Battletech auctions

Just posted the first two Battletech auctions for this Christmas; a Flea and a Vulcan. In about a week I will be auctioning another Urbanmech and a Scorpion. Finally, the piece-de-la-resistance, sometime around the beginning of December, I will be auctioning a 1/100th scale Hatamoto Chi. To check out all of the auctions on ebay, click here.

2011 Christmas Auctions Starting This Weekend!!!

I've just posted the first of our 2001: Space Odyssey Christmas Ornament auctions over on e-bay. I've got the EVA POD, RUSSIAN POD and the MOONBUS up so far. Once I've done a little stress testing on the new spines, I'll be putting the new and improved DISCOVERY up for auction as well. As I said, these are just the initial listings. We should be auctioning somewhere between 4 and 6 of each of these between now and Dec 11.

I should have a couple of BATTLETECH auctions running as well by the end of Sunday.

Click here to see all the auction action as it happens!

2001 Space Ornaments Coming Soon

We got busy on the weekend and did the casting for about a half dozen EVA Pods and a few Discoveries. Assembling, sanding and priming is going on as I speak. Should have them up for auction on E-Bay in about another week or so.

The Discoveries now have steel reinforced spines. I'll do some stress testing vs the old design before I put them up for auction...

V-FLASH Users?

Any other V-FLASH users out there?

1/60th Scale Vulcan

I've been enlisted to produce a series of 1/60th versions of some of my mechs (Hi Scott!) and so we're starting with some of the smaller ones. This weekend I printed out the 1/60th scale Vulcan.

HAL did a good job with no noticeable deformation in the parts. Bigger models seem to be less susceptible to warpage during the build. The only fly in the ointment is a piece of support structure that it put into the bayonette mount for the torso - it'll take some finessing to remove.

Speaking of HAL, I'd had a word with the V-Flash tech about the build tray sensor (which we just defeated in software) and why certain models were dying in the middle of the print job. The tech ran some remote tests and couldn't determine why it shouldn't be able to complete a print job. My suspicion is that it is due to heat cuz he isn't doing it any more (I was trying to print those POMO animals in the dog days of summer and HAL probably wasn't liking that). Its not like the CPU is shutting down, but maybe just the imaging section. That's why the job keeps running and the gantry and resin feed keeps moving, but nothing is printing. Just my thoughts. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd stick some temperature sensors in there and log temperature... meh, later. He's working OK fer now.

The Auction That Wasn't and Creating the Whitworth

So I've been meaning to auction some 1/100th scale Battletech models for awhile now... they've been printed and cured, but I still haven't gotten around to sanding and finishing the parts. The auction that was supposed to happen this past spring, then this summer, will in all likelihood, happen just before Christmas. Bleh.

In the meantime, I've started working on the Whitworth. Not much to show yet, but its a start. I've got some parts from the mechforce model in there for now, but it'll bear little resemblance to it by the time I'm through...

Painting the Flea - Part 1

Started painting a Flea tonight. Here's a look-see...

Hatamoto - Work in Progress 2

So here's where I ended up with the Hatamoto this weekend. Kind of a rush job, but good enough to get some photos for the auction.

V-FLASH Chronicles - Part VI

HAL (the V-FLASH) is being a problem child tonight. While I was printing some pickup parts for a Hatamoto and a Vulcan (kits that I plan on selling on E-Bay later this month), HAL coughed up:

Error: Cartridge Pump Failure (or some such)

I reseated the resin cartridge. No go.

I rebooted HAL. No go.

I finally broke down and changed out the resin cartridge, even though it still showed 46% resin left in the tank. The pump error went away, but I have to say it took quite a bit of futzing around to get it up and running again on the new cartridge.

I'm scared. Scared that the estimates that the interface gives for resin left is every bit as accurate as the progress bar on a Windows copy operation (ie. "not very"). Its hard to tell just how much resin is still in the old cartridge because it's so compartmentalized. I tried sticking a dipstick in but I'm not sure that I'm poking anywhere near the main reservoir.

When I got HAL, I realized that he probably wasn't going to get the same kind of mileage that I would get out of an Objet. But I've got a feeling that he's costing me something north of the $9 per cubic inch that I had estimated. More research is needed...

Hatamoto - Work in Progress

I'm finally getting around to making a Hatamoto Chi for myself. Cleaned up a set of parts and started painting this afternoon. He doesn't look like much yet, but I've been practicing my drybrush skills on mini's lately, so I'm hoping I can do some of that.

In other news, Takara is rereleasing a bunch of the Dougram model kits -- I spotted them on HLJ this week. These ones are 1/144, but I'm pretty sure that I read elsewhere that there were 1/72 as well. I can't find the reference now, so I could be wrong.

Hatamoto Assembled

I cleaned up the parts for Jon's Hatamoto last weekend and did a partial assemble. He's going to do the painting and final assembly (what is that thing on the front of the helmet called?). Once again, I'll probably do a little tweaking on the scale before I do one for myself.

Printed Hatamoto Parts

I did a set of parts for the Hatamoto on thursday night. Just curing them now. Just a few problems... such as the perennial problem of building the bayonette mount in the waist 90 degrees off! The gat was a little warped and there was a little bit of delamination happening in the end of one of the leg parts as well. I may have to manually build some support structure into the model for the gat to keep it from wobbling during construction.

You may notice a few extra and non-standard parts in there. He's a specially modified Hatamoto that I'm doing for a commission. (Hatamoto Sobou) I'm hoping to do some cleanup on the parts and do a test fit tomorrow.

Yet Another Hatamoto Update

I got around to adding a few more greebs to the Hatamoto today and finished up the knee joints...

<rant>

What is it with American online merchants and their love of UPS? Do they think Canadians are made of money!!?? What makes them think that I would want to pay UPS over $20 to ship me $17 worth of decal paper? (and probably charge me $20 to $30 worth of customs clearance charges?). Fortunately, I found someone on E-Bay stores that would sell me decal paper and send it by post. The paper was slightly more expensive, but I'll probably still save $40-50 dollars on 25 measly sheets.

No thanks decalpaper.com!!!! UPS sucks!!!

Thanks mynestegg!!!! Postal Service rulez!!!

</rant>

Hatamoto / Vulcan updates

I've done about as much painting as I'm going to do on the Vulcan, so I thought I post a progress pic of that...

As usual, I coulda done some more sanding, better weathering and some decals, but I'm a lazy bum. That reminds me; I need to order some more white water-slide decal paper.

I tried doing a sheet of decals (on clear paper) in my cheapy Samsung CLP-315 laser printer. Although it didn't melt the decal paper as I feared it would, the feeder doesn't like the shiny thick paper so the placement is kind of hit or miss. So it looks like my ink jet is still the way to go. I need to chase down some good artwork of Battletech house and clan logos and print a bunch.

In the meantime, here's another shot of the in-progress 3DSMAX build of the Hatamoto Chi...

Hatamoto progress

I've been picking away at this periodically. Here's what I've got so far...

Vulcan Progress

Wow! I can't believe how productive I was in December, and how unproductive I've been in January!

Now that I've got the Vulcan and the Flea the size that I want -- time to paint. Here's a work in progress picture of the Vulcan. Its a start.

The paint scheme is an homage to Ken and Paul, with whom I used to play Battletech...

On the 3DSMAX side, I've been working on some stuff for a friend at work. As a side effect, I'll end up with a Chaparrel and a Hatamoto Chi modeled... Also been working on a new Christmas Ornament. Stay tuned.

More Vulcan Pictures

I put the Vulcan together today and it doesn't look too bad. I think the medium laser (left torso) could have been a bit beefier, some missing fine detail on the head and there's some fixing up to do on the left elbow. The rest seems to be OK.

I've been thinking about scale again. Here's a lineup with a 20 ton FLEA, 20 ton Locust, 40 ton Vulcan and 55 ton Griffin. I think I'm going to try and reprint the FLEA a little smaller (maybe 5%) and the VULCAN could be about as tall as the Griffin (align the tops of their heads).

Thanks

Thanks to everyone that participated in the 2010 Fourth Axis Christmas Ornament EBAY auctions! And thanks to my good friend Darlene for doing all that gluing, sanding and painting! We'll be back next year with more 2001: A Space Odyssey ornaments for sure!