Refine Old Designs = More Modular (60% done, ENG Corps left)
Marine Corp Alternate Prow
Diorama
LED sets
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2023 - May 26
New Product
M1 Dreadnought Upgrade Kit
Expansion Bay
Grand S
Grand M
General Improvements
N/A
2023 - April 04
New Product
M5 Armed Freighter V2
[Marine] Crusader Prow
Crusader Rudder
General Improvements
Added [Marine] Hammerhead/Crusader prow options to M1 Carrier Titan.
Added [Marine] Crusader prow options to all Imperial vessels.
Discontinued M5 Armed Freighter V1
2023 - March 06
New Product
IMP Grand Expansion Bay L
General Improvements
V2 IMP L expansion bay with more robust angel
Updated information on K7 Heretic Escort
Marine and Heretic prow options for Titan Carrier S
Updated assembly instructions for Imp Cruiser V3
Updated categories for various ships if they have Heretic/Marine prows available
2023 - February 16
New Product
M3 Imperial Cruiser V3
Grand Forebay
Standard Forebay
Bridge – Marine Pagoda
Rudder & Keels
Rudder S/M/L
Marine Rudder S/M/L
Keels for Heretic and Imperial faction available in S/M sizes
General Improvements
Imperial Cruiser V2 discontinued
V3 is now more modular and can now fit the following parts:
Grand Forebay
Wing rudder attachment
Wing Options now available for M2 Imperial Battleship and Grand variant
Tower and Mk.3 Turret L
Rudder L
Marine Rudder L
Added Heretic Prow options to Titan Carrier
Added more bridge options for M2 class Imperial vessels
Renamed Heretic Half Keel M -> Keel M, and Full Keel M -> Keel L
Imperial Spire Replica now includes a long mast
2023 - February 06
New Product
M5 Imperial Light Cruiser V3
Grand Forebay
Standard Forebay
M6 Frigate V2
M7 Marine Escort
Hunter
Pagoda
General Improvements
Light Cruiser V2 discontinued
V3 features a new wing, modular rear/fore section, redesigned rear section with added details
Missile Frigate V1 discontinued
Missile pods removed and redesigned
2023 - January 28
New Product
M4 Grand Cruiser
General Improvements
Fixed severe website slowdown. Diagnosed issue as faulty API configuration with new couriers for international shipping. They were repeatedly pinging the site trying to update parcel tracking info.
2023 - January 19
New Product
Marine Corp Prows
Compatibility Parts
Battleship Wing Replica
Turrets
Missile Turrets
General Improvements
API Integration with other couriers because of Royal Mail ‘Cyber Incident’ on the 12th of January and suspension of all international delivery
Updated shipping weight/parcel size for each product for easier future automation
2022 - October 29
New Product
K2 | Heretic Battleship
Malice Prow
Gothic Rear Armour (Large)
Special Effect: Ramming Shield
General Improvements
Shipping times returned to normal
Finally created Staging Environment. No more pushingstraight to Prod.
2022 - September 16
New Product
Notice
Website response time was terrible as I wasn’t finding the time to maintain it
Removed Child theme because of conflicts that creeped in
creative caching
didn’t solve the underlying issue but experience is markedly improved
2022 - August 10
New Product
Notice
Order processing time increased to 2 weeks
Cat diagnosed with terminal lymphoma, given 1-2 months
2022 - June 25
New Product
K7 | Heretic Escort
K5 | Heretic Light Cruiser
KGV Bridge
Heretic Prow (Small)
Rear Armour Plate (Small)
General Improvements
Recategorized the Heretic prows used in Heretic cruisers from Medium –> Large
Updated product categories to include [All] option
Updated product group images, added 1cm reference guide to annotated product images.
Discontinued IMP Cruiser V1
Added Heretic/Grand Adaptors to Heretic Weapon Pack
2022 - April
New Product
N/A
General Improvements
Started a new job that is highly taxing, mentally. R&D slowed to a crawl. Avg. order turnaround time increased from 2->4 days
2022 - March 20
New Product
Ordnance
Movement Tray 3/4/5 slot
Compatibility Parts
Mass Conveyor Insert
3mm (1/8″) Peg Adaptor
6mm (1/4″) Peg Adaptor
Fine Brass Chain
Weapon Packs (30% discount)
Heretic
Imperial
Slimline
Premium
General Improvements
50% progress on Box art digital paintings
40% progress on LED kit
80% progress on Heretic Light Cruiser
80% progress on Grand Cruiser
80% progress on Imperial Cruiser (refresh)
50% progress on Pegboard adaptor (needs LED option)
50% progress on Hive City Diorama
20% progress on ‘Highwind’
Last 2 months have been spent on R&D for LED integration. Bulk sourcing has been tricky and I’ve had to scrap 3 iterations because of size constraints. A lot of progress is being held up by this kit because it has to be universal, easy to apply and work for ALL ships. Work is further delayed because of the outbreak in Shenzhen and a lot of suppliers have messaged me saying orders cannot be shipped.
[Fine Brass Chain] is the result of 3 months of ordering samples from 15 different suppliers for £60. Everyone seems to have their own standard for measuring chains. I would like to build a chain making machine one day, they are beautiful hypnotising automatons.
2022 - January 25
New Product
Cruiser Builder
Wing M
Wing S
General Improvements
Added assembly instructions for Heretic Cruiser
Updated product image for Bridge Options
Updated product image for Cruiser Builder
2022 - January 13
New Product
K1 | Heretic Star Destroyer
Rear Armour Plating
General Improvements
Purchased a refurbished Huion H610Pro V2 Graphic Drawing tablet for £21.66. This should increase my sculpting capabilities.
Purchased Patriot Supersonic Rage Elite 128GB USB 3.1 drive for £23.06. I will use it to keep a third backup copy of my website and design files. The only way to improve my disaster recovery is to have offsite backup, maybe a cloud platform.
Sourced Voron 2.4 parts for ~£1200 equating to several months of sales. I will use it to print ABS functional parts
2021 - December 25
New Product
Cruiser Builder
Heretic Engine
Rudder S (light cruiser option)
Bridge Options
Tsar Bridge
Design Changes
Revised Light Cruiser design
Added bridge options
Added 3x thruster options
Added 4x side armour options
Added detachable keel
General Improvements
Made the keel on ENG light cruiser detachable so that it can be shipped by L. Envelope – saving shipping costs for client.
2021 - December 19
New Product
Statue
Wolf
Eye of Behelit
Heretic Symbol
Special Effects
Spikes
Boils
Tentacle
Heretic Cruiser
Infested rear armour plate
Spike statue
2021 - November 29
New Product
Prow – Jaeger
Armour – Gothic
Bridge – Asymmetric Crane
Bridge – Catapult
Bridge – Cyclops
Heretic Weapon Spires (addon)
20cm steel chain
Torpedo effect set
General Improvements
Heretic weapon spires will now come bundled with Heretic Weapons
Black and White decals will be provided as default on purchase of all ships M5 and larger(Light Cruiser)
Pre-schism weaponry will be discontinued once stocks are exhausted
2021 - November 12
New Product
K4 | Heretic Cruiser
Prow – Broadleif
Armour – Curved
Armour – Plating
Design Changes
Eagle Prow L now has torpedo holes
2021 - November 07
New Product
M2 | Imperial Grand Battleship
Bearded Axe Prow
Design Changes
The ‘handlebars’ on the Gunprow were removed and was widened. The large version can now be shipped by envelope
2021 - August 25
New Product
7x Logistic Corp Modules
1x Corvette set with stand adaptor
3x Slimline weapons
4x Turrets in XL and L size
2x Decals in black & red
2021 - August 10
New Product
Bridge Options
Expansion Bays
2021 - July 02
New Product
Waterslide Decals
Heretic Weapon Bays
2021 - June 13
New Product
M6 Escort Missile Frigate
General Improvements
Removed [Gift Cards] functionality and refunded the few who purchased it with ‘super coupons’ with no expiry date. It created a lot of headaches where coupon users would insert coupon codes into clearly marked gift code input fields. This would result in the error [Gift code does not exist] and an unhappy user.
2021 - April 25
New Product
Engineering Corps
M3 | Battleship
M4 | Cruiser
M5 | Light Cruiser
Battleship Parts
M3 Expansion Bay
Prow
Knight
Mech
Gunprow
General Improvements
Removed Apple/Google [Pay Now] button on individual product page
Added new prow size [ML] that sits between Medium and Large prows. It will be used on M3 class ships.
Added prod variation image for saint prows
2021 - April 11
New Product
Gift Cards
Imperial Prows:
Shunt
Snowpiercer
Battleship Parts
Keel [L]
Tower [L]
Diagonal Spire [L]
Spires
Design Changes
The new spires will replace the old ‘fire control towers’ packaged in with purchases. I might throw in one or two of the older towers during the transition period.
Modified design of cruiser
lowered funnel height so that it is a better statue platform
removed ‘printed in place’ guns on wing tower so users can place custom turrets.
recessed the protruding arches on top fore section so that slimline weapon bays look better on them
General Improvements
Added Gallery page, basically my Instagram feed.
Added Captcha to my form/enquiry submissions because of uptick in spam
2021 - March 28
New Product
Custom print & design commissions
Design Changes
Modify Saint/Holy Book prows so that they can fit spinal gun attachments
2021 - March 21
New Product
Turret (x3 sizes)
Wirbelwind
Tiger
Torpedo
Prow Guns (x3 sizes)
Dora
Dora Tri-barrel
Junon
Junon Tri-barrel
Armbruster
Dreadfaust attachment
Slimline Weapon module
Quad broadside
Hex broadside
Twin turret bay
Triple turret bay
Ordnance:
Tao Fighter
Tao Bomber
Tao Transport
Design Changes
Modified pre-schism hangar bay (var. A) to have finer inlay
General Improvements
Added 32 SKUs to the accessory category. That is nearly a 50% increase to the range – pushing the accessory SKU count over 100. I don’t fully understand how I was that productive this week but lets hope it continues.
Added a new range of weapon modules that I will call ‘slimline’ for now. I like chunky ships, but there are situations where a slimmer, simple profile is necessary by design.
I am not sure where I will put the turret options. The simplest solution for me & the customer is to have the default standard turret – and the other options as an add-on. The only downside is that it creates waste if the customer doesn’t have a use for standard turrets.
2021 - March 14
New Product
Flying Bases
Citadel 60mm flying bases
35mm stem for 60mm magnetized flight stand
32mm third-party flying bases
20mm slotta base w/ attachment for ordnance
Ordnance:
Torpedo
Heretic Transport
Heretic Fighter
Heretic Bomber
Pre-schism hangar bay: variants B & C
Design Changes
The rear flag on the battleship is now detachable
General Improvements
Order turnaround time has been reduced from >6 days to 1.6 days on average over the past two weeks.
Started offering third party bases at a 50% markup. I might have to raise it further depending on demand. I don’t want people buying in bulk. I would have to start managing supply chains and rely on partners who may not want to sell to me (I’m looking at you GW). It also defeats the beauty of this business: a zero inventory, print on demand service.
Marder prow option now appears for B-ship and Cruisers. The issue went unnoticed for a week. Need to improve my QA testing as products become more complex with multiple dependencies.
2021 - March 7
New Product
Pre-schism weapon bays
Hangar
Design Changes
Minor design revision of battleship & cleaned boole on peg hole because Chitubox can’t slice messy booles.
General Improvements
Re-added Terms & Conditions checkbox on checkout page
Changed message to: “Paypal currency conversion is terrible. You can save 2~3% with even a basic credit card.”
Purchased Bambi BB15V dental compressor (£372) – it will be used for resin casting and airbrushing
2021 - February 28
New Product
Carrier Titan [M1 Class]
Prows
Marder Prow: size S/M/L
Prow flags
Design Changes
Hollowed out 0.5g (out of total 4g) of the new [Expansion Bay] module. This is important because it affects the balance of the ship.
Smoothed surface of [Statue – Shield] and put a frame around the shield edge
General Improvements
Start using postal collection service from Royal Mail.
Pro: Increase order turnaround speed. I don’t have to stand in line at 8:00AM in the morning for the 2-hour window that the RM collection office is open for.
Con: I will have to absorb the (£0.75 per package) collection fee.
Increased post-processing from 2 -> 3 steps. The newly added step involves methylated spirits in a sealed container for 2 minutes at 40°C in the ultrasonic cleaner. It gives the models a purple tint. Residue removal increased from 90% –> 100%. Further testing required to see how it affects strength of parts.
Re-modeled flame of ‘Burning Book’ prow so that it is easier to paint.
General Improvements
Set up Elegoo Saturn printer (£425). I can now produce Titan class ships
Massive increase in ship strength & durability.
Pro: strength without compromising detail, raises brand value.
Con: expensive custom resin will double production cost. Additional step required in cleaning process to remove oily residue = increase in solvent cost.
Scaled up the Light Carrier by 10% so its’ size is more in line with Cruisers
Added more greeble details to the [Saint] Prow
Added more details to the [Eagle] prow
Added more details to the [Wedge] Prow
General Improvements
Removed [Failed Prints] product category after someone called me disgusting. Efficiency was also up and I was not getting enough print failures to justify maintaining it.
Reversed my decision on tracked deliveries only after witnessing people purchase £5 goods and pay £13 for shipping. Untracked Large Envelope shipping seems viable and can fit a lot of small scratchbuilder SKUs and costs only £4 to ship. My earlier decision on tracked deliveries was a knee-jerk reaction to Royal Mail experiencing difficulties from a COVID surge that has since subsided.
Separated [Weapon Modules] into two products. Moved complex weapons that are tricky to print or require assembly to [Premium Weapon Modules]. I did this to provide price transparency. A lot of sellers use bait-and-switch methods to lure customers in with low pricing, but it only ends up sowing distrust.
Removed “I have read the Terms & Conditions” checkbox on checkout because recent rulings show it is pointless additional step for customers. For it to have any legal power, a new window must pop-up showing the actual terms and conditions, through which the user must scroll through to accept. No-one has time for that, especially when the stakes are this low.
[Cruiser Parts] Resized fire control towers to be thinner
[Cruiser Parts] Engine x4 is now smaller and ‘snap-on’ modular
[Weapon Modules] Added drainage channels
Torpedo tubes removed from all prows (except escort)
General Improvements
Free worldwide delivery now available
Changed all shipping options to tracked after losing many packages.
Redesigned ‘About Us’ page
Added labels on grouped product images
Designed & tested waterslide decal prototypes
Added dimensions to images on [Cruiser Parts] components
Not happy with final images but they will do for now
2021 - January 17
Product image on December 05
Product image on December 27
Product image on January 17
The above representative product [Imperial Battleship] has undergone several design revisions and render styles over the last month. The key emphasis has been on surviving the shipping process and design modularity.
General Improvements
All product pictures updated with new renders
Thumbnails reduced to 10kb PNGs
Homogenized product photos in blue-grey resin colouring with profile shots.
Further optimized mobile website load times
Added banner option to weapon modules
Design Changes
Ships are now fully modular & customizable.
Statues will be replaceable, more options coming soon
Raised up the midsection of Light Cruiser
Added dimples to centre of weapon bays for easier module magnetization