Yo, turn me up!
What's happening, people? It's ya boy, teh Jerk, back in the building after having stepped away from social media...well...right around the time COVID touched down. Wild, huh? To be honest, things were already kinda rough for me in those days. I was going through some significant upheaval in my life, as well as the depression that came along with it. And then seeing the US government's response to the pandemic made me realize Western civilization was cooked. But that's a whole other blog entirely!
I decided to go on an indefinite social media hiatus in order to focus on my physical and mental health. ...Just in time for TWO cars to die on me, my apartment to flood, and a whole buffet of neck/back issues. Welcome to the last few years of my life. :P
And yet, here we are.
Yeah, I may have felt like checking out permanently a few times here and there, but thankfully, I had three pillars to keep me from sinking into dark places for very long. First, ain't nothing like having a kid starting school to keep you anchored to reality! I am actually surprised at how genuinely grateful I feel to have my child in my life. And, of course, I can't forget the homies. My Ultraman-sized bonds of friendship have always sustained me through the toughest times. Finally, creativity. I never stopped making stuff...even if it was only for myself--things I never planned on sharing with anyone else (well, except maybe my kid!).
Eventually, I recovered from my physical ailments, got a new car, and moved into a new apartment even closer to my kid. I am constantly aware that things don't just *get better* for most people these days, so I'm extremely thankful to be where I'm at today. Don't get it twisted: we absolutely live in a fascist hellscape--and voting one way or another ain't getting us out of it. But I think at this point, I've been through all five stages of grief! It would be illogical to give in to despair...just as it would be to waste the privilege that I have. So on one hand, I've committed to learning all I can about geopolitics, independent of Western propaganda, and finally living in reality. But on the other, I'm also committing to taking my creativity seriously, as escapist and self-indulgent as that may be.
And so, I have returned to making toys for the few folks who still care, and sharing what I'm up to with the community. What's that gonna look like going forward? Who knows! But I actually do have plenty of projects in the works that could be pretty fun. Even been dabbling in writing a TTRPG..! I continue to be inspired by the artists around me--many of whom are in situations no better than my previous one--who've continued to create despite the accelerating collapse of everything. Respect.
So one thing I'm excited about is my new spot. Like many of us in the hobby, I now have a dedicated "toy room"...but maybe not exactly like what you think! See, I have precious little of my collection on display. Instead, the space is fully-optimized for 3D-printed toy production.
Chaos Bringer approved!
It may look a bit disorganized, but hey, there's a reason for that (wait for the big announcement at the end of this post!). But despite the clutter, there's actually ample room to get stuff done. First, we have the 3D-printing corner, featuring my "fleet" of Qidi Tech printers:
These machines are absolute beasts. Qidi machines are not without their annoying QC issues, but their customer service is world-class, and I've never run into an issue they weren't able to resolve within a reasonable amount of time. And now with Klipper firmware, I've become an Orcaslicer god! I know that doesn't mean squat to 99.9% of y'all, but don't worry. You'll see EXACTLY what that translates into when you see the print quality on my upcoming figures...
Anyway, right at the printer station is where I do most of the "heavy-lifting" clean-up of parts. This involves safety glasses, cut-resistant gloves, needle-nose pliers, and a lotta damn patience and effort. This is where the majority of the support material gets ripped off of the parts before moving on to the next area, my main work table:
Shown on the left above is the table where most of the fine-cleanup, gluing, painting, etc., take place. More brush- and hobby knife-work than heavier tools. At this point, the parts need to be fully-cleaned of support material and glued into subassemblies prior to acetone vapor-bathing (AVB).
And finally, there's the evacuation hood:
The hood consists of a powerful box fan sandwiched between some moving boxes to form a little wind tunnel. There's a cutout on the exhaust side for a dryer hose attached to a window guard. This sucka CRANKS. It can change out all the air in the room in about 3-4 hours. I keep the HVACs sealed up, and the bedroom door is weather-stripped to hell and back (to prevent noise, as much as fumes, from escaping the room).
The hood serves a few purposes, actually. Mainly, I run it while 3D-printing to move out the ABS fumes, but I also use it as a spray booth and for AVBing parts. Granted, when boiling acetone or spraying with rattle cans, the smell takes closer to a day to clear out...but it gets the job done.
As you can probably tell, I am super-excited about they toy room in my new apartment. Granted, my actual toy collection is still in moving boxes in the closet, but that's fine for now. Someday, they'll breathe free air. Or we'll all die in nuclear fire. ;) But for now, despite having "down-sized" to a smaller apartment, I'm now more productive than I've been in YEARS!
More to come!
Okay, okay, that's enough catching-up! Let's finally get to the big announcement: I will be at Zolocon 2025 with my usual partner-in-crime, Doomkick, and special guest, Mike Die:
As in years past, I'm extremely pumped for the event. I'll try my best to document the mayhem. I'm so bad at that! LOL
Now, as for what I'll actually be bringing, I'm keeping that a surprise for the moment. Besides, this post has gone on long enough! ;) But don't you worry--I've got some #brownnoize5point5 goodness on the way, as well as something totally unexpected for all the Warhammer 40k heads out there...
Stay tuned!
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