Showing posts with label Sci-Fi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sci-Fi. Show all posts

Monday 18 March 2024

Jessie's Prints - Episode 39 - Index Card RPG Card Back Stamps

This week, I are mostly been printing... Stamps!!

INDEX CARD RPG CARD BACK STAMPS - Thing 6538692

My recent foray into the Index Card RPG system (ICRPG) involved a lot of DIY card making, which I love.

However, during play this presented a problem in that all my card backs where blank and indistinguishable from each other.  What I needed was a simple stamp which I could apply to my card backs.  

I find it useful to categorise my cards into one of 4 types:

  • People - NPCs, Villains, Bio-forms
  • Places - Locations, buildings, Landscapes 
  • Objects - Things, weapons, loot, traps and trinkets
  • Monsters - Stuff that wants to kill you

This would help me to keep my ICRPG cards organized and reduce seek times to a minimum and thereby make me look like a great DM.

Tinker Cad to the Rescue

My experiments making a plaque for my Cowboy Bebop Swordfish II model taught me that this was going to be easily achieved.  

Step 1 - Make a black and white image in GIMP where black is what you want stamped and white is what you don't want to stamp.  This image is then reversed and saved as a JPG or PNG.

ICRPG Card Back Stamp - Places

Step 2 - Use convertio.co to convert your JPG or PNG into an SVG which can then be imported into Tinkercad.

ICRPG Card Back Stamps - Tinkercad

Step 3 - Import your SVG into Tinkercad and scale it to fit inside your stamp pad.  Make sure that the stamp is at least 4mm high and that you create a backing plate at least 1mm high to connect all the pieces of your stamp together.  Position the stamp so that it intersects with the backing plate and then group the objects together.  Export this as an STL for your 3D printer.  

ICRPG Card Back Stamps - Ready to Slice

Step 4 - Make a wooden backing plate and handle for each of your stamps.  If you get into ICRPG you are going to be making a lot of cards and doing a lot of stamping so this step is essential for long lasting stamps.  I made mine out of some scraps of hardboard I had laying around and I glued some pieces of old broom handle onto the backing plates before supergluing my stamps together.  

You could of course model the whole thing in Tinkercad.
 
ICRPG Stamps - DIY Handles

Step 5
- Stamp Away!! - I bought some cheap stamp pads from AliExpress less than £1.50 each and they have lots of different colours to choose from so you can have a different colour for each card type.

 
ICRPG Card Back Stamps

Buy Me a Coffee

I have shared the stamp patterns on Thingiverse, so if you like them, download them and print your own card backs.  Support the channel and please leave a tip in the jar or use the paypal tip link.   

Tuesday 12 March 2024

Chub Pearson and Denizen MIniatures

Today I learned that Chub Pearson of Denizen Miniatures passed away in January 2024.

I only ever met Chub when I was buying minis from him at various shows in the 80s and 90s like SALUTE and SELWG.  However, I was always a huge fan of his sculpts and his adherence to true 25mm scale when everyone else's minis were getting larger and larger.

Chub was also one of the first to sculpt some manga characters before we even knew what anime and manga even was.  With sculpts like these it was no wonder they made an indelible impression on me.

To show my appreciation here are a couple from my collection.

Denizen Miniatures SF29 & SF71

These two babes are one of the Cat Girl Twins (SF71) and Female Space Adventurer (SF29).

RIP Chub Pearson.

Saturday 9 March 2024

Am I Too Late to Join the Index Card RPG Party?

I have been loosely following the exploits of Runehammer for a couple of years on YouTube and I had been intrigued by the concept of the Index Card RPG (ICRPG) but was always too scared to dip my toes in the water until now

First Impressions of ICRPG

As a no-prep DM, I am always looking for something that I can get to the table in as little time as possible.  Character gen needs to be trivial and the system should be easy to pick up with a few basic concepts and a comfortable familiarity for those players of other systems. In addition the system needs to lean towards narrative play whilst having enough mechanical aspects that hte inevitable combat and magic flow smoothly and consistently.  

Index Card RPG by Runehammer

ICRPG seems to have all of this but we will need to see how it plays and how easy it is for me to DM. 

Do It Yourself RPG

At the core of the game (it's in the title) and one of the biggest attractions is the index card concept. Brandon Gillam, the man behind Runehammer is of course a consumate artist and has drawn many of these flash card images which are used in play and you are encouraged to draw your own to fit your own game concept or storyline.
 
I'm no artist so the first order of the day is to assemble a stack of index cards with images from ICRPG Volumes 1 & 2 pasted onto them.  This took a few hours which I am sure to get back when actually playing the game.  
 
I'm going to sort these into 3 specific decks; Props, Places & Monsters ahead of my first game.  
 
(DM From the Future: Keeping these decks secret from the players is quite the challenge when all the cardbacks are white.  Watch this space for an ICRPG Card Stamp set.

First Play

I played this for the first time at our recent Dragons Keep Games Day to a small bunch of players of varying skill levels.  The objective wass to run through a few scenarios and see how the players took to the system and how much time I spent looking through the rulebook.

Index Card RPG first play


I thought about pre-genning some characters to get us off to a flying start, but time was not on my side.  I underestimated how long it would take to glue 100 pictures to index cards in the few evenings I had before Game Day.  I must find a way of printing directly onto the card or perhaps use stickers.  

However, on the day character gen took about 15 minutes. I need to create a quick flowchart for those not familiar with the standard fantasy or sci-fi RPG character tropes and having multiple copies of the starter character loot table and weapons is also a must.

The players chose their minis and, after a brief explanation of how the target numbers for encounters worked, we were off to the races.  

Generating The Plot

As I mentioned, I want this game to run for no-prep pickup, so I used the cards to generate the plot.  Ths is where ICRPG really shines as a picture says a thousand words and sparks the players imagination far more than any long description can.  For those playing along at home, everything in BOLD is an index card.
 
It wouldn't have been a fantasy RPG if it didn't start in a tavern so I layed out one of the village building cards that looked tavern like and then surrounded these with four other cards North, South, East and West.  This represented the rumours of adventure that they learned from the locals whilst they were enjoying their drinks.  They didn't fancy the desert of desolation, the barrier keep or the necromancers tower so headed off East to the mountains to kill a dragon.  "Now that's what I call worldbuilding!!"

Encounter 1

Heading out along the windy road through the low hills they encountered an abandoned cart with a broken wheel.  As they pondered where the owner and horse were I slapped down a Target 10 card and asked them all to roll their WIS for a passive perception check to detect the two animated plants that were about to ambush them.

They quickly got into the action and I explained how the range system worked.  
 
ICRPG Range System

DM mistake number one was not reading up on the very limited magic system in ICRPG.  Mages start with a magic missile but the mage in the party decided he wanted to dehydrate the first plant.  As he had a spell book from his starting equipment, I said role a D8 and you can have that many spells written in your book.  Even if I had read the spell list I would probably have opted for something similar in any case.
 
Meanwhile another club member walked in so I threw him the rule book and a blank character sheet and explained the basics of character gen.  Combat was swift and decisive and it was not long before our new member of the party was discovered entangled behind a nearby bush.  He went off in search of his horse dobby accompanied by the elf ranger whilst the others set about mending his wagon.

Following a trail of foot prints I slapped down the cave mouth with teeth.  They approached cautiously as I really played up the jagged teeth vibe and they found dobby the horse inside.  At the back of the cave they found a rusty portcullis and a lever on the otherside.  The ranger ran back to the others to get help. 
 
The mage decided that casting a shrink/grow spell on one of the characters was the way to go and so a tiny halfling walked easily through to the other side.  This was another spell for the mage's book and we determined on the roll of a D8 how many minutes the spell would last for.  He rolled a 6, but I made a DM Decision that one of his other spells was a dispell.  The rogue was instantled restored back to his original size and with a critical hit pull of the lever the ancient mechanism shuddered to life and the portcullis rose.
 
Beyond the portcullis they discovered some Corridors and Stairs and I made the elf wizard roll a DEX check as he triggered a trap.  Looking above he saw a Dangling Stone Weight about to crush him.  He used up one of his spells, to stone shape the weight and the pressure plate thereby disabling the trap.  At the next corridor I told them that the corridor was bathed in a greasy red light.  I thought that they would pick up on the fact that they had essentially triggered the dungeons alarm system but sadly no.

Encounter 2

In the next encounter they walked into a huge circular room with a golden skull on a pedastal at its center.  Down went the 16 Target Card and a WIS check revealed the sleeping  floating high in the ceiling. 
 
A haste spell was cast and most of the party ran towards the pedastal but they were not stealthy and the beholder awoke firing off a couple of blasts.  DM mistake number two was not having read the monster description for the beholder which would have made it slightly less taxing to dream up some eye beam effects, "but this is not my first rodeo..."  

There was some really inventive spell play from Jason the mage and a lot of channeling of Indiana Jones.  The final encounter was quite cool as several players got blasted by various eyebeams and the players experienced the death mechanic, which was useful to know.

Eventually they discovered that the gold skull was actually The Skull of Calderon and they used its power to dispatch the beholder and grabbed some well earned loot.

All in all a very fun experience for all and a very cheap and easy way to get into RPGs or as a primer to running your very first game as a DM.

What ICRPG isn't

If you are looking for a system which has layers of complexity where you can build your character from a low level up to some mythical epic hero then ICRPG is not for you.  Character progression is in there but it will be fairly short due to the condensed nature of the game and it's simplicity.

What I Bought

  • Index Card RPG Core (2nd Edn) rules - a soft back copy (surprisingly expensive in the UK) from eBay for £23.69 delivered
  • Index Card RPG Vol 1 - 100 Cards depicting Props, Places and Monsters for fantasy games such as the Runehammer Alfheim setting.  Many of the cards in the first two sets are found as illustrations in the core rulebook.

  • Index Card RPG Vol 2 - 100 Cards depicting Props, Places and Monsters for dungeon games.

  • Index Card RPG Vol 3 - 100 Cards depicting Props, Places and Monsters for Sci-Fi games such as the Runehammer Warp Shell setting.  Cool powerloader image!!

  • Index Card RPG Vol 4 - 100 Cards depicting Props, Places and Monsters for the Wild West Horror inspired Weird West Setting.

  • ICRPG Target Cards - a set of numbered Target cards showing the easy (-3) and difficult (+3) target numbers.

  • ICRPG Character Sheet - a basic character sheet which I printed at half size to create a booklet format with plenty of space for players to scribble their notes.

  • 1000 Blank Record Card Cards (6"x4") - I needed to restock in any case as I use record cards a lot in my games.

Other Useful Resources

ICRPG Character Generator - like DnD Beyond for your ICRPG character and it spits out a nice PDF.

Monday 4 March 2024

Jessie's Prints - Episode 37 - Epic Space Knights or Holocaust Squad Judges?

This week, I are mostly been printing... Teeny Tiny Space Knights!!

After last episode's commissioned print I wondered just how small can my 3D Printer print?  In particular I'm after some power armoured troopers to fill in as Holocaust Squad Judges.

Ball Bearing Galactic Crusaders with Chain Axes - Cults 3D

You have got to laugh at the names of some of these files.  These are epic scaled minis which come in a variety of poses and helpfully in groups of 3 & 5 so printing a whole squad is easy.  straight onto the build plate they are about 10mm so I scaled them up 125% to 15mm but they were still too small for my Judge Dredd miniatures which are about 17mm tall so I upped it to 20mm.

Epic vs 15mm scale comparison

These should work well in my games and I have some cool ideas for some encounters which require this type of armoured set up.  

Painting up a Holocaust Squad

Once I had superglued them to 1p pieces and primed them, I gave my squad a quick once over with Gravelord Grey Speed Paint from army painter.  Jet Packs were trimmed in yellow and I gave each one a different coloured helmet and shoulder pad to aid in discrimination on the field of battle.

Judge Dredd Holocaust Squad 15mm

Holocaust Judges are rarely seen in Mega City One, their deployment being reserved for those extreme moments when the ultimate sacrifice is required.  Their ranks are typically made up of those Judges close to retirement or have in some way disgraced themselves in the line of duty.  This final act of service is seen as a suitable punishment or alternative to the redemption of The Long Walk into the Cursed Earth. 

Epic Scale Imperial Heavy Tank - Cults 3D

I had a copy of the original Epic Space Marine game Adeptus Titanicus back in the days of Games Workshop Large Boxes.  So I wondered, just for funzies, how well these newfangled 3D prints would stack up against my vintage epic armour.

Epic Armour vs Tiny 3D Printed Armour

Pretty good me thinks.

Now I've got to find me a decent Epic sized Mek Quake model for those BIG JOBS! in Mega City One.   

Wednesday 28 February 2024

Jessie's Prints - Episode 36 - Itsy Bitsy Drop Pods

This week, I are mostly been printing... Teeny Tiny Drop Pods!!

Isn't it just the way you wait ages for a commissioned print and two come along at once.  This time it's my work chum Gary who needed some drop pods for an upcoming game of Adeptus Epicus or something like that.  You know the one, the latest hotness from Games Workshop.

StarPorts - P.O.D. (Print on Demand) Droplets - Cults 3D

I don't really have much to say about these other than I managed to get 5 Dreadnought sized pods on one build plate and eight of the smaller unit sized pods on a second.  Print time was about an hour and a half each.

Epicly Tiny Drop Pods

The models came well supported but the packaging of the files was a bit weird.  Extracting the zip file dumped 3 folders on my desktop; a Lychee scenes folder, a supported STLs and an Unsupported STLs.  I was not expecting this and so I thought that the zip file hadn't actually unzipped.  Weird.

I always opt for supported files and as I was leaving these on the support rafts for Gary to get the full experience of removing supports 😂 I didn't bother to check if these were hollow or not.  I assumed that they were solid.  To my surprise, and as you can see in the image above, these were actually hollow which explains why they came out of the wash & cure station a little sticky.  They had actually trapped a huge amount of resin in the hollowed out sections as it effectively formed a cup with nowhere for that resin to drain out of because they print upside down.

If I were printing again I would add my own supports and orientate them so that the unused resin can drain away whilst still being attached to the build plate.  A minor gripe I know but sometimes these things matter.

Anyway, as you can see these are considerably smaller than the full size drop pod for WH40K.  Aint they cute 😃

Monday 26 February 2024

Can You buy Good Hobby Products from Wish.com in 2024?

Earlier this month I blogged about my experience buying hobby products from AliExpress in 2024, this time I turn my attention to Wish.com.

104pcs Simulation Static Grass Tufts Model Mini Grass Cluster - £4.06

My basing game has been pretty weak of late.  Trix Robot Rider needed some desert vegetation to add a little va va voom so I chose these mini grass tufts.  Herein lies the problem when you are buying stuff from Wish, you are entirely reliant on the chinglish descriptions that the vendors provide.  They often list multiple pack sizes or products in the same listing and sometimes it's hard to know what you are buying.  

The upside is of course at these stupidly low prices you can often order multiple different options all for less than the price if you were to go to a big box retailer like Hobby Craft.  If you want to try out a hobby product for not much outlay the online vendors on Wish.com are a fairly safe way to do it.

Mini Grass Tufts

These tufts are quite small and measure 5mm in diameter.  This might be what the number 5 on the box refers to.  In their defence it does say mini... 

I added a few of them to Trix's base and I really think that they add a certain something.  

Trix Robot Rider

Perhaps on a smaller miniature base they would have much more impact.  I will try to buy some bigger ones in future. 

50pcs DIY Craft Party Alligator Clamp Wire Clip - £3.74 - 3/5

I had seen GroundAffected suspend his resin parts for priming on these alligator clips so I bought a bag of 50.  To be honest the clips are not really strong enough to safely hold larger parts but for small 32mm miniatures they are going to be a godsend. 

Alligator Hobby Clips on Wires

There are obviously 2 parts to any painting jig, the thing that attaches to the bit you are painting and the thing that that thing attaches to, lets call it a base.  Having a sturdy base is just as important  

Margot Kidder Superman "Who's Got You?"

Clearly I am going to have to design and print some sort of hobby clip base or print out something like this Alligator Clip Stand by retro-stingray.

If I were buying again I would opt for longer wires as I think the ones I bought were mainly designed as table card holders.

60g Six Colour Flock Adhesive Nylon Static Grass Powder - £2.51

Wow this is great value considering a similarly sized bag of grass from a well known retailer is 3 times the price and only comes in one colour.  I now need to build a static grass applicator like Luke Towan  

Static Grass

UV Resin - 50g UV Resin Ultraviolet Curing Epoxy Resin Crystal Clear - £1.28 5/5

I have wanted to try out some of this clear UV resin for a while.  I have a large bottle of the stuff for my 3D printer but it doesn't set quickly enough when making things like pools of lava or green ooze.  This little bottle was cheap enough that I don't care if it works that well.

I am glad to report that it works really well, just 5-10 seconds under my pretty weakass UV torch and it sets rock hard.  I have a big lava base project in the works and this will be just the ticket for greating that glossy flowing lava.

A DIY Funny Wooden Sailing Boat Model Kit 1/50 Scale Ship £5.42 - 0/5

I would love to say that this is an amazing model and a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon, but I can't.  Sadly the vendor cancelled the order unilaterally.  This happens from time to time on Wish.com, often when the price is too good to be true.  

I've seen this kit on AliExpress so maybe I'll try another order... ooh a stirling steam engine!

Saturday 24 February 2024

Another 5 Starblazer Comics Reviewed

 Starblazer - Fantasy Fiction in Pictures

Yet more issues from my growing Starblazer collection

Star Blazer #187 - Mind Warrior

Starblazer #187 - Mind Warrior - In the battle to keep the warlike alien hordes at bay, the Terran Army used no end of ingenious devices in combat.  None were successful, non except the most ingenious device ever developed - The human brain...

This is a pretty average story where a crack group of Earth commandos need to neutralise the alien Zarg superweapon.  They discover that the Zarg are using a device known as the Time Gun to de-materialise asteroids and crash them into ships and space stations.

The eponymous "Time Warrior" doesn't turn up until page 40 and the book is only 66 pages long.  The plot leans heavily on deus ex machina which is incredibly lazy but does lend itself to the cliffhanger nature of all Starblazer storylines.  The hero usually saves the day by utilising some trait or technology that hasn't ever been discussed before.

Mind Warrior is particularly guilty of this in the final scene, I won't spoil it but even I had to do a doubletake.  Perhaps my nine year old self would not have been so critical... 

Starblazer #191 - Carter's Law

Starblazer #191 - Carter's Law - Frank Carter was a policeman in the huge Terran galaxy of the 32nd century.  His job was hard, lonely and extremely dangerous.  But he didn't mind - the harder, lonelier and more dangerous a job was, the more he liked it.  Carter was hated by some and disliked by most, but he was used to it.  He was half man, half android and completely mean.

This one's a gripping tale of corporate espionage as Carter and his newly appointed sidekick Dolan break every rule in the book to bring their quarry to justice.

Some top notch art for this episode which draws inspiration from news photo libraries of the day.  Repurposed images of riot gear wearing cops and a beautifully drawn ferret armoured car would have been very familiar to young readers watching news footage of the troubles in Northern Ireland.

Carter is much more dramatically posed and his dialogue much fruitier than his first outing.  Could he have been inspired by early Dredd's one liners or is he channeling Clint Eastwood as a robotic Dirty Harry?  A solid second outing for our favourite mandroid.   

Starblazer #198 - Time Warriors

Starblazer #198 - Time Warriors - They were fighting men from the past, transported thousands of years into the future, and put in a life or death situation with a technology beyond their understanding.   

A cool concept for this story.  Six warriors from across Earth history are "drafted" to fight for a peace loving alien race to save the planet Paxos from domination by the dog headed Korvans. 

The fight takes place in an Arena and like ancient gladiators each warrior is pitted in single handed combat to the death against a Korvan adversary.  Galactic rules govern how the deathmatch is conducted and the primitive warriors must get in close to use melee weapons to deal a deadly and decisive blow.

This story could have had a great twist at the end, but the execution feels like a missed opportunity and a waste of a great sci-fi title.  It's a shame because the art is pretty good especially in the early pages where the warriors are plucked moments from death.  This storyline gets recycled in the movie Predators (2010)

Starblazer #199 - Netherworld

Starblazer #199 - Netherworld - Mikal R Kayn never went looking for trouble - it came looking for him.  Involved in a simple motorway shunt, he didn't anticipate much bother.  But he hadn't bargained on the body.

Ex cop turned Private Eye Mikal Kayn digs a little too deep when he finds a partially disintegrated corpse.  Someone doesn't want the case investigated and tries to set Kayn up. 

This is a really fun story and one that could easily work in Mega City One.  I really appreciate the clean lines of Jose Casanova's artwork.  His depictions of the weird and wonderful denizens of Netherworld and of the jungle planet Babalon make this story pop.  The character arcs of Cinnibar and Rulf are never really explained hopefully later Kayne stories will right that wrong.

Kayn is a great character, taken straight from the pages of a Mickey Spillane detective novel, a futuristic Mike Hammer who wears dark glasses to protect his infra-red eyes.  I'm going to look forward to reading more of his exploits in coming issues.

Starblazer #208 - Planet of the Dead

Starblazer #208 - Planet of the Dead - Thieves, Killers and Conmen... it didn't make any difference to Borg the Bounty Hunter.  He'd hunt them to the far reaches of the galaxy and bring them to justice.  He thought he'd seen it all till he came face to face with Baal.  This evil creation didn't just kill people... it sucked the very life force from them!

This story is a weird mashup of survival horror and an oddball team up between Borg and his two captive conmen against the evil space vampire Baal.

The artwork is serviceable and the character design on point as all vampires of this era wore black cloaks with high pointy collars.  Of course space vampires don't drain your blood they drain your life force and feed upon it making them ever stronger.  

Whilst there's not much to the story, it's a long chase sequence, there are some cool looking locations, landscapes and pirate ships on wheels.  All good worldbuilding fun for the princely sum of 28p...  

Essential Starblazer Links

The Starblazer Checklist is a fantastic resource if you are collecting or want to know who wrote and illustrated each issue.

Many thanks to the chaps who run the Starblazer Covers archive, this is immensely useful resource when looking at ebay joblot listings.

Retro Sanctuary has a great article covering his top 20 Starblazer Issues which is worth a look and I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing some of these classics in the very near future.

Monday 19 February 2024

Can you buy good modelling accessories from AliExpress in 2024?

I have been playing Wish and AliExpress bingo for a while now.  It can be a dangerous game, but if you've got a few quid that are burning a hole in your pocket, there are worse ways to spaff it up the wall. 

Now this isn't one of those exercises.  I genuinely needed some specific items and thought I would put each store to the test.

AliExpress Modelling Accessories

HobbyMio Sci-Fi Decals (maybe a bit of a Gundam theme here) - £1.83 - 4/5

You may have seen my recent print of Trix Robot Rider on these pages.  I'm really happy how she came out but the robot hand is crying out for some decals.  I had a look on AliExpress and was stunned by the sheer volume of waterslide decals that are available at some extremely good prices.  Most of these are replacements for specific Gundam kits but there are some which are just generic.  

I chose the HobbyMio Model Decal Vol 1 set and I'm really impressed with the diversity of symbols warning signs numbers which come in the set.  They are a mix of black, white, red and yellow with plenty of variety to sticker up your robot.  I'll update this post when I've used some to let you know how they come out and how easy they are to lay down.

12Pc Set 21x15cm Leopard Print Grafitti Stencils - £4.21 - 3/5

When I painted the wings of my Ulimate Radical Centrist B'lakor Demon, I used an old orange bag as stencil mask to get a diamond pattern.  It was okay, but very fiddly and I had seen some of the AFV modellers on YouTube using some splatter masks so thought I'd try one.  

I think I ordered the wrong thing as these are considerably larger than I expected.  With 12 different patterns to choose from these are still very useable for bigger models.  In the set are a:

  • Leopard Spots - each spot ranges from 1 to 2cm 
  • Waves - 11 different wave patterns should look good for water effects or Chris Foss inspired shampoo bottle spaceship patterns
  • Bubbles - well I don't know how to describe this stacked bubble design.
  • Large Tiger Stripes - again very useable if you are doing a tiger striped camo theme on a vehicle.
  • Voronoi - small holes measuring 1 to 1.3cm across.  Very useable for dragon hide or interior wing patterns.
  • Square Cells - an irregular collection of 4 sided holes with rounded corners.  This is going to be an absolute must for that cracked earth look.
  • Large Zebra Stripes - same as the Tiger stripes
  • Lizard Skin - a tighter mesh of diagonal holes.  Great for any large lizard (wink, wink)
  • Squished Lizard Skin - a mesh of varying sized organic shaped diamonds large on the edge to tiny in the middle.  this is going to get a lot of use I can tell.
  • Rust Splatter - that collection of irregular shapes which the AFV guys go wild for 
  • Swoopy Curves - this is less useable in my opinion and will probably see action when I just want to define a swooping curve in much the same way you might use a french curve.
  • Large Irregular Cells - again this is likely to see use in large base texture shading.

I will give them a whirl on my next 3D printed mega project which is currently staring at me with it's five fearsome heads.

Hobby MS Small Wet Pallette Set - £3.59 4/5

I've always wanted to try out a wet palette, but they are kind of intimidating and come in at around £20 or so.  I thought I'd try out one of these little travel palettes to see how I get on.

The box measures 21cm x 7cm and has two compartments, one for the palette and the other I am guessing is a water supply section.  Included are 10 sheets of "baking paper", two absorbent blotters, a thick white foam pad and a strange square metal grill.

I will have to learn how all of this goes together and how to use it as it did not come with instructions, but I did find this video on how to use it.


I'll report back with my findings...

Postage Not Included

The total I paid for all three items was only £15.83 so that was £6.20 for flat rate shipping and delivery took just shy of 8 calendar days.

Given that a pint in a london pub in 2024 is about £10 these days I think I'll try this again.  Tune in again soon for a review of some Wish.com model making goodies.


Saturday 17 February 2024

Even More Starblazer Comicbooks

Some say I should not be left alone with eBay, but I say let's read more Starblazer...

Starblazer Comics

Starblazer #171 - Star Knight
Starblazer #171 - Star Knight - Released from a million year imprisonment, the most evil being in the galaxy unleashed eons of hate and unimaginable fury on the race he blamed - the inhabitants of Earth.  But he had to pit his evil skills against Earth ace troubleshooter - STAR KNIGHT.

This strip is a unabashed mashup of the origin story of superman and the plot of Alien.  The protaganist Rorta, is an alien cyborg warrior with dreams of intergalactic conquest imprisoned in a stasis egg by the benevolent Syran elders as punishment for his treachery.  

A million years later he is accidentally released by some space archeologists looking for alien artifacts.  Rorta goes on to capture an experimental space weapon and only the brave Star Knight, Li Opurney, can save the Earth from destruction.

This story suffers from a serious case of the deus ex machina, as both Rorta and Star Knight overcome adversity with ease deploying numerous unheard of technologies.  A hordroid; las shields, laser lances densitrax mining ships, nullgrav beams, it's all here waiting to implant itself in a young furtile imagination.  There are some weird looking spaceships that look like they jumped out of the pages of a Terran Trade Authority Handbook. (I must get around to writting a blog post about them someday). 

Starblazer #172 - Nightraider
Starblazer #172 - Nightraider - They made the Mafia look like a charity organisation.  He was the only person who could stop them.  They had unlimited credits, men and mchines.  He had one craft and three helpers.  They were the Kratos... He was Nightraider.

Let's face it Nightraider is a cool pseudonym, but when your real name is Garry Clark you need all the help in the universe you can get in order to strike fear in your space mafia adversaries. Fighting at his side are Ursa, the blind Triton navigator who can "see" using his Neuroweb helmet.  Samuro the Cygnan samurai armoured weaponmaster and Typhon the sensor operator and all round fifth wheel.

This is a fun little galaxy hopping story chasing down mafioso whilst dealing with the thorny subject of xenophobia.  The plot takes a twist about a third of the way through when it is revealed that Nightraider's own built-in arm weapon, a deadly neutron beamer, exposes him to fatal Q radiation.  The helpers must get Nightraider back home or he will die, 

I love how the writer borrows the then new fangeled "microwave cooker" technology and turns it into a deadly weapon.  I won't spoil the ending for you but it caught me by surprise.

Starblazer #179 - Mandroid
Starblazer #179 - Mandroid - He was a cop. A good cop! Too good for his fellow enforcement officers, some said.  Some others said he wasn't even human - and they were right.  He was Carter, and Carter was a Mandroid.  Half man, half android and whilly mean.

This is my first Carter story and it's a corker.  High stakes action on every page and it was a gripping read.  Carter definitely has shades of Judge Dredd and Robocop in his character and this story really lets that shine through.  The art by Enrique Alcatena is fantastic, very dynamic and full of inventive costume design.  I felt it was reminiscent of my favourite Dredd artist Ron Smith.

The story starts out as a murder investigation on a remote mining planet but quickly evolves into a tale of robot revolution.  Carter is the perfect protagonist for this story, being half robot himself means he straddles both sides of the conflict.  A classic Starblazer issue and one that comes highly rated.

I can't wait to see what happens in the next Carter storyline in issue #191 Carter's Law

Starblazer #181 - Death Trek
Starblazer #181 - Death Trek - Sergeant Wilse T Force was surly, bad tempered and hated the war.  He owanted out, and the only way he could do that was to obey orders, no matter how difficult they were.  His job was complicated by two things... a bunch of recruits he had to wetnurse through the Badlands, and an enemy commander who wanted him dead - for personal reasons.

This story feels like it is ripped straight from the pages of Commando, another very popular "War Story" title from Starblazer Publisher DC Thompson.  Our hero is trapped behind enemy lines and orders come through to evaccuate the planet.  He just has to get his men to the safety of the rendezvous point in time or be left behind.

Sgt Force and his men have to survive encounters with the strange alien life on the planet whilst being chased by the Carthan enemy soldiers.  The powered armour troopers are equipped with a host of wepons and gadgets to help them survive, but being green recruits they need a veteran like Force to keep them alive.

Solid adventure story stuff and a great read.

Starblazer #183 - The Cyborg Chaser
Starblazer #183 - The Cyborg Chaser - It was 2086AD, and the Earth was in the grip of a drought.  Only androids and cyborgs could work in the intense heat while humans stayed in their controlled areas.  The companies that manufactured cyborgs grew more powerful, until they all but ruled the world.  Faced by secrecy, World intelligence decided to penetrate the largest firm, Cyborg Corporation, and they sent in Britt the Commando, a one man army, a CYBORG CHASER.

The cover illustration brings together two great cinematic images, Max Von Sydow's Ming the Merciless as Arrigon the Head of a Andro Corp and Sean Connery's James Bond as Britt the Commando.

This is an interesting story of global domination being foiled by a super spy and perfectly fits into the Starblazer mould like a hand in a glove.  Being an anthology comic, you never knew exactly what you were getting every other week.  Unlike 2000AD or Star Lord, there was no stable of regular characters who appeared every week.  What was guaranteed were solid adventure story lines with action on every page.  

In the 80s we used to judge our action movies by their kill count, perhaps we should do the same with our Starblazer issues?

Essential Starblazer Links

The Starblazer Checklist is a fantastic resource if you are collecting or want to know who wrote and illustrated each issue.

Many thanks to the chaps who run the Starblazer Covers archive, this is immensely useful resource when looking at ebay joblot listings.

Retro Sanctuary has a great article covering his top 20 Starblazer Issues which is worth a look and I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing some of these classics in the very near future.

Saturday 3 February 2024

Scavengers Reign - An Exploration of Xenomorphology

I saw this trailed last year and, as a big fan of the art of the great french comic book illustrator Moebius aka Jean Giraud, I was gobsmacked with how similar in style it looked to many of his amazing strips.

It immediately brought back memories of watching Les Maîtres du temps (The Masters of Time) and I knew I would have to give it a watch.

Scavengers Reign - Azi & Levi

More than just a Robinson Crusoe Rehash

The story revolves around the lives of three groups of survivors who landed their escape pods on a lush and verdant planet in very different circumstances.  Many of their shipmates have not been so lucky and did not survive to reach the surface, although it is not long before you start to realise that maybe its the dead who are lucky.

The 12 episodes are a busmans guide on how to create a planet full of interesting and diverse flaura and fauna which spends all of its time trying to eat you.  Wrapped around this core survival trope are evolving backstories which explore why each of the very differnt characters chose to thrust themselves out into the great void.

Beautifully animated and biologically complex, the writers have crafted a world which has so much natural diversity and complexity in their life cycles and symbiotic relationships with each other.  This goes well beyond the simple and makes Gieger's Xenomorph look like a children's story book.  

In the same way, the individual backstories of each character are explored in detail from the venal and pathetic Kamen to the strange relationship between Azi and her robot companion Levi.  These are as complex and interesting as their surroundings.  However, sometimes I feel this is designed to lull you into a false sense of security.  Needless to say in these more tender moments their next brush with the disaster is only around the corner.

Traveller Eat Your Heart Out.

This is exactly how I remember early Traveller scenarios going back in the day.  Every scenario was an exercise in exploration and discovering new and deadly lifeforms.  I remember playing those classic double adventures like Shadows or the Chamax Plague and loving them.   


Justifiers - Out of The Mists
Traveller - Shadows

It also brought back memories of running my favourite long dead sci-fi exploration RPG Justifiers.  With only a little modification each of these episodes would make for an entertaining set of encounters for any party.

Is Scavengers Reign Worth Watching?

If you enjoy carefully crafted and beautiful landscapes filled with interesting biology then yes, absolutely.  If you want fast paced action then this is not the animation for you.  If you can imagine watching a 6 hour long Studio Ghibli masterpiece where your own mortality is repeatedly rammed down your throat in the most violent but interesting ways.  Only then are you getting somewhere close to the gorgeous grotesqueness of this show. 

It is rare for a show like this to ever get greenlit or make it past a 30 minute long short so we have to reward the creative geniuses behind the scenes and watch their show.

Thursday 1 February 2024

Jessie's Prints - Episode 33 - The Girl with the Robot Hand

This week, I are mostly been printing... A girl riding a robot hand!!

Trix Robot Rider - Cults 3D 

I found this on EthanTSavage's Cults 3D page and thought it was an awesome sculpt.

Trix Robot Rider

The aesthetic is undeniably Anime, and for me is reminiscent of the fabulous Tank Girl comic of the 80s.  Whilst the movie ranks as one of the worst in history, I am a big fan.

Trix Robot Rider

I love Giant Robot anime, my favourite being Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still.  If you haven't watched it you should it's just the right shade of bonkers to make a strange sort of sense and is a blend of diesel punk / magical superhero anime which is incredibly rare.

Trix Robot Rider

This was a very quick model to make taking me only a few days to complete.  I used a skull base which I had originally intended for my huge demon model and slathered on the old poundland polyfilla to form a crust over the skulls. 

Trix Robot Rider

This is my homage to the famous scene in Terminator 2 where the T800s are walking across the field of human remains crushing skulls underfoot.

Saturday 27 January 2024

Jessie's Prints - Episode 32 - Cowboy Bebop Spike Spiegel Swordfish II

This week, I are mostly been printing... The Swordfish II

Cowboy Bebop Swordfish II - Thingiverse: Thing 3082811

Anime fans will instantly recognise Spike Spiegel's red starfighter the Swordfish II.

Cowboy Bebop Swordfish II

This is an older file designed for FDM printing and is therefore a abit on the low-poly end of the spectrum  but it is very well put together all the same.

Meet the Parts

I opted to print this on my Resin SLA printer and I was mindful of the large size of the model.  The main core of the ship needed to be split in two using meshmixer and I took the opportunity to learn how to use the hollow functions. 

I couldn't believe how easy this was and it's definitely something I will be using in the future when I make larger objects as I reckon it saved a metric ton of resin and didn't lead to those peeling and splitting issues I experienced when printing my 3D Printed Akira - Kaneda Bike.

Cowboy Bebop Swordfish II

Sub Assembly

Once I had worked out what parts I needed and got them all printed to my satisfaction, I began gluing up the sub assemblies.

The core body and nose were split in meshmixer so needed to be joined back together.  Despite a really good print whenever I use mesh mixer I need to putty the seams.  The hollowed out core and nose also needed the drain holes filled and sanded.  I then doubled pinned the wings to this main assembly.  In hindsight I should have spent more time on this as there was a little bit of an alignment issue between the wing root and the wing itself.


The back half of the model was an utter nightmare of badly fitting airfoils and I bodged as best I could.

The cannon barrel, cockpit and reversing gear were painted using various colour shift paints and left until final assembly   

This was all given a solid black primer with my go-to rattle can matt black car paint from Poundland.

Panel Scribing and Underpainting

I knew I was going to want to try out the underpainting technique I've seen a lot of AFV modellers use to create their panel lines, but this model didn't really have any.  I dug out a ruler and scribed the aileron's and the folding wing joins with the back of an x-acto blade.  The rivet detail was simply drilled with a pin vice and a few other panel lines added.  This was all recoated in black ready for underpainting.

I used a Daler Rowney FW artists white ink straight out of the bottle through the airbrush.  I'm a pretty novice airbrusher and I have always struggled with thinning and getting the right consistency of paint and prerssure to prevent spidering.  

However, this ink added the new complication of fisheyes.  I'm not sure if it is the ink or the undercoat, but it was a real pain.  Several coats went on and some had to be wiped off.  I persevered and finally it was time to add the red coat. 

Weathering and Paint Chipping

The Swordfish is an old ship and given the meagre budget that the crew of the Bebop operate with, there is only the money to do basic maintenance.  A scuffed up worn out appearance was a must.

I use the sponge chipping method lightly dabbing some black on all the leading edges that would take the most punishment on re-entry.  This was then highlighted with some bright silver from Army Painter.

A simple but effective method to weathering whilst maintaining a clean look and not taking an age to dry.

Spike Spiegel - MyMinifactory

No model of the Swordfish II would be complete without it's pilot and the main hero of the show, Spike Spiegel.

I found a lovely model of Spike on MyMiniFactory which was a breeze to print and paint.  I think it makes a great addition to the model.  Shout out to sculptor EthanTSavage whose work is prertty amazing and scales up really nicely. 

The Base

I considered lighting this model but to be honest it was a bit of a pain once assembled.  I had a plan for routing the LEDs to the engine and the two spotlights on the nose, but I was not confident that the effect would be worth it given the low-poly detail of this model.  

I did want a modern looking base and found the perfect match in a box style frame in a thrift store.  Removing the glass and gluing the mdf backer in place proved a sturdy enough platform for a coathanger to be glued in place supported by a generous volcano of milliput on the underside.

I also took the liberty of drilling an extra hole in the corner for Spike to be glued in place.

The Swordfish II Plaque - Thingiverse: Thing 6455107

One of the more iconic graphical elements to the show is the logo.  I love the big kanji script but wanted the center to bear the name of the ship.  I found a suitable image online and modified it with GIMP.  I then converted the JPG to an SVG using Convertio and imported this into Tinkercad.  I added a simple solid back to the object and exported as an STL.  

From start to finish this took no more than 10 minutes.  You can download the STL file for free using the Thingiverse link above.

Many Thanks to...

A big shout out to Lou Dalmaso aka Aztek Dummy on YouTube.  I've thoroughly enjoyed his forays into 3D printed models and it was his channel that inspired me to give it a go myself.  

Big thanks also to the rest of the Youtube modelmaking community for giving me hours of enjoyable content over the years. Plasmo, Mr E Models, SpruVerse, World of Wayne, TrekWorks, Interstellar Modeler, Boylei Hobby Time, Luke Towan, MSPaints, Squidmar, Ground Affected, Midwinter Minis and so many more...

Sunday 14 January 2024

Mat Irvine, What a Modelmaking Legend

Whilst bimbling around on the YouTubes I came across a little documentary about the history of model kits.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mat Irvine at the Model Engineers Exhibition some time in the mid 90s. He was a gent and whilst I knew him from his sci-fi TV work, I was stunned by his impressive collection of car models.

Also in attendance at the show were a TV company looking for engineering contestants to enter into something called "Robot Wars"... Whatever happened to that?

The star for me was the Fantastic display for the upcoming movie Judge Dredd. Alongside the Hammersteinesque ABC warrior anamatronic puppet they had a Land Rover City Cab.

Judge Dredd 1995 Landrover City Cab

I think this is still one of the greatest futuristic vehicle designs ever to have made it onto the silver screen and, given my love of Judge Dredd, one model I would love to create in miniature for my 15mm Judge Dredd RPG Vehicle Fleet.  If anyone knows of a good STL pop it in the comments below.