3-D printing checklist for the Any Cubic Mono-X

 I am writing this up to help keep useful tips and items in one area for folks to checkout.

These are things that I have found to be incredibly useful or absolutely necessary.  I am not going to directly link these as I don't want to have to update dead links and I'm not trying to get a commission on sales of these items.

Consumables:

Resin: This will be a post all by itself.

Disposable Gloves.  all the UV resins are said to be skin irritants plus chemicals used in clean up are not exactly skin friendly.

Paper Towels.     

FEP Replacements:

Order 2 you don't want to be waiting on a back order to finish a project.  FEP will wear out and eventually develop a hole.  I recommend these nFEP they are more expensive  however they seem to last longer and release easier allowing for smaller supports on my prints.

LCD Screen Protectors: 

The Mono-X does not have anything between the FEP and the screen. If/when your FEP develops a hole resin will leak onto thee screen and you will probably destroy your screen trying to clean it up.  As of the date of this article, replacement screens run around $180.00 USD and have a very long lead time.  I have been using these from the beginning.  They have not effected my prints, small air bubbles between the screen and protector have not caused any issues in my prints.  

Kapton Tape:

Use this around the edges of the screen protector to add an additional level of protection from resin leaking between the screen and shield.  Kapton does not leave residue and is high heat resistant.

Alchohol:

99% Isopropyl Alcohol or Denatured Alcohol.  With a raging pandemic IPA has gotten expensive add a new demand from every type of hobbyist needing it for print clean up and you get  massive increases in cost and limited availability.  Denatured Alcohol is a great option as it works just as well and its much cheaper.  I buy mine at Lowes in 1 gallon metal cans.  As you clean you prints your alcohol is gonna get dirty. There will be a post on ways to recycle it or at least dispose of it properly.

Filters:

Occasionally you are gonna need to to clean the resin vat, pour the resin trough a filter back into a resin bottle.  The filter will catch any bits of cured resin in the vat.  These will also be useful in filtering big bits out of your used alcohol.  This set came with a silicone funnel, its nice because you can set it in the sun to cure any resin and then it just pops right off.

One time purchases:

Giant Cookie Sheet:

These are huge and are great for catching any spills, leaks, accidents, etc. I have one under my printer, and one in used in my work area for removing prints from the build plate.

Giant Silicone Mat.

UV resin will peel right off of these when cured. When mine gets messy I take it outside, let the sun cure the resin and flex the mat to pop off the resin bits.  Plus it adds a little bit of cushioning to dropped prints as they come off the build plate.

Silicone Brush:

I find these to be great for stirring a vat that has set for a while between prints or for feeling the FEP to see if any thing is stuck to it after a failed print.

 

Wash and Cure Station:

You could try to put together a homemade UV cure box, or leave the prints in the sun.  You can use all kinds of things to hold alcohol while trying to clean your prints, pickle jars ultrasonic cleaners, etc.  I've tried those things and found this to be a better and safer choice.  Anycubic will be releasing a larger model soon

Other useful things:

Space heater, your resin and room the printer is in needs to be warm, cold resin fails often.

Digital Scale, Useful if you ever start mixing resin types or colors

Plastic Razors, good for removing cured resin from surfaces with little or no damage to the surface.

Digital Calipers, I use these all the time, checking prints.

UV flashlight, this one came from Wal-Mart, great for spot curing resin, or using resin as a glue between two printed parts.

Squeeze wash bottles, having clean IPA or water nearby and convenient is a huge help. 

Small USB powered fans, Once I clean a print I set it between a couple of these fans to rapidly remove the alcohol before I UV cure.

Work Station Lights:  

I included these because I have found them to be great for my work table and the light they put out does not cure the resin, I have replaced the overhead light bulb in my room as well and I do not get any unwanted cuing of exposed resin.  My workshop is in a basement room with no windows so I have completely eliminated unwanted UV exposure.

I may be resurrecting this thing.

 Big plans perhaps?  I hope to clean up the dead links, repost pics that are lost, and add some tutorial content.  Let's see how Covid-19 schedule changes and ADHD affect these plans.

40K is dead, long live the new 40K

The sky has fallen and everyone is all hot and bothered about the new daemon factory psychic phase.  Everyone is crying that their favorite Deathstar is nerfed or that they lost Jaws of the World Wolf, etc.

I give you one of the new Deathstars.

Along with the just released FAQ:

There you have it, 5-10 FarSeers that do NOT suffer Perils of the Warp.  There is no restriction that disallows Jetbikes.  They will successfully cast Invisibility along with a handful of other spells.

From your Main force take an Autarch on a jetbike for grenades and other goodies, and to kick it up a notch consider giving one of this unit's FarSeers the Mantle of the Laughing God. for Stealth & Shrouded plus Hit & Run.  You can add rune of warding to each FarSeer for a 10 points each to get 5(or more) one shot +2 buffs to deny the witch. Fully loaded the Farseers are 130 points each plus 40 points for the Mantle, so yes its a minimum of 690 points for just the 5 dudes.

Now this list should not win you any friends, but it is far more cost effective ( in terms of real money) than buying a shipping container full of daemons.

Forgeworld Hornets Arrive

New Arrivals

So I got a package of goodies in the mail today and quickly assembled 3 Eldar Hornets.  These are the best sculpts and best casts I have ever got.  The mold lines were minimal, there was no warpage other than a few of the gun barrels.  I have never had a Forgeworld kit go together so easily.  

Here Unassembled.

Nice little heat sealed baggies!

Now some of you might be saying, hey FW uses printed ziplock baggies.  You would be right. They also have never sent me anything this well cast.  FW has a habit of using molds well past the point at which they should have been replaced. As well as pulling casts before the model has completely cured.  These suffer from none of those issues.

Move over jetbike hoard fresh new resin from a distant land that has no IP laws has arrived.  

Neverness happens to work with me in the real world, he jokingly suggested that working in an environment where your overseers may be armed with AK-47s might contribute to the quality of the product.

Sadly the company I would like to buy these from does not respect its customers and have driven the costs of its product up while allowing the quality to suffer. When you allow this to happen you open the door to others that will offer better quality at a better price.

Size comparison against a standard Eldar Falcon

Also in the box a Revenant titan with pulsars.  It to is a very well cast kit, and shall be gracing this blog over the next few posts.

I spoke to the supplier of these kits and he is ok with me listing his contact info.  He has worked in the States and speaks English.  I got these in the mail within 10 days of paying for them.  For my order it worked out to about one third of the cost vs ordering from the UK.

If you want to find out more email wargames.discount@gmail.com and tell him that the Warfrog sent you.

FW Lynx Conversion

Follow up on a previous post where I repaired some minor issues.

After looking at how the cannon assembly works on the standard Lynx I realized that a hull brace like the FW Cobra would be a great modification.

Stock photo from FW's site, showing mount style I am hoping to build.

Here you can see where I have ground down the existing hull and added in a piece of plastic card to form the mount.

Here the Gun has bee glued into place and is resting on the mount strut.

Here the mount has been melted with a heat gun and wrapped up around the barrel.

Here the mount ring has been completed 100% around the barrel using Pro-Create.
















Now the cannon barrel will stay secure in while transporting the model, and the barrel wont droop under its own weight.

Some final sanding and details will follow shortly.

Bring on 7th Ed

So I spent the weekend working on some FW models getting ready for no FOC lists.

Very happy with this kit. like most FW it will look great on the shelf.  Maybe FW will see more table time in 7th.  I have a hard time making a 6th list including this because of the current D-strength rules.

I say this was prepping for unbound glory and spam but truth is I have a few models lying around that needed work done to make it to shelves.


The Warp Hunter on the other hand Fits nicely into 6th.  I like the 36 inch barrage, and it seems a little toned down compared to the 24 barrage range from the support weapons.

One of these is not like the others, is it real or is it a recast?

Again round 2 of is it real or is it a recast.

Hopefully I will get these 50 or so Eldar guardian jetbikes based and primed along with the FW Lynx repair and conversion in the next post or two.

Resin Model Repair

So I have been working on a few ForgeWorld or possibly FW knockoffs in an attempt to catch up on my backlog of unassembled models.

Eldar Lynx partially assembled












Repair needed

Here you can see the white area just lower and left of the cockpit.











There was a small break here and I did not have the piece that broke off.  I used a very thin piece of plastic card (from a yardsale sign) I glued it to the underside and trimmed it to fit the old curve of the piece.

I then dropped a few drops of superglue onto the piece, followed up with sprinkling baking soda on the glue.  The baking soda makes the glue cure almost instantly, and when it dries you can sand it.  It it much harder than GreenStuff.  Making it ideal for this fix.

Other fixes needed too.

3 different areas needed repairs here.












1 The engine cover got snapped off, I reinforced it from below with thin plasticard.
2 The engine cover and stabilizer seen far right had broken in transit.  I rebuilt the cowl using thin plasticard from underneath and using ProCreate grey putty on the visible side of the model.
3 The white half of the stabilizer mount is thick plasticard cut and sanded to fit the original missing piece.

Warpage

The barrel of the gun was significantly warped.

I glues a magnet to the mounting end and hung it from my work bench.  Then I used the heat gun to soften the resin and bend it back into shape.  Because it was hanging gravity helped keep it straight while the resin cooled.

Battle Report Eldar vs Tau 1850 points

I showed up at our local Hobby Town to get a game in.  I challenged Patrick to avenge Nerverness's recent loss to the Tau.

My list was

4 units of Jetbikes, 6 bikes each 2 upgraded to cannons plus a warlock with a witchblade.  One unit gets joined by the Farseer

Farseer on bike with witchblade, runes of warding and witnessing

3 units of 10 warpspiders, one unit upgraded to an exarch.

2 units of 3 shadow weavers with an added warlock for conceal

1 FW Warp Hunter

We setup for dawn of war I picked sides and have first turn.  MY warlord power allows rerolls at a unit on the objective (never gets used) First turn is night time.  There were 3 objectives I place 2 in no-mans land and Patrick placed one in his deployment zone (sketchy fish people have no honor)

We played on the newest board that Pat made for the store, the trenches are all lava filled, models can't enter (deadly terrain) we also quickly realized that this board eats dice.

 My Deployment.  I left 2 units of Warp Spiders in reserves and tried to keep everything in cover just in case the Tau seize the initiative.

Tau's fishy deployment:
2 scouting marker light units not seen here 2 riptides, a devil fish & hammerhead, one upgrade with the HQ unit that helps BS, the transport had his warlord.





























Turn 1 the dishonorable Fish steal the initiative and unleash.  However the Eldar are masters of cover and buffed saves.  The warp hunter was shaken and a few jetbikes fell to shooting.  On my turn Warp Spiders and bikes eliminated the forward scouts with marker lights and killed all but one of the other similar unit (first blood to me)

Here bikes retreat back behind a bastion and Spiders leap up for more cover saves

Turn 2 and 3 were hard fought on both sides, artillery kept killing fishies and riptides with a 2+/5+ and FNP 5+ showed just how tough they are.  My Spiders sat out turn 2, with one unit coming on in turn 3 shown above with the exarch unit coming on in turn 4.  The spiders make excellent tank hunters with 20 shots of str 7 hitting on 3s.

By the end of my turn 3 it was looking rough as most of the tau troops were dead and the tides were near death.

At the end of my 4th turn the tanks and tides were dead, there were 2 Tau troops units left one with 3 men, the other was a last man standing. I had 2 strong bike units plus a single biker from another allowing me to capture the 3 objectives.

This Tau list is the most resilient list with incredible fire power I have seen in 6th ed.  I lost 25+ warpspiders, 15+ bikes, a few wounded Artillery models ( at T7 with 2+ cover) and a hull point on a hull down hidden tank.  It was a much closer game than the VP total reflects.

The result was a sweep on VPs for the Eldar

List Building

So what makes for a good list?

If an opponent shows up with a list full of Pyrovores and Hormagaunts led by Old One Eye, most in the community will question why was such a poor choice made. Often to a point that is bordering on degrading to the player. Why then is the reverse of that situation also held with such distaste.  Mono Nurgle, Helldrake spam, Waveserpent spam, etc gets the same level of negative response or worse.

Why is that everyone tries to justify there own lists while vilifying the opponents list?  Warhammer 40,000 is not now, nor will it ever be balanced.  If you want balance play chess.  There is a quote floating around that if you find your self in a fair fight then you need to change your tactics. This has been true for every real battle ever fought, it should hold true for a futuristic war simulation as well.

I do not advocate WAAC, if you have to exploit by cheating with movement, pivoting vehicles to gain an inch, or some other such shenanigan then you need to improve on your own skill level to drop such crutches.  I often feel that the current editions permission to use allies is a huge crutch to most players and allows for exploitation.  Most army lists were written in an attempt to give each army a feel; they get something they specialize in, as a trade off they often have a few weaknesses. With the addition of allies you often see nothing but the strongest combos from each codex.



I feel that there is a time for soft fluffy lists, that time is when teaching the game to a newcomer. Those are called demo games. Would you feel better about your most recent victory if your opponent afterwards said, yeah well I was holding back and used a subpar list on purpose? I see on message boards people using the fluffy list excuse for 2 reasons; either to make themselves feel better about their loss, or to pump themselves up even more in a victory.  Why not just build a list be fair and honest and try to win while being a good sport. No more crying about fair or not fair, spammy or not. Do what every military has tried to do; win!

Some of my most memorable games have been against damn hard lists ran by skilled players using Dark Eldar Raider spam well before the internet was all abuzz about MSU/transport spamming. And that was 3rd edition.

Calling a list or player fluffy or WAAC is bad sportsmanship.  Cheating and rules exploits are bad sportsmanship as well.

Get out there and try new lists, shake things up and work on new combos within your codex. Who knows you might create the next great net-list that everyone talks about.

Battle Report Eldar vs Marines 1850 points

Very few pics this time around.

I showed up at our local Hobby Town hoping for a game.  I had my 1500 point Eldar list and a few extras in case someone wanted to go larger.  The group there introduced me to Corey and his Ultramarines for a game.  Corey had a 1850 list so I scaled up to meet him.

My list was
Basic Farseer on bike joining a Guardian bike squad

4 Guardian bike squads
each with 6 bikes (2 w/cannons) and a warlock biker with conceal

3 Units of 10 man strong Warp Spiders (no exarchs)

A fire Prism with ghostwalk matrix and Holofields and Shuriken Cannon

2 Support weapon batteries each with 3 Shadow Weavers

And a Sky Shield Landing Pad with 3 upgraded barricade sections

For a total of 1808 points

My Warlord power was the one that lets you rearrange your units. My side of the board was so full that it was totally wasted. I went first as the marines were unable to seize in the darkness.  We rolled up Big Guns never tire on Dawn of War.

I knew the marines were holding 3 drops pods plus a unit of legion of the Damned in reserve so I held my troops back so that I did not leave any huge gaps that he could land a pod next to my artillery in.
In the darkness of turn one 30 warp spiders went on the hunt. 10 Spiders on my left flank took up cover in a multilevel ruin.  10 on my right flank jumped 17 inches forward and destroyed a rhino plus one passenger leaving 4 marines cowering in the crater. The 10 Spiders in the middle got fortuned from the Farseer and advanced on two melta bikers, killing them swiftly in the darkness.  A dreadnaught with 2 twinlinked autocannons lost an arm to the fireprism. Then the Spiders ran back and jumped back during the assault phase to hide in cover.

Here the middle spider have just wasted the bikers, and the right flank spiders are ready to slag the Rhino.

The right flank spiders, after slagging the Rhino jump up to the top of a building to hide from the marines.

The rest of the army sitting at the rear waiting to pounce when the pods appear.















Marine turn 1 killed a few spiders and dropped 2 pods just to the left and right of the Landing pad. a dual flamer dread opened up on and got 8 heavy flamer hits on the fortuned spiders.  Only one failed its re-rollable save.  The other pod double flamered the bike squad with the farseer that was hiding under the Pad. killing two bikers.

Eldar turn two killed 3 land speeders all of the drop pod contents, a unit of devastators in the ruins and most of the marines hiding in the crater.  The Marine player dropped the last pod near his fortified ruins and the LotD dropped in to support his ruins and objective.

Eldar turn three all of the pods were destroyed, the ruins cleared including the one armed dread and most of the LotD went back to being just ghosts.  Marine turn three realizing that he was down to a double las-cannon Razorback, a Command Rhino missing 2 hull points, and a Dread that was trying to hid from the spider death. The marine captain fled the field of battle.

In all I lost the main gun on the Fire Prism, 5 spiders from each unit, and 2 jet bikes.

It was a good game with a great opponent at a wonderful Hobby Town game night.  I look forward to the next game.

Is this thing still on?

Life gets in the way. Its been a while someone remind me what year is this and what edition are we in?
I am going to try to start updating this blog again, we shall see how long that lasts.
I have managed to get a few 40k games in recently, there might even be enough photos for a battle report.

I have added a swap shop link for old goodies I no longer need to be the keeper of and broken down my army pic pages to accommodate the Eldar and Tyranid hoardes.

With any luck I will get some photos up and maybe even a battle report or two.

First run with 6th ed Tyranids

7.13.12 Bugs vs SpaceWolves 1000pts

Winged Tyrant fully loaded 2x Devourers Hive commander, Old Adversary
Prime with sword whip talons and poison
3 Hive Guard
Venomthrope
16 Termagants in a Pod
Pod with Stinger Salvo
Tervigon Stinger Salvo & Claws
Aegis Defense Line

Table Layout 6x4

The Green patches are forests

Grey in the Center is a swamp

Resin mutli-floor ruins on the right

River in the center with a bridge

More Forest markers

Resin multi floor ruin at right and next to bridge

Craters leading to a crashed flyer wreck

Mission:Purge the Alien 
Deployment: Hammer & Anvil, Night Fight on round 1, Wolves go first.  Alpha Warrior is my warlord and rolls Legendary Fighter bonus VPs for challenge kills


                                                                               
Bug deployment

Flappy and the Vulva pod full of Termagants held in reserves.  Someone thought it would be a good idea to land a drop pod full of Terminators behind my defensive lines before I even get a turn.

Wolf Deployment

Obligatory Longfangs in the tall ruins
2 Rhinos with 6 man squads
2 Psykers walking along behind the Rhinos
1 Suicidal lone wolf hiding in the forest
Landspeeder w/ Flamer & MM














Turn 1

Top of 1 Wolf strike
5 Termis get out and put a total of 1 wound on the Hive Guard unit. sorta anti-climatic.
Lone wolf in the forest finds nests full of Razorwings that try to eat his face off (1 Wound suffered)

Bottom of 1
Tervigon spawns 14 termagants without blowing an O-ring out. and Casts Iron Arm for +2 S,T, etc
The Pond turned out to be full of Dangerous Iceblood, that my Termagants and Tervigon wallowed in like pigs in mud.

Termagants and Tervigon score 13 wounds in the shooting phase only to watch the termis save all but 1. Looks like this is gonna leave a mark.

Assault Phase Warlord Prime makes it into assault challenges and wins his combat (1 bonus VP), Combat ends in one turn, 3 of the spawned Termagants survive and no wounds are dealt to momma bug.








Turn 2
Top of 2
Random HK missiles and storm bolter fire from the wolves, and we see the first Daemonic attack as a wolf priest rolls snake eyes for a power.

Bottom of 2 Enter Flappy and the Vulva pod of death.

Flappy passes his roll for a power only to have 2 wolf priests deny it with a 24" range axe.
Flappy then vectorstrikes the unit of Longfangs dealing 3 wounds that were not to be saved even with ruin cover.  True to form the wolves roll snake eyes for moral. Flappy then unloads with devourers and takes the Multimelta off of the speeder.

The Vulva pod (ChapterHouse Studios pod)does not scatter and lands almost on top off a Wolf priest, Termagants unleash hell with fleshbolters and deal 1 unsaved wound.  The pod itself is within 6 inches of a Rhino and proceeds to whip the hell out of it and immobilizes the rhino.








Turn 3
Top of 3
Wolf priest and unit from immobilized rhino light up the termagants with bolters, and the Wolf Priest charges termagants. Leaving the priest and 2 gants locked in combat at the end of combat.
Lone wolf camping out in the razorwing forest decides to charge the drop pop.  Lashwhips means the pod and wolf go at the same time, wolfie does one wound and gets locked in combat.
Bottom of 3

Lone termagant keeps the wolfpriest locked in combat due to a massive  attack of ones rolling.























Turn 4
Shadows in the Warp help a Daemon find and finish off a wolfpriest when it shoots a power at a group of termagants, taking one gant with him on his way to some exotic hell.


Turn 5

Really?
End of 5th turn 2 scoring units are right on the line, 1 more inch and either unit would have scored a secondary objective of linebreaker.

The last surviving members of the Wolves are the 2 long fangs perched in the ruins.

Final Score 
Bugs 12 VPs
everything except for 2 of the Longfangs 9 points
First Blood
Slay the warlord
Legendary Fighter bonus
 vs 
Wolves 3 VPs
1 unit of 16 Termagants
1 Drop Pod
1 Venomthrope

Notable events
Momma Tervigon never rolled a double, spawned 15, 14, 8, 8, and 12. So an extra 67 Gants during a game is nice.
Daemons caused 2 or 3 wounds to wolf priests and 1 wound to the flappy tyrant.
Termagants tarpitting the Wolfpriest for at least 3 rounds of combat is crazy nice compared to the old days of no retreat wound shenanigans.

After having played Tyranids since 2nd edition it feels like the bugs may be back to being competitive.