Winter Has Come

We woke up to a town covered in white today, and after walking the dog I had to sweep the sidewalk, the front door stairs, and the back door stairs (and a passage through the yard to the garage) and spread somme road salt to avoid risking any unnecessary injuries.

I snapped a couple of pics when daylight arrived.

The rest of the photos were taken at about 16:15 when the decoration light chains lit up.

The Sun actually peeked under the cloud cover just before going down.

Christmas Wars: Bad Moon Risin'

Today has been Crazy! This morning, after the first night with some notable frost degrees, we found that we had no warm water, and the radiators were cold in all of the ground floor (the top floor, oddly enough, still had some heating).

Anna almost suffered a nervous breakdown, as instead to taking a shower and washing her hair last evening, she had postponed it untill today, so we had to boil water and mix it with cold tap water in the bathroom sink, and the wifey helped her.

I had to drop off the Land Speeder at the garage for changing tires (and the rear windshield wiper), but as soon as I returned home, I called the plumber (as the pipe from the community heating plant leading into the basemant was hot, the problem had to lay somewhere inside our home).

Thankfully, the plumber could come right away (their smithy/workshop is just down the street), and an hour later or so, the radiators slowly began to warm up again. It seems that some kind of dirt filter was clogged, and now we should be marked safe from cold mornings for a while.

Then, after picking up the Land Speeder, I went to Ringe to work out at the Fitness Center/gym and pick up the girls from grammar school afterwards (15:15). Lea had to be at work at 15:30, and Anna took her time to appear, so I had to leave her behind at first to get Lea to work on time. I could not get Lea to call Anna right away to reassure her I'd be back for her (she was changing shirt for work), so Anna kind of panicked and thought I'd abandoned her. Which didn't make my day any better.

All in all, today was pretty shitty, and I did not have the mojo to do much hobby stuff in between.

But, I got the Christmas Display updated, and the story can unfold ...

Miss Puddingsixpence seems to have some problems harnessing the Power of Light here  under the Full Moon. Meanwhile, another Snow Goon has emerged from the Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Whose bidding are the foul constructs doing? And what is their purpose?

No Elf on the Shelf ...

 ... but a lot of headache.

I spent all morning moving one shelf down and putting up another in order to be able to arrange the contents of our kitchen cupboards a little better.

The walls of our 108 years old mansion are really difficult to drill, so I had serious trouble getting the rawlplugs to fit and stick in the holes (at several occasions I was inches away from a nervous breakdown), but after 4½ hours, I had closure.

I don't think it gets much better with old fashioned analog tools.

Needless to say, between this, physical exercise, and picking up Lea from Grammar School/High School), I did not have much time for painting, but I THINK I might get a winter/xmas-themed mini ready later this evening (right now I am watching the World Cup (1/8 final, Japan leading against Croatia)

December Greetings to Everybody!

The cosiest month of the year has finally arrived, and despite soaring energy prices I have decided that we have to shine a little light in the darkness.

I think we all need something nice to look at to invoke some positive thoughts, defying the pandemic, inflation, and war.

Yes, war.

For the first time since WWII a European country has invaded another with the purpose of conquest. It's apalling, and, frankly, stupid, to take this course of action here in the 21st Century, but it seems that Putin is not really living in the same times as the rest of us.

I took some pictures with different camera settings to get to know my Canon Ixus a bit better. Still not perfect, but, well ...

Re-furnishing the Study

This is where my Pain(t) Station desk used to be

I have not been doing much on the hobby front lately; first of all because we went on our annual family camping vacation the last two weeks of July, and then because it is so hot here in Denmark that it takes a lot  of guts to do anything but cower in the shadows.

Last weekend though, we spent packing and moving stuff from my late Mother-in-Law's estate outside Haderslev, and I have been busy emptying my trusty old desk in order to replace it with the somewhat larger and nicer desk formerly belonging to my, also late, Father-in-Law.

I also took the opportunity to organize some of the mess along the radiator under the windows (I have placed the bookcase 15-20 cm from the radiator, and as it has legs, I expect some kind of convection to happen when the radiator is on). Some of the figure cases are all but empty, and as soon as I have removed the last minis from them, I shall sell them off to free some space.

I have built another filament spool tower for the Prepping Station. I now have LotR minis on the right one, all kinds of mixed stuff on the other.

Yesterday I finally got the new desk put in place. I can store most of my paints in and on the desk, now, and as the Miniaturicum paint rack fits behind the elevated desktop, I am going to put something underneath it to be able to reach it while working - and I am going to print some racks to sit beside it, as there is plenty of room left.

So, next up is to find some suitable STL models for the extra racks, and boxes or the equivalent to elevate the racks.

In two and a half week we have Lea's postponed confirmation, and I shall be busy making preparations for it (moving stuff out of the living room so we can set up tables for the celebration, tidying up the garden and coutyard, etc., etc....), but after that, I expect to find time to work on the Smials for Frodo's Quest (and other projects).

Frodo's Quest: Hobbiton 101, WIP

As mentioned yesterday, I am painting some 3D printed smials for my 'Frodo's Quest' project. I am making progress, albeit a slow one, and I thought an update would be in place.

Yes, there are visible layer lines. No, I am not going to do anything about them; it is a terrain piece, and once the war horn is sounded, nobody will notice, anyway. Besides, I printed this quite a while ago, and I am achieving better quality these days, but that is no reason to let this go to waste, methinks.

I am going to acquire a static grass applicator just after this year's summer holidays (I wouldn't risk it being returned to the seller because it arrived while I was away and unable to pick it up), and put a nice lawn on the roof.

3D Printed Wizard's Tower

The blog has been rather quiet for a while for two reasons:

1. I have been busy painting for the Old School Fantasy Painting Party o'er at the LAF, and
2. I wanted September to generate a more modest amount of hits, because one of the joys of blogging for me is the process of surpassing the results of previous months - and with a gap of about 10K hits between the all-time 3rd and 4th best months, it was a bit tedious as soon as a month reached 3rd rank.

Well, I have printed a lot, and painted a couple of minis, since my last update, and I am going to post a lot of it over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

Today's post is about my latest print - of my first purchased bundle of STLs ever, namely some pieces for a Wizard's Tower by Devious Games, run by 'beefcake' as he is known on the LAF.

I started a couple of days ago by printing the roof in Fiberlogy Easy PLA Burgundy. It was printed at 0.1 resolution due to the sloping surfaces.

All the sections for the Wizard's Tower come in two variations; one with integrated tabs on the underside for securing a good grip between levels, and one with flat buttom for printing without supports. The set also provides a separate ring with tabs to attach to the flat versions, to the same end as the integrated tabs.

I printed the version with integrated tabs, as I prefer to avoid glueing pieces together where possible.

The next print was the flat version of a level with a single door, as I want to use it as a hut for the healer in a Sellswords & Spellslingers scenario.

This was printed in Fiberlogy Easy PLA Graphite at 0.2 resolution (saving a lot of time).

Inside details

I am pretty pleased with the outcome of this - and happy with my choice of colours, as I think the finished model will be passable for the table without being painted right away!

Below is the 'complete' hut, fresh from the printer (tower section completed this morning):

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3D Printed: Tatooine Dwelling

My hitherto longest complete print, about 26 hours from start to finish, at resolution 0.1, speed 30mm/sec, and advanced bridging settings on.

Of course, I also have to print a door, but it will have to wait until I have printed some more desert building, and have a reason for changing filament.

I think it really pays off to allow for longer printing time - and it also paid off that I took the time and money to purchase different colours of filament, until I found the right hue for this kind of building/terrain. This way I can use the printed buildings right away, and texturing/painting can wait, without deducting notably from the visual impact.

I am very pleased with this print, and it makes me want to try printing with a smaller nozzle, for even finer resolution - but that is for somewhen in the future; right now I just need to churn out a sizeable collection of desert and jungle terrain (I am going to start some more jungle bases next week - too much else to preoccupy my mind this weekend, as we have to stack five cubic meters of firewood I got delivered Tuesday morning, and just managed to get into the shed yesterday evening, in time for the deluge we are experiencing since abour 2 am, and I am going to something called the 'Tie Party', a celebration for gents only at the local inn, being held as a pendant to the ladies only 'Hat Party' which is tradition on the weekend before Egeskov Fair, Saturday afternoon.

I am currently printing a Tatooine storage building with floor and removable roof, expecting it to finish late this evening.

New Window for the Garage Attic

Aboujt a week ago, last Sunday, Kevin and his brother gave me a hand with the new window for the garage attic.

I purchased the window two years ago, but the family landspeeder then needed some serious repairs, and I could not find the money for hiring a carpenter to do the job (and I dared not make an attempt on my own).

But when Kevin and I played Black Powder a month or so ago, and it was very hot, I mentioned that I already had a window to replace the old, not very functional, one, and as it turned out, he and his brother had just changed the windows in Kevin's home.

About 1½ hour well spent, and Argonor's Attic can now get vented whenever needed!

This will be a big help the next time I arrange Attic Attack, as the attic has a tendency to get very hot when the sun is shining outside, and it has been hard to breathe up there at more than one occasion.

Getting in the Right Mood...

I have been unearthing some of the Halloween decorations from the basement, and also purchased a few pieces more (notably Billy, some Ghoulish Garlands,  and Uncle William), and spent an hour or so arranging stuff in the conservatory and the living room windows.

Some pics from the entrance to the house.

The windows in the gable end facing Åparken.

And a phote better showing Billy (to the left), and Uncle William (next to the door). I got Uncle William from the FALGS in Odense Saturday afternoon before the girls went on the Harry Potter boat trip, and I carried him with me through the city (I was dressed up with in almost Victorian fashion of black suit, white/silver waistcoat and bow tie, black top hat, and knee-long black coat), and my moustache curled).

Clearing the Dinner Table

Yesterday, most of my hobby clutter had been moved to the new prepping area in the study/office, and it looked like we would soon once more be able to use the dinner table for its original purpose.

Today, however, I used the table to sort my Tomb Kings purchase from Friday afternoon, and until I have got sufficient boxes for getting them stowed away, the table will stay cluttered...

Reconfiguring my Workspace

Lately, out living room dinner table has disappeared more and more under my hobby-clutter, and as my wife's temper has worsened accordingly, I considered it wise to do something about it.

My dedicated elevated table-top for tinkering with minis and models has been sitting idle on the central table in the study/office/hobby-room for more than a year, and I figured that I should make it accessible, so that I can both prep and paint in the same room.

While waiting for the girls to return from school, and the wife to return from work with the car, so that the girls and I could get on the road to Horsens, I sorted the contents of some boxes from under the table, got rid of some stuff that was not needed any more, and moved the elevated tabletop into the position shown below.

I can now just turn my bureau-chair to switch between the prepping station and the pain(t) station, and one of the lamps on the central table doubles a work lighting and photo lighting (you can see my photo set-up to the right).

And my usual painting set-up. I am going to put up some narrow shelves on the wall for storing some paints, and shall probably get some vertical storage racks from Burn In Designs, if I can figure out which type fit the most kinds of bottles/pots.

Well, I still have some work to do, before the dining table can be used for its mundane purposes, but at least there is light ahead.