Monday, February 1, 2021

General Update: 3D Printing, Helm's Deep, LOTR Basing, SW Air Support and Napoleonic Books

I finally got around to **completely** rebuilding the extruder assembly from my first Prusa 3D printer.  A little over a year ago I had a major failure that caused all the extruded PLA to wrap up around the entire assembly.  Took many hours with a blow dryer to get it all off, cutting wires, etc.  It was in bad shape.  I opted at the time to order the parts I needed and a new printer.  I'm happy to report that I now have a small print farm working away on several models.


I'm working through printing off Helm's Deep and making good progress, especially with the second printer now online.  I also have some buildings to print for the excellent Steve Dake - so these printers will be busy for a while.

Here is a quick picture of progress.  Nearly complete the interior wall of the Hornburg.  And good progress on the tower.  A lot still to do ... easily 3ish weeks left of printing with both printers going 24/7.


I just finished assembling and cleaning all the Russian forces I need for Austerlitz.  I got a good start on LOTR basing - got a little side tracked, but getting back to this now.  

I was able to get 2 units of Rohan bowmen done and the dismounted Rohan Royal Guard with command stands for Théodred and Théoden.






Some air support for my Star Wars (Bolt Action) games has been acquired.  Dan Kerrick had more SW aircraft than he needed so I was able to get these extras from him which gives me one for each side.


Napoleonic Books by F. G. Hourtoulle.  These are outstanding if you can get your hands on them.  I constantly use these and the various Osprey Campaign books that are available when designing scenarios or looking for uniform plates (although I have far to many ... or maybe just the right amount, of books on Napoleonic uniforms).

The combination of maps from Osprey books and these books provide excellent detail on how the battles developed.


The single most valuable part of these books is the uniform plates.  There are detailed orders of battle for the armies present as well - but the books cover every unit that was present.  Exceptionally great value for wargamers.


I have all of the books in this series that I'm aware of (for Napoleonic's - other periods have books), covering Eylau/Friedland, Wagram, Borodino, Jena/Auerstaedt, Austerlitz, 1814 and Crossing the Berezina.








That's it for now --- back to the grind!

20 comments:

  1. That's an industrial strength 3D printing operation there! Love thebooze in the background, too, LOL!

    The completed figures are beautiful, too!

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    1. lol - yes sir! Can't wait to see the finished Helm's Deep model ... and modular for "easy" storing! :-) Bar/hobby station is a good combo.

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  2. Figures are impressive as always, but even more the books, must get my hands on one or two for the historical archives that is my book shelve;)

    Cheers
    Kevin

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    1. Yes, excellent books. They are still fairly easy to find ... and while some are at very high prices if you look a little you can usually find a good deal on them.

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  3. Excellent post Jay and you have been incredibly productive in such a short period of time. Absolutely concur on the H&C Napoleonic books. They are tremendous.

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    1. Thanks Carlo! I don't feel all that productive but I guess it is steady progress - and certainly better than no progress :-)

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  4. 3D printing bars, they will be all the rage with gamers in the future - drinking and printing, I like it 😀
    How are you finding painting your printed terrain pieces? I'm having a bit of an issue with some pieces and others I don't, it's incredibly frustrating - probably because of different types of filament. But the ones I do have trouble with I don't even want to try to finish because they just look terrible.

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    1. Blazing new trails here ... lol.

      Two key things IMO are the filament (I use Hatchbox PLA exclusively at this point) and the print quality (layer hieght). For Prusa Slicer I use detail or fine detail settings. The prints take a lot longer but it is worth it. For not so great prints/trouble prints the only solution I've seen is a new device for polishing 3D prints. It is essentially a box with acetone in the bottom that slowly melts the outside of the print and smooths the surface.

      Are you printing yourself or is this for models from 3rd parties? 3rd parties is a real roll of the dice in terms of what you'll get.

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    2. I have seen a little about that polisher, seems like a really good addition to the whole printing process.
      Our club owner is doing all the 3D printing so I'm not 100% sure on the filaments he's using, but that probably has a lot to do with it - I know he is using different types because the terrain I'm trying to paint is coming in different colors before I attempt to clean and prime.
      I will say he's got a resin printer strictly for figures and he's got that completely dialed in now, the stuff he's printing up looks like it's coming straight out of a retail box. It's mad.

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    3. Gotcha. Resin is a whole other beast. The drawback to the polisher is you loose some of the detail ... I think ... at least that is how it looks in the pictures I've seen. It makes sense that would happen though, since it is just melting the outside of the model.

      Fun times.

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  5. The Histoire et Collections books are brilliant, aren't they? I am a 'snap' with you in having them all. It is a shame that they went into receivership and then have focussed on magazines on coming out the other side. The good news is that Editions Heimdal seem to have picked up their mantle.
    Regards, James

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    1. Interesting, I was wondering what happened to the publisher. All of mine are hard cover, which I love. Hopefully they'll get reprinted.

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  6. It seems like you're having a lot of fun with 3D farm now. The Rohan warriors and starships look great.

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  7. Excellent stuff, looking forward to seeing your helms deep when it is completed.

    Cheers
    Matt
    French Wargame Holidays

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    1. Thanks! Closing in on 50% printed ... this model is awesome!

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  8. Is the helms deep model available for purchase anywhere? It looks awsome!

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    1. It's really hard to find because GW shut down the guy who made it and he had to redo it (looking nothing like it). Email me and I can get you something though.

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  9. Hello, I am searching for the Helm's Deep file shown in this post, but have been unable to find it. Could you point me in the right direction? Thanks!

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