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Would be pretty hard to make steel molds that way Instead, we feed the 3D data to a CNC milling machine, which then cuts the mold out of blocks of steel.

Aha, I didn't realize you were using steel molds, I was thinking more along the lines of materials like plaster and silicone! 

Still, three's much cool potential in 3D printing, and I think your models you've showcased in your last comments would look great printed out,
and as for various imperfections, you can hide a lot with a glue gun and acrylic paint! 

Wow, that's impressive!

As far as casting goes, that's not what we do, actually. I'm talking automated, rapid machine mass-production of identical plastic items by injecting molten plastic into steel molds. It's a regular factory - if small - rather than an artistic enterprise. Coincidentally, casting was what my fiance (the real-life Magenta) and my sister did in college, they both majored in sculpture.

Well, I've also heard about businesses using 3D printing to create an original model and then using it to make molds to mass-produce copies of things, but I guess you don't do that?

Uplay is giving away Assassin's Creed 2, Rayman Legends and Child of Light for free!

Having played all three, you don't want to miss this, especially the latter two are the most beautiful games I've ever played, and both Rayman Legends and Child of Light are two of my all time favorites!

Thanks! Was looking for something to play with my son. Those last two look perfect.

Indeed they are! 

Uplay is giving away Assassin's Creed 2, Rayman Legends and Child of Light for free!

Having played all three, you don't want to miss this, especially the latter two are the most beautiful games I've ever played, and both Rayman Legends and Child of Light are two of my all time favorites!

The Russian art-film Simpsons cracked me up!

Anyway, anyone remember this parrot? An oldie but a goodie!

[Something set during the great migration era]

I would like to participate this month, but I am really short on ideas. Maybe inspiration will come to me today.

Maybe check out National Geographic? They tend to have some good historical articles.

Also, I have just so many leftover ideas that's just been lying there in the back of my mind like forever like;

Something set during the great migration era - it's just such a rich historical period that spawned both the basis for the king Arthur legend and the Nibelungenlied
A chapter in the life of Catalina de Erauso - a woman who escaped a nunnery in order to become a conquistador
A neanderthal needing to save a man's life using brain surgery - I'm not kidding, they've literally found skulls from the era with scars proving the neanderthals were capable of successful head surgery
A stage magician helping British army fool the Nazis - Once again, this was a real historical event!
A story about one of all the people in the army who weren't a soldier - Like a seamstress, cook, blacksmith or similar just trying to do their part to keep the army fed and equipped
A game about Shi Pei Pu - a Chinese opera singer turned spy who seduced a french embassy employee whilst disguised as a woman, and even convinced the man that he'd had a child with him
A game where you play as an Eohippus - they were pre-historic horses the size of a rabbit, need I say more?

Ok, I'll try and restrain myself from derailing the whole thread with just my ideas, but I hope this small sample might be of help to someone struggling with ideas.

Wow, for a lazy quickie sculpt, that looks great, just like the original but in 3D! I definitively hope you'll be able to work more on cool Adventure game character models in the future!

Blondbraid, I'll definitely check these - though I might also investigate the classic approach of assemblable models. Because one of these days I might actually go there, maybe? I work at an injection molding company, owned by my father - and so far we've only been making boring practical stuff. I'm 40 next month, so I want to do something new and bold and wild! 

I hope they'll be of some inspiration!
And the injection molding sounds interesting, I've seen people on YouTube use 3D-printed items to create molds and cast them in other materials, it it something you've tried?

These are magnificent, Blondbraid! Especially that last one. How do the joints work? Did you model them after solutions used in commercial figurines or did you make some creative use of the 3D printing capabilities, like printing an object inside an object rather than snapping them together once finished.

Thanks!
If you're curious, I spent a lot of time trying to design a doll that could have both movable joints and be printed in one piece. I did take some inspiration from other people's models with simple printable joints, and then there was a long process of trial and error, where I started with some very simple joints and gradually tested more advanced designs, but I also had to use a lot of supports to make it work. You can download and take a look at the model here if you want to learn how it works: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4237475

But your model isn't bad either, awesome work on the face details! 

It's also worth noting that most of the foreign news articles showing pictures of Swedes sitting in crowded cafés is completely misleading, weather intentionally or not (seriously, some of those pictures clearly look like stock images taken in the middle of summer), and I can say from personal experience that while people are moving out in the streets, virtually all restaurants and Cafés are empty and most people buy take-away if they get something at all. Wherever they get all crowded restaurant photos from, I have no idea, but I haven't seen any such sights this year where I live in Stockholm.

*lights up Blondbraid sign*

I got to say, this cracked me up! 

I've actually been toying with making a Dimetrodon-centered MAGS entry for some time now, if the Permian age counts as forgotten history.

@Blondbraid
Sounds delicious! I don't eat chocolate, but maybe I should make some kanelbullar next weekend. You usually don't get them here (and IKEA is closed as well)

Luckily, next week the rest of the stores + shopping centers are going to open here. I'm looking much forward to it, because I need some important stuff and had some bad experience with mail order recently. Also restaurants will finally open mid May.

You should definitively bake your own kanelbullar if you have the time for it, I've never found a store-bought one that could match fresh homemade ones, plus it's a great activity to do with your kids!

As many have noticed, Sweden is taking a very different route here.
I don't want to be another hobby epidemiologist, so I'll just try to convey what the Swedish authorities are doing and saying.

1. We don't think this is a hoax, or exaggerated. We all believe it's very real. We don't congregate and rally to protest the restrictions, like the American rednecks. A vast majority of Swedes actually take a lot of distancing measures.
2. Tegnell isn't a manic street preacher. He's the spokesperson of the national health agency. It has hundreds of scientists and experts.
3. The fundamental idea, based on their simulations and models, is that voluntary social distancing works pretty much as effectively as a hard lockdown. Whether this will turn out true or false is impossible to say at this early phase, but the numbers are quite alarming.
4. A complete lockdown has a number of bad side effects, like increased domestic abuse, children removed from the safety net of society, isolation fatigue and depressions, etc. Can you say it's worth it? Hard to know at this point. But we Swedes have a strong belief in the system.
5. We're doing much worse than our Nordic neighbours, but quite average in a larger perspective. We're not in the top ten when it comes to deaths per capita. We've also reported more deaths than most countries, and Sweden is one of few nations that haven't underreported our deaths.
6. I'm personally a bit divided, and I definitely think there are some areas where restrictions could be much harsher.

As a fellow Swede, I can confirm all of this. Too many people seem to think Sweden have done no measures at all, which isn't true, and while there are less restrictions, everyone in the news and on the streets alike are still talking about the virus and many commercial signs have been replaced with reminders to keep one's distance and keep one's hands clean, so you can't miss that the corona situation is still ongoing.

If you want candid, straight talk I will do it only by PM... Not here..

Fine, if that's how you want it.

As for lockdown activities, I've succumbed to the peer pressure and done some baking. (Had a yearning for skolebrød, and since I'm not going to the bakery…) Except the stores are out of yeast, so first I had to grow my own (following the instructions making the rounds on Twitter etc.: mix fruit juice and flour and let ferment). It worked, but it took six hours for the dough to rise. Glad I started in the morning.

I've tried making some simple cakes recently, this one in particular, though I haven't found an English version of it to share yet.
More people stuck indoors could try learning to make new things.

Everyone been telling Fran Bow is good, but I was not able to test that out because the overlay effects in the mental hospital were making me dizzy

I don't even remember any overlay effects

It's when you take the pills, I think, the screen becomes covered with a reddish pulsing overlay, and unfortunately was making me sick real quick.

Yeah, I remember something like that, although it didn't make a very big impression on me. It's a shame they didn't test the game for players with nausea or headaches before releasing it,
because I think the game would probably be just as fine without them.

Everyone been telling Fran Bow is good, but I was not able to test that out because the overlay effects in the mental hospital were making me dizzy

I don't even remember any overlay effects, but it's a shame that the option to turn such effects off isn't standard, and I can only imagine how frustrating the prevalence of this would be if you were suffering from something like epilepsy.

Still, I hope you find a workaround one day, because it is a very interesting game that manages to handle several dark topics well.

I liked Fran Bow quite a bit.

Second that, it reminded me strongly of Alice: Madness Returns but in Adventure game form.

Really creative BlondBraid 

Thanks!

And you're right, that artist is awesome!

The faux Dr. Seuss adaptations of Lovecraft are better I think, and they are full books, not just cover art.

Word!

Anyway, here's a quick doodle I made based on a pun:

I've loved all the songs by the Clockwork quartet since ever I first found out about them, but I feel this one is especially topical in these times:

Cool, thanks for the info. I'll check that.
Of course, before I can do any printing, the Library needs to open for business. 

True. But they can't stay closed for too long considering the people without computers who need public libraries for their online errands.

That looks great.
Though I've never been much into dolls, so I actually prefer Olga and Ivan. 
Btw, how much do they weigh? Or better asked: how much 3d-filaments in grams di you use to produce those figures? Just wondering what they would cost to print at the Library... 

I'm so glad you like them! 
Well, the weight depends on what size you want to print them in. With the dolls with joints, downsizing them runs the risk of the joints fusing together in printing, but with the Olga and Ivan figurines you can do pretty much any size without too much trouble (I accidentally made the first figure I printed 20 milimeters high because I misread the numbers, yet it still worked!), but with a 10% infill a 120 milimeter high figurine is only about 12 grams without supports, and 30 grams with auto-generated supports, so they shouldn't weigh too much.

Personally, I'd recommend downloading Cura and use that program to open the 3D files in it to calculate how much a figure in the size you want would weigh.