Right, so not even a week after my last post, my computer decided to die again. This time, it was the computer itself, not just the hard drive (I go through hard drives like I go through coffee filters). No matter, the PSU (power supply unit) was five years old, and the previous one lasted for five years, so I thought that might be the issue. It wasn’t. After replacing the PSU, the computer still won’t boot.
All it does (this is both immediately before and after switching out the PSU) is display the CPU, but not the GPU or either of the hard drives, as it should. I’m sick of troubleshooting, and since hunting season has arrived (I’m an avid hunter, for those who didn’t already know), I don’t have time to deal with it. For the time being, I’m using my second computer, which has some important ramifications for this shop. I will still be able to work on the website and process orders, but I won’t be able to add anything that requires a new model file, so don’t count on any new products for a while. However, since the last update, I have painted some new catalogue samples for KV-1 and KV-2 variants (and I just now realised that I forgot to photograph the unpainted models, silly me), so the consolidation I spoke of in “the first re-organisation” can finally begin. A video will also be posted soon showing multiple tanks being painted at once, making use of some painting fixtures that I designed, printed, and assembled myself. The 3D-printed components of the painting fixtures will be available for sale, and the video will explain the difference between painting fixtures and painting plugs, the latter being components required to build a fixture to paint multiple tanks at once, as well as to mask surfaces on multi-turret tank models (e.g. T-35, T-100, SMK, when I finally get round to adding them). Another upcoming project is to experiment with winter camouflage, and I will use the U-3 (which was first used in the Winter War) as my test subject.
I have four different paints with “white” in their name, and here they all are:
The second from the left (RAL 9002/71.119, “grauweiss/white-grey”) will be what I use for the main colour coat. It is almost indistinguishable from the primer, and this is certainly one of those instances when having black primer would be useful, but I don’t care. I will probably document this experiment in yet another video, and if successful, it will serve as a winter camo painting tutorial. I imagine that anyone buying printed models from me is probably a much more experienced mini painter than I am, but I like to have resources for novices available anyway.
All that being said, since the market for wargaming miniatures is basically dead, and has been since three months after I published my website, I’m putting this entire project on the proverbial back burner for however long that no-one has disposable income. Once I fill my tags (any hunter knows what that means), I’m going to look into starting a custom metal fabrication business while learning yet another type of programming in my spare time, and by June, I’ll start looking for a job as a programmer if the metalwork doesn’t bring in any money.
