Diorama and Full Circle

Sitrep:
Okay, it's been a month with Liberty or Death up, and since sales have slumped back down I'll finally move on to Full Circle.

First up, sitrep: I finished my StarCraft diorama. I have a couple of crappy photos with my phone. My brother-in-law said he'd get better shots with his camera sometime in the future. (most likely Thanksgiving) Here is what I've got:

   Yes, the crystals and the Protoss pylon light up. There is also an LED under the zealot lighting him up as if he's teleporting in.
I considered adding lightning to Artanis but decided it was busy enough so passed on it.
  The skeleton is made out of bits from the T-rex and halo skull I printed that didn't print right or had issues. Most of the StarCraft models are from Thingiverse. The exceptions are the Zerglings. Those I modeled years ago. My youngest nephew was awestruck by it. :)
  I'm glad I got it done. I've been dithering over it for 18 months. So, that's 1 big project scratched off my to-do list. (and I added 4 new ones! I guess I'm glutting for punishment. lol)

   In other news, I was having so many problems with my Da Vinci printers (the Pro's heated bed died again, and the 1.0 has cold spot issues and clogs half the time) that I broke down and splurged on a CR10S-4. I agonized over the delivery, Gearsbest.com sucks about that. (US-to-US usually doesn't start in Hong Kong! and 8-30 days for delivery??) It is here though and it is currently printing a part of a massive project, my most ambitious to date. (1 part of over 1,000 or so. I started it in July, I'm less than 10% done. So it is going to be a while before that's done! I also have no clue where I'm going to stick it when I'm done. I'll worry about that later)
  I found out the hard way that contrary to their claims, the CR-10 can't print with ABS or other high temperature materials with it. (I doubt it can print Ninjaflex since they switched to a Bowden style extruder set up like my Da Vinci Pro. That stuff also needs a hot bed and nozzle) The heated bed just can't get up to the right temperature. Period. It takes 1 hour to get to 70c. It took 4 agonizing hours to get to 75c. (I was shooting for the normal 90c for ABS and gave up at that point)
FYI: It takes my Da Vinci's 15 minutes to head up. (when they cooperate) Of course their bed size is 1/2 the S4's in size, and they are enclosed.
  A check of Youtube showed me an enclosure would help a little in heat up speed and heat retention but not enough to get the job done. (A little more research on my part would have made me realize that ahead of time) GRR. so, I've got 16+kilograms of cheap ABS I can't use at the moment. I also have to print in PLA which I hate. The stuff doesn't like to stick to the bed even with a ton of glue. (Sorry Angus at MakersMuse but yeah, a skim coat doesn't work for me at all) I had to go to Amazon and buy 3 more kilograms of PLA. Even with that much I know I'll have to buy more in a week or 2.
(checking...the current print is already lifting off the bed. Even though I've got glue and the bed is at 70c. I had to tape it down to keep it from moving)
  I can't use hot acetone to treat the PLA to smooth it either. It laughs at acetone. Sigh.

  I also learned I can't print trays well. I had the idea in my head of printing 12+ items on the bed at the same time to save on cycling up and down. Well, if you try to print more than 4 you get layer separation and other nasty issues. It can't get around to each piece in time before the plastic cools off too much. (an enclosure might help there)

   The cool thing is once I figure it out I can print even bigger stuff (which I am currently doing). Even cosplay stuff. (Which my niece, nephew, and their friends will love) Complete helmets, bits, and such. I can even print that StarCraft battlecruiser I wanted and drooled over, or even my own ships and fighters... Muwhahaha...

   In other news: I have been fighting sinus headaches due to the fans and weather and fighting other minor health issues but I've managed to get 6 out of 9/10 stories for the next book, The New Federation Short Stories book 3 Folklore done. (yes, I added another book to my schedule for this year. You're welcome) I am passing the stories to some of the betas as I finish each in turn. I'm limiting the page count to 200-250 pages for this as well as Multiverse 4 which is next. More on all of that later.

  Now that August (and all the birthdays) is over, and everyone is back to school, (interruption: dancing a jig) I will hopefully be able to get back into writing mode easier. I'm writing short stories for the rest of the year so I can get some other projects done and have some free time. I've been told I need to reduce my workload. (which won't work, I'll just add more stuff to do)

   Another thing: I worked on the torpedo project. I roughed out the innards of a standard Federation torpedo from a set of free greeble packs I got off Artstation and gumdrop. I also worked on a bomber to launch the torpedo since I eventually want to do some key frames and maybe an animation of it in action. (to do that I need another PC to render it so I can continue to use this one!)

I took one of CGpitbull's bombers, took off the wing guns and then played with the polygons to get something more along the lines of what I had in mind. It is still rough, but you get the general idea.

No, that isn't the Mitchelle bomber if that is what you are wondering. I'll get around to making one eventually. I may have to make it from scratch or greeble packs. I still haven't finished the Cutlass fighter come to think of it.
Eventually Wayne or Ransom will post the torpedo and other stuff on the wiki. (nag them on the FB group not me! I'm busy! They'll nag me in turn.)

  And finally, I did the cover for Full Circle at the beginning of last month, right around the time I published Liberty or Death:

  Yes that is Admiral Horatio Logan in the foreground. Yes that is a Neodog. There was a Neogorilla in the background but I had to get rid of her due to a shadow issue. Pretty simple cover, all the stuff came from Daz I believe. The fur on the dog was in Cinema.
Full Circle goes to Rea later today, so expect it by the middle or end of this month.

  That's it for now! I will try to post a snippet of Full Circle tomorrow (if it doesn't get too crazy since I'm getting a new dishwasher!) sometime or later in the week.