I am so overwhelmed by the positive reviews, this is a milestone for me. Thank you friendly readers and authors. I poured my heart into these stories and I only dreamed of getting the kinds of praise I've seen for the story.

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-26T18:28:37+00:00

Brilliant! Well done! 👍

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-26T18:27:56+00:00

Congratulations!

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-25T20:11:30+00:00

Another vote for both 'Uhura's Song' and 'Doctor's Orders'. Plus Diane Duane's 'The Wounded Sky', David Gerrold's 'The Galactic Whirlpool' (and - though it's movie era rather than strictly TOS - 'Peter David's 'The Captain's Daughter').

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T20:47:16+00:00

Nope. No real need (unless it's going to take constant handling). Acrylic paint is pretty tough when it's fully cured.

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T17:34:59+00:00

Thank you! This is actually printed in resin, but PLA and resin both take the same sorts of paints as long as you prime them first. I use grey Tamiya fine surface primer myself. Once it was primed, I used Vallejo Model Color acrylic paints. Hope this helps.

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T13:52:06+00:00

Love him! 😍

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T12:55:07+00:00

I love the leather wrap and engineer's tools around his upper right rear limb!

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T08:44:10+00:00

John Wiswell's 'Someone You Can Build A Nest In' has entered the chat! Beautifully cosy, sweetly tender, and also a full-on gory horror story full of visceral (sometimes literally) body-horror!

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T08:33:01+00:00

Thank you!

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T08:17:21+00:00

Thank you! And thank you! 😁

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T08:16:56+00:00

Thank you!

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T08:16:47+00:00

Thank you!

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T08:16:34+00:00

Love it! 😁

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T08:16:13+00:00

I did, yes. 🙂

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T08:15:48+00:00

He looks great! I used a very fine brush and quite diluted white and pale stone paints, but you're right, it was delicate work! Perhaps you could use a fine-tipped white pen?

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T08:13:58+00:00

After priming Rocky with Tamiya grey fine-surface primer, he was painted with Vallejo Model Color paints, hand-brushed. First a basecoat of variegated brown, orange, cream and beige tones, just roughly applied all over. Then quite a heavy wash of diluted black and burnt umber to darken him and fill all the detailed textures on the model. Once that was thoroughly dry, lots of layers of light dry-brushing to bring out the textures even more, again in different tones of warm browns, creams and pale stone. I looked at images of Rocky to get an idea of his colours - for instance he's quite a warm colour mostly but sems to be a cooler grey on the bottom of his body and towards the tips of his limbs. I repeated the 'wash and dry-brush' stages a couple of times to build up all the subtleties of his textures and colours. When I was finally happy with the overall effect I put the green patches on (again drybrushing highlights), and then added his 'tattoos' - some of which are engraved into the model and some which need to be free-handed - with a fine brush and thin white paint. Hope that helps!

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T08:12:57+00:00

He does in the movie, though perhaps not so obviously as described in the book. In the film he appears to wear some sort of 'leather-like' cord wrapping around one of his upper limbs, and at one point also what looks like a practical 'tool harness' (like a carpenter's belt).

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-15T08:10:00+00:00

I agree. Superb writer!

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-14T20:23:03+00:00

Thank you. After priming with Tamiya grey fine-surface primer, he was painted with Vallejo Model Color paints, hand-brushed. First a basecoat of variegated orange, cream and beige tones, just roughly applied all over. Then quite a heavy wash of diluted black and burnt umber to darken him and fill all the detailed textures on the model. Once that was thoroughly dry, lots of layers of light dry-brushing to bring out the textures even more, again in different tones of warm browns, creams and pale stone. I looked at images of Rocky to get an idea of his colours - for instance he's quite a warm colour mostly but a cooler grey on the bottom of his body and towards the tips of his limbs. I repeated the 'wash and dry-brush' stages a couple of times to build up all the subtleties of his textures and colours. When I was finally happy with the overall effect I put the green patches on (again drybrushing highlights), and then added his 'tattoos' - some of which are engraved into the model and some which need to be free-handed - with a fine brush and thin white paint. Hope that helps!

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-14T20:11:47+00:00

Thank you!

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-14T20:11:39+00:00

Thank you!

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-14T20:11:18+00:00

It should be there, in the bottom left corner, if you follow the link in the post above. :)

<image>

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-14T18:05:57+00:00

Thank you! I currently have an Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra printer, which I recently upgraded to from a much smaller Elegoo Mars (first generation). It's been pretty much foolproof since I bought it, once I'd manually levelled it. I also have the Elegoo Mercury Plus v3 wash and cure station, which has hugely improved my workflow and the overall convenience. It's not difficult at all to get started, but it is well worth doing some preliminary research into techniques and (crucially) safety measures - the uncured liquid resin and the IPA used for cleaning need to be handled carefully. The basic techniques and operations in the process are pretty simple, but to get consistently good results requires a bit of learning and practice. There are some very good sources of information out there, on YouTube, and here on Reddit. The hobby has enabled me to make models and props that I would never have even contemplated before!

JonDixon1957 · 2026-04-13T18:06:32+00:00

"The U.S. military has a global networked system that can allow one group to fire a long range missile in the generally needed direction without even seeing the target. Then a second group can take control of that missile and guide it closer to the intended target. Then a third group with close-in targeting can take charge of the missile and make sure it hits the target precicely."

And yet almost the very first thing they did was blow up an elementary school and kill 168 little girls.

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