crazmadsci Uncategorized

So Much to Do So Little Time

Time for some self-reflection.

Starting this blog and project of documentation I have become so excited and passionate to start SO many projects. It is honestly super thrilling to have so many ideas bouncing around my head. Even the little bit i’ve shared of this blog has seen so much more support than I ever imagined. I hope this to one day be a place which will spring board creativity, research and knowledge to all the incredible resources that are out there for tabletop gaming.


However, This week alone I feel like a person at Thanksgiving Dinner seeing all the food, filling my plate and once I sit down go… “OH SHIT, I can’t eat it all”. Trying to pause and think, “What should I accomplish and really tackle first?”

I have ideas of becoming more than just a blog where posts get lost as more and more gets written. I strategize of standard pages such as “Terrain, Miniatures, Calibration, Troublshooting etc” which will be a go to location for each thing linking to blog posts which go deeper into the topic. I hope to eventually have a page for individual monster types with a Lore spotlight, printing and painting history of every different version of that monster I have ever done. For example there are so many creators and incredible sculptors who have done different variations of the Goblin. Wouldn’t be be great to see what is out there, what is free, where to get it?

I want to start dialogues about the rising tensions of FDM vs SLA for miniature figures. The frustrations of an analytical mind and the rising “Scale creep” of miniatures for easier printing.

I want to build and flesh out battlemaps of published campaigns for DMs to have an exact print list of what is required making it easy for planning and assembly. I want to have conversations about “Should you build a whole battle map?” “When is it important?” “Whole walls vs Half Walls?” etc etc etc.


My mind is racing with the possibilities.

I hope that people will critique me as I try to improve my painting techniques and be a testament to the journey of improvement.

I need to be patient, keep plugging along and flesh this out. I hope to help others grow too. More importantly I hope to make friends.

For the community that is out there. Do not hesitate to make a request or comment!

Angry Ball of Eyes
crazmadsci Uncategorized

Angry Ball of Eyes Dragonlock Miniatures

This miniature was super easy to print and comes in several pieces for easy assembly. My favorite aspects are the paint stand which will be incredibly useful when painting and how the base will be easy to reach to paint. The mouth is open in the back of the front piece to more easily paint the inside of the gaping mouth and tongue (WIN!). I only used the Large Peg in this STL folder as it fit perfect in the model. There is also a small peg file which i did not use. I can’t wait to paint this guy!

Angry Ball of Eyes Miniature Print Data


Layer Height: 0.08
Printed On Prusa i3 MK3s
Filament: Hatchbox PLA Silver
Print Profile: Cura 4.6 “Offical_FDG_Cura_ender3_and5miniatures_4mm” from The FatDragonGames website

Abbreviations: Angry Ball of Eyes (ABE)

File NamePrint TimeEstimated Material UsedMisc Notes
ABE_Base3hr 3 min10gPrint was very nice. Some small nit picky 1st layers issues on bottom but unnoticeable
ABE_PaintStand2 hr 2 min5gDid not need to print at a fine layer height but I wasn’t paying attention
ABE_LargePeg13 min1gFit model perfectly. Did without a brim for a nice fit
ABE_Front and Back5 hr 36 min22gAlso printed without a brim since there was enough surface area on the model for a great adhesion and would keep the model cleaner. Teeth on front game out great.

Where to Find STLs

Dragonlock Miniature store via DrivethroughRPG. Vendor images are frome Fat Dragon Game Website.

  • Angry Ball of Eyes $2.99
crazmadsci Uncategorized

Kenku Miniature Painting

The miniature I painted last week was a Heroforge miniature of a Kenku. Previously i needed Kenku bandits for a D&D campaign but miniatures of the more rare races are harder to find. So therefore I designed this miniatures from Heroforge which is a great place to go to mess with a custom model to export an STL or order a printed miniature if you wish.

This miniature was printed on a FormLab2 SLA printer from my previous job. The mini was printed face down which really messed up the front of the miniature making it hard to clean up and paint.

The focus of this paint job was to attempt to have more layers on my mini, In particular the cape which is one of the only sections of the mini i’m really proud of.

For this paint job the mini was can spray primed Gray (visible color on the base)

I realized I own only 3 real variants of blue paint and decided to predominately work with Game Color’s Stormy Blue. Mixing with various rations Black & White paint to create more layers. Overall I attempted to have 5 layers. I believe I could have used more contract overall “Lighter Light and Darker Dark” on the cape itself.

I also realized i’m not as much of a fan of the Bloodstone P3 paint as it really stood out on the bow itself and bracers. I should layered it more or mixed it to make a more subtle color difference.

Overall Colors I can remember are:
Stormy Blue (Game Color)
Black (Game Color)
Hammerfell Khaki (P3)
Iron Gray Hull (P3)
Battlefield Brown (P3)
BloodStone (p3)
Dead White (Game Color)
Hexed Lichen (Game Color)
Heavy Violet (Game Color)
Trollblood Base (P3)
Sepia (Game Color) Ink

In the future I should work on more variation. Better layering and without a doubt better journaling of what I did. Trying to keep in the lines more also for the front of the body.

Inspiration for the paint job was after the artistic drawing of SilasEgress found on Deviant art of “Rattle” the Kenku shown below along with my attempted layers for the cap.

crazmadsci Uncategorized

Week in Review: July 5, 2020

The last week was not nearly as productive as I wished it was. Life definitely took over and the weather was not favorable for priming. 5 out of 7 days it rained preventing priming my terrain.

My weekly goals include.

  1. 3d Print at least 1 thing
  2. paint at least 1 miniature
  3. paint at least 1 piece of terrain

All of the above will get a blog post highlighting each goal. <- I did not accomplish this goal.

Projects in Action

3d printed:

  • Continued Fat Dragon Game Miniatures from the “Dragonlock” 3d Printed Miniatures (see below for scratched off sections of the project)
  • Calibration cube

Painted

I really dropped the ball on this category this week. Need to get better

Miscellaneous

  • In depth calibration of 3d printer.
  1. Cold Pull of filament to clean it out
  2. Deep clean of PEI coated Prusa Print Sheet (which was terrifying because nothing stuck to it for a few days)
  3. Lubricated rods on printer
  4. Flashed Firmware update of Prsua printer
  5. Checked Belt Tension
  6. Calibration Cube

Dragonlock miniature project:

  • Goblins 1
  • Goblins 2
  • Turdle Adventurers
  • Oxidation Beast
  • Angry Ball of Eyes
  • Skeletons 2
  • Skeletons 3
  • Orc Warriors set 1
  • tentacles
  • Trash Beast
  • Lizardfolk Warriors Set 1
  • Lizardfolk Warriors Set 2
  • Dragon
  • Dead orc
  • Cube O Snot
  • Goblinoid Warriors
  • Orc Set 2
  • Snake Warriors Set 1
  • Giant Spider Rearing & Swarm
  • Minotaur Warrior 1
  • Owlbears
  • Skeletons set 4
  • Goblins set 3
  • Roper
  • Giant Rats and Rat Swarm
  • Giant Worm
  • Giant Slug
  • Octopus Warrior
  • Dragon Eggs
  • Minotaur Warriors
  • Hill Giant
  • Ogre Warband
  • Mushroomfolk
  • Kobold Warriors
crazmadsci Uncategorized

Dragonlock Miniature Print Project: Part 1

I don’t know about those of you with 3d printers but we all have not only miniature piles of shame but also digital files of shame. You can see I have over 150GB of files and most have not been printed!

I’ve decided to go through my digital files, organized them and attempt to print as much of it as I can. I’ve decided to first go through the kickstarters I backed and decided to start with the DRAGONLOCK™ 3D Printable Miniatures kickstarter from Summer 2019.

What is special about the Dragonlock miniatures is that all of the miniatures do not require supports at all and if they do the miniatures are “pre-supported” meaning that having to fine tune supports is not required. Tom Tullis the head of Fat Dragon Games also works hard to supply an easy to use miniatures printing profile for FDM printers and releases it freely to the public. This printing profile is always my default starting printing profile and adapt and grow from there.

I’ve decided to start with the Dragonlock miniatures because they are my go to, fine tuning miniatures to spot issues with my prints. Since i’ve taken a heavy break from the hobby what better than to knock this project out.

The miniatures. From my notes i’ve counted roughly 94 miniatures in this kickstarter ranging from medium sized creatures to giant dragons.

The collection

  • Goblins 1
  • Goblins 2
  • Turdle Adventurers
  • Oxidation Beast
  • Angry Ball of Eyes
  • Skeletons 2
  • Skeletons 3
  • Orc Warriors set 1
  • tentacles
  • Trash Beast
  • Lizardfolk Warriors Set 1
  • Lizardfolk Warriors Set 2
  • Dragon
  • Dead orc
  • Cube O Snot
  • Goblinoid Warriors
  • Orc Set 2
  • Snake Warriors Set 1
  • Giant Spider Rearing & Swarm
  • Minotaur Warrior 1
  • Owlbears
  • Skeletons set 4
  • Goblins set 3
  • Roper
  • Giant Rats and Rat Swarm
  • Giant Worm
  • Giant Slug
  • Octopus Warrior
  • Dragon Eggs
  • Minotaur Warriors
  • Hill Giant
  • Ogre Warband
  • Mushroomfolk
  • Kobold Warriors

Extras: Miniature Paint holders & Bases