BAD week, but with an unexpected benefit by the end!

Hi Guys!

Not gonna lie, I've had a pretty bad week and a half with Long Covid, varying from 'awful' to 'not as awful', but not really managing to reach 'ok', let alone 'good'!

HOWEVER - it did give my mind time to simmer a problem I'd been having in the build, and save a bunch of foam and storage for anyone making it - and it's also potentially useful in other applications too :)

Attached you can see some images, the green one is some test tiles with my original idea for the 'fake depth' sewer flows. They need the fake depth support blocks to work with the verticality I have planned for the build, but I struggled to find a solution that didnt have significant downsides:

I didnt want to glue them, too much extra storage waste.
I didnt want to magnetise them, too much extra magnet cost, also fiddly.
I didnt want to use cocktail sticks, I tested this and VERY FIDDLY.

I was about to resign myself to using the cocktail stick or glue method, when inspiration struck after the most recent 'enforced downtime' - /just use smaller support sections! The middle wont be visible anyway :)

This is the design you can see on the right (upper brick walls yet to be attached), and not only does it save a ton of foam, it can also be glued securely and only use half the extra storage space!

I am loving this design, it's going to make the whole set much more storage and setup friendly, not to mention cheaper 😁

Rest assured though I've been pretty bad I've been getting on where I can, I've sketched 6 pages of designs for sewer accessories including a modular pipe system, that will, initially at least be STLs so I can get the video out this decade 😂 I do plan on showing craftable versions of everything where possible in the longer run, though crafting videos take a LOT longer for me to do than creating designs for fabio to sculpt.

Not sure how to balance this in future, the STLs give me a lot of room to make designs a LOT better with quick-print accessories and 'greeblies', and are (relative to a crafting video) quick to get done 😄

I really like how much they're gonna let me add to this build with minimal extra effort, and I honestly feel like many would choose to NOT craft these accessories, or at least not many of them, due to their complexity/time needed to craft them. I notice many focus on crafting the 'big things', and my least popular videos tend to be accessory focused... 

It's totally possible, I'm just wondering how much of the community will get value from a video purely about the little things - especially if there at STL versions available to just print? I don't want to end up spending lots of time on something most people in the patreon may not value! I could potentially mention the materials and rough idea of what I would do to craft them instead of a full step by step build?

Let me know your thoughts :)

On a related note, the brick stamps and stone wall STLs are nearing completion and need some final test prints before I upload access to everyone who was here last month on MMF along with the throwback! This month's stuff will be sewer related so I can get it made to use for the video, with next month's likely being the pipes...

As always, I massively appreciate the support you guys give, it's the only thing that funds the channel on the level it needs to focus on the things I do rather than sponsors or viral/mass release quick videos. It means the world to me and my family, especially while I'm ill like this.


PS, for those interested - I've probably had a up-down pattern of 

awful day (can't focus on anything for at least 50%, then light focus such as sketching, logical* designs, grind crafting, design chat with fabio, nothing creative* like scripts or camera angles, for the rest),

then not quite as bad day (light focus most of the day, can't focus for a few hours, maybe if I'm lucky can do some medium focus, like build experimenting or cleaning/setting up the 3d printer).

This has only been this last week and a half, and has been a significant downgrade from where I was previously. I'm trying to take it as a 'hard patch', that I'll recover more after. this has happened before, but this is an exceptionally long one. That said, it's also less intense than hard patches have been previously (read: I've not been rendered comatose on the couch/bed!)

All I can do is wait to get better unfortunately, I'm already vitamin'ed and healthy food'ed as far as I can be! For those worried, I'm only working when I feel up to it, I'm not pushing myself and making it worse - tempting though it may be.

*I've noticed my lack of focus in this week at least seems to let my logical brain get on more than my creative efforts - luckily a lot of my designs are far more logical than creative! Trying to write a good script or think of good camera angles just seems to lead to a mental dead end though, in this bad patch at least.