Smooth, like a baby's bottom

 

Here are a pair of FDM-printed 15mm (1:100) Hummels. (They're the models I was sure I had already printed but could not find, and then I found them after I printed another one.)

• The one on the right has been primed, but otherwise it's just as it came off the printer.
• The one on the left has had its big side plates smoothed — I gave them a rough scrub down with a sanding stick so all the peaks of the ridges are at a consistent height, then painted on some UV resin to fill in the valleys, cured it and fine-sanded the surface.

Models like this, with very large flat areas, really suffer from the FDM layering process. Fortunately it is fixable, but though the process isn't enormously arduous, it's not something that I'd want to have to do all the time. It starts getting pretty fiddly on smaller panels or in more constricted areas, so I'd stick to the most obvious panels, the ones on which the layering ridges stand out most to the eye.

Unfortunately, a side effect of this smoothing process is the loss of any shallow surface detail — you can see that the smoothed one on the left has lost the vertical seam in the middle of the plate, and the canopy eyes along the top edge. The seam can be pretty easily re-engraved, but I don't think I'll bother with recreating the eyes. 

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A bit later on...

I've begun the painting process, and I think the extra effort of smoothing those big side plates is well worth while.

Elsewhere, where there are lumps and bumps and details to distract the eye, it's not so necessary. 

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And even later on...

All done, with a couple of crewmen added.

It ended up a bit filthier than I intended, but never mind. 

Dark Sun (AD&D2e)

 

I've been indulging my curiosity about this TSR-era AD&D2e campaign setting from back in the day. It was originally published in 1991, and it was later updated in 2010 for use with D&D4e (shudder). WotC have stated that they have no intention of adapting it for 5e, due to its "problematic" elements.

I've known about it for a very long time, but I've never actually looked at it in any detail. So I got a PDF from DriveThruRPG and took a flick through it, and watched a video about its development on th'YooToobs.

From what I see of the original AD&D release, it looks like a very interesting setting, and I may well steal bits and pieces from it. However, I'm unlikely to ever run a dedicated Dark Sun campaign, for two reasons: 

1. It's pretty fucking bleak and depressing. It's like they said to themselves "lets make a new D&D world, but make everything absolutely awful" 
2. And also, I doubt very much that our roleplaying group would enjoy it very much. They humoured me for a while with a brief Call of Cthulhu campaign, but then indicated that they would prefer not to repeat the experience. 

Dark Sun has a lot going for it; it's a magnificent piece of world-building. But it's not a setting that encourages being very heroic. 

Enamel Washes

 

I've been trying out a couple of AK Interactive's enamel washes/colours.

They have the advantage that you don't have to mix any colours, so there's easier consistency, but otherwise I don't see any benefit over old-school oil washes (oil paint thinned with white spirit), which are both cheaper and more flexible. Plus, the AK enamels' working time is less than with an oil wash. 

I doubt that I'll be using the two that I have very much, and I won't be buying any more. 

Marder 1 (Lorraine)

 

I started work on this model, a German WWII Marder 1, quite some time ago. But then I forgot all about it, until I happened upon the beginnings of the project a few days ago, and finished it off. Working on the digital file zoomed in all the time, it was easy to lose track of how small these vehicles were.

I've put the STLs online at https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/mojobob_hoochyman_marder_1_lorraine_ 

I did a test-print this evening, which was mostly okay, though there are a couple of things that I think might need attention.

 

The main issue is the gun shield:  printing at the angle I did meant that it was lying pretty flat to the platen, and I got some delamination and distortion at the corners. I think it might be best to detach it and print it as a separate component.

Nashorn Crew

 

I like to include some crew figures in my little 15mm (1:100) model tanks, both to give a sense of scale, and also so that it doesn't look like a bunch of autonomous robot machines tootling about on the wargames table.

I think the Nashorn actually had a crew of about six, but any more than these two in the fighting compartment would be unfeasibly crowded, so these guys are symbolic of the crew rather than actually representative of it as a whole. 

I kitbashed these figures from a bunch of others. The main bodies came from 3dBreed, but things like hats and helmets and shells and so forth I made myself and added to the cut-up original figures. They were printed on my Mars Pro resin printer.

Arrrr, me hearties!

 

I've been kitbashing some STLs from various sources to create some crewmen for my German SPGs, and printing far more than I need.

Which is a good thing, because the print failure rate has been pretty high, and in every case it's because one of the legs hasn't printed, leaving the figure with an amputation at the knee or hip.

Yesterdays lot, a variety of figures, rendered me about 50% usable figures. Today I did a whole platen of duplicates of just one figure, and that returned 13 out of 20 fully-formed little men. I've been, if anything, over-supporting the prints, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to where on the platen the failures occur.

I don't really know enough about resin printers to know for sure what's what, but I guess I'll try replacing the FEP and re-leveling the machine. It's a pain, but it might work.

Nashorn #2

 

Nashorn No.2

This is another model I printed quite a while ago on my Ender 3. Compared with similar prints from my Mars Pro, the FDM layer lines stand out like dogs' balls.

I've painted this one in a three-colour scheme suitable for  Kursk or Normandy or Bagration or later. 

I have to do some crew for it, as I do for the earlier Nashorn and the Hummel I completed recently. 

Hummel (15mm)

 

This is a 1:100 (15mm) model of the German 150mm SPG Hummel (Bumblebee), a 15cm gun-howitzer mounted on a PzIV chassis.

I've painted this one for North Africa, but it would also do for Italy. 

I still have to do some crewmen for it (and for some other models as well), and they're in the pipeline. 

Hummel WiP

NOTE: photos will be displayed from newest to oldest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5) Initial dry-brushing, plus an oil-wash and some streaking.

4) I'm painting the Hummel for North Africa and/or Italy.

Primed in dark brown, then a base coat of VMA Yellow Brown, and panel-shaded with VMA Camo Brown.

3) Primed overall dark brown. This is a 50/50 mix of red-brown and olive-green Vallejo Surface Primer.

2) Printing did not go entirely smoothly.

The body and superstructure both printed on my Mars Pro in resin without issues, but the running gear component absolutely would not work, even with several changes of position and orientation.

I ended up having to print them on my Ender 3 in PLA, and in fact they're not too bad.

1) Ages ago, I took someone's existing Hummel model (I think it was Zac Kuvalich, though I'm not sure) and split it up for ease of printing.

However, I don't think I ever actually printed it, which surprises me. I've looked all over the place, but I can't find a printed model anywhere, so that's my printing task for today.

Nashorn

 

I've been rummaging in amongst a bunch of stuff that I 3d printed ages ago and never got around to painting, and one of them is this 1:100 (15mm) WWII German Nashorn SPAT, also called Hornisse. It was a very potent anti-tank weapon, with the long L71 88mm, but it had a real glass jaw, with very light armour. It was intended for long-range sniping rather than mixing it up with other armoured vehicles.

 I'm not sure who originally designed this model, though I think it might have been Zac Kuvalich (TigerAce1945 on Thingiverse). I took his model and cut it up into several components to ease printing, but not until after I printed this one, which was printed in one piece on my Ender 3 FDM machine.

I've painted this one in a scheme that would be suitable for Italy. 

ADDENDUM

 At about the same time I did the Nashorn, I also cut up the accompanying Hummel model.

I thought I had printed it, but having looked all over the place, I haven't been able to find it, so I guess not.

 Now I've done some initial printing, and the body and superstructure both printed fine, but the running gear components need a bit of tweaking.

 I printed the body and superstructure just fine on my resin printer, but I absolutely could not get the running gear components to print successfully on that machine. So I had to do them on my FDM Ender 3, and though not as crisp as the resin, I think they'll do fine.

Assembled and primed

 

 

Cheap and Easy Improvised Lighting Stage

Lighting stage setup #1

Raw camera result, no editing

For most people's needs, an expensive lighting stage setup is not necessary for model photography.

Here I'm using a cheap $20 rechargeable batwing LED light as a diffuse overhead light source, balanced on a pair of wooden bookends. The background is a texture I printed on my desktop printer — it's held in place by a pair of 3d-printed clamps, but it could be easily arranged and held in place against a book or something with a couple of binder clips.

In this first photo, the light is directly above the subjects, so there are some very dark shadows below. These could be mitigated with the use of a strategically placed reflector, but a simpler method is just to move the light a bit.

Raw camera result, no editing

Lighting stage setup #2

In this second photo I've just moved the light forward a bit, so it fills more of the lower areas of the models. They could still benefit from the use of a reflector, but the results are a lot better. 

You could tinker with the exact light position and height, and adding reflectors and what-not. You could swap in a textured or plain background sheet of your choice. Once you have the setup exactly to your liking, it's the work of a couple of minutes to get set up again, and you can photograph to your heart's content. 

Total cost of this setup was the twenty bucks or so I paid for the batwing LED torch, which has a multitude of uses aside from miniature photography. Everything else I had lying around, or could produce by my own efforts. The LEDs produce a very white light, close to daylight in wavelength, so there's little need for colour correction in the photo editing app of your choice (I use Affinity Photo).

The models are a pair of giants by Duncan Louca, printed in FDM on my elderly Creality Ender 3. 

Goblins Pretending To Be A Wizard

 

This is a 3d print of a model I got from somewhere, sometime.

I'm not at all sure who originally designed it. Possibly Miguel Zavala, but I wouldn't swear to it.