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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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...

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 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.

Where have all the Cat People Gone?

The new group of characters going through the mill that is my campaign world The Lands of Dual contain two female Phylus, aka "Nyx and Styx the chicks from Xix."

I would love to find some miniatures to help the other players to visualise this loveable pair of rogues  but it seems like cat people are out of vogue.

Inspirational Images

Wilykit & Wilykat from Thundercats	AniPuma and UniPuma from Dominion Tank Police
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku	Aisha ClanClan the Ctarl-Ctarl  from Outlaw-Star

The Miniature Possibilities

D&D/Pathfinder Minis

Catfolk Rogue - Shattered Star #18 Pathfinder Battles	Dungeons & Dragons Miniature: Archfiends 11-60 Catfolk

Darksword Miniatures Critter Kingdoms

More anthropomorpic than I would prefer and better suited to a game like Mouseguard.

Ella Cat Rogue	Black Cat Avenging Thief

Reaper Miniatures

Cheetah Girl	Cleo, Weretigress
Kyoko Silvers Cat Girl	Tawny Firehair, Cat Girl

Alkemy (Alchemist) Miniatures

Beautiful sculpts and purrfect for the Al-Quadim inspired setting of Sankahar in my campaign world The Lands of Dual.

Dahlia ibn Malikh	Iëcha bint Sorhna

Crocodile Games - War Gods of Aegyptus (Basti)

I have to mention the Crocodile Games Basti miniatures, unfortunately the vast majority of the femle characters are a bit too NSFW for my tastes, but this pair of Basti skirmishers would work... just

Basti Skirmisher WGE-013d	Basti Skirmisher WGE-013e

Eureka Miniatures - Update

Thanks to reader Andrew who discovered these anatomically correct six breasted Bastet Cat Women Warriors from Eureka Miniatures Chaos Egyptian Range.  Eureka are based in far flung Australia but fortunately these can also be ordered from Fighting15s in the UK.

Call to Action

If anyone out there knows of any fantasy catgirl miniature makers please leave details in the comments below.  I don't want to have to unleash Edna, the Crazy Cat Lady on my players!!

Rick and Morty - Packed full of Sci-Fi Tropes

I guess sometimes I can be accused of sleeping under a rock when it comes to the latest US TV shows, but I bet I'm not the only one.  Which is why I just have to share the love for Adult Swim's Rick and Morty.

An example of what happens in just about every episode.

Created by voice actor and director Justin Roiland, who some might recognise as the voice of Adventure Time's "Lemongrab",  and Dan Harmon, creator of the hit sit com "Community".  Rick and Morty is an adult sci-fi cartoon series following the mind bending, dimension hopping adventures of sociopathic alcoholic scientist Rick and his 14 year old grandson Morty.   

A show of two halves, each episode finds Rick and Morty on some wild adventure whilst his family (unemployed ad exec dad Jerry, horse surgeon mom Beth and unpopular sister Summer) are often left to deal with the unintended consequences of one of Rick's devices.

Bizarre ideas are the meat and potatoes of this show and no trope is safe.  Season 1 has seen cyborg dog revolution, a contagious love virus / preying mantis / Cronenberg monster apocalypse, inception dream walking, alien abduction, a Rick and Morty multiverse, sex robots and alien child rearing to name just a few.

Meanwhile Jerry and Beth struggle to keep their marriage alive, as Dan Harmon puts it, "the nature of their relationship is that it's always 1 minute from ending" and Summer stives to improve her social position from "not super hot/super popular" high school girl whilst being the result of the "unwanted pregnancy" that keeps her parents together.

The language and visuals are as adult and bizarre as they can be and dialogue is often delivered at a breakneck pace in order to cram as much action in as humanly possible.  The casting is spot on from regular voice performers Justin Roiland (Rick/Morty), Chris Parnell (Jerry), Spencer Grammer (Summer), Sarah Chalke (Beth) to the great vocal cameos delivered by Alfred Molina, Dana Carvey, David Cross, Rich Fulcher, Claudia Black, Virginia Hey, John Oliver and Cree Summer.

Rick & Morty 3D Billboard courtesy of Dailybillboard

 The show is a definite must see and has been picked up for a second series scheduled to air in early 2015 along with a spin-off comic book.  The "point and click" style game "Rick and Morty's Rushed Licensed Adventure" is also available to play on the adultswim website.

With all this richness it should only be a matter of time before someone writes a Fiasco playset based on this universe and it's one setting that most definitely has to go "gonzo"... every single time.

French Space Opera - Time Jam: Valérian and Laureline

I've mentioned several times on this blog that Luc Besson is one of of my favourite directors/producers/writers and I always keep up to date with what projects he is involved with.  Back in 2012 he announced he was working on a Valérian movie, which for those who don't know, Valérian is a French graphic novel first published in Pilote magazine (Nov 1967) and written by Pierre Christin with art by Jean-Claude Mézières.

Just a few of the many aliens from the Time Jam universe (centre: Valerian and Laureline)

Besson has always been a fan of the original comicbook and so he hired Mézières and Jean Giraud Moebius to do the concept art for a little sci-fi project he was putting together which ended up being "The Fifth Element".  Besson's production company, Europacorp, also colaborated on a 40 episode anime series loosely based on the comic book, first aired in 2007.  Besson is not the only fan to be inspired by and some of the original comicbook has bled through to Star Wars.  Jeffrey Willis has a good write up of some of these on his blog The Geek Flag. 

The series follows the adventures of junior Space Time Agent Valérian, voiced by Nigel Greaves, who travels back to medieval France to undertake cultural observations for the Oxford Intergalactic University.  Needless to say his first mission goes spectacularly wrong and he ends up escaping feudal justice with a headstrong peasant girl called Laureline, voiced by Alison Dowling.  When they time jump back to 2417 they discover that the Earth has disappeared and they spend the rest of the series as the only humans in the galaxy trying to find out what has happened to it.  

The universe features a plethora of alien species, cultures, planets and technology, most notably the insectoid Vlargos who are intent on dominating the Galaxy.  Valérian and Laureline have to constantly thwart their devious plans as they ply their trade as space adventures.  One of their patrons are a trio of weird small winged entrepreneurs with trunks know as Shingouz.  Much like Star Trek's Ferenghi they are always in search of profit and end up sending Valérian and Laureline on quite a few dangerous missions to retrieve various objects. 

Their encounters often occur on weird planets that try to kill them or have been rendered dangerous by some legendary artefact they must recover and they are assisted by ship's computer "Rondha" which fills in some of the blanks for them and the viewer.  There's plenty of variety in setting and plot for each episode as the pair embark on various missions for their different patrons and they end up making just as many friends as enemies.

With the exception of the bizarre "Space Dandy", it's been a while since I've seen anything that I would class as "Space Opera".  By this I mean in the spirit of of E.E. "Doc" Smith's classic Lensman, a light hearted, galaxy hopping tour of the universe with only a laser blaster and a well timed one liner for defence.  It's pitched at an early teens audience, the tone is firmly in the "mild peril" zone, but it's good inspiration fodder for any Space Opera RPG and could be easily "hardened" up for more engaging adult sessions.  I would recommend using it as an alternative setting when you want to drop your players in at the deep end and watch them gradually learn about the universe as they play.

Cyberpunk: Appendix N - Inspirational and Educational Material

In the Gygaxian tradition here is my Appendix N for Cyberpunk, a list of the books, movies and anime which have inspired my cyberpunk adventures since first encountering it in the very late 80s.  Also available on Pinterest. 

Please do not treat this an exhaustive list of what is and isn't considered cyberpunk, these are just the things which have inspired me, I will probably add to it when I get access to the deep recesses of my cortex.

Cyberpunk - APPENDIX N: Inspirational and Educational Material

BOOKS

• William Gibson - Sprawl trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero,  Mona Lisa Overdrive), Bridge trilogy (Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties)
• George Alec Effinger - Marid Audran series (When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun, The Exile Kiss)
• Walter John Williams - Hardwired, Voice of the Whirlwind
• Bruce Sterling - Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology (Editor and contibuting author), Islands in the Net
• Ian Hamilton - Fallen Dragon
• Ian Mcdonald - River of Gods
• Cory Doctorow - Makers
• Justina Robson - Keeping it Real
• Charles Stross - Halting State
• John Brunner - The Shockwave Rider
• John Courtney Grimwood -  reMix, redRobe,  
• Jack Womack - Terraplane 
• Jeff Noon - Vurt, Pollen
• W.T. Quick - Dreams of Flesh and Sand

MOVIES

• Æon Flux (2005)
• A Scanner Darkly (2006)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Dark City (1998)
• Equilibrium (2002)
• Escape From New York (1981)
• eXistenz (1999) 
• Gantz (2010)
• Gattaca (1997)
• Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
• Max Headroom (1985)
• Minority Report (2002)
• Priest (2011)
• Repo Men (2010)
• Returner (2002)
• Robocop (1987)
• Sleep Dealer (2008)
• Southland Tales (2006)
• Strange Days (1995)
• Surrogates (2009)
• Total Recall (1990)
• Ultraviolet (2006)
• Videodrome (1983)
• Virtuosity (1995)

ANIME

• AD Police (1999)
• Æon Flux (1991)
• Akira (1988)
• Appleseed (2004)
• Appleseed: Ex Machina (2007)
• Cowboy Bebop (Series) (1998)
• Ghost in the Shell (1995)
• Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004)
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002)
• Vexille (2007)

MOVIEWATCH: Gaiking The Movie

If there's one thing that I love about anime it's GIANT ROBOTS!!

Check out this awesome teaser trailer for Gaiking The Movie, hope it sees the light of day unlike some other live-action anime projects (Akira, Gatchaman, Cowboy Bebop)