One Shade of Grey

  Just wanted to mention a little milestone. I found some grey plastic!  It might seem trivial, but it has been a major challenge getting any suppliers to even talk to me. Once they find out I am just some slacker in a barn they stop returning my e-mails. Some places have HUGE minimum orders in the range of 18 tons or so.
   But, I did find this one place that sold me some black pellets. They seem to get remnants from other places on an irregular basis and sell them quite reasonable.  One of those "We cheat them and pass the savings on to you!" type of places.   The only thing they ever had was black. Until now. They actually got in a supply of neutral and a few colors to add. One of the colors is light grey. I am quite pleased because grey seems to be the acceptable standard for stuff and someday my stuff will be grey also.  Things are looking up for sure.

  I also made some special request bases and put them on e-bay. No room in the store till I sell out of something and I think these bases are very obscure sizes for sure.

 These are 20mm rounds. Could be useful for a number of skirmish games. If you want penny sized bases but want plastic with a lip, these will do.

  Also, these pill shaped bases;

  These are 20mm by 50mm cavalry bases. They were ordered for some Nappies and would work good for smaller sized 25mm figs.

  These are on e-bay, and if you are paying attention you are aware that e-bay stuff is a bit higher to make up for the 15% I got to pay them.  If you want these new bases just send me an e-mail with your address and I will shoot you a pay-pal invoice at $4 per pack instead of $4.50 from e-bay.

  I am not expecting a huge demand for these sizes, but you never know.

  And finally the promised review of the Solidoodle 3 D printer. You may have read about it, just a quick google search will reveal countless press releases and articles.

  Here are the pros;

  It takes up very little space, I have not had to modify my work area at all.

  It uses no power or material.

  It makes no noise whatsoever.

  It does have one huge con;  it does not exist.

  I should not try and tell anyone how to run a business because I ain't exactly Einstein when it comes to that topic. BUT, perhaps they could have hired one less marketing guy and actually hired someone to make the stupid thing.  What good does a TON of internet exposure do you when you have no product to deliver?  It took a few e-mails but I got a refund and will look elsewhere for my 3d printing needs. I have to give the Solidoodle a thumbs down.

  I think the phrase is.  " All sizzle, no steak."





  I think I do not say this often enough, but thank you  to all the fine people I have met and who have supported this crazy little ride.

  Have a nice day. 

Not dead yet

 Wow, I have been neglecting the blog of late. It has been some time since I reported so here goes.

  First off, I want to make something new for the store. The 3 D printer has not arrived.  It is over 8 weeks since I ordered it. By the time it arrives a much better and faster version will be available for a lower price. This may be the business model for this company. They take orders and money and then fill them when the price of the product falls and they can pick it up at Wal-mart.  I guess I am being a bit harsh on the guys, but 8 weeks is a long time in todays mail order market.


  I get a lot of requests for 28mm stuff and I figured I would have a go at some 28mm wall flats. Here is one wall section and the roof panel. They measure 4"square and as you can see are pretty much for kit-basher types.

 These are basic enough that I do not need to print them out first. I hope to get these done sometime in the future. I have been getting a lot of small part special requests and it seems this stuff gets pushed back a bit till the paying stuff gets done. Yes the custom parts sell much better than the odd bits I make. It is sort of strange, my extensive market research consists of asking myself what seems neat.

 Other companies make things that I would never think of, like this hand sanitizer I saw in the store the other day.

   Someday I will connect with a smart person and make an equally invaluable product. Till then......

  I have also been doing a bit more tinkering on the resin front and made this nice 1970 Dodge Challenger.  I am drilling the headlights out on my car because I am just a bit strange and like to have lights on my cars. Little LED lights fit in there well. Someday I am going to make resin cars of all the old clunkers I ever drove.  No one will buy them, but I will like it a lot.





  In odd personal news I discovered that employment is highly over rated. In fact  human interaction can be extremely unpleasant even between unmarried people.  After a few weeks I found myself feeling like this.

  You would have thought I was playing Warhammer or something. 

  I soon was finding myself with insomnia, high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, torrets, and a condition known as "hot dog fingers". 

  So I did a Johnny Paycheck and now feel like my old self again.

    Have a nice week.   :)

Personal Log....sometime in the summer......

  I just thought it would be a worth while to mention the fact that I am still around if not really accomplishing much. I am anxiously awaiting the postman to bring me that 3d printer. There has simply been too many failed molds due to a lack of having a physical model to preview before commiting.  I could send out the stuff to get printed but that runs into money really fast. In the meantime I am back in the work force and that is quite an adjustment too. The amount of new information to collate has taxed my brain to the breaking point.  Today it rained hard all day and I really missed working in the barn and listening to the rain beat on the tin roof. But, I do not miss the crazy roller coaster of total insecurity.  Everything has positives and negatives.
  So when the 3d printer gets here I am really excited to try out some new things. I think there will be a lot less items but they will be better in the future.  I really need to work on some 28mm stuff but each piece will be printed out to check size and fitment before I waste any work on milling it out.  I think back on the troll, the conscript woman's militia and several other things that could have used some prototyping.  Soon, this will be a possibility.

  While waiting I spent some time indulging in hobbies;

A plan and some particle board.....

A little paint and some blue cardboard.

Becomes 68 feet of racing fun in 1/32 scale.



  It is a fun diversion for sure. I practiced some resin casting and made this 1969 Nova SS in 1/32 scale. The junk yard pressure pot and vacuum chamber worked pretty well. It is odd but a lot of resin guys ask me about getting into plastic injection and I am now leaning towards resin casting. I guess the grass is always greener..........

  I even managed to stop some of  those accursed snakes from making out. These 3 have killed their last goldfish, that's for sure. This was after the hydra fight.

  My ducklings grew wings and left. Little jerks, after all I did for them. I think it was due to the snakes. Facing this every day can not be fun for them.

  Add in mulching and yard work and that about takes care of the past few weeks.  I hope to have some news about this printer soon, I have been waiting for a month. When I get it I will offer a full review from a hobbyist perspective in case anyone else is in the market.

  Well, thats all for now. Have a good summer and enjoy some conventions while you are at it.

Facing the Hydra- and the I.R.S.

  Just wanted to relate some thoughts.  I was looking out the door the other day and noticed a snake squirming about in the lawn by the pond. My stupid ducks were not attacking, so I picked up the pellet gun and tried to shoot it in the head. But it was hard to figure out where the head was, because it seemed to have several. Of course I figured it was a hydra, but it turned out to be a pile of snakes wrestling.  But snakes are not known as wrestlers, so I think they were attempting some obscene act of reproduction. There was no way this debauchery was going to be tolerated on my doorstep in broad day light.

  So I put down the pellet gun and grabbed a flat nose shovel and sneaked close. Then I hurled the shovel into that pile of perverts. At that point all hell broke loose and it became obvious that throwing my weapon was a poor tactic indeed.  All in all an exciting few minutes for sure.

  Which brings me to the IRS and various local and state government agencies. It seems that my attempt to comply with regulations has been very tough. The sheer number and complexity of forms and fees is more daunting than facing an army of hydras. At any point another head can appear from a previously unkown agency and deliver a painful bite up to and including life long incarceration and confiscation of all assets. Try as one might it is simply not possible to face this monster. And the more I read instructions the more it seems it might not be worth it.  Do I want to live in terror of the monsters chomping away and trying to destroy me?  Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but how can anyone know all the rules in our tax code?

  This seems really close to reality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LBIsDBC848

 This week was a lot of loose ends again getting ready for summer. Not much work getting done on new products, and I will focus on that a bit later.  I just have a lot of things to sort out for summer and getting ready for the normal work life.    I hope the hydra leaves me alone.

 This is a pic of some new volunteers who showed up and joined my store bought ducks. Here they are skirmishing in the driveway.  I think the fact I leave food outside for my ducks has these guys loving it around here. They eat a lot too.   I'll bet they never have to fill out tax forms..................


  Have a great Memorial Day week and weekend. If I escape from the monster I might make something new someday.




 

Clearing the inbox

  Hi again folks.

  Well I finally made some of those billboards and put them in the store.  2 in a bag for $4, and an easy way to dress up the table top.  I have done a little google searching and there are plenty of strange billboards out there for you to use.  One thing is certain- 2 companies that should be forced to stop sharing a billboard are Giant grocery and Dick's sporting goods.  That sign just looks wrong. Google the image if you do not believe me.

 As for the size of the billboard, well it would be a large highway sign for 15mm and I think it looks better for 28mm. Here is a pic with a normal fig. This Steel Legion guy one is in the top box so gets picked for all these shots.

  When I put these in the store something had to go, so I took the Robocop diorama out and will put that on e-bay.  I think my experiment with die cast is over for now. I lowered the price of the cop cars. It looks like I am going to have enough to simulate the chase scene from the Blues Brothers.  Sometimes it sounds like a good idea but it might not be. And die cast cars are available everywhere it seems so no reason to fill a place in the store with them.
  I  manages to finish a long running project for Perry County hobbies and their space ship conversion parts. Here is the last piece of the kit.

  If you know what the term "Cheyenne Class" means you can pick up the kit from him here; http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Perry-County-Hobbies/215103061852503

  Check out the photos of the lit up engines. Overall a nice part.
  This job got me thinking about multi mold kits for larger scale objects. This kit took 3 molds to make and I think I can make a 28mm tank with 3 molds. Might want to play around with that.

  The epic style bases can be purchased from http://www.exoduswars.com/

  I have one more job almost done and then another to start, but I am going to be slowing down with custom orders. Clearing out the to-do list.  I will probably only be working for one client anymore.    
   This is because I am going to be running this part time. Yes, that is right, I managed to land a real job with humans to talk to instead of wildlife. I might not be staking snakes with a pellet gun and playing ninja with some geese, but it does have other benefits. 
   The greatest of which is going to be that I can relax and work on whatever looks cool at the moment.  This is something that must be done, as running a small web store leaves too many variables in ones life. I think I will look to find a like minded person or 3 and we should be able to crank out some stuff even part time.  Will keep everyone posted on this. I start in June. 
  What this also means is I can really focus on a long term project. To that end I have been working on making my female troopers even MORE over plump. The 3d printer has not arrived. When it does I get to see what they look like and then decide if they are chunky enough for a wargame table. This will allow me to make a quick adjustment and then try again with weapons and such.  It has taken a long time but I have figured out the parting lines and other issues for making figures. The last stumbling block is trying to sort out how out of proportion to make them.  There is a good chance I am going to make some 1/32 scale "normal" people for around my slot car track.

  I will leave you with a pic of a billboard that generates business. Instantly.

 
  Have a great weekend.

Crouching Duckling-Hidden Fat Guy

  Well I am back a little sooner than expected, but wanted to share a pic of the prototype for the new billboard model.  I hope to run some production of these next week and get them available.

One thing I would like to do is gather a few images together and put them on a file downloading site so if you need a quick graphic to add to your billboard just download and print. If there are any folks out there with an imagination and a bit of skill with photo-shop send me some images and I will try to make them available to the world.   One source that I found amusing was from the movie "Idiocrasy"

Many others from that movie would make neat billboards but would be R-rated.



  And I was thinking quite a little bit about gaming in general and thought it might be a good time to rant.

  There seems to have been a steady shift in gaming over the years and I used to think it was just me getting older. Back in the beginning we played lots of cool games and I looked like this.

  You know you were having a good time when someone casually states,  " Hey guys it is daylight outside."  And to you it felt like maybe 9 or so.  Used to be D and D and maybe some board games. I liked Magic the Gathering immensely and become very interested in miniatures gaming. It seemed the perfect pastime- I love building models and playing games. It was like a Reese's peanut butter cup- 2 great tastes that go great together.  But something has evolved. Magic became more competitive and people started building killer decks, and we started also building killer armies. Power gaming became the new norm. I did this a bit when I played old Warhammer, equipping my orc general with a vampiric frostblade and deploying him behind some goblin skirmishers. I used his leadership bonus to FAIL the animosity test and then he killed a bunch of the goblin adding a pump to a stat with each blow. Then I used his leadership bonus so the goblins did not rout and stayed for more abuse. By the time the enemy approached the general was a monstrosity and could wipe out anything in the universe.  Legal, yes. Absurd? of course.

  I was a lot younger and not aware how stupid it was, but it was the path that games were destined to follow. There is even a company that makes a game called Warmachine. I have never played it but it essentially states in the rules to power game to prove your manhood. Egads.
  So what happens?  Most times when I play now I look like this instead.

  Which is why I am 99.9% model builder and collector and not really a gamer anymore.

  Someday I am going to write some generic rules to play around with, but everything takes time.

  OK, enough ranting and on to the important stuff.

  The ducklings had a stern test as some "Canadians" launched an invasion.

Outnumbered and facing some super-heavy enemies, they fell back to the barn calling for support. This is where my lifelong regimen of donut eating finally paid off, as I was an even MORE super heavy than the invaders and was able to repel them with a bamboo stick.  It was a tense standoff for a few minutes but they retreated and peace was restored.

  And that is the word for the day.

 Have a great weekend.

New things in town- but not all in store.

  Ok, I got a shipment of things I think are neat, which is lots of stuff for the battle table. I always wanted my city-fight terrain to have some wrecked cars and stuff, and now I have them.

 

There are some nice 1/43 police cars in the store for $5.  They look good next to 28mm minis and might be useful when re-enacting an occupy Wall Street skirmish game.  These made it to the store. I will explain fully at the end.....

    This is a diorama in 1/43 scale. It has a lot of useful bits as well as a cool looking police car. A 1/43 scale person looks a bit taller but the building front and other parts are useful. I have 8 of these to sell and can not get any more, so when they are gone they are gone. $19 is not bad for a pile of bits. Of course the Steel Legion guys are not included, just wanted to show scale.



 I picked up a few more things too. Peculiar things. Like these cool fire/rescue vehicles.

  These will look great battered and smashed up as wreckage on a city battlefield of the near or far future. They have a "grimdark" look to me.

  And what is more grim than this beast.

  I am re-painting one now and this really will look the part in a smashed up gothic city.
 And last I go this little vehicle.

  It was kind of simply me going through and picking a few items to put out there and see what might be interesting to folks.  I even picked up a few of these things because they are cool bits.

  So, now I have to put them all in the store. But the store will not let me. I have an e-commerce starter package and have been bumping against the maximum amount of stuff I can offer for some time. Something old has to go so something new can be offered.  I made room for the robo-cop and police cars. The rest are going to have to go on e-bay until I decide if it is worthwhile to upgrade to a much more costly store front or maybe find a new host that is cheaper. There are a lot of costs to running a webstore and it really adds up when you are only selling small amounts of stuff.

  For now if you happen to see something in this list you want send me an e-mail. I will be listing some on e-bay too.
  One of the reasons i have this stuff is because of my increasing interest in slot cars and wanting to work on some stuff towards that hobby.
  So, I got to open lots of neat things today and I hope you got to get some ideas for your gaming table.