• 3D printing - Blog - Creativity

    My style notebook

    February 12, 2024 - By 

    I am a prolific list maker and idea jotter. I am constantly grabbing a sheet of notebook paper to quickly write my ideas. It gets a bit chaotic with some many pages of half crossed lists laying about. I started thinking that if I could have a smallish notebook with me that I could keep everything in one place.

    This idea, like so many others, has been rattling around in my head for a while. Lately I was inspired by an image of a stack of small pamphlet stitched notebooks on Pinterest. That in combination with a Readers Digest Condensed book cover I had in my stash and thinking of the function of a travelers notebook I put the three together to create my own version to better suit my needs.

    As I said before, I constantly have papers to jot ideas or work things out visually. Such as this drawing on how I wanted the elastics to work in the spine. Originally I was going to have 3 signatures to my book but after drawing it out I realized that I’d need 4 to have the elastics at the same end of the book.

    I used my new book cradle to assist in the binding process. 

    Mr. G 3D printed and assembled this very sturdy tool for my bookmaking. In the past I’d used an old phonebook for this process with very mixed results.

    This book cradle makes it a breeze to accurately make holes in the spine with an awl. The results are perfect.

    I added a but of reinforcement to the spine of my gutted Readers Digest Condensed book.

    Then used eyelets to reinforce the holes for the elastic cording.

    A bit of lace covered the unsightly bits quite nicely. All that was left was assembly.  And the glamor shots.

    Anyone remember Glamor Shots at the mall circa 1990s? Oh yeah… I have some cringe worthy photos from that place. Faux fur stole and white gloves…geesh. Sorry…ADHD squirrel moment!

    The glamor shots…

  • 3D printing - Blog - Tabletop gaming

    T Tuesday: WIP edition

    March 1, 2016 - By 

    WIP catan pieces

    I’ve working on painting all of the Settlers of Catan pieces in between playing nursemaid. Mini-me has influenza. I’m beginning to think that Typhoid Mary is camped out in our house.

    WIP catan pieces

    See those little tiny bits of white in the green hex tiles. Those are teeny tiny sheep..complete with black faces. I have to take off my glasses and hold the tile a couple inches from my face to see to paint them.  BAH!!! Getting older isn’t for the faint of heart.

    catan pieces

    The attention to detail is worth it in the end though.  Once I get all the pieces completed, we’ll decide in the border color for all the tiles. It must be consistent throughout the tiles. I’m leaning towards a cream to taupe tone so that the paint job on each will really pop.

    I also have to share this Model T Mr. G printed. He had to modify the original CAD file as it wasn’t going to print correctly. He designed the wheels, axle pieces and the mounts for the axles.

    3D printed Model T

    The penny is for scale. This is for a history presentation J is doing today. He and his partner thought a 3D model would add some punch to their project.

    IMG_0661

    Time for a bit of tea before some errands and more nursemaid duty.  I’ll do my best to get around to visit my T stands for Tuesday friends as soon as I can.

    What are you doing today?

  • 3D printing - Blog - Tabletop gaming

    Jamaica, mon!

    February 22, 2016 - By 

    Our family enjoys board games especially slightly out of the ordinary board games not made by the typical sources such as Hasbro and Milton Bradley.  Most are titles you won’t find at your local discount department store like Target. Heck we’ve even played a game that was totally in German. We borrowed the game from a hobby shop owner who gave us a rough translation of the rules. But I digress…

    Recently we played a game from our collection called Jamaica.

    Jamaica mon | Halle's Hobbies

    It’s basically a racing game that you manage your cargo and occasionally get to battle another player. Strategy and luck both play into the equation.

    Jamaica mon | Halle's Hobbies

    You keep track of who is “captain” for the turn with this compass piece.

    Jamaica mon | Halle's Hobbies

    Mr. G found this model of a ships wheel on Thingiverse and thought it might make a great custom edition to the game in place of the chipboard compass. Looks cool but not exactly the right color.

    Jamaica mon | Halle's Hobbies

    Here’s the wheel in progress, extremely wet with paint. After this completely dried, I sprayed it with walnut ink. I wasn’t sure this was a good choice but what the heck…I live dangerously.

    Jamaica mon | Halle's Hobbies

    Here’s the completed wheel in play. I sprayed it with a matte spray sealer to protect it from chips and scratches. I tested the durability of it by rubbing it together with the Hand of the King piece I had previously completed. There is no way either object will be as roughly abused as that during regular game play and storage so I think we are good.

    Jamaica mon | Halle's Hobbies

    I love how the walnut ink settled into the layers of the print giving the appearance of wood grain.  So fun!

    Currently I’m working on another board game. I had always wanted to make a set of custom tiles for this game but assumed that I’d be scratch building each tiles like I do for miniature terrain pieces. Since the game has 19 tiles…the task was a little daunting. Mr. G is printing the board pieces from files shared on Thingiverse. I am adding custom paint jobs to each piece. More on that project to come…