Lifestyle and Emerging Technology In Plain English
Posts about things that are happening in my life, or life in general.
So a week or so ago I tweaked something on my printer. Maybe it was initial layer height. Maybe I adjusted a bed screw. Not sure, but all of a sudden my prints wouldn’t stick to the bed properly.
Using the ‘paper drag’ method of bed levelling ‘sort of’ worked. But it really was trial and error and very small changes in adjustment that seem to be working.
Prints are, once again, printing. Yay. #frustrating
I’m really happy when I can combine two of my hobbies. This time it’s Boardgaming and 3d Printing.
Often, many games have tokens or chits that are pooled for players to take at different times during play. Usually, these sit in piles around the main game area.
On Thingiverse, swholmstead shared this neat design — which I promptly downloaded and printed.
Super Effective! Keeping the game table neat and tidy.
Pretty cool what a little time, 3d Printing technology, some creative design work, and a spool of PLA will get you.
I’ve been testing various dungeon components to see how well they’ll work with our play style. And how good they’ll look once painted and finished.
The crates above have yet to be finished. Usually, I prime them with Flat Grey, then colour, lighten or darken as necessary. This example also uses short walls, allowing us to see the contents of the room from anywhere on the table.
If you’re interested, I’ve been keeping all the landscape and terrain designs I find on Thingiverse in this collection.
We had these ugly plate-stand style photo stands for some aluminum photo prints. Had that ‘wrought-iron’ look. Totally not suitable for a very white shot of our dogs. 3d Printing to the rescue.
Then I found these simple ‘feet’ on Thingiverse — a perfect solution.
I printed off one batch, but had a bit of a flashing issue inside the front of one clip causing the clip to break along a print seam.
Simple solution, rotate the clip 90 degrees, causing the print seams to be vertical rather than horizontal.
Photo by bgrier
Standard Lunar Lander — because it’s Friday.
About five years ago, we got a cute little R-Pod 173T. It’s a trailer with a pop-out tent to extend the internal living area by about 36 sq. ft.
Very cute and just the right size to be towed by our Santa Fe.
A couple of years ago, my very patient wife suggested we remove the sofa to make more room inside. (not my photo — found on the tubes)
Brilliant! Awesome to have more space.
But what to do with the couch (sofa)?
She suggested we (I) figure out a way to use it in our Garage-Jang.
Of course, I over analyzed it. Here’s my project sketches to prove it.
Fast forward to 3 years later. Yes, it’s done.
And perhaps I over-engineered it a bit. (seriously. 2x6??)
I don’t care. It’s done. It’s solid, and it’s actually comfortable.
Long Weekend Win!
Wow, when you take photos of painted miniatures, the photos always catch all the rough paint-work and other issues, making the minis look like crap 😀
Ah well, since these Alien Frontiers field generators are meant to be played with and not put on a shelf and admired, I’m not too concerned.
One done, one in progress and one primed and ready to go.
The orange one’s interesting. I bought the Alien Frontiers Upgrade Pack. It included a lot of the new colony components, and these field generator components. It’s meant to upgrade the more generic ones from earlier Alien Frontiers generators.
So this one came without one of the generator arms attached. After filling out a form and uploading a photo of the flawed component, Game Salute, the distributor sent along a replacement (it’s the unpainted one in the background).
In the meantime, I’d decided to paint this one anyway, and am going to turn that gap where the arm mounts into a docking port. I think I’ll be adding yellow and black ‘alert’ lines around it. We’ll see how that goes.
Then, finally, I think I’ll likely give them a final spray of Testors Dulcoat, just to eliminate the shine. I like the way it helps bring out subtle detail and gives them a more ‘realistic’ look. Must be a personal taste thing developed back in the day when I painted plastic models.