Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Down the 3D Rabbithole!

With the arrival, setup & testprint of the 2 owls now completed, it was time to get started with the 3d printing.

So for those of you whom are savvy with the 3d printing environment, you will see these as the newb errors, learnings. I will be speaking from a perspective of this is totally new to me...& at times may seem a bit daunting.

OK off we go...first prints of a Gas pump from a Urban & Industrial Printable Terrain kickstarter I participated in, that provided 150 very useful small terrain bits. Everything from fire hydrants to sewer covers...sweet!

Of course not having read the small print on many of those "small" bits I loaded Cura, created the gcode file, & off it went.

Within about half an hour the first fail (on the left) occured, as I didn't have the heat bed hot enough...the whole bit was sliding around stuck the the extruder as it kept splurting out more plastic. Good thing I was home.


The second (on the right) did complete, but was...well....what is it again? Then I went & learned that these were meant to be printed on what I assume to be a resin type printer....oh bother. Since I have seen that perhaps I can define a 'profile' within the cura software that will make it possible for me to print it again correctly. We shall see.

Having seen that a lot of those small bits were going to be a challenge, I moved to another of the Kickstarters I backed (yes I was grabbing quite a few stl kickstarters by this point). This was for Warlayer, a Sci-fi themed set. He had a sample set on Thingverse which is what I figured would be a good start.

The first piece which if I recall correctly was about 10 hours without changing any of the settings on the software. Of course this is where I learned that when I installed the Cura software I had the wrong printer choice selected. This was showing the item as being too large for the bed. Reading through the manual I noticed the one I should have selected & fixed that issue.



After that run & seeing that the printer is actually quite loud when running beside my computer.. I realized that I will be doing a lot of overnight printing.

Now when I placed the 2nd ruin on the bed, I figured I would try adding a 2nd model (the barrels). Having moved it around I saw there was still room, so added the file again for a third model. This round took about 16 hours, but I did figure out that I can maximize the bed surface if I needed too. Will just need to remember to not get right at the edge as the objects have the base layer used to stick it to the hot print bed added (not sure at this point if its part of the image on the Cura software) 



With the items printed, they are now on my paint table & will likely be my first painted post of 2020. Lord knows I have a LOT of stl files to get printed, some numerous time (Space Hulk) to make the terrain I will need.

So now my 3D printing has just begun...still so much more waiting to be learned, so 2020 looks to be an exciting & busy hobby year!

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Merry Christmas Everyone!



It's come quick this year it seems. Here we are at Dec 24th, preparing to hunker down with our loved ones to enjoy our Christmas traditions! 

 
 
I am sure we will all be doing a bit of over-indulging & groggily awaken Christmas morning to discover what awaits us under the tree. Just avoid anything containing a tentacle!

With the break, it allows some time to rest, recoup, & hopefully get some hobby time in before the new year dawns.

I do admit that I become somewhat spoiled when December comes around. Between our Anniversary, my Birthday & then Christmas, it's a busy time.

This year I bought myself a 3d printer during the Cyber Monday sales. I've a few gaming associates who have also recently bought printers & have been showcasing their results. Some have been funny as everyone starts as a newb & we try to wrap our heads around just what went wrong. Rest assured, as I make these same beginner mistakes, I will be reaching out to those folks for assistance.

I chose an Anycubic Mega-S. What prompted this decision? Well apart from reading some of the reviews of the various printers that would fall into my pricerange. I liked that it came with a spare 1kg spool of PLA. So much for research!


So having put it together, I ran the test print that comes with it. These 2 owls from Thingverse.


My first couple tries of small scatter terrain pieces did not go well. Then I noticed that the files were meant for resin type printers. <Insert Face Palm Here>

Now its onto my first terrain piece designed for the FDM style printer I purchased. But we will have to wait for that result...yep it shows as about a 9 hour print time. So just like Christmas I will be waiting to see what is there on the morrow!

Merry Christmas Everyone!
 

Monday, December 23, 2019

Frostgrave Campaign - Time Rot

A week ago we played our 3rd Forgotten Pacts campaign game. This time the 2nd half of the warbands made an attempt to grab the Amulet of Constancy.



Again we have 5 warband groups vying for this.

Roach the Witch


Venkman the Sigilist Apprentice


Martinus the Summoner Apprentice


Diinsec the Summoner Apprentice


Kalissa the Summoner



We played the scenario Time Rot, but I will let the comic tell the story.





















So as stated none of the bands made it to the centre to grab the amulet. Venkman managed to get the closest, even getting on top of the platform.

 Other wizards were focussed on trying to get a body count over the scenario's goals, however there is nothing wrong with some good rivalry's

The aftermath for each of the bands looked like this

Venkman (Chris) - 140xp, 50gc, Ring of Will, Null Blade

Martinus (Scott) - 40xp.  Marcellus Badly Wounded (Miss Game)

Diinsec (Chen) - 145xp, 100gc, Potion of Invisibility,Construct Oil (Sold)

Kalissa (Andrew) - 60xp. Kalissa Badly Wounded (Miss Game)

Roach (Terry) - 280xp. Jenkin Killed; Kegan Badly Wounded (Miss Game)

So thats it for our campaign until the New Year, which really isn't that far off.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Kefcon Gaming Weekend

This past weekend I attended Kefcon (Keeping Evenings Fun), an Edmonton area boardgames convention.


This year it was a Western Themed event & numerous games ran with that theme in mind. However I did not actually get into any of those...playing more along my traditional types of boardgames, as well as a few new ones I'd not seen before.

Friday night consisted of Massive Darkness....we died, just like last year!



I then got into a game called Star Wars - Outer Rim.


We were each dealt 2 characters to choose from...go figure I got Han Solo!
 

Those familiar with Firefly will see a lot of similarity. The board itself is quite different, forming a half circle. You then sail about the Outer Rim, doing jobs, tracking bounties & performing tasks. The whole purpose of course is to get fame. I quite enjoyed it, although I didn't fare very well.


Saturday I started off with Mansions of Madness with several other folks. I believe we played Escape from Innsmouth.


We started off well enough. I was playing Wendy Adams, the Urchin. I even had brass knuckles to start.


The Innsmouth town mob arrives.


It got to where our priest was pretty much locked down engaging wave after wave of deep ones. He was also our spell caster & was doing quite well with them.


Of course the delays prevented him from determining just what that search marker was.


Unfortunately we were defeated when the Innsmouth mob got to the docks, destroying the boats & preventing our escape. It was a fun game!


I also played games of Escape Plan, & Dogs of War a game I really like!

On Sunday I got into a game called Cerebria, one I had never heard of. It was basically a game of emotions vying for supremecy.


It's a team event & I played Anxiety alongside Misery. I guess he does love company.


Our instructions for the game were muddled & we eventually gave up. Apparently there are 60 pages of rules & they are not well laid out. I would give this another try with someone who knows the rules to run it.

Sadly I never got photos of the game that was likely the hilight of the weekend for me, though the game was dark, it was quite thematic & was called


This game was so good, I ordered it as soon as I got home. Definately not one for the kids!

So another great weekend of gaming. I didn't win any of the Raffles (they had a copy of Gloomhaven!) but everyone seemed to enjoy the weekend & I got to meet some new gamers!

Thanks for reading.