3D Printed and Painted Millennium Falcon

I've been moving things around and creating a painting/crafting nook for myself. I just painted a whole bunch of things yesterday and wanted to share one today.

Yesterday, every time I finished painting something, I would send a picture to Jason. He wrote back, "Good job. Now do the Millennium Falcon." and then I would send another picture, and the same thing, "Cool! Do the Millennium Falcon. NOW." ha. 

All right. All right! ha. 

Here it is before painting↓

3D digital file of Millennium Falcon found on Thingiverse

First paint layer↓

Finished!↓

The person who created this 3D design took artistic license with the Millennium Falcon, so I had to also in the painting details.

I'll have more painted 3D objects to show you soon. 

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Thanks for visiting!

3D Printed Stonehenge, Death Star, Electronic Arts and The Police.

So, yesterday, as you might have guessed, (or at least my one and only loyal follower guessed. hi Debra!) we were printing a 3D Stonehenge. ↓

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

I would kind of consider this print questionable, because the base turned out so thin and flimsy, even though Jason printed it at 200%. I can't even imagine how it would print much smaller than this. It is already so tiny at 200%. ↓

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

And another thing, it is so hairy. That's hard to clean up after the filament dries and those little leftover hairs harden.

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

But, I'll still give painting a go, and I'm sure it will be cute. 

Here are a couple things that I actually painted for those who think I am a complete procrastinator. 😏

The Death Star. ↓

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user embeddedjunkie 

This was printed in pieces, with two halves and a center ring, and it was glued together after I painted it. 

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user embeddedjunkie

By the way, have you seen the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One? We saw it, and I thought it was pretty good. Nowhere near as good as the original trilogy, which were movie perfection, but better than the prequel trilogy, in my humble opinion. 

Back to 3D prints. If you know the video game company, Electronic Arts, you might recall their early days logo: ↓

And here is their current logo, which you might be more familiar with today: ↓

Jason's first 3D design created with the free 3D design program, Tinkercad was an homage to Electronic Arts' original logo with the cube, sphere and cone. Though, when I saw it, I thought of something completely different. So, and I kind of commandeered it, and painted it as an homage to my favorite band, The Police: ↓

Notice the cube, sphere, and cone in the album cover below, and the screenshot from the video of their 1986 version of "Don't Stand So Close to Me", which if we are talking old vs new, that 1986 version just screams 1980s, while the original is timeless. I'm glad they never got around to rerecording anymore of their hits, which was apparently the plan at the time.  

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So you see? I have painted some things after all. and I will get to the rest of them as soon as I have that dedicated painting space I've been dreaming about....Jason. 

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Thanks for visiting!

The Force Is Strong With This One

After my last post about seeing Star Wars in Concert this past weekend, it seems the force is still with me. Last night, after dropping off a friend who I dragged to see Paranormal Activity [more on that later], I found myself driving behind a car with vanity plates that said "JEDIKNT". I took a cell phone, picture, but being rainy and dark outside, it didn't come out. Still, it was a pretty cool coincidence.

So, just now, this very moment, as I'm yet again at Panera, I'm sitting at the window and this compact car pulls into the parking lot. I literally laughed out loud when I saw, on the hood of this pink-haired girl's car, a portrait of Yoda, with his name written above his head. She had a dent in the hood of her car, and in order to make lemons into lemonade, she painted a Yoda on the dent. What a creative use of The Force.

I was too lazy to run outside and take a better picture. Not two minutes later, the pink-haired girl walked back to her car and I banged on the window to try to get her attention and give her the thumbs up. I know, geek. She didn't hear me banging anyway, and was gone, just like that.

Two interesting Star Wars references in less than 24 hours. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Open The Floodgates...and May The Force Be With You

The Nor'Easter is kicking our butts here on the East Coast and our office is closed today. I am sitting in Panera as I still have no internet connection in my new condo. My new condo, which might just be under water when I return. Who knows?

I thought I'd share with you one of the most awesome experiences I've ever had. This past weekend I brought my 75 year old mother, my sister and my niece (uber fan) to see Star Wars in Concert!  What the heck is Star Wars in Concert, you ask? It's just what it sounds like, except much better. Scenes from all six Star Wars films are projected on a gigantor screen while the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, along with a full choir, performs many of the key moments in John Williams' amazing soundtrack. Plus! Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO in all six films, narrates the entire event.

Now, I knew my niece had a Princess Leia costume, which she wore last year on a college band trip to NYC, but I didn't know if she'd want to dress up for this event. I was up for anything, and to my great surprise, my sister had a whole stash of homemade Star Wars costumes that she'd made over the years for my niece and nephew. The four of us decided to go for it, not knowing (or caring) if we'd be the only ones in the entire arena nerdy enough to suit up in Star Wars gear. So, as it turned out, my niece would be Leia, I would be her mother, Queen Amidala, Mom would be my son and Leia's brother, Luke Skywalker, and my sister would be Luke's mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who you may affectionately know as Old Ben. My niece was most excited to wear her newly purchased Princess Leia buns for the first time. I had to do a little convincing to get her to go for accuracy with the hair parted down the middle. Of course, she was glad she did it afterward.

Can I just say that we felt like actual Kings and Queens when we walked into that venue? We were a freaking hit. Everyone was asking to take our picture. Especially our Leia, who was pretty much a dead ringer, if only a bit on the tall side compared to the real Princess, played by the petite, Carrie Fisher. There were quite a few kids dressed up as mini Luke's and mini Darth Vaders, who all wanted pictures with us.

While getting swept up on all the fame and glory, the show was actually starting and we had to rush all the way around the arena to make it to our seats. And once we did, the magic of Star Wars happened. It was an amazing evening of lights and music and heartfelt narration. I was tearful at several points in the evening. Something about a live orchestra just does that to me, ever since I first saw my oldest brother playing upright bass in the high school orchestra.

If you have a chance to make it to this event, I suggest you do so. And it's best appreciated if you dress up, too. Oh, and afterward, they had a wonderful exhibit of Star Wars memorabilia that we, thankfully, quickly made our way through so as to get the requisite shots before being shooed away by the popo at closing.

Please check out all our fab pictures of us getting ready and receiving all the adulation at the event here at my niece's page and then read her own blog post about our evening: Are My Buns Straight? With a title like that, you know it has to be good.