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Struggling a bit on the Saunders Roe so I decided to go do something a little simpler to get up the surfacing learning curve. I found this on the internet the Junkers KLF 255, it may have been a real failed rocket fighter, some websites purport it to be ann April fools joke. Regardless it fits the bill so I’m going to CAD and print one then get back to the Saunders roe. There are drawings but no details of size. Now the wings look very like an me 163 and it’s not unfeasible that a set were utilised on the prototype so I’m going to take the wingspan to be the 9.3m of the 163. More to follow.

Got another 3D print to paint, so I'm happy! Always loved playing the Metroid games, especially the later ones on the gamecube which this version of Samus' Varia Suit is based on. I must admit though this one has had a bit of a stressful journey so far, tried a new 3D printer on ebay and not only did it take nearly 2 months (uk seller by the way!) to get to me the quality wasn't worth the wait. The figure isn't too bad, I know support marks are pretty normal but there was more than I've ever experienced, and some were on the front side which to be fair is probably more to do with how the stl files. Any way when it FINALLY arrived this is what I got IMG_20240826_170454852 by Nick Frost, on Flickr At this point I had already cut the massive location lugs off the shoulder pods as ironically they wouldn't fit without them. Also that base is not going to be used, when I bought it it did say on the listing about bases being printed with PLA filament but didn't realise that was code for 'its going to be awful so prepare yourself' IMG_20240829_194523246 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240829_194542274 by Nick Frost, on Flickr It has horrendous layer lines and some imperfections, and more annoyingly samus doesn't fit on it! Wasn't prepared to wait for a replacement or even deal with that seller ever again so I got a cheap gaming base that was much better, with some cool alien world looking crystals, just the sort of place a space bounty hunter would be! IMG_20240906_140535018 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Anyway. lets keep it positive moving forward and crack on, after a first round of priming the support marks on the back showed up even worse so I scalpeled and sanded them as best as I could and did another round of priming and did a dry fit with bluetack when dry. IMG_20240901_153642691 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240904_165024485 by Nick Frost, on Flickr She fits on the new base nicely, so I got the base primed and gave a spray of white ink for my zenithal start point just for a reference for my light direction IMG_20240906_143806706 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240908_155321994 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240908_193333016 by Nick Frost, on Flickr So thats as far as I am, going to start with the hairy sticks later. The suits colours are red, copper and gold with green for the gun arm; all of this will be done with the nmm technique. The visor and some bits on the suit will have a green glow effect, and the cracks and crystals on the base will be done with a blue glow effect. So next up I'll be start on the suit probably with the red. Thanks for looking, more soon

Here is my contribution to the group build, the Nahuel DL 43 was an Argentinean medium tank produced in 1943 and heavily inspired by the American Sherman. Only 12 were built in total, for several years they were used for training and the occasional parade. In 1947 they were given an upgrade with new crew hatches, radios, machine guns and tool storage. Soon after Argentina acquired several hundred Sherman tanks tho making the Nahuel redundant so they were put into storage until 1959 when they were all scraped. Most of the Nahuel's documentation was also destroyed, meaning that some of the details of this tank remain a mystery, even the basic dimensions are unknown and historians have had to take their best guess based on the available photographs. Your choices for building the Nahuel are limited to either a resin kit from Aconcagua Resin Models (out of production and extremely rare) or a 3D printed kit by FC Model. Why buy an expensive 3D printed kit tho when I can just design and print my own one... Thus far I've made the basic shape of the hull and turret, I'll make the running gear next and then add all the smaller detail to the hull and turret later.

Research AP-101C-0601-3A Wasp HAS 1 Illustrated parts manual T. L. Ciastula: The Development of the P.531, The Aeronautical Journal / Volume 68 / Issue 642 / June 1964 D. B. Bathurst: Maritime VSTOL — The Development of Small Ship Helicopter Operations in the Royal Navy, SAE Transactions Vol. 83, Section 3: 740525–740863 (1974) L. B. Bryson, F. E. Heenan, C. A. Johnson: Helicopters in the Royal Navy, The Aeronautical Journal / Volume 76 / Issue 740 / August 1972 J. H. Stevens: Scout and Wasp - Westland's All-British Helicopters, Flight International June 1964 Adrian Balch: Westland Scout & Wasp, Warpaint Series No.110, Guideline Publications. 2017 Larry Jeram-Croft, Terry Martin: The Royal Navy Wasp: An Operational & Retirement History, Pen & Sword Aviation 2018 A placeholder so I can't bottle out of doing this at such a large and (to me) unfamiliar scale once the Sea Vixen builds are completed.... 😁

Hi All, Well this is unfamiliar territory! I am normally firmly in the wingy thing section, but this thread is to document my first 'commission' build. The parentheses indicate that nobody is actually paying for this build; rather, it is intended as a gift for my brother-in-law, who turns 50 soon. He spent over a decade working on the Combat Management System for the Hobart Class Air Warfare Destroyers, so I thought I'd attempt a rather unique gift for this significant anniversary. HMAS Hobart was the lead ship in this class, commissioned in 2017. Here's a photo of the ship: I'm going to be designing and 3D printing the whole lot, so it's sure to be a journey of discovery. I did download a 3D file from Shapeways, hoping for an easy win, but it turned out to be absolute bobbins, so I am going from scratch with a downloaded schematic, which at least looks like it could be accurate. Here's where I am with the blocked out upper hull design: I haven't yet achieved that distinctive swoop on the waist, which suggests that I need to tweak the lower hull profile - all will be good! The finished model will be about 250mm long and mounted in a display case. Detail will be progressively added before I commit to printing. I have until mid-June so time is short, although I shall not compromise on quality to achieve the delivery date. This should be fun! Thanks for looking, Roger

Forget the dreaded ping! Forget the lap drop. Forget the portal to and from Bill’s @perdu’s desk. Forget even the mighty carpet monster!!! Yes forget that guy!!!! May I bring to your attention this….. Thing!!!! Lock up your models, bolt your man caves and sheds, nothing is safe from the Tibenan Terror!!!!!! Let this cautionary tail begin. As some of you might know the past few months have been rather below par at castle Spadgent for reasons I shall not go into but a few weeks ago after some better news I decided on retail therapy. I’ve always fancied a Tamiya Scrambler. Maybe one of the KTMs that used to dwell in the 80s Tamiya catalogues. How grand they looked with there well painted riders. So I did a bit of online research and WOW!!! I won’t be building one of those any time soon. 😳😳😳💰💰💰 During my search however another kit caught my eye. I’ve always fancied the Tamiya Monkey. ( Sounds weird saying that out loud 🐵 ) and a new kit from Tamiya was being banded about. the “Honda Dax” it looked kinda quirky and I liked that so out went the order and a few days later this arrived in the post. How much more funky do you wanna be? The answer is none, none more funky. 🕺 Any way, looking though the box I was stunned by how detailed this thing was, maybe I’m used to older Tamiya kits but daym this thing is next level, rubber tubing, rubber tyres, real springs and the tiniest nuts and bolts❤️. I lovingly popped it on the coffee table to fawn over while I finished up my other builds. A few days later Gemma pops into my upstairs office with a worried look and this in her hands. 🫣🫣🫣🫣🫣🫣🫣 “It was on the landing” she said. “I think I got most of it back in the box” she said. (This next one ‘ll kill ya) “I told you not to leave it there” she said. 🤬🤯😳🥺😩😤😭🤬 Well I was a little bit upset to say the least and many, MANY words of the nature never to be read on our lovely site were projected towards said hound!!! I quickly examined the torn bags and scattered screw bag. Then my thought went to those lovely soft rubber tyres. 😱😨 One was in the box. No may I add in the greatest shape. The other one was missing. 🤔😥 So we’re quite a few parts. I checked the landing stairs and found parts strewn all over. I even managed to find a bunch of the tiny screws and tape what I did find in here. The other tyre however has never been seen again. We even checked, you know. 💩 on every dog walk but nothing. Who knows it’s probably on Bill’s desk as we speak. 🤔🤣 So any way, after calming down I decided to check the rest of the damage. Missing parts and a few chews. As this was a kit to make me feel better I was a little heart broken. I thought “to hell with it” and went to order another. “SOLD OUT” I saw pretty much everywhere and the £20 price I’d paid had inflated on the sites that did have it in stock. 😩 Right then. What would @hendie do? Well in all honesty I doubt he would have bought this kit in the first place BUT if he had and this had happened to him he’d roll up his sleeves and use that thar 3D printer to make new bits. So to hell with it. That’s what I’ll do. I know I have to make new tyres but whatever is missing along the way I’ll make that too. So will you join me in a build of pure adventure. I have no idea what’s missing and no idea how it’ll go but once again hopefully it’ll be fun. You in? good. Let’s kick off!! ❤️

Ripley and Newt 3d print, Pretty much amazed by how well all the parts fitted neatly together, a fairly large figure coming in at about 28 cm, the base came in two parts which I extended to make a lighting feature, and the facehugger was a tailless creature leaping out of the egg, but I preferred to do a specimen that had been on the receiving end of a "short controlled burst"

Hello everyone, My latest WiP will be a model of a TACR2 fire tender in 1:35 scale. It is a 3D printed kit and is produced by Pete at PHD Designs. RNAS Yeovilton 1986 cheers, Mike

Now I finally have enough parts together to show you my new project. Witchblade by Michel Ballares. As you can see, I printed the base in four parts on a filament printer and then glued the individual parts together with 2-component glue. I'm also quite far with printing the individual parts for the figure. Here's the current status.

Got this 3D printed kit as a fathers day present as I'm a big fan of the turtles, loved the original cartoon when I was a kid! I painted him mostly in citadel and vallejo acrylics using my Raphael series 8404 brushes (really reccomend them to anyone starting out, I use the 1 and 0 size) really had a blast with this one. I painted it in my ususal way of focusing on the light coming from one direction and then highlighting from there to build light and colour. The only slight modification I made to it was to add some glowing mutagen oozing out of the grate on the pipe, I explain how I did it in the wip, speaking of which here's a link to it:- Thanks to everyone who commented and reacted, any interest is always appreciated, here are the final pics:- IMG_20240827_200128150 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_195858480 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_195916456 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_195931279 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_195948851 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200137966 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200147498 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200216413 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200253047 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200312251 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200326001 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200340048 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200417147 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200431481 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200453720 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200643986 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200811427 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240827_200828585 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Thanks for looking, and comments and questions are welcome

Man I'm really looking forward to this next project! I got this for fathers day, I'm a big Turtles fan and Donatello was always my favourite. When I opened the box this is what was in there IMG_20240629_204507042 by Nick Frost, on Flickr And after a quick dry fit, this is what it looks like all together IMG_20240701_201105209 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Noticed straight away there may be some warping and fit issues with the water tower sections and the ladder handles attached to it (excuse the poor attempt to white tack them in place!) but before I get to that I gave it all a wash in warm soapy water as it felt like it still had some resin residue on it, in fact it still felt a bit tacky after I did that so I got a toothbrush and scrubbed it with some surgical spirit which did the trick. IMG_20240629_210031759 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Here you can see there was some warping, I marked it with pen because I was thinking I may have to cut out most of the mating surfaces on both bits, but thankfully its all still on the softish side so I could just cover the whole thing in superglue and squidge it together with a firm grip. IMG_20240702_175831707 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240702_193903900 by Nick Frost, on Flickr So that was easier than I was expecting thankfully, had the same issue with the where it fits onto its base but did the same thing again IMG_20240702_222300372 by Nick Frost, on Flickr In the next pic you can see that the handles of the ladder dont line up that great and thats only if they dont sit flat in on the top section, so I glued the top, and then held them in place on top of the ladder to get them spot on (a bit fiddly but no too bad) IMG_20240702_222453674 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240703_170148492 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240703_223003146 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Oh and before I did that I also glued the legs on to Donatello, I needed to get the water tower sections sorted first to make sure his position wouldn't change and mean I'd glued it in a way that he then wouldn't fit on the base. So I did the straight leg first as that was a very good fit and then got the pipe section loosely in place while I glued the bent leg on. IMG_20240703_163515107 by Nick Frost, on Flickr So his legs are on, but to fit I had to move the pipe section out a little, but thats fine I can use some greenstuff to make an extra pipe bit and that will also stick it to the water tower. IMG_20240703_163717294 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Then I got his arm thats holding his staff in place IMG_20240703_164047622 by Nick Frost, on Flickr I've left the other one off for now as it obstructs access to his upper chest and face. I'm basically wanting to paint this as much together as I can as then its easier to keep my light direction/placement accurate with nothing to correct when it goes together. Only other bit of prep work I did was on one of the little gadget bits he has strapped to his belt, it looks like it should have some slide toggle switch details but they were a bit soft so I used some little bits of greenstuff to make them more prominent. IMG_20240703_194411143 by Nick Frost, on Flickr So with that done he is finally ready for some primer! So next up I'll get him sprayed with some chaos black and can give him his zenithal base layer with some white. Thanks for looking, more soon

I've been looking forward to this GB as I have a great love for the weird and wonderful world of concepts and prototypes and have lots of options in my stash, but due to circumstances I wont be able to access my workbench for the up coming 4-5 weeks. I dont want to have to wait that long to join in the fun though so I'm going to use the time to instead design a 3D printed model on my computer, I can then print the parts and build it once I can get back to my workbench. I have list of ideas for 3D print projects a mile long but I've whittled it down to these options for the GB... American Holt 150t Field Monitor This was an early American tank design from 1915 that was intended to protect the southern US boarder against raids from Mexico. The US Army wasn't interested tho and it didn't leave the drawing board. I was inspired by Gorby's 1/48 scale scratch build of this beast and have wanted to try building one myself in 1/35. French FCM F1 A French heavy tank design from 1939, production was planed to start in late 1940 and it would then have spearheaded the planed French invasion of Germany in early 1941. The Germans invaded France before production could start though and none were built. One of my favorite French tank designs, its a big box on tracks with a big gun that could have blasted its way through any German tank it would have encountered in 1941. Polish Czolg Pancernik (Battleship Tank) The Czolg Pancernik was one of several tank designs by famed Polish sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem. In 1944 he submitted his designs to the Soviet State Defense Committee who wasn't interested and filed them away in an archive were they remained until rediscover about 10 years ago. A 220 ton quad tracked tank with 6 turrets that looks like something out of a 1960's sci-fi film, what's not to like! German Großkampfwagen/K-Wagen German heavy tank design from 1917, two prototypes were under construction when WW1 ended, the treaty of versailles restricted Germany from owning tanks so they were scraped. I made a 3D model of the K-wagen 5 years ago but never got around to printing it, which was somewhat fortunate as since then some new drawings have been found that show the shape of the hull and suspension in better detail. So I want to rework my 3D model to make it more accurate. Russian Tsar Tank The "Tsar tank" was Russia's first attempt at making a tank, a single prototype was built in 1915, during its first trial the rear wheel got stuck in a ditch and it was unable to pull itself out, putting an end to the trail and its development. It remained in the ditch until 1923 when it was dismantled for scrap. The complexity of the Tsar Tank both scares and excites me... I'm still thinking about which one I want to make and probably wont make a decision until the last minute, feel free suggest which one you'd like to see me build tho.

The story: This is a new 3D project initiated by friend Roland Grard and myself. Roland, who lives in Le Havre, has been in contact over the last few years with Australians who are interested in the sinking of the coaster Blythe Star. The ship sank very quickly without a distress message being sent out, but the ten crew members were able to get to safety in an inflatable raft. One of his Australian correspondents wrote a book about the tragedy, and was able to send them photos and plans of the boat. Other plans were "unearthed" from the Australian archives by another of his Australian correspondents who was also passionate about the Normandie liner. Last month he received a photo from her showing him with the last survivor of the sinking posing in front of a model of the Blythe Star. Roland knew that he had modelled the plans in 3D but was unaware that he had undertaken to make a model, and he was surprised to discover that this model had been partly made by 3D wire printing. Nicolas in front of his model and Mick Doleman on the left, last survivor of the Blythe Star. The model has been on display at the Tasmanian Maritime Museum in Hobart since the end of October 2023. https://www.facebook.com/MaritimeMuseumTasmania/ https://www.maritimetas.org/ He kindly sent her his various print files to produce another copy. That's when he asked me to print the ship. The problem is that the coaster is at 1/50 scale and it would have been complicated to print a ship of this size with a resin printer as I only had the final STL files at my disposal, which would have been difficult to modify in order to split them correctly. What's more, the printing technique is not the same between wire and resin, which is its own constraint. So I suggested to Roland that he redo the 3D drawing from A to Z with more detail, but at 1/100 scale, using the same plans he had available. The ship will be as she was in 1973. An extract from the plans: I've made good progress on the project since 28 November, a good week ago, I'm already at 50 hours of drawing, putting paid to my good resolution to finish the current projects, but at the same time I'm continuing to finish the battleship Bretagne. This project should be completed very quickly, a 'Flash' project. Here is some progress from the first 3 days:

Hello A few photos of my newest project. It is a resin model printed on an Anycubic 3d printer. Cheers.

Another small figure project. The figure is a bust, the first parts are just coming out of the resin printer. I'm still thinking about whether I should print the base with the filament printer, as it's quite sizeable. I'll have all the parts printed by the weekend. As for the color, it will probably be a pretty matte gold.

P-51B/C Upgrade Sets (for Eduard) 1:48 Eduard Brassin We’ve just reviewed the new ‘razor-back’ Mustang in Limited Edition D-Day form here, and it’s a stunning kit, with lots of detail baked into the styrene. For those of us that want even more detail, Eduard have us covered with these new sets that include double-sided TFace masks for the two canopy styles (blown & framed), plus bronze gear legs, a seat, exhausts, wheels with a choice of tread patterns, and a comprehensive set of gun bay enhancements that will fill the spaces in the wings that are marked out on the kit parts. We have seven sets including the masks in to review, but there are plenty more available to tempt you to open your wallet, and if you pick them all up, you’ll need the bronze gear legs to cope with the additional weight! Gun Bays (648997) This largest set arrives in a large Brassin cardboard box, with the resin and Photo-Etch (PE) parts cocooned in their own Ziploc bags, protected by a pair of sheets of foam top and bottom, and the instruction booklet that is wrapped around the package during closure at the factory. There are twenty resin parts, and the fret of PE contains a few more, with sufficient parts to build a pair of handed gun bays, one for each wing. Detail is exquisite thanks to the 3D printed nature of most of the parts, requiring them to be cut away from the finger-like supports that prevent them sagging during printing, and link them to the flat print base underneath. The port bay is dealt with first, adding resin supports to the beautifully detailed bay shell, then mounting the breeches of the .50cal machine guns at an angle, wiring them to a resin actuator with some 0.2mm wire from your own supplies, totalling five in all that are picked out on the instructions in different colours to assist you with their location, while the lengths of the wires are called out on the individual drawings. The double run of ammunition that feeds the gun is printed as a single part for the narrower area of the bay, adding a separate section that curves around to orient itself with the breeches of the guns. The starboard wing is built in the same manner, only in mirror image, then the bay panels are shown being cut from the kit’s upper wing, following the thinned out lines on the interior of the parts, which is a great help. The bays are inserted into the corresponding recess in the lower wing, and the upper wing is placed over the top, adding PE strips to the forward edges of the ammo feeds, and a resin bay door in the vertical position, hinged forward, and with two PE latches sticking up that should be painted the same colour as the exterior of the wing, as should the bay doors. The other bay doors are also supplied, and are generally removed by the armourers to access the bays, then laid either on the wing or elsewhere nearby, ready to go back on once the reloading or maintenance job is complete. These parts are realistically thin, and have detail printed on both sides for realism. Colour call-outs in Gunze Sangyo paint codes are given through the build process, with acrylic and lacquer codes side-by-side. Wheels (Various Tread Patterns) Kit wheels are generally in two halves, which means you have the resultant joins to deal with, possible mould-slip issues on single part wheels, and sometimes less than stellar detail due to the moulding limitations of styrene injection technology, especially in the tread department. That's where replacement resin wheels come in, with their lack of seamline and superior detail making a compelling argument. They are also usually available at a reasonable price, and can be an easy introduction to aftermarket and resin handling, as they are usually a drop-in replacement. This 3D printed set contains two main wheels with separate outer hubs that are printed as a pair on a separate base, plus a rugged tail-wheel to fix to the kit struts. There are several sets available, but we have just the diamond treaded set that are pictured here. The other sets can be seen and/or purchased from the links below: Diamond Tread Seen Above (648986) Oval Tread (648987) Cross Tread (648988) Block Tread (648989) Diamond Tread 2 (648990) Each set also includes a sheet of pre-cut kabuki-tape masks for the wheels that allow you to cut perfect demarcations between the tyres and hubs of all the wheels with little effort. Exhaust Stacks (648992) Containing two drop-in replacements for the kit exhausts, these parts have finer detail and hollow tips that will give your model a more realistic look. As well as the parts pictured, there are also another type that has fairings around the pipes, which you can see by following the second link below: Exhaust Stacks with Fairing (648993) Undercarriage Legs BRONZE (648994) These replacement main gear legs for the Mustang offer extra strength and sharpness to your model, plus finer details such as the brake hoses and supports that can’t be moulded in injection styrene. They have minimal clean-up that will need to be done with a file due to the metal’s robust nature, and they also come with a full set of resin gear bay doors that are highly detailed and are closer to scale thickness than the kit parts. Seat Type 1 PRINT (6481002) A replacement 3D printed seat for your Mustang that provides more detail than the kit seat, plus a set of PE Steel four-point seatbelts for the pilot, complete with comfort pads under the buckles. There are two styles, the Type 2 can be seen by following the second link below: Seat Type 2 (6481003) Tface Masks Framed Canopy & Malcolm Hood (EX1036 & EX1037) Supplied on a sheet of yellow kabuki tape, these pre-cut masks supply you with a full set of masks for the canopy both inside and out, with any compound curved handled by using frame hugging masks, while the highly curved gaps are in-filled with either liquid mask or offcuts from the background tape. In addition, you get a set of hub/tyre masks for the wheels and landing light, allowing you to cut the demarcation perfectly with little effort. There is one set sold separately for each of the canopies used by the P-51B/C, known as the Framed Canopy and the Malcolm Hood, and they will give the canopies a very realistic look once completed and the masks removed. Framed Canopy (EX1036) Malcolm Hood (EX1037) Conclusion The detail is phenomenal on all the resin sets and their comparative simplicity of construction is commendable, while the masks ease the painting and preservation of the clarity of the canopy. Pick the sets that appeal to you or your budget, or go mad and get a raft of them to build the ultimate Mustang for your cabinet. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

This time I'm going to try my hand at a heavily armed space samurai warrior in 75 mm, I think the term samurai fits quite well, I'm still undecided about the color scheme. First I created a base on the PC and printed it out with the filament printer. The figure itself was bought and printed on my resin printer. Today the base coat and the first pictures. The hydraulic door locks come in separately

Okay got myself another bit of 3D printed goodness, I've always wanted to make a judge dredd model, so as soon as I saw this cool bust I jumped at it! IMG_20240417_162912214 by Nick Frost, on Flickr It was a pretty good print, just a a bit of sanding here and there but with no support marks, only small thing I had to sort was a hole on the seam of his glove so I just re-sculpted over it with some green stuff. IMG_20240417_162929369 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240417_163406906 by Nick Frost, on Flickr With that done it was on to priming, so I sprayed him with some chaos black primer, and then I got some white laquer paint in the air brush and blasted over some white for a zenithal effect as a reference for my deep shadows and highlights. IMG_20240418_165013532 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240418_203253883 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Working on the inside out principal I started with his face (or what you can see of it!) This is the same process I use for most standard flesh, I start with a coat of bugmans glow IMG_20240420_195353862 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Then I mix 50/50 bugmans glow and cadian flesh and brush that over most of it except for the main shadow areas (this is very subtle as its a transition step to smooth the colours together) IMG_20240420_200541297 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Then its pure cadian flesh and I'm brushing it over making sure to leave my shadow areas and not to cover all of the previous transition colour. IMG_20240420_200940512 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Then I start to establish highlights with a 50/50 mix of cadian flesh and kislev flesh IMG_20240420_201749703 by Nick Frost, on Flickr And now I accentuate the highlights with pure kislev flesh IMG_20240420_202127768 by Nick Frost, on Flickr At this point I want to give them lips a bit of warmth as thats where the blood is closest to the surface, so I did a 50/50 mix of mephiston red and vallejos deep magenta to get a purply red, then brush some of this into my kislev flesh and applied it to the lips. IMG_20240420_202759599 by Nick Frost, on Flickr I then mixed some vallejo bone white into the kislev flesh to push some of the highlights further. IMG_20240420_205525236 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240420_205532618 by Nick Frost, on Flickr I was pretty happy at this point so for now I moved away from it and got the base coat for the helmet and his suit done with some night lords blue IMG_20240421_102725574 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Then once that was done I decided to move on to his visor as I thought that would help me get a better impression of how his face is looking, so I gave it a black coat, and then for the edge (which in the comics I believe is clear) I used a dark grey as a start point and using a few mixes with more and more white I highlighted it out from the middle working in smaller areas to leave the middle as the bright spot. IMG_20240421_194124560 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240421_194311775 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240421_195447378 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Oh I forgot to mention, also in the above photos, I highlighted his lip with some kislev flesh, and used a small dab of bone white to make his nose highlight brighter. Next I moved back to his suit and started adding the first highlight step by mixing some caledor sky blue in with the night lords blue and brushing it over the highpoints IMG_20240421_201125983 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240421_201647711 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240421_202249265 by Nick Frost, on Flickr I also started the same process with the helmet with the same colour as a start point. IMG_20240421_202630111 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240421_202827414 by Nick Frost, on Flickr So thats where he is for now, next up I'll highlight his suit more, although the next highlight will only be for his front upper body, the back and lower body are more in shadow and I want to keep his top half as the main focus. Thanks for looking, more soon

Finally got this guy through the post! Been looking forward to getting this started, and this is a monster from the Flesh of Gods series of 3D printed miniatures and as such the scale is slightly misleading because he's pretty big compared to a human! IMG_20240309_192150478 by Nick Frost, on Flickr The good thing is as its bigger in size it actually has a much more detailed base than the other 3D printed figures I've done IMG_20240309_193154763 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Had to do quite a bit of cleanup with this guy where some supports needed to be removed and sanded, but he also had a couple of tips of the fins on his forearm missing so I just used some greenstuff to resculpt them, and while I had the greenstuff out there were a couple of small dips on his feet that needed sorting too so filled them over with it as well. IMG_20240310_142153017 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240310_174715863 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240310_140545493 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240310_141043672 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Then with that done I sprayed the whole thing with chaos black primer IMG_20240317_190936248 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240317_190950225 by Nick Frost, on Flickr The first decision I made straight away is that I am not painting the rocks grey, I want it to be different but also its underwater so want to give them a croal reef look so instead they will be purple and for the Fishman I'm going to paint him a bright greeny turquoise blue with bright red fins. For both I'm not doing a zenithal blast of white paint because there are a lot of nooks and crannies so I want to preserve the shadow areas as pure black in case I miss anything and there aren't lots of little details that need bringing out anyway. The only thing I've done so far is to mix 50/50 with Night Lords Blue and Xereus Purple and brushed over the rocks as a base coat for the shadows. IMG_20240317_210112058 by Nick Frost, on Flickr So now its underway the next thing I'll do is build up the purple colour of the rocks, I really like the base so for this one I'm doing base first then the figure. Thanks for looking, more soon

Really very lovely 3-D printed Ripley bust, about 12cm in height, bought as a kit (all of two pieces:) ) Before paint

Right onwards and upwards, time for another figure! I wanted to try a non human one for something different, so this is a 75mm 3D printed figure from the Flesh of Gods series, the actual name of the character is "Grumpy Goblin" which I think is a bit too fairytale sounding for how he looks! I've referred to him as a Frost Goblin because I'm planning on doing him with blue skin and white hair for something different, and in actual fact none of these 3D prints give any mention of what colours what so its all open to interpretation anyway. I'm still on the fence about a couple of details, I really want to make his swords "power swords" by which I mean they have lightning going up up them with a blue glow effect, but I'm not sure if that might be a bit too much blue, and I may put some actual ice effects on his hip armour. But thats all for much later on so plenty of time to think and see how it looks. So this is him IMG_20240212_163102109 by Nick Frost, on Flickr For now all I've done with him is the first step of a zenithal prime, so I sprayed him black with some citadel chaos black from a rattle can, before spraying him with a blast white laquer paint to bring out the details and give a reference for my light source direction. IMG_20240212_165121428_HDR by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240214_193515018 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240214_193526850 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Everything on him is easily accessible so I've already glued him to the base to make my life a bit easier when holding him. Not a lot of progress yet; I've been waiting for a replacement to come after the first one broke in the post so I'm impatient to get the ball rolling with the topic! Next up I'll get the base coat of dark blue on all his fleshy bits and get his eyes sorted. Thanks for looking, more soon

My latest project will be to build this 3D printed kit which has been designed and produced by Peter Harvey of PH Designs. My intention is to build the model as a representation of a vehicle I used in the mid-1970s, whilst deployed with a Forward Air Control (FAC) team in Norway. First off, I've needed to make a test print of the body, to check that I have the supports in the right place and that everything printed correctly. With the supports removed and sprayed with grey primer, this view shows up the detail nicely. Looking much better with a coat of green. I shall check this test print for any areas that need fine-tuning and do any adjustments as necessary before I make another print for the actual build. There are over 50 parts to this kit, some only 2.5mm in size, so this will not be a quick build. I hope that I can make a good model from the beautifully designed components. Further details about the kit and information of availabilty can be obtained from Peter at PH Designs cheers, Mike

Earlier this year whilst working on designs for a 1/24th Westland Wasp, my hand was forced into learning how to cast aluminium (using vacuum processes) on a small scale, on account of the part(s) concerned needing to be much stronger than white metal was capable of providing. On the principle that the problems specific to modellers rarely feature in Youtube tutorials for such processes, it may be useful for others how this process can be adapted to our hobby on a cheap, reliable, but most importantly, safe, basis as home. In relation to scale and detail, the species of metal-casting videos in closest proximity to our craft tend to be those made by jewellery designers and from which you can form the misleading impression that you need to drop €2-3K on kilns, furnaces and the like to even get started. Those guys are working with precious metal on a market-volume routine basis so necessarily need consistent, professional gear to run their practice on a daily basis, unlike those of us needing only small volume or occasional metal parts. Before proceeding any further I cannot stress the safety factor enough - foundry work (even at this small scale) involves materials and equipment working in excess of 700°C, so as a minimum you require: A well-ventilated outbuilding or outdoor area (with a concrete or stone floor), with the casting area itself well away from any flammable materials. Safety equipment: protective footwear, along with a thick industrial apron and foundry-type gloves like these: Protective goggles are also advised. If you have neighbours right next door as well, in terms of noise pollution/public nuisance, be aware that the furnace emits quite a roar at operating temperature, as well as fumes when the wax resin is being burned out. Metalworking gear sold online with the word 'jewellery' appended is as a rule wildly expensive for the home user, however, much of what you need can either be made or adapted cheaply yourself with only basic DIY-level skills. For clarity, the following is split into three sections regarding tools, materials, and then the sequence of events involved in producing the parts. Tools 1. Casting flask & base. These flasks are just a stainless steel cylinder and go for silly money online. I bought a cheap length of 3" wide stainless steel exhaust (for a Mini) from a local car-parts seller for the price of a single flask and cut it down to produce as many flasks as I need: The rubber base you see it sitting on is one of these, again, an inexpensive item. 2. Foundry tools. The melting crucible is a 1kg carbon graphite job. You can pick these up cheaply enough online from the likes of Amazon however many of them come without a pouring lip which I found made pouring the metal awkward so you can see at the 3 o'clock position on it tbar I ground out my own lip (easy enough using the Dremel). Both the black crucible tongs and flask tongs (yes this latter are really just a big BBQ pair) can also be sourced cheaply online. Ensure your tongs match the size of both your flask and crucible though - in my case the black tongs work fine with the crucible but don't open wide enough to lift the flask in and out of the furnace, hence the second pair. A large screwdriver is useful for digging the part out of the mould after casting, whilst the tool on the far right is simply an old BBQ spatula folder over in the vice to produce a handy item for scraping slag off the top of the liquid metal whilst it's in the furnace. 4. Furnace. You'll find plenty of rather costly gas propane furnaces online for blacksmithing, jewellery etc., and an equal number of cheap knockoffs. I sought advice about the cheaper alternatives from a sculptor friend with experience working a range of metals: his verdict was that they were too cheaply built to last, plus also noted that on H&S grounds you still had to spend time making them safe to use in terms of treating the thermal blankets from spewing off fibres. As I had already had one of these roofing torches from previous building works, the heat source for the furnace was already taken care of. If you need to source a burner yourself, there's a lot of simple cheap furnace torches of the venturi type available online, or even build your own. Whichever route you follow, you're working with gas and high temperatures, so be careful. There'd been an empty Calor gas cylinder knocking around in the garden ever since we moved in about two decades ago; I'd never thrown it out thinking 'it'll come in handy one day' and sure enough, this turned out to be its hour of glory, being transformed into a furnace using Brian Oltrogge's impeccablly concise beer keg method: Not needing such a large furnace as Brian did, I cut the middle 25% out of my cylinder's original height, whilst the handles were simply recyled from an old airbrush compressor: Not needing such a heavy amount of heat as a larger furnace to get up to operating temp. (typically 732°C for flask burnout / approx 700°C for melting the aluminium in the crucible.*) I also replaced the original nozzle of my propane torch with a smaller bore version and made sure that the diameter of the tuyere opening matched it during construction so that it would fit comfortably into the opening like so: For the refractory lining of both furnace body and lid I followed Lionel Oliver II's homebrew mixture to the letter and it works superbly, as long as your initial warming and firing process to cure it follows Brian Oltrogge's curing steps of air, heat lamp, then steadily increased the burner temp over several hours, which he outlines in his tutorial videos. Vacuum chamber/table Unluckily my defunct airbrush compressor was a diaphragm rather than piston version, otherwise I would have had a go at converting it to a vacuum pump along the lines used by Tariq Curtis. That said, Vevor sell a decent, inexpensive pump/chamber combination that provided plenty of scope for modification along the lines required here. It didn't have to be pretty, just work consistently, and was modified thus: The chamber comes from the manufacturer with the connection and gauge mounted onto the lid, so as I needed to be able to swap the lid out for a casting table (which I made from that circular steel plate you can see hiding behind the pump), the side of the chamber was drilled out and the connection repositioned to there, with the original hole in the lid being sealed by that highly professional and sophisticated method of sticking a 50p piece over it using JB Weld: That then gave me the means to both de-gas the liquid investment inside the chamber when casting the 3d printed pattern, and then by swapping the lids over, use it outside as a vacuum casting table. By no means is that combination an original idea on my part (it's a well known and widely used process with some beautifully-engineered equipment produced by others) but has the virtue of being quick and cheap to produce in this instance. If buying a similar pump/chamber, go for a pump with the higher flow rate as you will need that extra speed at the metal pouring stage. Casting 1. The 3D print and investment mould. The initial casting step proved the most expensive part of the process as, in experimenting with both resin and homemade casting mixtures, you pretty soon find out that there is a reason that specialist materials exist. You gets what you pay for! After satisfying myself that tens of thousands of people around the world weren't lying about the fact that standard resin doesn't cook off when subjected to extreme heat but just turns to ash: - I realized that it was necessary to buy one of those printing resins especially formulated for metal casting. After going square-eyed from reading brand-comparisons (as well as bug-eyed at some of the prices!), I settled on Siraya's well-known 'Tech Cast Purple' as a compromise between quality and cost. It's been around a while, is well spoken of, and gave excellent print results first time out: Did I say compromise? Actually there's no compromise here in quality terms, the surface finish being on par with anything I've got from Elegoo's standard grey: the only issue I found in regular use was the occasional apparition: This particular blend of resin does require a more elaborate cleaning and curing cycle post-print, however if you're prepared to pay a bit more then I undertand the newer Blue version simplifies this step. Prior to obtaining the vacuum gear and a custom investment powder I explored some of the cheaper options for investment casting first, having several goes at using a 50/50 mix of Plaster of Paris and silica sand and just the effects of gravity to get the metal into the mould. Many people have routinely gotten great results from such inexpensive materials but for producing larger chunkier parts than what I required here, so it was no surprise when I was unable to get the proccess to produce more than a 70% complete print on such small parts. Remarkable however that it yielded that much! A brief reading up on the chemical composition of investment materials rapidly convinced me that for 3d printed materials at this scale, the use of a professionally-produced powder was necessary. Digging around online I was able to find a supplier in Spain who was able to ship a box of Ransom & Randolph's 'Plasticast' blend, specifically formulated for using with 3d printed materials, at a reasonable rate: It has a lovely creamy texture and performs consistently well, plus you get to sing Mud Mud, Glorious Mud whilst degassing it: When it comes to the actual mixing and casting process, George on Makerspace gives a far better demonstration of this visually than I can ever hope to achieve in written for. Essentially follow everything he does here and you will get good results. Hat tip to you George. One crucial difference is that he uses a kiln to fire his flask whereas as I use the gas furnace: This obviously lacks the precision of a digitally-controlled thermal environment so aside from a handheld thermal temperature gun (which will only give you an approximate understanding of the internal temperature due to confusing reads off the hot gases emerging at the top) you have to work old-school and judge the required temperature by the colour of the steel flask. This is not as hard as it sounds once you get your eye in. One issue I balked at when humming and aahing about buying an expensive investment powder initially was the multi-hour temperature-control cycle the manufacturers recommend for baking your flask. No way would this be practicable or affordable on a gas furnace. I was heartened though to read in Tim McCreight's Practical Casting (a superb handbook to have) that there was a 'quick and dirty' 3hr bake you could use instead (essentially the same routine followed by George in his video). Certainly this has worked fine in my case, despite the difference in equipment. As to the actual metal pour, this is the setup I use out back, with plenty of leg room between furnace and vacuum table in order to avoid tripping over anything: The black cylinder is an old airbrush tank cut down and insulated (so that I can stick the baked flask under to keep hot whilst melting the metal down) whilst that silicone gasket on top of the vacuum table is just a cheap piece of catering sheet cut out with a hole in the middle for the flask to sit over. A fresh pour: Surprisingly the vacuum setup exerts a stronger pull with hot rather than cold items, I've no idea why. You want to avoid the flask shedding too much heat whilst out in the open on top of the table as the chamber evacuates and you fetch the crucible of metal over, so I bung a couple of large rocks into the chamber to drastically reduce the volume of air the pump needs to remove. The subsequent cooling and cleanup cycle again follow what you see George doing in his video, whilst the net result of the above has remained pretty consistent from cast to cast. Here are copies of the parts in question - the forks which hold the main rotor blades on the Wasp - neither resin, plastic, or white metal capable providing the required tensile strength to hold the blades without making these fork elements grossly oversized: These are all still in their raw state out of the mould so the next task of course is to begin cutting them off the sprue and give them a sand and polish - hopefully I can start that over the next few evenings. Is this work going to make any jewellery designers feel threatened? Hardly. But it is capable of reproducing features down to about 0.15mm in size on parts that need to be stronger than more commonplace modelling processes can provide. And that's all that was needed in this instance. I'll post up a photo of the forks in the finished condition in a few days. Kind regards, Tony *This Vietnamese foundry produces the best guide I found anywhere online about the temperature ranges for pouring aluminium, in terms of balancing strength with surface detail.

As soon as I saw this miniature I really wanted to get it! Its from a range of printable figures called Undercity Exiles, and I used to be a biker so I always have a soft spot for two wheels, especially when they are as cool as this. IMG_20240118_194555888_HDR by Nick Frost, on Flickr Started off by priming her in black and then used some white laquer paint through my airbrush to do a zenithal prime once I'd figured out my light direction. Although just as a sidenote, I dont do this just for that, the whole thing will get at least a light mist of white to bring out the detail to help me see it when painting. IMG_20240120_144146278_HDR by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240120_150643707 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240120_151003219 by Nick Frost, on Flickr The only laquer paints I usually use are Mr Hoby brand, but for this one I actually ran out but didn't have to wait for an order as I found some Tamiya white laquer paint in Hobbycraft and man can I tell a difference. The Mr Hobby laquer white covers way better than the Tamiya one, so it took me longer than usual to build up the colour. After that I started on her face and fleshy bits, of which there is not much which makes a change from all the muscles of the last miniature i did! So on the wet pallet I got some Bugmans Glow (dark), Cadian Flesh (medium) and Kislev flesh (light) and put down my base coat of Bugmans Glow as a first step. IMG_20240121_114502156 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_115158673_HDR by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_115143734 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Next up was the transition shade of a 50/50 mix of Bugmans Glow and Cadian Flesh which will cover all but the deepest shadow, you can see on the pallet pic below I also mixed up the transition colour of 50/50 Cadian Flesh and Kislev Flesh just so I had it ready for me. IMG_20240121_115422281 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Her face is about half in shadow and light with the way I've organised the light direction, so I moved between these shades and made sure it stayed fairly dark on one side of her face building up to the brightest highlights on the other which ended up with a 50/50 mix of Kislev Flesh and some white. IMG_20240121_122225038_HDR by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_122230043_HDR by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_122235506_HDR by Nick Frost, on Flickr At this point I thought maybe the darkside was slightly too dark so I brightened it a little using some bugmans glow with a bit more cadian flesh mixed in and I also highlighted a little the bits of skin you can see showing through the bottom of her leotard style top. IMG_20240121_122420826 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_122420826 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_123544909_HDR by Nick Frost, on Flickr And after tweaking the highlights and smoothing some of the transitions I got here to a point where I was happy with the bright and dark side of her face. IMG_20240121_131645783 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_131653755 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_131701749 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Oh forgot to mention there is also a small bit of flesh showing through the back of her gloves which I gave similar treatment. So then the next step is here visor, now my vision for this to have it as if its lit from the side edges of the headset with a bright neon light from each side. To do this I used some fluorescent magenta paint from Vallejo Game Color, which is good for glow effetcs and such. Now I'd heard a lot of people say this paint was too thin and you need lots of coats to build it up, so I thought great I can make that work in my favour to good effect as I can hopefully paint over the eyes to make it look like they are just bathed in light. So I started by painting the eyes with bright white whites and dark grey centres, I want this whole thing to be monochrome ready for overpainting with the thin fluorescent magenta paint, so I also used shades of grey to adjust the shadow areas. IMG_20240121_132212388_HDR by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_133026720_HDR by Nick Frost, on Flickr At this point I gave the area the first coat of fluorescent magenta IMG_20240121_142129851 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Man obviously you cant tell but it is very thin, and is just the opacity I'd hoped for. I gave the whites of her eyes and the parts at the side a coat of white to restablish the bright points for the next coat before brushing it on. IMG_20240121_143008913 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_144249401 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Then I gave just the side bits where the light is coming in another coat of white before the next magentas coat. IMG_20240121_144940558 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_144954080_HDR by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_145003085_HDR by Nick Frost, on Flickr Oh and there was something really bugging me about her face and then I realised I had made her lips the same colour as her face so I gave them a brush with some of my midtone mix and used the base colour to restablish the lip shadows IMG_20240121_145335817 by Nick Frost, on Flickr IMG_20240121_145624635_HDR~2 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Very pleased with that, I think it will look even better when I have painted the headset to box it all in and neaten it up. Thats what I will do next before starting her hair which I have decided to do a dusky lilac, as that seems like a cool "biker-girl-of-the-future" colour! Thanks for looking, more soon

Hi folks, originally I had asked my son to print me an Apollo Astronaut as a size reference for my 1/48 Dragon Lunar Approach. The first try came out way to big, about 1/24 scale ... so I made a little vignette out of it, as the print was just to nice to throw away (anyhow, no modeller throws anything away!!). The second try was perfect for the Dragon kit .... Then I got cocky and wanted ANOTHER print, this time 1/72 for my Dragon LM and CM (they were "leftovers" from the Saturn rocket, as I build that in one piece without the interior showing - yes! I chickened out looking at all the modification the insides would have required). However, in several tries the figure never came out correctly out of the print. For one, the posture is different. As it is the exact same 3d file, I have no clue why that happens. Though it does look a bit more dynamic. But it was always missing the top half of the helmet???? I finally took one of those "headless" tries and molded the rest of the helmet on there with putty. It came out alright, I think. Thanks for looking, as always. Cheers