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.

 

Toiling in the Garden

If some of my readers wonder, why I am not posting lots of newly painted minis, here is some of the explanation:

My cobblestone lawn edge project which lay dormant all of last year (and I did not have the guts to restart this summer, because of temperatures around 30 Centigrades) is now finally getting some love.

I expect to get all of the north side of the lawn edged before winter, and from then on I shall only have to do small sub-projects (around the conservatory, edging the raspberry bushes and the apple trees, and other such negligible tasks compared to edging the entire lawn).

SS&SS: Lea's Party so Far

I am getting the hang of my new Canon - found the White Balance settings, which meant an instant enhancement of photo quality!

This is Elfham and Sigga, ready to go adventuring as soon as Tinre, the Barbarian Shieldmaiden, joins them.

I am not going to finish the Barbarian until the LAF OSFPP has come to a conclusion, but in the meantime I am working on a few other very old pieces of lead to use in Sellswords & Spellslingers as well!

LAF Old School Fantasy Painting Party: Female Wizard/Sage

The second mini I painted for the OSFPP was this ancient Citadel piece of lead.

It goes by the designation

C02 (87-19)
Jenny Spaewife

and I painted it to use as the Healer in one of the Basic Sellswords & Spellslingers scenarios.

Next up will be some old lead to use as Mountain Brigands (at least, until I can paint up some plastic Frostgrave Soldiers for that purpose).

I really enjoy these Painting Clubs, and how they motivate me to get some stuff painted that has been sitting untouched in the Lead Alps for far too long!

LAF Old School Fantasy Painting Party: Female Ranger

Another Painting Club is running at the Lead Adventure Forum at the moment, the theme is fantasy metal minis from the last millennium, and as I had to get some minis painted for Lea's Sellswords & Spellslingers party, as well as some objective characters and opponents for one of the scenarios, the theme is right up my alley!

I started by finishing the female Ranger Elfham, an old Metal Magic mini I have had for ages.

I struggled with motivation for this mini, and the Painting Club was just what I needed to get her done!

The last member of Lea's party is Tinre, a scantily clad Barbarian Warrior, incarnated by Mark Copplestone's Barbarian Queen, which is from 2007 or so, and thus has to wait until the current Painting Club is finished - as far as I understand, another Painting Club focusing on minis from 2000 and up is planned for when the OSFPP is completed, so I shall have plenty opportunity to get her done rather soonish.

For now, I focus on painting old minis usable for Sellswords & Spellslingers-and then we shall see about the rest...

NOT 3D Printed Star Wars Rebels Phantom

*Gasp* 😛

I have been seaching and asking for a printable version of the modified VCX-series auxiliary starfighter known as 'Phantom' in Star Wars Rebels, and was pointed to this Hasbro toy.

It is probably a wee bit oversized - Wookiepedia has it at 11.63 metres, and the hull is a bit more than six Heras long (my new official Star Wars measurement unit 😉), which would indicate about the right length, but Wookiepedia does not state if the front twin laser cannon is part of that length.

On occasions, we see up to three members of the Spectres in the cockpit, and i think that with bases swapped with 20mm washers, I should be able to squeeze that many minis in there.

Wookiepedia also gives passenger capacty as eight, which is probably what can fit in the back compartment, so all in all I think this is the Phantom I was looking for!

I am very happy with this purchase, and it is now time to begin prepping Hera and Copper so that they can be painted and fly their first solo missions (as soon as I have decided on which skirmish rules system to use, that is - I may go for the Goal System, either Blasters&Bulkheads or Void Pirates, while I wait for Galactic Heroes to be published...

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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