Update Quicklinks: Printing, Painting, Blog
Hey everyone! Happy Monday, I hope your week starts out well and you all had a productive hobby weekend. Looking at my notes it definitely appears that I missed posting last week, my apologies. Over the course of the last two weeks there was definitely a period of time where I ended up in a “hobby rut”. I broke my 77 day hobby streak on Instagram to rest up, feel better, and spend a little bit of time with my family and it has been a challenge to get back into a groove to put paint on a brush. I even took a few days off from 3d printing, gasp.
However I have worked extensively to add more functionally to the website and although there will appear have more empty sections to various places on the site it is a step in the right direction to build the foundation of what is to come. Below in the Blog section of todays write up I go into detail of some of the things i’ve been working on as well as its vision.
Printing Updates
For printing over the last two weeks, I took almost an entire week off from printing anything on my Prusa FDM printer which if you are a regular reader know that is not a normal behavior for my hobby. One very special event did happen while printing this week though. After about 3 years of printing I finally got my first spool tangle and print failure. I can truthfully say it has never happened for me until last week on a spool of ESun PLA+. I will admit that the error did result in poor handling on my behalf and I let the filament get loose and fold in on itself. But I feel like I have finally joined the club for people who have encountered this issue. In case you are not familiar with FDM/filament printing this means that a knot was created in my filament causing the printer to not be able to feed and continue printing. I am glad I know what my printer should sound like and ran over as soon as I heard something was wrong. This could have been a really bad issue.
Resin printing i’ve still be working on miniatures from Lost Adventures Vol #1 but need to go back and resize and finish up the files released for Lost Adventures Vol #2. Its been going slow as i’ve been experimenting and even moved to trying out a new resin, Epax hard grey. I will do a massive dump of print logs and such when the project is completed.
Painting Update
As for painting I will admit i’ve been in a bit of a hobby rut due to breaking my hobby streak but I just recently started back up painting two things:
1) The carnival wagon that reader grumpgnome101 suggested I work on. Thank you for the input! I am going to attempt to make the wagon painted in bright colors to suggest it is trying to attempt to lure in customers at a carnival. This will also add more variety to my wagon collection. This is also inspiring a write up series i’m currently working on. Stay tuned.
2) Finally getting some paint on the blacksmith building from Kingdom of Thamarya. It has been slow as I have been seriously debating on attempting to print using transparent filament for the first time in order to create a working tea light in the interior furnace to really make it feel alive. I have decided i’m going to go for it!
At this point it looks like I might not be painting any miniatures for the month of March, but work is still getting done.
Blog Update
This is an area I have sunk a massive amount of time. I am definitely motivated to catch up in my notekeeping for the site and continue to actively work on flushing out the true image of the dream I have for this place. Overall I am hoping that this blog will become more than just a list of archived posts that lose relevance over time or contain valuable information that is hard to find in the future. As a result hierarchical pages are being developed with a massive amount of cross referencing for easy navigation and capability to find things.
I am currently working on flushing out primary areas of the site which will hold my many ramblings, guides, and experiments. I will introduce sections as they are developed.
The first major area that I started to jump into as it is a 2021 Hobby Goal is to catalog my entire collection and host at least the basic information and photographs. At the moment this will only be my printed & purchased collection either painted or unpainted. Yes this means that my pile of shame/ sea of grey will be shown to the world but perhaps it will also motivate me to paint more of it up. I am currently not including the digital collection of files and STLs on my hardrive. Perhaps in the future.
New Major Site Category: The Collection
The Collection will be the primary landing page for all of the things i’ve created or purchased through this hobby. I has broken it into 9 primary categories:
- Miniatures
- Scatter Terrain
- Terrain
- Buildings
- Greeblies
- Dungeon Tiles
- Bases
- Bits
- Accessories and Props
Each of these categories will not only have indexes, galleries, and crosslinks to the various print logs and painting writes ups I do but also provide images of inspiration and direction on where you can acquire these models and figures.
Eventually I hope to have everything crosslinked so if you find a base you like there will be a corresponding writeup/guide on how it was created in the painting section of the website that is linked and easy to navigate to.
Examples:
Curious as to if dungeon tiles are for you? What kind of dungeon tiles are out there? The collection can show you how i’ve used my tiles, what areas I hope to improve upon, what tiles are in my collection, paint schemes, and guides on what to consider when deciding on using dungeon tiles for yourself.
Even an area of the hobby that I am still not fantastic in: Foam Craft. I am trying to keep track of all the small incredible bits and bobs which could help to assist adding those fine details to your crafts with greeblies. Greeblies are all the little things that you may not want to hand craft but rather use the advantages of 3d printing to enhance your tabletop and crafting experience.
These are just a few of the things I have planned for The Collection which will essentially act as the glue to showcase all the other various aspects i’m working on.
New Site Section: ABC Miniature Index (By Name)
To get started on fleshing out the collection i’ve started (very very new) a ABC Miniature Index by model name. This index will go by file name of printed models or name of manufactured model purchased. The entire index is created to easily move from A to Z while also breaking up what will eventually be a massive collection of miniatures for easier loading on your browser.
Currently each miniature will look like this in basic information:
Information It will contain
- The name of the model
- A link to the print log (print set) that the individual model belongs to
- A listing of where that print set originated from in this case Lost Adventures Vol 2 kickstarter.
- What the model is made out of, its size (in case that matters to you for scaling),
- Where you can acquire the model
- Who Sculpted or created the model
- Its price (now. I do not document how much I paid for it in the case of kickstarters or patreons as they are bulk discounts)
- How much it essentially cost me to create if printed
- Lastly the miniature number which is purely for my own database documentation.
Let me know if you think something is missing from this list!
New Website Major Category: Index of Creators and Sculptors
A special feature included in the documentation of each miniature in my collection will also contain information on who sculpted & sold the model or model set. This is going to be a really cool addition to the site as I have also been creating an Index of Creators and Sculptors. This will showcase the individual artists of the models so if you enjoy a specific aesthetic perhaps it can show you more created by them found on the site.
This will also include information that could help you the consumer know more about the various storefronts there are out there. I will include answers to questions like:
“What is their STL distribution method”
“Where can I purchase more of their models?”
“Do they allow merchant licenses?”
“Is this good for FDM/Resin printing?”
“Do the models come presupported?”
“If I subscribe to their Patreon is there a discount code for MyMiniFactory or other stores?”
“What is my personal experience & review of them?”
Some of these questions are incredibly difficult to answer unless you have supported or purchased from the creator so eventually the Sculptor/Creator Index will be a reference point in helping others make an informed decision if spending the money to support them is right for you.
At the moment the Sculptor & Creator section will grow as I encounter each individual in my miniature collection as it gets added to the site. I do not want to discuss the practices or provide endorsement/ review of a company unless I have personally used at least one of their products. If you have a question about a company, brand, sculptor, Kickstarter or Patreon let me know. I will investigate the group and likely add it to the print queue to create a page.
Conclusion
I know this update was a massive amount of information and i’ll intersperse the intro information and goals of each section onto their pages for future reference as well. I have been working hard to bring my dream to life of creating a home which can be a useful resource for other hobbyists such as myself. Everyday a little more gets worked on and I am proud of what has been accomplished in such a short amount of time. Thank you for reading.
Happy Hobbying! Don’t forget to share what you have been working on.
Sincerely,
Carrie, aka crazmadsci
Thanks for sharing your work and your thoughts. You should be proud! I love what you are creating.
Great to see the wagon progressing, I look forward to the end result. The idea for a working light is excellent. As for your site overhaul, that is quite an ambitious plan. I greatly respect that!
Ambitious is why many of my friends and family call me crazy! Slow and steady is my goal. The site will feel more empty for a bit as there are pages added but content is following!
Same here, I keep eating that elephant… one bite at a time.