Alkmaar, Nederland. August 2021. Ups and downs.
Lots of printing this month. Well, it seemed like lots of printing. And given that MyMiniFactory had over 150 designers in a sale where you could get up to 50% off the normal price, I suddenly had an awful lot more stuff that I could print.
I started off printing some more witches. A nice Pirate Witch on a broomstick (what else) from Bite the Bullet, and a complete Witch's Room, including a witch, from STL Miniatures. Unfortunately, the supports failed on the cauldron from the Witch's Room, leaving an amorphous blob at the bottom of the vat. I hate cleaning out the vat. However, this was not going to be the last time I did it this month.
Dorotea, the Pirate Witch. Not the ... exotic version.
My next print run was over a week later. Having a failure and needing to clean the vat sort of deflates me so I need time to recuperate. This print was a retry of the cauldron with some of my own supports added to try and prevent it pulling away from them and a rather nice 'Wyrmling' bust from Loot Studios July release - It's Another Trap. I'm really getting to like the busts from Loot. Lots of character and detail in them.
Lots of nice details on this bust.
Since the last print didn't fail and didn't take forever I was able to do another print run. This was another pair of Loot Studios busts, one from July's - It's Another Trap and the other from August's - Toll Collectors.
Alexandra, from Loot's July release.
Harold from Loot's August release.
Having had success with the Loot busts, in reality, I've yet to have one fail, I proceeded to print the rest of the Witch's Room. This was the fireplace, the base, and a wooden base for the witch. All printed perfectly.
The Witch's Room, featuring a pumpkin, bottle of poison, chair, book stand, fireplace, rock base, and cauldron. The cauldron here is the retried version.
The same day I printed some unusual animal models. These were from a designer called Manuel Boria and were of Elephants and a Giant Turtle.
An elephant mage.
Too many deep-fried Mars bars.
Turtle Wizzard, I think.
The following day, I ran another two print jobs. I scaled up an Autumn Baby Dragon by Dracokiro to 200% so that it would be easier to paint. I also printed a nice Anubis coming out of a sandstorm by Rocket Pig Games and a couple of Loot Studio's items, one a waitress for use in my tavern and the other a cupboard that I shall use in the Witch's Room.
A baby Blue Dragon on a bed of autumn leaves.
Loot's tavern waitress from their Tavern welcome pack.
A cupboard with stuff in it from Loot's February release - Granny's Prophesy.
I have quite a few dragons in my collection of designs and my youngest asked if I'd print one for her. She picked out a really nice Adult Red Dragon from Lord of the Print. Now, this thing was a beast, literally. Fortunately, the model was split into pieces and all the pieces were pre-supported. I had an inkling of what was going to be involved, but even that was out by an order of magnitude. So on the 15th of the month, I began my journey into madness.
The first print was of part of the left-wing and it had a couple of spikes missing, nothing that couldn't be repaired with normal modelling skills and kit. The following day the tail was printed without a problem. The next day another print, this time two parts of the right-wing. There was a visible line on both wing parts. Not sure what caused it, but it was something I would need to keep a lookout for. On the fourth day of printing, I had the left-wing main part on the build plate. Only it didn't stay there. After over 8 hours of printing, the wing detached from the supports falling into the vat where it swam around messing up everything until I came into the garage and noticed.
Various pieces of the Adult Red Dragon.
The following day was spent cleaning out the vat and seeing what the problem was. The supports are incredibly light, and the wing is quite tall, so I guess the flimsy supports were no longer able to hold the weight of the wing and so failed. I would need to add some beefier supports to the file before trying again. Since I had quite a number of self-made busts, I decided I needed some plinths to display them on. I got some nice designs free from Ogareg Miniatures and then altered them slightly for my own take on what I needed.
Various sizes and shapes of plinths for my self-made busts
My last print session of the month was one with a whimsical theme to it. I printed the sleeping dog from Loot's Tavern set, a free Alligator Loki from Krloz Ortega, and a couple of new takes on The Mandalorian. These were Damno the Dwarf Bounty Hunter and Bobba Baggins the Halfling Bounty Hunter. Both of these are from One Gold Piece and are free.
Sleeping dog on his bed while a rat is eating his food.
Fresh from his starring role in Loki the TV series, it's Alligator Loki
Dwarf Bounty Hunter Damno with the child.
Bobba Baggins.
I had 13 print runs spread over 10 days, for a total of 45 models and 4 failures. The printer was busy for 77 hours and 24 minutes, the longest print being 9 hours and 20 minutes for the Adult Red Dragon left-wing part (and that had a couple of spines missing). I hope to have the rest of the dragon parts printed by next month.
Dorotea the Pirate Witch - Bite the Bullet
Witch's Room set - STL Miniatures
Adult Red Dragon - Lord of the Print
Display Plinths - Ogareg Miniatures