Week 24 - Steaming Along

Man, 3D printers are fun. Now they aren't perfect, definitely, but you can still do some pretty cool stuff with them. This week I printed up a Tie Interceptor and a Dominion Cruiser. So far the prints look pretty good. There are some patches where the material didn't fill, I suspect this could have been because of the speed I printed it at. But for a modeler this isn't a serious problem and can be easily repaired. Both of these models would have cost me quite a bit to get otherwise and they barely made a dent in my first spool of filament. This could be a viable alternative to buying Firestorm Armada ships, for example. Time will tell at any rate. I will give them a tidy up in the coming weeks and a coat of paint, you guys can judge as to how good they are for yourselves.

I also managed to finish up 3 more Arcanists this week, leaving me just 4 more to have a finished set for Malifaux. These are the more detailed models though, so are going to take some time. As the middle of the year is rapidly approaching I'm fast running out of painting backlog. I need to ramp up my painting pretty soon, or I'm going to start falling behind!

Day 165
186/165 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 10
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 11/11
Paint all DZC Scourge - 36/36
Paint all Directorate - 44/44
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs. - 4/4
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 68/83
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 12/16
Build and paint all Deadzone Enforcers - 0/34
Build and paint all Deadzone Plague - 0/21

Week 23 - Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.

Another slow fortnight, I just wasn't really in the mood or able to get much done. I did have a great time up at TCOW last Sunday though. Learned a lot more about playing DZC and have a better understanding of the game now. I did manage to paint up 4 new Scourge models in the last week though, pictures below.

Aside from that I did get my new shiny toy, a 3D printer! Its not very big or terribly flashy but I have been having fun tracking down 3D models I want to print, including the classic companion cube from the Portal series. Pictures below.

So the printer is quite tiny and works best with PLA. This limits some things but so far looks to be working well. The first cube came out pretty well I think and took about 90 minutes, I will give it a paint up in the next week or so, I am cautiously optimistic that it could be used on a gaming table quite easily. I've got another on the printer as I type. The printer has so far set me back $820, almost half of that was shipping and taxes. After meeting a guy who sells 3D printers at Auckland Armageddon I now know I could have had a less experimental model for about the same price, 6 months earlier. But now I know. At least I should be able to use him as a supplier for filament.

I've also managed to sell some of my Relic Knights, as a nice little bonus.

Day 158
183/158 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 10
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 11/11
Paint all DZC Scourge - 36/36
Paint all Directorate - 44/44
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs. - 4/4
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 68/83
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 9/16
Build and paint all Deadzone Enforcers - 0/34
Build and paint all Deadzone Plague - 0/21

May Loot Review

For Mays loot review I received a Loot Crate and the new Comic Block from Nerd Block. Pricing structures below:

Comic Block - $14US/month + $10US shipping = ~$32 NZ
Loot Crate - $13.37US/month + $16.52US shipping = ~$41 NZ

The Comic Block:

A Simpsons Shirt, Marvel Secret Wars #1, DC Convergence #1, Mythic #1 and a Batman print.

The Loot Crate:

A Power Rangers Shirt, Bravest Warriors comic, Mad mini mag, Avengers car decal, shoe laces and ice tray, Rick and Morty puzzle and team fortress badges. And the usual Loot Crate badge and mag.

This Loot Crate had some great stuff, the wife loves the ice tray, the shirt is cool and I quite liked the badges. I'm not really into Mad magazine and this month the Looter badge had 2 variants, which bugs my collector senses. There is nothing in this one that I wont get use out of which is always good.

The comic block wasn't too bad. The comics were all decent choices and a good read, the DC and Marvel ones are limited edition covers too. The shirt is good, far better than some of the ones in sister blocks past. The Batman print is nice too. The main problem I have with the block is that I'm not sure how well it will hold up over time. There can only be so many first editions available and coming in part way through a story would really bother me. I was also disappointed that the first block contained an unsigned, not numbered print. A random collectible would have made this block perfect. Value-wise this just doesn't compare to the Loot Crate (for just a $9 difference) and I could buy the comics for ~$20, less for digital copies. I've dropped this crate for these reasons.

Loot Crate - June theme is Cyber