Steve Troughton-SmithComplete.
Tonight's rebound project: re-basing and magnetizing a bunch of pilky's dwarfs
It's fun to go back and see the mini painting progress I've made in the past couple years in specific details, like faces. They're one of my favorite things to do now
Continuing with the re-basing project on pilky's dwarfs, and gave the leader a tiny bit of a face/hand touch-up too
Been pretty sick for a week, so recovering by slowly making progress on the first mini of the year
Finally pushed these Star Wars Legion stormtroopers off my painting desk after them being there for the past year. Soft plastics: never again. I'm so glad they've moved to hard plastic minis in later editions. Lesson learned
Have done very little hobby in 2026 so far, so I was compelled to paint up some terrain prints that have been sitting on my shelf for too many years now
Love the little vignettes you can make when you have some terrain pieces
An offhand ChatGPT repaint inspired me to actually go and repaint my goblin tower, which I was pretty unhappy with when I painted it in 2020. It didn't take much to bring it up to a much higher level, though, and now it looks great!
The last photo is what ChatGPT made of it, just for reference. But it convinced me that it wouldn't suck so much if I put just a tiny little bit of effort into it, so I did
Finally making progress on this guy from January again. Nurglings are fun to paint!
1997–2026, a painting journey in pictures. It really goes to show that this stuff is not innate talent, it's a lot of hard work and time spent learning and practicing
This is all the hobby I've done so far in 2026 — not a lot yet, but there's still time to catch up
Next dilemma on my painting desk: me struggling with tentacles. I have painted and re-painted these things a dozen times, and mixed so many paints together in a panic that I have no idea what instructions to leave for next time. But I think I'm getting to something I'm happy with — especially when comparing with an earlier revision (picture 2)
I do love how each little poxwalker has been its own puzzle to solve, since they're all so different. It's been a year since I last posted them, so here's what the rest look like
Printed this beautiful retro @DoctorSpork terrain piece up today and couldn't help myself but paint it. Tested out a wet-brush marbling technique I found on TikTok (never done marble before) and I think it worked out ok! Still have some finishing work to do on it, but I love it already
I did say my Ender 3 was working 24/7 since I dialed it in last week, and it's because I'm finally printing out this sorceror's tower from Printable Scenery that has been on my todo list for years.
Each chunk has taken about 24 hours so far, and you're looking at eight of them (one roof piece to go)
And the tower is complete.
Mostly.
The lower front piece was printed years ago at very different quality settings, so doesn't fully hold up and is probably worth a re-print rather than some gap-filling.
Overall though, it's pretty majestic — over 17" tall
Painting up some plastic buildings that have been in dire need for a long time. I’m using Vallejo Game Wash for the first time this week, and figuring out the best way to dilute it has been ‘interesting’. Think I got it down now though
Still have a details/polish pass to do, but it can wait, this is enough paint for now 😂
First print from the A1, 90 mins, no supports. Pushing the next print to 0.12mm to see how much better it can go before I swap in the 0.2mm nozzle
0.12mm is effectively as precise as a resin print. Feels like more than 2x the resolution for double the print length. Very impressive! Might be the sweet spot?
Yeah if you told me this PLA+ print was resin, I would believe you. I feel like I've been living under a rock. Gameover
0.12mm layer height with 0.4mm nozzle on Bambu A1
Kerry Mitchell 🍁So I can absolutely see why makers who buy a Bambu Lab A1 (or equivalent) immediately go out and buy more of them — the urge is incredibly strong 🥵. When everything prints out flawlessly and is just so easy, with zero faff, it's hard not to want to print more and more. I love seeing the technology improve by leaps and bounds like this. Excited to pick up some new colors of PLA too and get some multicolor printing going. This is my life now (at least until WWDC)
3D printing was traditionally a pretty full-on hobby, requiring all kinds of constant maintenance, but now I've seen what the Bambu A1 can do it's very clear we've moved into the 'appliance' stage. The A1 comes effectively in two pieces that you just screw together, and then it 'just works'. Drag model into Bambu Studio, click print, pop it off the plate when it's done, rinse and repeat. The quality and precision is there. They just need to 'solve' color, then everybody could own one
It grows!
The tolerance is even better than it appears in the photo, because the wet palette it's sitting on is soft and not flush
Painted up the spooky graveyard set I printed earlier, the first prints off my Bambu A1. It convinced me to figure out how to use my airbrush, and I think it was worth it!
Definitely going to need a filament recycler for all these tree supports 😂
Kevin Conner@stroughtonsmith Oh yeah! We had that t-rex when I was a kid. Maybe it was this one; I do remember it was wood https://www.ebay.com/itm/334165035123
Collin Donnell@stroughtonsmith Dinosaur!
Bas van der Ploeg@stroughtonsmith Next step: Creating some of your own models, and putting them up on MakerWorld. It’s totally worth it.
I’ve done the same, and even with my very basic modeling skills I’m earning enough points to get all my filament (and even some new printers) for free.
https://makerworld.com/nl/@BasvanderPloeg
Besides that, it is really fun to see people from all over the world making physical things that originally only existed in your own brain. 🤓
@Bas …points, you say… 🧐
@stroughtonsmith When you publish models on MakerWorld, you can earn “MakerWorld Points” when people download / print / rate them.
Those points can be exchanged for gift cards, which you can use in the online Bambu Lab store.
(The points can also be redeemed for cash money, but the gift card value is higher.)
Essentially I never have to pay for my filament, and even managed to get a couple of (nearly) free printers out of it.
aidan@stroughtonsmith What 1992 me would have given 😂
@aidan_walsh I think everybody in the UK and Ireland had this magazine!
Keir@stroughtonsmith or buy some moss and turn those into actual trees to surround the building 👀
Cheryl Lindo Jones@stroughtonsmith When you painted this, did you put primer on first? I am a total novice at painting stuff like this, but especially 3D prints. Any tips appreciated!
@jezlyn I sprayed it black, I airbrushed it teal from the top down, and I drybrushed it a grey white. You always want a spray undercoat
mingistech 
@stroughtonsmith that baby is built like a Tesla.
Wes Baker@stroughtonsmith Nice. Who’s the designer of the model?
@wesbaker this one (though you can buy it in a bundle) : https://www.printablescenery.com/product/castle-church/
Gary@stroughtonsmith I own a ton of Bambu printers, including an A1 and A1 Mini, and that quality still surprises me. I don’t really use them, they’re just backup in case I need to print something whilst printing something. Maybe that needs to change.
@gary_bbgames 0.12mm layer height with 0.4 nozzle! No special settings (other than tree supports)
Illya Busigin@stroughtonsmith I never thought the day would come where I want an FDM printer again. This is crazy good 🤯
@illyabusigin and this model is a few years old now, this is just the standard now!
Awax@stroughtonsmith color is partially solved with AMS (provided you accept a lot of plastic loss)
With the multi-nozzle generation, loss is a solved problem.
And we have some form of crude full color printing, now in most slicers, using partially translucent CMYK filaments
@awax I don't think swapping filaments for each color is the best solution. I'm thinking more like full color printing with UV as part of the process, probably not dithering multiple spools (but maybe at a much higher resolution than today)
@stroughtonsmith I’m not sure what exactly would be the best solution but as long as it does-the-jobTM, it will be good enough.
I can reliably launch a print from a model I found on Bambu Handy and be confident I’ll find it perfect a couple hours later.
Manuel Kehl@awax @stroughtonsmith color?! Sounds like a trap! We’ll end up with this again but this time in 3D 🤡
Arkadiusz Matecki@stroughtonsmith Even easier - use Handy app on your phone, browse models, press print 🙂
xenonchromatic@stroughtonsmith Just watch out for the inevitable (still not fixed) hotend clogs and (much worse) the inevitable (still not fixed) internal PD board and thermristors overheating and melting through the unit. Can't believe they haven't fixed these issues yet, especially because the latter is a fire hazard.
Gregatron5@stroughtonsmith If you get one of the dual nozzle ones and 0.2 mm nozzles, models (as in figures) with the right support material should be near perfect, except for the print times. Single nozzle would probably take way too long due to filament switching.