Skip to main content

Posts

"EVERYTHING You Need?" - 3D Printing

Hello, hello, hello! Welcome back to The Art of Caesura! I hope you had a nice Easter, ours was...busy. We've been looking at resin 3D printing over the past few weeks, and today I'm going to go through a list of EVERYTHING I use for 3D printing.  I know this list will seem daunting, but I've tried to be exhaustive, and you don't need to get it all at once. If you have any questions about anything on the list (the rationale or exactly which one I use) please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.  1. Resin 3D Printer Choose based on resolution, build volume, and budget. I have an Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra (I'll talk more about choosing the right printer next week). If you live in an area that gets cold, you'll also want to get a brewer's heating belt (or buy a fancy printer that comes with a heated vat). Resin likes to print north of 25 degrees C, and I got into 3D printing in one of the coldest Decembers Ireland has seen, but with the brewer...
Recent posts

"Why Do It?" - 3D Printing

“All things are ready if our minds be so.”  - Henry V , Shakespeare Welcome back to another Friday on The Art of Caesura! I hope things are going okay for you, and I'm sending you lots of positive vibes, especially if you need them today.  We're getting deep into the woods of resin 3D printing here on the blog. Two weeks ago I gave a poetic meditation on 3D printing, and last week we looked at what it is and how it works in more practical terms.  Today I want to explore some of the reasons why people get into 3D printing.  Opening Doors This is the reason that I got into it. Long-term followers of the blog will know that painting is my main jam. I have got back into gaming in recent years, but painting is still my grá. And I am fortunate to be a hobby butterfly and I love to paint everything! A few years on, I'm still working on my modern Black Templars army, but that's because I've painted loads of random stuff at the same time. This really prevents hobby burnout...

"What is it?" - 3D Printing

Hello friends of the Caesura, welcome back to The Art of Caesura! Last week , I introduced the topic of 3D printing in kind of an unusual way; I wrote a sort of poetic meditation on the topic. I had fun writing that, but today I want to start digging into the nuts and bolts of the topic.  Today, I'm going to try to explain briefly what 3D printing is, and how it works. In future weeks we'll discuss why you might (or might not) be interested in getting into 3D printing. And then we'll move on to the nitty gritty of everything you need to get started with 3D printing, including thoughts around which printer might be right for you. At then end of this post you can see some pictures of the very first proper print I ever did and in future posts we'll see further fruits of my 3D printing labours - which, spoiler alert, I'm thrilled with! So what is 3D printing? Before I begin, half-way down this post I have pasted a video illustrating the process that I'm about to des...

"The Alchemy of Light and Shadow" - 3D Printing

Welcome one and all, back to your usual Friday edutainment on The Art of Caesura! Today we're going to embark on a journey; a journey of 3D printing! I wanted to get a 3D printer for a few years and then in November, with my birthday looming, and buoyed by the awesomeness of Trench Crusade (a game, one of the selling points of which, is that it could be entirely 3D printed). I finally pulled the trigger.  Today is the beginning of a multi-part series on 3D printing, but rather than crack in with the nuts and bolts of 3D printing, I thought I would ease us into the topic by approaching it from a different direction.  One of my oldest friends and I, have spent the past year or so, sending each other long, wonderful voice messages a few times per week. My friend is not into 3D printing or miniature painting, but she listens kindly and asks insightful questions regarding my extollations on the topic. It was her that made the connection between Resin 3D printing and alchemy.  ...

"Supply Run" - Boarding Actions Game - Gameplay

A daring raid against an enemy transit  terminal is a superb way to acquire valuable resources  for your own war effort and deny them to the foe. - Boarding Actions Book (p. 158) Welcome back to another Friday on The Art of Caesura! Last week we read my short story "The Cost of Knowledge" which was based on a game of Boarding Actions that two friends and I played a couple months ago. Today, I want to share some photos and some fun moments from that game.  This being the first game of Boarding Actions that any of us had played, we chose quite a straight-forward mission [The orange objectives were worth 5 points and the Supply crates were worth an extra 5 if you controlled more than your opponents, they also gave the chance to gain an extra Command Point (a valuable in-game resource)], we went through all the usual pre-game activities of choosing a board edge, determining first turn etc.  Boarding Actions is played at 500 points each, I brought all melee Black Templar...