Vacation 2016 - Day 16: Guédelon Castle, Part 3

Here is the next small batch of photos from this extraordinary site.

Further down you will find some pics of a couple of carts, which may be of great interest to re-enactors and others with a knack for historical equipment.

I shall continue to post small batches like this from our day at Guédelon, in between posting about gaming stuff (I should have something game-related ready for posting tomorrow, if everything goes as planned today, but you never know when real life suddenly kicks in).

Vacation 2016 - Day 16: Guédelon Castle, Part 2

Just inside the site, other scale models  have been erected. Not that it seemed to please Anna...

The first sight of the actual castle!

The rope-makers rope-walk.

Closing in on the castle.

The stonemason's workshop

Soon, It Will Be Christmas!

I am experimenting with Christmas ornaments on my CR10S.

The picture deceives a bit, as I used Auto White Balance in GIMP, which has made the contrast in the Silky Gold PLA seem a bit harsher than in real life; I am right now trying to find a printing temperature that preserves the 'silky' effect a bit better, but the next couple of days the printer will be busy printing ram horns for Lea's new ram skull (as soon as I have cleaned up the skull, removing the supports completely, I shall be posting some pics).

I am pretty content with my decision to get a 3D printer - just so many possibilities!

Vacation 2016 - Day 16: Guédelon Castle, Part 1

As you can see to the right, our 1963 Eccles fit snugly at the tent lot we were lucky to get in an otherwise fully booked camping site. 😁

Our reason for heading for the Loire Valley was to visit the Medieval building site of Guédelon.

Over a period of 25 years, this project is to build a real Medieval castle, using historically correct methods and materials. What an endeavour! 😮😮😮

In the entrance building, one immediately spots a model of the castle as it is going to look when finished. I sanpped some phots, as a 1/40th scale model like this should be of great interest for other wargamers like me!

I do not have time to post and comment more pictures right now; I may find time for another post later this evening, after the kids return from their activities (Anna is at the library in Ringe, attending a class in creative writing, and Lea is also in Ringe, for her gymnastics), and dinner has been consumed.

Land Speeder Reprise

Thought I would show one of my prints with a couple of minis - I also needed a place-holder for the pic to use it at one of the forums I use 😏

Magical Days in Odense: Boat Trip Thursday Night

As usual, we attended the now 'not' Harry Potter Festival in Odense, and this year I had purchased tickets for the 'Zoolomagical Boat Trip in the Dark' for Anna and Lea.

For some reason, this year the check-in for the ride had been moved to the bank opposite of the quai, which caused some confusion, but eventually all the participants found their way over there.

 

Anna and Lea, too. The next couple of photos were taken from the far side of Odense Creek with zoom on my new Canon Ixus - I am somewhat impressed!

 

Luckily, the girls were placed on the same boat.

It still took a while before they departed, as the other boat had to go first, and it seems the skippers want to maintain a safe distance between the boats as they navigate up the creek to Odense Zoo.

I used the waiting time for snapping some pictures, and you can see the best results below.

After the boats left, I had to kill three hours, so I went to the Old Irish Pub in 'Elf Alley' Odense, to wait for my Wife and have a few beers.

3D Printed: A Bunch of Star Wars Containers

I have quite a collection of 'Medium Cargo Containers' by now - and I also printed some Kyber Crystal Containers, to have something to use as portable objectives.

When I leave work Monday morning, I have 1½ week off, until Wednesday night in week 43, so I expect to get my second batch of jungle bases moving and finished, so that I can use the dinner table for some gaming (and dining, og course); it has been occupied by spread newspapers and boxes for far too long.

3D Printed: Medium Sized Cargo Container

Not my first attempt at this print, but probably the nicest one.

The STL can be found here on Thingiverse.

I am trying to organize the stuff I have painted for Legion into some boxes in a larger cardboard crate, and I shall be taking some more photos of stuff I have not shown, yet, over the next couple of days (there is actually quite a back-log, regarding blog posts).

3D Printed: Landspeeder

Another Thingiverse item that I printed recently. Icon of the first ever Star Wars movie, this speeder is a must for a Tatooine set-up. Of course, I am goin to pain tit, eventually, but in the meantime it will be used as is, to provide some - perhaps movable - cover in Star Wars games.

3D Printed: Star Wars TA12 Wreck

One of the many prints I have not had time to show until now. Of course meant as a piece of terrain, and is destined to be painted, but I printed it in a pale grey to be able to use it on the table right off the printer.

I have some more files from Thingiverse, including an intact version and a couple of other wrecks, and I am definitely going to print all of them, given time. There is even a version with interiors, that I might use as the mobile base of a group of smugglers/adventurers at a later point!

3D Printed: More Star Wars Crates

I have had some problems with a recently purchased roll of blue PLA filament, and I am now churning out small bits and bobs to tune a profile for handling it.

At the front you can see one of the weird results - I am keeping that one, because I think I can paint it as if burning, but I have had to chuck quite a few pieces. They are turning out OK, now, and I have started a medium sized cargo container which should finish about 7:30 tomorrow morning.

OSFPP: Johann the Boatman

Yesterday, I finished this old 'Shadows Over Bögenhafen' mini for the running Old School Fantasy Painting Party at the Lead Adventure Forum.

I have had it since the late 80's so I am pretty happy that it finally got painted.

For now, I am going to use him as the leader of some 'Mountain Brigands' in Sellswords & Spellslingers (until I have a fiercer model for that), and later he will probably become a character for the same game.

Today, I got a fiber tear/pulled muscle in my back thigh (went to badminton with Lea for the first time), so I shall probably have plenty of time for painting the next couple of minis while I recuperate...

New Camera

As some of you may be aware, I recently was a klutz and pushed my trusty Canon PowerShot A560 from the table onto the floor - in turned on mode, and thus with the optics out.

Not my brightest hour, to say the least.

Something broke or got warped inside the optic module, and it can no longer open/close the optics.

Of course, it would be far too expensive to get it repaired, so I had to consider getting a camera with at least the same functionalities, as my backup Sony CyberShot does not deliver on photo quality, and I want to be able to post high-quality photos of my hobby stuff.

My choice fell on another Canon.

It seems to have almost the same settings as the old one, although they are a tad harder to find, but as recent results have shown, I am slowly learning the ropes.

My biggest concern is for when I shall use the camera on holidays or outside in the garden, as I shall probably need reading glasses to check and change settings - the old camera was somewhat easier to operate - but I shall probably just start carrying a set of glasses in the camera bag, for easy access when away from home.

I hope that, in time, when I get to know all the settings and their use in different circumstances, this new camera will prove even better than my sadly departed PowerShot, which has been my companion for more than a decade.