Jessie's Prints - Episode 27 - Greeblies for my Mega City Miniature Storage Case

 

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

I've been working on my Mega City Miniatures Storage Case for a few weeks now and part of this project has involved me creating an printing accessories to stick on the side. Whilst these have been designed with my 15mm Judge Dredd games in mind, they are sufficiently dystopian to be used in any cyberpunk or shadowrun games.

Apartment Facades - Thingiverse 6001311

I needed a montonous series of identical facades for the front of the block.  So i quickly knocked these up in sketchup.  I made a left ahand and a right hand version for a little bit of variety and they print out in about 8 minutes on the Photon Mono X. 

Air Con Units - Thingiverse 4974429 

I didn't even bother scaling down these 28mm air conditioning units as they fit my needs perfectly and come in 4 different models including battle damaged versions.

Block Light Enclosures - Thingiverse 6012356

These simple shapes help to diffuse the light from the rice grain fairy lights I used to provide cheap and simple lighting to the block.  There is a small triangular detail at each should you wish to make these into futuristic street lamps.

Block Sign Box - Thingiverse

I cranked up the SLA printer for the first time in like forever with the express intention of printing out an enclosure which could house a string of the supercheap fairy lights I have used as lighting on my block.  The corners include recesses for magnets so that you can add different signs to represent different blocks in the Mega City.  

I keyed the mating surfaces to make gluing them together much easier  The box is self contained so you can mount it on the Top or sides of the block using magnets to add that little bit of variety.  I recommend covering the inside of the box with tinfoil to bounce the light around and give that extra punch.

Block Signs - Thingiverse: 6034749

My games mostly take place in Sector 55 and so I wanted block signs to reflect my little corner of Mega City One.  I made a blank lid which could be printed in transparent resin and either paper signs glued on top or if you want to go real fancy you can make individual models for each block with raised lettering.

These are split in half to fit on the bed of my Photon Mono 4K and I have included keyed edges to make it easy to glue them together.   

Another way to create your block signs would be to print them onto acetate or OHP paper and fix them with magnets on the outside using the alternative frame I modelled.  I've included a GIMP file in the download which you can use as a template for your block signs.

Jessie's Prints - Episode 26 - The TIme Traveller

This week, I are mostly been printing...  Steampunk Time Traveller Girl

Whilst crusing around the STL sites (as you do) for a version of the H.G. Wells time travelling sedan chair, I came across this wonderful model on the site Pinshape.

The Timetraveller by Gokcen Yuksek

Wow what a model.  It's big snd impressive and scratches that anime and steampunk itch.

This really stretched the capabilities of my Photon Mono X build volume.  The base had to be split in two and some of the months rails didn't print properly so some PLA was used to join the months together.  However, The figure printed perfectly first time and I excitedly glued her together and to her base.

She comes in 25 parts, the body and base (7), the hour ring (2), the month ring (1), a small square controller (not pictured) 1) and the year ring (13).  I resisted the temptation to glue everything together as the rings are meant to float freely allowing you to rotate them.

Gokcen has released several of her models for free on pinshape and most of them have this same whimsical steampunk aesthetic.  Don't be surprised if I have a go at one of her other models.

Jessie's Prints - Episode 25 - Efreet

This week, I are mostly been tasting...  Middle Eastern Delights

Regular readers will know that my favourite D&D setting is Al-Qadim but it was never well supported in terms of minis.  Time has been kind to the genre though and there are plenty of neat minis that can be downloaded all over the internet including. 

Efreet - Pinshape 48509

As soon as I saw this guy I new I had to print him my other two Djinn are a bit too weapony and this guy is all about giving out wishes.  I'm really pleased with the paint job on this guy and his muscles benefitted from the zenithal highlighting that I've been doing lately.

Talking of Al-Qadim, I recently acquired a copy of the Caravans boxset for the collection.  Whilst in these woke times there is absolutely no chance of WotC revisiting this setting on account of "Cultural Appropriation", I absolutely love how different it is to regular D&D.  If you are interested or have never heard of one of the best settings TSR ever came up with check out my Al-Qadim article.

Jessie's Prints - Episode 24 - I like Big Girls, I Cannot Lie

This week I are mostly been printing big women.

My foray into large scale 3D printed models continues in the early weeks of 2023 as I have printed off a series of large scale ladies.

Becca - Cyberpunk Edgerunners (Cults 3D) 

The standout character from last year's Netflix Original Anime Cyberpunk Edgerunners was of course Rebecca.  A cute little anime girl with a foul mouth and a fouler temper, Becca is the eptomy of the live fast die young aesthetic of cyberpunk.

There are a few Becca STLs out there some good, some bad but this is the only one I could find which was free.  That's why the pose is so weird but then so is Becca.

Harley Quinn (Fotis Mint via Printables)

When I heard that Fotis had put all of his sculpts onto Printables I jumped at the chance to print one out and chose Harley Quinn.

She is the spitting image of Margot Robbie and printed pretty well as a single figure with the exception of the back of her head which is nore an issue with my attempt at supports than the model itself.  The base printed seperately and I don't know what happened with scaling but it is a bit of a chonker.  This is going to be a real challenge for me to paint as I'm not very good with actual faces.

Ylenia Bloodthorne (Capritor Miniatures)

My clubmate Dan backed this Capritor Kickstarter and sent me the files to download and print for him.  This is my first foray into 78mm multipart minis and she came out okay.  I had little instruction in terms of sticking her together (hence the weird arm position) and she is so fragile that if you breathe on her she will snap.

This is part of the issue with resin printers and more specifically the resin you print with.  Sometimes a mini will just be too spindly to survive and Ylenia is in that category.  But I guess what can you exect for something so highly detailed and anatomically correct.

Jessie's Prints - Episode - 23 - OMG Akira is 40!

Today I learned that the classic Anime Akira is 40 years old.

Thanks to Katsuhiro Otomo for bringing this groundbreaking work to life and making such an impression on me as a teenager. 

Fortuitously this coincided with the completion of my 3D Printed Kaneda Bike model which I began back in July not long after I got my resin printer..

Where can I download a 3D Akira Bike Model?

Well handily you can download this model from Thingiverse

Life is a Journey not a Destination

This is a big model meauring 9 inches long and 3.5 inches tall and Kaneda is 4.5 inches tall, so too big for my Photon Mono 4K.  I had to slice each half of the bike using Meshmixer and in hindsight I should have hollowed it out because it used up a huge amount of resin.  

The sheer weight of the parts of the bike (480g) or the way I positioned it on the bed created some defects with tearing of the seat on the left side and the right rear tear drop and seat being mishappen.

It was a major job to get it all aligned and fitting nicely and if I had my time again I would probably scale this model down a touch.  I followed the glue-up with some milliput to gap fill and a lot of sanding.  I decided to reslice the control panel as the misalignment of the join between the parts was just too much for me to bear and I'm glad I did.

Kaneda came out great on the first try but I had to reprint his right hand after the fingers broke off during painting.  Kaneda is a bit low poly compared to the bike and I guess that few people bother to print the figure as a result.  Rescaling may also fix this issue to some degree but I would definitely try to learn how to smooth out those facets in blender or meshmixer.

The Future is Clear

The next challenge was to make the canopy without the use of a vacuum former.  I printed out the supplied canopy and then filled the inside with milliput.  With a screw driven into the milliput I created a sort of buck (red) which I could hold with a pair of molegrips.  I then clamped a piece of acetate (green) in my workbench and heated it up with a hot air gun (Thank you middle aisle at Aldi).  

When the acetate was sufficiently hot and drooping I plunged the buck into the acetate.  Overly dramatic? Perhaps, but this is seat of your pants modelling and, despite it being a completely sketchy process, it worked amazingly and I got a stunning result on only the second try.

It Ain't a Picasso

Painting was surprisingly pain free with the bulk of the work done with automotive rattle cans and plenty of masking tape.  Touch ups were done by spraying the paint onto a card and then brushing onto the model.  Surprising effective thanks to the self levelling nature of rattle can gloss paint.

Panel gaps were lined in dilute black acrylic and the detail work on the dashboard buttons and screens completed in short order.

Stickers or Decals?

IMHO an Akira bike without decals looks wrong so I scoured the internet to find decent images, harder than you might think, purchased some white decal paper.  You won't believe the hours I spent deciding if I would go with the poster version solo pill logo or the "Good for Health Bad for Education" roundel version for Kaneda's back patch.  I borrowed a laser printer (thanks Paul) and printed up a sheet.

What a nightmare!!! The laser copier couldn't cope with the decal paper and it made a right mess.  I briefly contemplated printing out a set on sticker paper, my rational being that in-universe these are actually stickers applied by Kaneda himself.  I persevered and managed to cobble together a set I was reasonable happy with.

The process of application was also troublesome with some of the toner coming off and the decals wrapping back on themselves.  If anyone has tips on making your own decals please pop a comment in the box below.  If you want to download the Akira Bike decals please feel free.

Final Touches

I scratchbuilt a headlight lens from plasticard and the indicators got a lick of paint.  Necessity is the mother of invention and, when it came to the mirrors, I turned to the foil inside a crisp (chip) bag.  Yes, trash went into the making of this model.

I'm pretty pleased with the end result especially given that this is the first really big model I've scratchbuilt.  There are some things I would do differently like creating two decals for the dashboard.  There are somethings I might go back and fix like adding some neon piping around the tyres.  It's never ending really, but for now (at least) I have stuck a fork in this project, I'm done.

With all modelling it's less about the finished article and more about what you learned and how you stretched yourself along the journey.  Please feel free to share links to your own modelling stories in the comments below.

Movie Modern Day Survivors - I think I fell in love

Cruising the usual suspect 3D model websites I found this collection of modern day survivors and fell in love.

Cheech and Chong

What an amazing addition to your modern day game.  A couple of lowriding survivors who just seem to have the ability to bounce through life.

Chuck Norris

You don't just 3D print Chuck, he prints you!

Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson)

If you are fighting zombies then having this cowboy fighting beside you is definitely going to increase your chances of survival.

The Lord Humungous

One of my favourite fictional bad guys from my favourite post apocalyptic property. 

Yoshi Yamamoto - Ex Sumo Wrestler and Foreign Correspondent

In Episode 18 of Jessie's Prints I printed of a couple of models which, as the Spice girls once sang...

Two Become One

This is a head swap of a sumo wrestler onto the King Pin's body.  A perfect marriage IMHO for my next Cthulhu character.  Hai!!

This was another exercise in using the Army Painter Speedpaint over a zenithal highlight.  The suit about 4 layers of Gravelord Grey and the flesh tones are Crusader Skin with my usual blend of Army Painter Tanned Flesh and Vallejo White.  Black accents are Scalecolour Black.  The base is Speed Paint Hardened Leather with a light dry brush of a couple of other Army Painter browns.

My First Resin Mini - Sci-Fi Adventurer

As I mentioned in last week's Jessie's Prints one of my first successful prints on the new Resin 3D Printer  was the insanely detailed Sci-Fi Adventurer from Loot Studios.

Over the Jubilee Bank Holiday Weekend, I painted him.

This is most definitely not my finest hour.  I became incredibly frustrated with this model which decided to snap at both the ankles and the ipad hand multiple times.  

I am not sure if this was an error in the printing or curing process, the brittleness of the resin or the robustness of the sculpt, but if a mini cannot stand up to the rough and tumble of painting then it does not bode well for gameplay.

There is a distinct difference between digital sculpts and hand sculpts.  Personally I prefer the chunky aesthetic of hand sculpts over the extreme detail and "spikiness" of these newfangled digital sculpts.  There is a certain charm of a vintage oldhammer mini over the new plastic kit warhammer minis never mind the scale creep that has occurred over the years.

As you can see I am still getting to grips with Army Painter Speed Paints and I ran out of white primer so the zenithal highlight was a bit muted.  The next one will be better I promise...

Boardgame Rescue - My Next Project - Warrior Knights

The next in my Rescue Mission series is going to be one of my two copies (if not both) of Games Workshop Warrior Knights circa 1985.

Warrior Knights is a great medieval wargame designed by Derek Carver who alsodesigned Blood Royale which was similarly released by Games Workshop two years later as part of their Bookcase Games range.

I have played Warrior Knights a handful of times but it always stood out as a great game with lots going on for each player both in their turn and in others as you strive to capture cities across the board, wage war and try to put your pretender on the throne.

To Pimp or Not To Pimp

That is the question.  There is limited scope for pimping the game as it comes with a huge amount of cardboard tiles for all manner of item , however, there are some options including:

Strongholds and Cities - The most notable game piece on the board are the stronghold counters which come in three flavours:

• Stronghold - x1 - This is your barons home
  
• City Control Marker - x14 - Some city walls to surround your
  
• Improved Control Marker - x6 -
  

Noble Markers - As you can see from the photo below these generic shields just look cheap and nasty and mine have even changed colour!!

Warrior Knights - Noble pawns, Stronghold and City Control Markers

Money - It makes the world go around and you end up playing with these tiny little tokens throughout the game.  Much better to have some nice plastic tokens that don't blow away if someone coughs.

Warrior Knights - Money - Who has time for 1/2 crowns these days!!

Trade ships - There is an exploration element to the game represented by the 4 colonies in the corners of the board.  These work in the same way as the cities on the main board and can be captured and fought over.  Getting there requires a vote in the council and the ship's progress is represented by a small cardboard counter.  This could easily be replaced by a tiny sailing ship.  

Wish me luck

Jessie's Prints - Episode 17 - Resin is the new Black!

 

This week, I are mostly been printing in resin thanks to me finally summing up the courage to dive deeply into this new technology and buy a resin 3D Printer.  My weapon of choice an Anycubic Photon Mono 4K

Anycubic Photon Cube - Thingiverse 213031

The first print should always be the supplied test print (or perhaps a Benchy) and it took 3 attempts to get this model to print.  Bed levelling or more accurately the distance between the bed and the FEP film appears to be critical when it comes to getting your print to stick to the bed and not the FEP.  I also found an article which recommends that you sand your bed to ensure that it is actually level in the first place.  The center of mine is slightly concave which must have been having an impact on the peelability.

This was actually the first resin model I ever saw printed, many years ago, and thought wow I will have to get me one of those someday...

Cute Mini Octopus - Thingiverse 3495390

I have tried to print one of these before (much larger of course) on my FDM printer with little success.  I guess it has to do with the tolerances involved in squirting hot melted plastic out of a nozzle at 200 degrees celsius.  This one came out bloody lovely and is small enough that he fits on the end of a pencil. 

Sadly, the other models I had on the bed failed to print entirely.  I think this was down to the supports I added in the supplied Photon Workstation not having a thick enough platform to ensure that they made a solid connection to the bed and so they just stuck to the FEP.  I have subsequently read that you can spray your FEP with Teflon PTFE Dry Lubricant to make it slippery.  I will have to get some of that.  

Space Adventurer - Loot Studios Free Miniature

The whole reason for me buying this printer is to print high quality miniatures for tabletop roleplaying games and so I went in search of some presupported miniatures thinking that these would fare much better.  I found Loot Studios who do an excellent bundle for $15 a month.  As this was my first stab at this I plumped for their freebie Space Adventurer who is almost as cool as Oswald the Overladen.

I downloaded the 32mm but scaled him down by 10% as I hate the GW scale and he only came out bloody lovely!!

Down loading this mini convinced me that the problem I am having with my unsupported minis is the crappy supports in the slicer software.  In the same way that I learned the tips and tricks of FDM printing, it will take time to master this new medium and its idiosyncracies.

I'll say this though.  Props to all the guys and girls out there that are busy modelling their own minis and going through the laborious task of adding supports.  They are an absolute must.

 

Next Mission is to paint this little chap and all his little gadgets.

Pimp My Game - Curse of the Mummy's Tomb

Back in the midst of the Corona Curse, I went about restoring one of my favourite Games Workshop boardgames from the 1980s, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb.  

I was never truly satisfied with the result and the ultimate goal was to have a pimped out copy of this vintage classic.

A prayer to the eBay Gods and an incomplete copy of the game was soon in my hands for the princely sum of £20.  Why, you might ask, would I part with good money for an incomplete game?  Well this one had all 5 of the original minis.  

These are much sought after "oldhammer" minis from the Night Horrors set and bought individually carry a hefty price tag of between £15 and £20 each.  All 5 minis for the price of 1 is what I call a bargain! If only I could find my originl minis...

The Pyramid of Khonsu    

Both my original and this copy had horribly warped boards and an even worse central column.  I therefore took it upon myself to model and print a new sturdier version on my 3D printer.  I modelled this in Sketchup including all the important game elements such as the start arrows, encounter numbers, pharoahs heads, ankhs and compass, leaving the way too complicated hieroglyphic frescos to someone with better modelling skills than myself.

The goal here was to balance printability (must fit on my print bed), functionality (must fit together and store in the original box) and playability (must have all the major functions of the original).  The middle and top floor plates all fit on the bed of my printer but the ground floor needed to be cut up into 4 segments and printed in batches.  I've seperated these out as individual models so you can play around

With a bit of trimming on the tabs it goes together easy enough.  

In order to print it on my FDM printer I split the central column into 3 pieces and magnetized each piece (16 Magnets in total) with readily available 5mm neodynium magnets. 

Pyramid of Khonsu - The Floors

The Floors and Columns click together

Floors stacked with the help of magnets

It all fits neatly back inside the original box

If you want to print your own Pyramid of Khonsu you can download the STL files for free from thingiverse

Tana Leaves

The quality of card stock in these 80s GW games would give the team at Fantasy Flight nightmares. It is so shockingly thin (10 thousands of an inch thick), I imagine you could use it to accurately set the tappets on a vintage car or level the bed of your 3D printer.  The tana leaves get a lot of handling during the game and so were another candidate for the 3D printer.  Given their size and relatively low number it was not too much of a chore to design and print 55 of the little blighters. 

Download your own replacement tokens for free from Thingiverse - Tana Leaf Tokens.

Attribute Cones

This new copy came with a few cones missing.  I could have purchased some replacements from eBay, or tried to find some replacements from boardgamemaker.com, but a pretty good alternative is available on thingiverse - Cone Game Piece (Games Workshop style)  They are the ubiquitous game tracker pawn used in many GW games of this era such as Cosmic Encounter which used them to represent the ship tokens.

The first outing for the game was as a special finale finale to my recent Judge Dredd campaign.  I'll write up the rules for this in a seperate article

Jessie's Prints - Episode 16 - Maxing out the print bed

 

This week, I are mostly been printing...

Ticket to Ride Trays - Thingiverse 213031

Nothing gets a board gamer with OCD riled up than having their rolling stock scattered all over.  How do you calculate your progress? How do you know at a glance if you have enough to snatch that last minute route?

Wonder no more with these wonderful Train Trays.

Judge Dredd Film Badge 2012 - Thingiverse 114711 

I am a big fan of the Savage Worlds RPG system and it's a perfect fit for my Judge Dredd RPG Campaigns (see Sector 55 Blues).  Savage Worlds uses the concept of "bennies" to effect rerolls, soak damage or to introduce a bit of player story enhancement.  What better way to encourage player engagement than with some Judge Dredd badge shaped bennies.

 

I also managed to max out my printer bed in the process... which was nice.  It's heartwarming to know exactly what the maximum available print space you have on your printer.  In my case for this Geeetech Prusa i3 Pro W it is X 185mm and Y 187mm.  Settings have now been adjusted and so there is zero percent chance of a carriage collision... fingers crossed.

Printer Upgrade Time

I've had my printer for almost a year now and I must say that I haven't been using it that much until recently.  Getting back into printing has been great but the experience has been marred by the absolutely ludicrous location and orientation of the SD Card.  On my printer it is on the back of the control board and mounted transversely. 

 

This doesn't seem like a big deal until you've dropped the SD card a bagillion times whilst trying to insert it in the slot and then had to fish around under the printer to retrieve it without disturbing the delicate karma that makes the 3D printing magic happen.

 

Clearly a first world problem but a quick scan of ebay threw up a solution in the form of an SD Male to SD Female card extension which should allow me to move the whole shebang to somewhere more esasily accessible.  I might even print a cover to go over the board now I don't need to access the onboard SD Card slot.   

New Years Hobby Resolutions 2022

It's that futile thing we all do around this time of the year.  Some people might say that this only counts if you make your resolutions on January 1st but I say stuff that I had a 3D Printing hangover...

Blog More

I am in lock down until the Prime Minister says otherwise so this gives me ample opportunity to get ahead in the blogging stakes.  My goal is to brain dump at least one article a day and schedule the posts ahead of time.  

The name of the game is short and sweet with lengthier articles in between.  This is harder than it looks though so don't hold me to it.   

Play More

My List of Games I need to play in 2022

• Block Mania - One of my Games Workshop Bookcase Games and a Judge Dredd one at that.  Do I wait until I have the 4 player expansion Mega Mania? or do I just bite the bullet and try before I buy?
  
  
• Rogue Trooper - Another Games Workshop Bookcase Game which has never been played and really should.
  
  
• Dune - Another bookcase format game this time from Avalon Hill, with the re-imagined version launched to coincide with the Dennis Villeneuve 2021 movie release prices for punched but unplayed copy have plummeted to below the price of a new version so I should really work out if this is something I want to hang on to as I don't have the valuable version with Sting on the cover.

 

• Jaws - A gift from my old work colleagues which desperately needs to be played.
   
  
• Mow - A stupid little card game I picked up in a charity shop last year.  The box goes Moo and it's by Bruno Cathala (Shadows over Camelot, Cleopatra & The Society of Architects, 7 Wonders Duel)
  
  
• Shuggy Hall Brawl - A print and play game from the pages of Warlock Magazine back in the 80s which I am currently making a 3D version of.  This will require some 3D modelling work and I ought to learn how to use FreeCAD.
  

Print More

There's no point in having a 3D Printer if you don't use it.  Plus Jessie's Prints is always in need of new content so why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone.  Here are some grail prints which I really should try and get done in 2022.

• Aliens Pulse Rifle (Thingiverse 2334265) - A truly iconic weapon from the Aliens franchise and one that needs to be on my prop wall. Wait a minute I don't have a prop wall.  Well that needs fixing.  I don't think I will go the whole hog of adding lights and sound but you never know...
  
  
• Judge Dredd Killdozer (Thingiverse 3840028) - An absolute must addition to my 15mm Judge Dredd Vehicle Fleet and a great objective or background prop for my RPG Campaigns.
  
  
• ABC Warrior Bust (Thingiverse 2568026) - Stallone Dredd rarely gets any love, but the set dressing and special effects were awesome.  I refuse to call this Hammerstein but it's a pretty iconic robot which would look fantastic on one of my floorstanding speakers.  The eyes must light up of course and it would be a good starting point for an arduino sound / IR remote project.  I promise not to use it in anger and especially not to kill off Ian Dury's character.
  
  
• 15mm Blank People (Thingiverse 1695396) - My 15mm boingers were a great start but they were let down by my pathetic sculpting skills.  What better way to learn mesh mixer than by reposing these blanks and printing them.  I could also do with some fatter fatties if you know what I mean. 

I think that's enough to be going on with right now.  If you have any suggestions of games I ought to play or things I ought to print, you know what the comments box is for.

Jessie's Print's - Episode 14 - 15mm Judge Dredd Stuff

This week, I are mostly been printing...  Judge Dredd Vehicles

Sky-Surfing Boards

Epitomised by the free thinking lawbreaker Marlon Shakespeare, aka Chopper, Sky-Surfing is one of the great comic inventions of Judge Dredd writers Grant and Wagner.  Chopper's real signature story began in Prog 545 (Judge Dredd in OZ) which chronicled his escape from custody and trek across the radlands and polluted oceans to compete in Supersurf 10.

I thought it would be a cool encounter for an upcoming scenario to have players chasing down some sky-surfing bandits so I designed a quick and dirty board in sketchup and printed some out.  I am now on the lookout for some suitably posed 15mm minis to be my sky-surfing contestants.

Industrial Vehicles 

I had been looking for some sci-fi trucks for a while and came across this neat collection of futuristic industrial vehicles on Thingiverse which seemed to do the trick.  These vehicles are originally designed for 6mm wargaming but if you scale them up to 300% they fit well with 15mm.  The detail is pretty insane for such small models and I imagine they would look amazing on a resin 3D Printer.  My printer is just a cheap SLA printer and to be honest fast and cheap printing is what I want for my vehicles.

URSA Cargo Trucks - These are sweet little tracked vehicles with a choice of boxed or tank cargo's which plug onto the main tractor unit.  Very useable with plenty of options for paint treatment to make them fit into the Judge Dredd universe.  Otto Sump's Oil of Ugly doesn't transport itself you know.

 

Bulk Tanker - Satisfying a Mega Cities insatiable thirst is a job for big rigs and this two lane monstrosity is perfect for the needs of my citizens.

Coming Soon to an Ugly Clinic near you...