Well hello and a Merry Xmas to you all
So had another request for a BBQ Cuts of an animal and this time I was allowed to name it so similar to my Cow SO3 Gave Birth to Full size cow i began the pregnancy
So first this i needed to get my creative Megamind into Gear so i had a breakout session in the pub, this as expected started well and only got better as the meeting progressed!
Two days later i came up with the first outline of the design, it was all i could remember from the design session.
i took this into Fusion 360 and it said no! Design rejected too many problems with F360 performance and SVG ( god i wish they would fix this) so i turned to Vcarve and the man from Vcarve he say YES!!
after scaling and measuring a pig for actual size (oh dear god folks that is another post in it’s own right lol) i was able to get it into a 8ft by 4ft sheet of Birch plywood, i was plating at the maximum size i felt was good for my SO3 xxl before i would hit problems with limits etc, so 70cmx70cm was just right.
I then set about turning the master design into 5 plates to cut from and the nesting facility in Vcarve was AMAZING! my wastage this time was nearly nothing proof here
I had 5 plates in total and after cutting them out i ended up with theses
If you are on the fence about Vcarve like i was then the nesting alone in my opinion was worth the price tag, not joking once i understood how to use it, i simply grabbed the pieces, chucked them into a file set the 70x70 stock one button click and it was done, and the ability to works with SVG’s etc with little to no impact on speed and calculation times compared to F360 is also a massive boost.
Again a real example i was able to import into Vcarve - import svg - create plates nesting and toolpaths in the same time it took me to try and import and solve the issues of open contours in F360!! (but i still love you F360)
so next was the first coat of matt black paint in readiness for the resin, this is a real pain to do but i have found if i brush in one direction only with the grain it give amazing results but my god is it a thankless task!
Next to resin - i will change to MAS Table top for my next ones but this epoxy resin i was using was good too, i really have got handy doing the pours now with a 10ml syringe, and i think (hope you will agree too looking at the pictures)
now that the pig was drying i turned my hand at what it should be called… Boom! it hit me and i came up with this
using node manipulation for the text in Vcarve i ended up with the effect i was trying for (the starting credits of star wars films and i think it came out well hard to really get a feel for it but in real life it looks so cool!
Then it was more painting and time for a dry run before bubble wrap and DHL posting - with my mask on i felt i was really getting into the whole mood of the piece
and that ladies and gents is how “HAM SOLO” was given birth to by my SO3 
As always any questions - happy to answer
Jon