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Figure with me getting my printer back up & running I'd start my own thread in regards to this hobby. (Thank you @Jasper_the_2nd @Clearman for time in regards to your topics!!) So last week I had what was referred to in the 3d printing field as a "Glob of Death" or something along those lines. I ended up a solid blob of filament that engulfed my entire nozzle, the heatsink & everything but the fans. I think if I wasn't still new to the entire hobby I could have just heated up the blob & let gravity take over. To be safe I ordered a complete new hot end, which is the entire black box that is positioned on the middle bar you see if look at pictures of the Creality Ender 3, ie the business end of your printer. Bottom (where the nozzle should be. You see a nozzle?? Ha ha) Back (It's not a nice texture at least!) Front (again the bits on the tile are cut off parts of the shroud that is usually over all of this. It's on the right side of the hotend in this picture.) & these are what was behind the shroud. I finally got my screw off today. I was all set to cut a slot into the hex screw as it wouldn't turn with with the factory supplied hex wrench but as I was wrenching the shroud off I noticed it was actually turning the screw! I ended up cutting off the shroud (what you see on the tile in one of the pics) & then it was a matter of getting a set of pliers around the screw to give it a few starter turns. I ended up using my thumb & finger to get it fully out. Oh well, I have some new Dremel EZ lock mandrel & reinforced cutting disks!! Currently I'm in the process of trying to get the hot glue off the control board. Creality decided to glue down the connectors to the board....ugh why? I do need to figure out what wire goes where but I've got diagrams. I'm more worried about the heater wires (the larger red ones). I'm not sure if they have to go to the right connector or not. Once I get the glue off, I should be able to swap the wires out & re-hook everything back up!

So finally, after many years of wanting one, I got a 3D printer for Christmas this year. This has much to do with the ever decreasing cost of them, especially the Creality Ender 3, which is what I got. This isn't so much about set up or using the printer (other than to say that Tom from Fat Dragon Games and his Tomb of 3D Printed Horrors made the whole process so so easy, his instructional videos on the Ender 3 made it all easy, and his Cura setup files for printing minis worked for me straight away) but the minis stuff I'm printing and (hopefully) painting. So, got the printer set up yesterday before going to a friend's for supper. Later got the bed leveled (ish) and printed off one of the free models Fat Dragon gave away this year with their newsletter. I used the stock print bed cover for this and it really stuck on quite hard. I later snapped the head off the halberd trying to get it off. Eventually had to heat the bed up to get it to come off. So this morning I switched the the glass bed I'd ordered with it and got that all leveled. Tested it out with another FDG skelly. Nova Corps colour scheme test guy included for scale (he was the only thing within easy reach). I'm looking forward to cleaning these up, slapping some primer on them and seeing how they paint, but expect that will be a few days. FYI, these skellies print out in a little over an hour. Now on to something a bit more complicated, to see how it comes out. This should make a 65mm talk bipedal "chicken tank". Design by Radek Szczepanczyk, available on MyMiniFactory for free. This will take about 8 hours to print.