Alkmaar, Nederland. June 2021. Things are getting better.
I've fallen into the trap of buying STLs of interesting subjects because they look good, not because I may be able to use them, or I want to paint them. Simply because they look good and are usually quite cheap when compared to a normal model. Of course, I have visions of how I could paint them, or make a nice diorama from the models, but I suspect it's mostly just to collect them because there's nothing else like them out there at the moment.
So this month will see more of these, unusual, models being printed.
First off I printed a Kobold Mariachi band from Twin Goddess Miniatures. Yep, you know, those Mexican bands of guitars, trumpets, double bass etc in the traditional Mexican costumes. But with Kobolds, instead of people.
These little dragon-like fellows are really cute with their costumes. Rango anyone?
At the same time, I also printed a female Goblin barmaid, on a barrel with her hands full of beer or a tray, also from Twin Goddess Miniatures. There are 3 different head options and 5 different options for the hands. I've yet to decide which variant I will be making.
Goblin barmaid. I'm sure it will look great once it's assembled and painted. Well, assembled.
The following day I decided to print an older plate that I'd prepared ages ago. This was for more mummies from Arch Villain Games Empire of Sands release. I'd already printed Anphotep from this bundle back in April when the mummies and other stuff failed to print. I'd decided to make Anphotep bigger this time and try the mummies, heads and weapons once again.
Anphotep and base at 115% size along with a couple of weapons for the mummies.
This was the underside of the base. Something has gone horribly wrong here. Still, I can sand it flat.
And this is the rest of the printed models. Yep, only the raft and little stubs. Some stuff was printed onto the FEP though. Only 4 of 22 items printed.
After that disaster, I changed the resin vat. Since I had two spares I brought out the original vat once more. I then re-levelled the build plate ... and waited almost 2 weeks before printing anything else. What I did print was the John Gareth bust from Loot Studios Feb 2021 release. This was printed at 70% size. I also printed a repaired Fairy Godmother from the Princesses Got Angry Kickstarter that had previously failed back in April.
Another marvellous bust from Loot Studios.
A complete Fairy Godmother from Cross Lances.
Very pleased with how the two busts I'd printed from Loot came out, I decided to try and make my own. Using some of the figures from RN Estudio's - Against the Shadows range, I selected four figures and ran them through Meshmixer. A bit of cutting and slicing and I had 4 busts that, to me, looked good enough. Because they were now busts, instead of full figures, I needed to create the supports for them myself.
With total astonishment, I went to the printer and was amazed to see that it had worked.
Limba, the Balin figure of the group.
Bomb, or as he's better known, Bombur.
Squeez, or better still, Gollum.
Gormund, who looks suspiciously like a certain Saurman.
Now when you look at my busts and those from the people who know what they're doing, you can see that they often cut arms off and have the back sloped out. I've not been able to figure out how to do that yet. But I intend to give it a go.
10 days later, I had another idea. My busts weren't as big as the regular ones. So I re-scaled the Gormund bust to be 250% of actual size. Once more, I had to do the supports myself. If this works, and the level of detail remains the same, then it should be the default setting for a decent sized bust.
The detail remains crisp and visible. You can see the smaller version in front. We have a winner.
I really like the figures from RN Estudios Against the Shadows range. They seem very close to the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films. I'd seen another designer on MyMiniFactory that had regular releases of Lord of the Rings type of designs. And guess what ... there was a sale on by that designer. So, The Printing Goes Ever On got some of my money and in return, I acquired these beauties, all pre-supported.
Elven witch bust. Now, who doesn't see Galadriel being tempted by the ring?
The very same day I set another print going.
A ranger sat at a table in an inn.
The ranger with two torches trying to fight off ... what?
Could be this dude. Some sort of dark, witch type king.
This city captain has bitten the dust.
So the first print of the month lured me into some sort of false security as the second print, a day later was a total disaster. The changing of the resin vat and the print plate seems to have resolved that issue. I was really pleased with the way the self-made busts came out. I want to do more and improve the style too.
I printed 7 times over 6 days, for a total of 54 models of which 18 were failures. The printer was busy for 29 hours and 16 minutes, the longest print being the 250% scale Goramund bust at 5 hours and 52 minutes.
Cross Lances - Princesses Got Angry