would have been much less than what I ended up using on all the test pieces! Now I just have to hope that, when I finally print it, the scaled down version will fit my head. If it doesn't it will just have to be an ornament.

Traveller Ships

With all that going on, I also managed to print another three 1:270 scale Traveller ships - an Armed Packet, another Type S Scout/Courier and a Vargr Corsair.

While printing these (and the helmets) I noticed that I was getting a lot of bad stringing. I knew that one possible cause was a worn out nozzle (replacing the current one was already on my to-do list) so I bit the bullet and replaced it. I also decided to replace the PTFE tube inside the heat break - I'm glad I did, as it highlighted a problem I hadn't been aware of:

It seems that the PTFE tube inside the hot end was slightly too short and there had been a small gap between the end and the nozzle. Over time, that had filled up with filament which had burned and crept up inside the hot end. Getting the white PTFE tube out was a job and a half and I knew I'd have to ream out the bore. After about an hour of twisting increasing sizes of drill bits I'd got all of the caked material out and the new PTFE (blue "Capricorn" high temp stuff) could go all the way through. With that done, I was able to fit the new nozzle.

However, I was still getting really bad stringing. I've spent several hours yesterday and today printing out small test pieces to see if changing my retraction settings might help. I got variable results. I finally concluded that it must be a problem with the filament - I suspect it might not be as dry as it should be. So, I switched out the grey for a new spool of purple and ran a test print to compare against a similar print I'd done on Saturday with the grey:

It's definitely an issue with the grey filament. I'm going to buy a filament dryer to see if that helps as I like the grey for prints as it's good for taking photographs of models.