Jessie's Prints - Episode 31 - The Ultimate Radical Centrist Demon Dude

This week, I are mostly been printing... A bloody great big Demon Bloke!!

Before anyone asks, my opinion on the Warhammer 40K and Games Workshop IP issue is, that I don't believe in direct recasts of currently available models. However, if you can sculpt something that is an homage to an existing IP or if the original miniature is out of production then I say it's fair game.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all.

The Ultimate Radical Centrist - Cults 3D

I can't remember how I managed to find this model but I'm bloody glad I did.  I don't play WH40K or typically use many demons in my own RPGs, but this was a love at first sight sort of thing.

Printing the body parts on my relatively small Photon Mono X was easy.  However, his wings were a challenge and I had to once again turn to meshmixer in order to slice them in half and even then they only just fit onto the print bed.  Even though the flat mating surfaces were printed flat on the build plate a good deal of sanding was required to join them together.  the discrepencies were filled with milliput original to make them seamless and whole again.

I wanted the wings to be detachable for transport and so I pinned them with coathanger wire.  Unfortunately they were so heavy and unbalanced that one pin made them rotate so a second finer pin was added.  If I were to do this again I would seriously consider adding some mini magnets.

The included base was insufficient for this quite top heavy model and so I printed a circular one on my FDM printer.  A square socket was carved out and the original base epoxied into place.  This was then covered in my go-to basing medium poundland wall filler.

Painting 

Painting was a game of two halves.  The body got the traditional zenithal, airbrush base colours, washes, highlights and dry brushes treatment.  For the wings I wanted something "Draconic" so I primed in black and then a layer of gloss varnish on the outside of the wings.

The outside surface is curves and I managed to stretch an old orange bag (the plastic mesh netting type) and used this as a mask.  This is the same technique that the Kustom car painters use when they paint the roofs of lowriders using lace table cloths.  I decided to go with the orange to violet colour shift paint from the Valleho "Space Dust" set.  

This was a great base but needed a silver highlight at the top edge to pick out the scales.  In hindsight using the gloss layer was a mistake.  It was a nightmare task to pick out the top edges of the colourshift in some parts of the model due to the reflected light 

The inside wings got a more muted leathery treatment with progressively lighter shades of brown through the airbrush and the finger spines were left darker.

Playtime 

Since printing him, he has debuted as the big bad in a game of Dark Heresy RPG at Hobbits Hole Roleplay Club.  I'm sure that he will also make an appearance towering over the streets of Mega City One in a prog in the not too distant future...

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.

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.

Goodbye 2023... You will not be missed... mostly

All in all 2023 was a pretty fucked up year but there were a few highlights for me.

My Collection

I added a few RPG things to my collection this year including:

• Caravans (Al Qadim) - One of the missing campaign box sets for my favourite D&D setting and getting rarer as every day passes.
  
  
• Citi-Block Floorplans for Judge Dredd - Completing my Games Workshop Judge Dredd collection has been a long awaited event.  Now Sector 55 can grow upwards.
  
  
• Flotsam: Adrift amongst the stars - A little indie RPG by Joshua Fox which has quite a cool refugees in space vibe going on.
  
  
• Cairn RPG - An interesting mini RPG which should be perfect for those inbetween sessions when the regular DM can't make it.  I also picked up the Cairn Bestiary to populate the forest with some pretty cool old school monsters.
  
  
• The White Box RPG - An OSR inspired mini RPG which looks like it might be a great first introduction to OSR roleplay.  
  
  
• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master - I've been a long time follower of Professor Dungeon Master who highly recommended this tome of DMing Shortcuts, Tips and Tricks.
  
  
• Cthulhu's Vault - Not an RPG per se but a story telling card game of two halves where one player gets to become an Elder God and fight the other players to the death.  A lot of fun. 
  

Kickstarters Backed in 2023

• Ultracryl Paints - I just liked the look of these paints and  wanted to check out the ultra pigmented neon colours. 
  
  
• Tiny Epic Cthulhu - I have been a big fan of the Tiny Epic series of games since I first played Tiny Epic Galaxies back in the day.  I backed this without hesitation as there is definitely a space in life for another 

Movies I Enjoyed

Whilst Hollywood imploded upon itself this year, I got to see a few absolute gems: 

• The Dungeons & Dragons movie was a pretty good experience all round and whilst it is a shame that it didn't do more business than it did, I firmly expect this to be granted cult status and have a long life on streaming sites.
  
  
• Sisu - A goldminer makes a big score in Lapland and all he has to do is get from the mine to the bank in one piece.  In his way are a bunch of Nazis who are hellbent on capturing his horde.  Bloody good fun if you like a Tarantino style revenge movie or are a fan of Scandinavian movies.  Axsel Hennie doesn't dissapoint as the evil SS captain 
  
  
• Renfield - Who could pass up the combination of Nick Cage and Nicholas Hoult.  A popcorn movie which sheds a new light on Dracula and his man servant.
  
  
• Blood and Gold - If you enjoyed Sisu then you will love Blood and Gold which has a similar premise.
  
  
• They Cloned Tyrone - John Boyega stars in this made for Netflix sci-fi movie.  Done in the best possible low budget blackploitation style it's a really good story with an epic twist.  I really hope to see a sequel.
  
  
• Day Shift - Jamie Foxx lives a double life as a gardner come vampire hunter in modern day LA.  Good fun and a welcome antidote to the likes of The Walking Dead.
  
  
• Rebel Moon: Part One - A Child of Fire - I'm not a Zack Snyder fanboy but I thoroughly enjoyed this sci-fi version of The Seven Samurai.  Very watchable and I can't wait for part two where hopefully the world building will continue and we will get much more of Jimmy the robot.
  
  
• Glorious - If you enjoy strange tales of with strange premise you will love Glorious.  Effectively a one room play if your room is an out of the way roadside rest stop with a glory hole.  Full of twists and turns and epic bait and switch, so don't be afraid, watch it today.
  

Games I Played at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club

2023 saw the club continue to grow with a steady influx of new players and our future is looking very secure indeed.

• The Rivenlands - 2023 saw the culmination of this homebrew D&D 5e campaign which was an epic adventure for all.  The fun will resume in part 2 where we descend into Hell to retrieve our fallen comrade Derek.
  
  
• Delta Green - I haven't played this modern interpretation of Cthulhu in years and Mark did not dissappoint.  Some weird AF, X-Files inspired alien shenanigans occurred and I set the club record for having two characters die in the same session!!
  
  
• Where the Monsters Come From - A change of pace was in order as I joined our younger roleplayers band of misfits as Freddo the Frogling. Whilst we have not yet completed our epic quest to prevent the Arch mage from destroying everything to summon his demonic master, it has been a riot. 

Sadly I was unable to attend the Manic Tournament this year but well done to Josh who picked up the trophy.

The Nadir of RPG

As I get older I get more and more immune to being triggered by the manufactured "panic" which seems to be the currency of social media.  However, even I could not ignore some events.

The OSR Scandal which consumed social media in early 2023 until WotC realised they had just alienated their audience of both players and publishers. The jury is still out on whether WotC are going to see a resurgence in good fortune when they release the next edition of D&D and players buy into the new online experience.  I have it on good authority that the VTT is very IRL play inspired but as I do all my play IRL can I be bothered to subscribe to play the new version of D&D when 5e works well enough?  

I'm old enough to have gone through a few edition wars in my lifetime and know that whatever happens I will still be able to play great fantasy roleplaying games.

The Hasbro Lay-offs left a sour taste in the mouth with just 2 weeks to go before Christmas but I am sure that the talent will rise to the top and we will see a raft of new RPG projects and imprints as a result.

Jessie's Prints - Episode 30 - Mr.Blobby

This week, I are mostly been printing...  Blobby Blobby Blobby

Mr Blobby - Digital Taxidermy

As soon as I saw this model I had to have it.  For those of a certain age growing up in the UK our childhoods were indellibly etched with the presence of Mr Blobby.  Spawned by a creative monster he graced (or rather bumbled) onto Noel Edmond's House Party on Saturday evenings circa 1996.  This was a time before streaming and there wasn't even channel 5!!  Options were limited and most people flocked to the most popular variety program of the day.  

Sadly Blobby could not be contained in just a 1 hour TV slot and soon there were comic books cartoons a pop song and Blobby took over the UK.  Of course this stratospheric rise to fame took its toll and overexposure led to a meteoric collapse in Blobby's popularity.  

Needless to say this makes him ripe for a Judge Dredd appearance.  I imagine that the residents of the Noel Edmond's Annex of Thatcher Block (Sector 55) are itching for a House Party with those Smurfs from the Jean Claude Van Damme block.

These are multipart minis with lots of options for arms and weapons.  I printed some test pieces at 15mm and realised that I was going to have a hella fiddly time gluing individual arms on the blobby bodies.  I resorted to loading the files up into meshmixer and created 10 different poses which I could then print en masse at 15mm scale.  Meshmixer For The Win!! 

Zorg Industries Wall Art - Thingiverse:4815231 

To further embellish my Mega City One Miniature Storage Block I thought I would add a couple of signs which can be magnetically attached to the side or top of the case.  This wall art was perfect when scaled down for miniature use.

Mulder & Scully - Maco3D

A commissioned print for my Dragon's Keep Roleplay Club chum Kat.  We are currently playing in a Delta Green (Cthulhu meets the X-Files) game as special agents and being the world's biggest Gillian Anderson fan there was only going to be one FBI agent she wanted to play.  

I was a little dissapointed that these models came as rar files and when opened I could see that they were designed in a statuette scale for multipart printing.  They are both very nicely sculpted and I managed to support the files easily enough.  Mulder also came as a one piece print and Scully came as a two part print with options for skirt or trousers which was also very nice.  I would have preferred a complete model in both skirted and trousered versions making it easier for 28mm printing but this is a minor gripe.

However, the biggest problem with scaling statuesque prints down for tabletop games is that they are anthropomorphically correct.  This means that they have spindly ankles, wrists and gun barrels which snap off at the slightest glance.  To try to combat this I made them 5% bigger in the X and Y dimension in the hope of fattening and strengthening them up.   

As you can see they don't look at all overweight.

Jessie's Prints - Episode 29 - Killdozer - Goes Anywhere Kills Everything

 

This week, I are mostly been printing...  THE KILLDOZER

Killdozer / Landraider - Thingiverse: 734066

The quintissential Cursed Earth chariot and a must print for my 15mm Judge Dredd RPG games.  This multi-part model is an excellent sculpt but originally intended for FDM printing.  I scaled it down by 50% to fit perfectly my 15mm Lawmen.

Those of you familiar with the history of this iconic comic car will know that it was part of the Matchbox Adventure 2000 range and came in Avocado Green (1977-79) or Metallic Blue (1980-81),  Neither of these colours befit the Justice Department of my youth and so I went for a Dark Blue with Yellow and Red accents.

I don't know what it is about airbrushing blue but I just don't seem to be able to find the right blue.  I did get to try out some of my colour shifting space paints from vallejo on the turbine and exhaust which was nice.  I think I need to airbrush an entire vehicle to get a really good idea of how they might work.

Justice Department insignia greeblies were sculpted in milliput and the windows got the classic Car Wars wasteland reflection treatment.  You can find my poster art in my Judge Dredd mini posters collection