Tuesday 20 September 2016

3D printed walls

Just over a year ago, I bought a 3D printer (a Dreammaker Overlord Pro, through its Kickstarter), and while it's a bit of a temperamental beast requiring the occasional bit of virtual handholding and massaging, it has been useful in the odd hobby project. Time to include the wargaming hobby in this.

Printable Scenery is a company that sells STL files for various bits of wargames scenery, from walls to houses and a few things in between. STL files are the model files which describe the subject in 3D and can be used to actual print the subject on a 3D printer. I bought the walls and fences products - both come as a selection of STL files which you can use to print your own walls as many times as you want.

Without further ado, the photos below are of my first test prints as they came out of the printer (I used black PLA) and painted:



While the grain on the raw printed wall is quite visible (I used 0.2mm layer thickness), once painted with a quick layer of black gesso and then dry brushed with various greys, they look fine.

I think I'm going to print a lot more :).


Friday 9 September 2016

Simple scifi buildings (6)

I finished my simple cardboard building. It is a cardboard packaging shape. I added a cardboard tube, and put a polystyrene ball on top. I also delved in the bits box and added some smaller items to give it some more detail.

The whole was quickly spraypainted. The dome was gridded using the layout of a D20. I painted in some of the details with Boltgun Metal, and added yellow/green tape for an industrial look. The whole should serve as a communications station ...

It is a simple and crude building, but it goes together well with my other scifi cardboard buildings. Moreover, it has a nasty old-school feel to it, not unlike the old modeling projects for "Oldhammer 40K" or Rogue Trader.

For size comparison, I dug out a few old Rogue Trader era miniatures. An Ogryn is defending the comms station against an attack by a pair of Ambulls. And yes, I know Ambulls are supposed to dig underground ...


Wednesday 7 September 2016

Epic Armageddon game @ Bart's

After the inaugural game at Koen's place, Koen schlepped his collection over to my place and we set up a city fight game, where the Eldar would continue the conquest of the city of Ziterna'n'og, then still occupied by Blood Angel Space Marines.

Rules used this time were Epic Armageddon, which are apparently the fourth version of the Epic rules, which resulted in a much more manoeuvrable game. Units zipping across the entire width of the table were no exception.

The game was played over three turns and resulted in what we decided was an Eldar victory, with the sole surviving unit of the Space Marines -- their monster of a Titan -- squatting near a victory condition location, surrounded by the might of the Eldar army which still included sufficient firepower to deal with the Titan (I was told :)) .

Here's some pics from the game:

The city of Ziterna'n'og

Eldar tanks prowl the outskirts

A Space Marine Company under fire

The Titan rumbles into the game

The Space Marine left wing prepares to advance

The Eldar heavies: scout titans and heavy tanks

The space marine left wing under air attack

Main Eldar infantry host disembarks and is ambushed by a Space Marine company dropping on their position

The end of the game: the Titan is being surrounded by the Eldar