Latest attempt at 3d printing 54mm

 

 I have now printed 4 54mm figures using my 3d printer and this is the latest of them after tweaking a number of settings.

The figures are Russian Napoleonic Infantry designed for 28mm and resin printing rather than the FDM printer I have.

The figure is scaled to 175% size and I have tweaked settings to thicken the walls of the figure, etc which means that the thinner scabbards now cast properly and don't break off.

I am pretty happy with this one and think I should be able to print off a unit to experiment with painting.

I have been asked about printers and settings so technical info follows:

The printer is a Cubicon Style which I bought in 2016 as it had an enclosed case (which made printing ABS easier and I wanted to use it to print components to turn into metal in vulcanised moulds) and it had an auto-leveling plate.

The settings for the figure above are:

0.4mm nozzle
ABS
0.2 layer height
supports are everywhere with an angle of 65 degrees, 10% fill and a grid pattern  (I find that these are the easiest to remove.)
There is no raft beneath the print.
Wall thickness is 6, top and bottom are 3

Playing with 3d printing of figures

 I have been watching the growing list of 3d printable Napoleonic figures with interest.  They are mostly available for 28mm with a very few people offering them printed in 54mm, but at that size they cost £5+ for a single figure.

I have an FDM printer (which I've had for 8 years) and have started playing around with a new version of the software and some 28mm Napoleonic Russian stl files to see what can be achieved.

The files supplied are really designed for resin printing but I have managed to work out how to create files that will print on an FDM printer.

This is a quick photo of my first effort.

On the left is a HAT Austrian line infantry man and on the right is a 3d printed Russian Fusilier officer.  He could do with some more cleaning up on the supports but I think he had come out quite well.

He is printed at 175% size of the 28mm original figure and comes out about the right size for matching with HAT.

If I can get some consistent results this would mean I could add a small Russian and Austrian contingent to my 1/32 Napoleonics collection at some point in the future.

One Hour Wargames

 

Played a game with my regular opponent Anthony today.  Still feeling a bit under the weather so I went for One Hour Wargames and the "Unfortunate Oversight" scenarion we have played a couple of times before (though not with the OHW rules).

This time used the OHW Rifle Age rules on a 4' x 4' table with my Franco Prussian figures.

I took the Prussians and rolled up a 6 unit force of 4 infantry, 1 Skirmisher and 1 Artillery

The French had 3 Infantry, 1 Skirmisher and 2 cavalry.

The Prussians have to get across the river and capture the hill in 15 turns.  Not having cavalry made that task slightly more difficult.

As with a lot of OHW scenarios and games it came down to the last turn and last die roll...

I had lost several units (mostly due to Anthony's excellent dice rolling and my habit of rolling 1's) but I finally forced the town and cleared the hill of all but one of the French Infantry.

On the French's last turn the french could have shot at my unit that had advanced from the town and onto the hill and would have automatically killed it (it had 13 hits already) but that would have been a draw as he would also not have a unit on top of the hill.  Or he could charge with his cavalry where he needed to roll a 3-6 in melee and kill me to win or he would fail to kill the unit and he'd bounce off the hill and I'd win.

He chose to charge and killed the unit, securing the victory for Anthony and the French.

Very close game as always with a lot of tactical thought going into unit positioning and how to take (or keep) the town.

Also both decided we would possibly have tackled things slightly differently with hindsight.  I would probably have put most of my troops over on the right with the gun and crossed the ford in order to shell the town from the start.  Then held back two units to attack on the town once the occupants were reduced in strength.

Anthony felt he would have been better to send his cavalry through the town and across the Bridge to threaten my rear and to keep the town free.

54mm Punic Wars

 

Been completely knocked out by a virus thing for the last few days which meant I didn't get to Warfare (first time in over 20 years) and now have a year where I won't have attended any wargames shows (first for over 25 years!)...  Too foggy brained to paint or concentrate on anything so I decided  to sort out some of my Punic Wars 54mm figures for the Command and Colours project and get them based.

On the right are all the Carthaginian Infantry needed barring 4 more light infantry(ordered), 12 slingers ( they are already painted) and some bowmen (ordered from Irregular Miniatures).

On the left are all the Roman Infantry needed barring the velites (already painted) and some bowmen.

I am planning on undercoating one side grey and one side white and doing the bases and painting the base edges the appropriate colour for light, medium, etc

Then I'll try a test game and get them painted gradually.

Next I need to assemble and base all the cavalry and the 4 elephants (I have 2 already based and painted) and the 3 commanders per side.

Basics of Dendermonde finished

 

Finished cutting and then assembling the Bastions and an extra piece of city wall.  It is all starting to look quite big now!  The city will eventually cover 4' x 5'.

I need to replace the longer piece of wall with one with a gate in it.

Next up will the demi-lunes, one with a road through it...

Bits and pieces

 Haven't done much over the last month.  We took delivery of our first caravan at the end of September so time has been spent sorting that out and we went away for 6 nights as our first trip back in October.

I have finally managed to get around to some painting and scenery building.

These are the Space 1889 Adversaries set that I painted for Anthony.  They are apparently used as characters in a Space 1889 boardgame.

I also finished cutting and assembled the 3 Ravelins for Dendermonde today.  They will need texturing with tissue paper and painting.

On to the 3 bastions which are partly cut next.

Frostgrave Campaign: Game 2 - The Mausoleum

 

Played the 2nd game in our Friostgrave campaign using the Mausoleum I got painted this week.  Was a close game with skeletons proving strangely hard to kill.

Judicious use of the Fool's Gold spell that lets you steal a treasure from someone carrying it and move it 4" let me steal 2 treasures off Nick and get 3 treasures off the board. 

Need to play more often to remember the rules better...

 

54mm Napoleonic Game

 

Anthony and I played a 54mm Blucher game on an 8'x 5' table.  I took the  French vs Anthony's British (as usual). 

We played through 16 turns (8 each) before having to stop as we ran out of time.  The game was  still pretty even at that point - I'd lost a light cavalry unit but his light cavalry was pretty spent and his allied infantry was starting to be worn down.

We were able to resume the game 3 days later and play it through to a conclusion.

My left flank ended with the mutual destruction of both sides Light Cavalry with me losing 3 units to the British 2.

But, I was able to apply pressure to the weaker Dutch Belgian allied corps on  their Right  wing and that forced Anthony to use his command to slowly withdraw them as they were in danger of losing 2-3 units.  He also concentrated his main attack on the his left wing heavy cavalry who were facing the French heavy cavalry.

This meant that he was unable to manouevre the higher quality, stronger British corps in the centre and it was left to exchange skirmish fire with my weaker french/allied troop corps.

His concentration on the heavy cavalry was his undoing as he was convinced he could win the combats and I managed to consistently throw slightly better dice than him which meant his units were worn out slightly faster than mine.  Also, he didn't withdraw any units as they neared breaking point and I kept enough of an upper hand to break all 4 of his heavy cavalry with the loss of 3 of my own units.

This put us on 6 units lost each - the British break point was 6, the French 7, so the British army broke and ran givng a French victory.

It was a very close and quite tense game at times - we got a couple of things wrong but that didn't change any outcomes.

More laser cutting for Dendermonde

 

Spent some time today cutting bases for the Ravelins and bastions and working out sizing for the Demi-lunes.  

I have decided to redo the Ravelin without a hexed base as it is too hard to get them to line up correctly with the bastions without a lot of fiddling.

I also started on cutting the extra base tiles need to complete the 8' x 5' table.  The pictures show roughly what it will look like, the green area runs up to were the glacis will be, beyond that will be the ditch and behind the walls will be the city streets.

I am starting wonder about using removeable tape to stick the tiles down to the boards so I can move them on and off the table without having to pack them away each time.  Anyone worked with any removeable tape - I know you can get it for temporarily hanging pictures.

The glacis is proving a problem to design as it is so large and the bases for it will have to be made is several parts as will the grass slope.  I am wondering about laser cutting the back wall and covered way and firing platform and then making the rest out of foam board cut by hand.

Bastion finished

 

I have finished cutting and assembling the first bastion.  This was fiddlier than the Ravelin and I had to bodge things in a couple of places.  I think it was because I made some changes to the flat models for the half-bastion cuts, rather than going back to the 3d model and changing that.

I might revisit the front wall shapes and revise them for the next two bastions to make it easier to assemble.

This one is a little bit off, but once textured and painted I am sure it will look fine.  It is 17" across at the largest point.

I need to add steps/slope at the back to access the reserve area and also steps for the main bastion walled area.

Next up are the city wall and a gated wall to fit between the bastions.  Then I will look at putting together the other two bastions and ravelins so I can start to work out the ditch.

After that, two different demi-lunes, one with a road running through it and then on to the glacis.

Finally, I will then start on the citadel and the buildings for the city.  I have scanned and "improved" the photos from the battle  magazine article to help me identify the number or buildings and their style so I can produce a similar look.

Bastion for Dendermonde

 

Back to working on the Dendermonde project. 

Finally had time to return to the Bastion model and refine it and test cut some pieces - took a couple of iterations of one of the pieces to get it right, but the basic pieces are cut and fit together.

The next picture shows how it fits together with the city wall.

Finally, with wall and a ravelin guarding it.

The figures are 25mm Minifigs French exploring their new structure.

Next steps are to cut the interior supports and the back walls out of 3mm MDF then to cut the sloping wall parts from 2mm MDF.

Epic Pike and Shotte Cavalry Sprue

 

Finished painting a test cavalry sprue.  The figures aren't quite as good as the infantry sprue due to the limitations of the moulding process, and some are slightly odd, like a couple of the Harquebusier and one of the mounted dragoons in particular.  This makes them slightly harder to paint with washes, as they lack and detail on the front of them, but I have managed to get something reasonable done.

As always some quick photos, bases need finishing and they need varnishing.

2 bases of Harquebusier cavalry, 1 battalia commander, 1 light gun, 1 heavy gun, 1 base of mounted dragoons and 1 base of dismounted dragoons.

 

 

 Partial bases - the 2 curassier figures you get on a sprue and 6 out of 9 commanded shot needed for a base.

The sprues are definitely designed to be painted in 3s, so that you get a complete units of types, e.g. a battery of guns, 2 x Harquebusier, 1 dragoons, 1 commanded shot, etc.

I might get some horses from Peter Pig or somewhere and make horse holder bases for the dismounted dragoons, I'll see.

You are never going to get together the 15 curassier needed for a units (needs 6 sprues plus a cornet from one sprue) which would be okay for ECW but not TYW.  Warlord have realise this and provide a "resin" cast box of 15 curassier for a regiment.

I probably have enough cavalry sprues to be able to pull off the 12 Curassier I need along with a cornet and complete this unit anyway.

Another Epic Swedish Unit

 

 

Finished off another infantry sprue for another swedish 30YW Epic unit - yellow regiment this time.  Quick picture showing the result, need varnishing and flags adding.

I picked up another Push the Pike box cheaply off someone who was selling it with some extras for a pretty good price.

So, I now only have 29 more infantry units to paint, 9 cavalry sprues to finish and 3 scots units (probably in Swedish service) and everything will be done.

Planning on trying painting a cavalry sprue next and then I'll switch to painting some Imperial units.

Marlburian French

 Finally got back to painting some figures and finished off a 25mm Minifigs battalion of French Marlburians for the Dendermonde project.

 

 

More Frostgrave Scenery

 Not been that well this week - probably Covid as it seems to be going round but did manage to finish off another scenery tile for Frostgrave.

This is the diorama base that comes with the Reaper diorama "Dragons Don't Share".  I've left the holes for the dragon to stand in so I can still use it as a display piece when I get round to painting the figures for it.

We have started a Frostgrave campaign amongst three of us at the Guildford club so I have an incentive to exapnd on the terrain choices.

The Great River Race

 I played a game a couple of weeks ago against my regular opponent Anthony using my 40mm AWI collection and the Osprey Rebels and Patriots Rules.

We played the Great River Race scenario where one side is attempting to get 3 rafts of supplies down a river while the other side tries to stop them.

I quickly scratch built 3 rafts from balsa wood and dowel and setup the table using a naval mat with my hex terrain on top of it to create a 12" wide river.

We got a few things wrong with the rules initially and the river layout wasn't quite right, but we had a fun game that ended in a draw with one raft sunk, one raft captured and one raft escaped.

Definitely a scenario I will replay (I've got 3 rafts now!).

I am retired!

 As of July 1st, I am officially retired - I have sold Coat D'arms Paints to Battlezone Miniatures and will be closing down Black Hat Miniatures.  After 20 years in the wargames industry it seems quite a big step but I decided it was finally time to stop and enjoy life.

Now I have sold Black Hat Miniatures and retired I am starting to sort out my Games Room and attached hobby room.

 

Main room is 21' x 11' and I could (just) fit a 12' x 5' table but will normally not go over 8' x 5'. A 6' x 4' table is shown here.

 

Also has some of my 54mm collection in display cabinets, wargaming books and a load of boardgames.

We had a band rehearsal in the room last night, hence all the instruments and speakers.

 

The attached hobby room is 12' x 10' and I have now managed to bring all my figures and scenery into one place. There is also a large laser cutter.

 

The Bureau is my painting table and the foldable table in the middle is setup to finish off some basing for a friend.

 

Still lots to sort out - the top shelf on 2 units contains everything that is up for sale or will be shortly... And I have a bunch of unpainted stuff to come out of the loft and get sorted.

But getting there!