Quicklinks: Introduction, Painting, Product Review, Statistics,
In Progress Painting, Final Photos, Missed Something?, A Look to the Future
Introduction
While it has been a very long and laborious journey, I finally have completed my second building from the Kingdom of Thamarya Kickstarter! I can safely walk away very proud of the journey I took and successes in this piece. In the beginning of 2021, I wrote up my hobby goals for the year. Contained in that list is 6 “Mega Projects” that i’ve designated myself to work on. Never did I realize that there would be accidently a 7th on the list.
The creation of the Kingdom of Thamarya buildings and my pure enjoyment of them has beyond a doubt turned into my 7th project “Mega Project”. I love their whimsical nature, detail, and flexibility for playable interiors. With miniatures, scatter terrain and 14 different buildings i’m off to build them all….. hopefully if my husband doesn’t stop me for storage reasons (Fingers crossed). The Blacksmith is approximately 9.5 in x 12 in x 6.5 in or 24.1 cm x 30.5 cm x 16.5 cm and is definitely showcasing that the Thamarya buildings are turning out to be much larger and more fun than I originally thought. I think the Blacksmith is one of the smallest in the collection. While I doubt i’ll use the buildings for an entire village build or scenario on a tabletop often I will perhaps utilize them as feature pieces or a playable street in a future game.
In this final write up for the Blacksmith I will discuss the various highlights of the painting project, my final product review for the building, fun statistics about the project, and most importantly in progress and final photographs. Also at the bottom I reference the buildings i’ve printed to date and things to come for this kickstarter.
Painting
Overall the Blacksmith was pretty straight forward to print with only one noticeable difficulty which was in the the roof assembly (Read about it here). However, while I was actively assembling the building I was creating the “beta” version and finalized files were yet to be released to the public. The roof actually updated the day after I finished assembling the Blacksmith. I opted to cut and repair with milliput rather than reprint the entire roof.
When painting the Blacksmith I really wanted to attempt to convey a story of a ramshackle building that has been repaired with the various materials laying around. Don’t have a matching blue roof tile, well a brown one would do. What about lumber of different species and ages, anything goes as long as production of the forge never stops.
Painting the Rocky Floor
I also attempted to portray a cheaper rockwork on the outside made out of softer rock and clays while the floor inside the building was built out of more solid and expensive materials. This more heat resistant stone I have as variations of grey and a bit of black representing slate. I was originally really nervous when painting the exterior rock and felt like it was risky. But I am so glad I went with it. I absolutely love the outside coloration and think I went to quickly to add variation inside with the grey stone in my excitement. I think the two varieties of color ended up clashing but overall is not a big deal as it is not common that the roof and wall would be removed for playability, showing the two varieties side by side to clash.
Painting the Roof
All of these thoughts and storytelling led to the decisions I made on how to paint & the colors used. The largest decision I struggled with is that I am still very torn with the decision of if the Thamarya buildings should have a universal blue roof scheme or mismatch in color. While the Blacksmith building is still blue roof it is a slight variation of that of the Fishers Hut. At the moment i’m leaning towards having multiple colors of roofs for various buildings: Red/Orange Cottages, Purple Library or Wizard Tower, Green Peasant houses etc etc. What do you think should all my buildings be blue or should I mix it up? Let me know in the comments what ideas you have.
For the Blacksmith I absolutely loved what I did in painting the roof. I think the colors are vibrant and bold and my largest excitement was adding variation of the tile like there were patches over time and different colored lumber such as using anything that was laying around. I think this reflects personal growth in color choice and technique over the Fishers Hut. I now can’t unsee the muted monotone of all the lumber and roof tiles. I absolutely love the variation of color on the Blacksmith. What do you think?
I picked the wood colors for the roof as one of the first steps of my work towards the wood painting deep dive. I will have a write up on my current experiment shortly I promise, for teasers check out my instagram.
Functional LED Forge
For this building I experimented with using transparent filament for the first time ever in my hobby experience. I used a vase printed mode to ensure there is as little plastic as possible in the middle of the model to ensure light can emit through the outer wall. I also printed at a very large layer height to reduce the amount of crystallization and therefore blocking of light. Because of these things I do not think the coals for the forge look as professional as the rest of the building. That on top of my lack of experience with painting hot or volcanic colors means overall i’m not as excited about how it turned out.
This aspect would be where I would look to improve in the future.
Painting Conclusion and Paint Log
One new thing I did that i’m really really excited about for this project is that I started a paint journal. In that journal I kept track of what color, mixes, and brands I used for different parts throughout the building. I am thrilled to have something documented to reference back on if I want to copy or take think I enjoyed about the project and do again in the future. Do you keep a paint journal for your projects?
Overall I’m super happy with the result, I will admit I did run into some painters block for while which I attribute to distraction preparing and having a new “tiny human” in the house. Now that I’m starting to get into a new routine that paint brush is finally coming back out. It feels great to be hobbying regularly again.
Product Review
Print Difficulty: Intermediate
Supported: FDM & Resin presupports provided *Note* I use my own supports for FDM
For the Blacksmith I give the print difficulty a rating of intermediate. For FDM printing, almost all files needed to be rotated to lay on the build plate for best orientation of first layer which requires knowledge of the print process. Thus printing this building should not be your very first project in the 3D printing hobby. Also the presupports for FDM are not always conducive to a 100% print success rate due to their thin and branching nature. Presupports for FDM are extremely reminiscent of supports for resin printing and are not always as stable as slicer generated supports. These thin supports have a very low success rate for myself and as a result I supported my own files for the Walls & Roof. If you are interested in my support settings check out the print logs.
Assembly: Intermediate
The Blacksmith while pretty straight forward in rectangular shape, I have rated the difficulty of assembly as intermediate. Due to the number of number of pieces and fit of several of the pieces. The most difficulty in my personal experience was the roof, which should be fixed with current version. However the porch poles to support the roof were floating and not attached to anything. This required me to extend and add to the front stairs and provide stability on my own.
Customer Support: Exceeds Expectations
I will absolutely admit that I am a massive fan of the sculpting company CastnPlay. This group is one of the largest patreon companies for supplying 3D sculpts for tabletop gaming. Their specialization is has always been miniatures printed on Resin printers and have provided helpful print settings and troubleshooting assistance. The team at CnP has been extremely receptive to suggestions and feedback while answering questions most significantly through their discord server. If you have questions going to their discord would be my suggestion but I am sure their facebook page or instagram would help out too.
The Statistics
Project Printing Start Date: February 7 2021
Project Printing Finish Date: February 24, 2021
Total Time to Print: 7 Days 3 Hours 31 Minutes
File Cost (Individual Purchase): $11.99 myminifactory
Sculptor: CastnPlay
Special Note: I purchased this building as a bundle in the kickstarter at a reduced rate.
Total Filament Used: 814.60 grams
Total Resin Used: 9.2 grams
Total Cost Filament/Materials: 19.54
Building Size: 9.5 in x 12 in x 6.5 in or 24.1 cm x 30.5 cm x 16.5 cm
Number of Pieces: 31
Date of Completion: July 18, 2021
In Process Photographs
Final Photos
Missed Something?
Want to catch up on the project of the Blacksmith Project or know more on what it took to make this building a reality. Read up more below!
In case you missed it do not hesitate to check out the Blacksmith Project Page for more information on each printed part, its assembly, and breakdown for resin & filament printing.
If you want to know more about the post processing stage and things i’ve done to modify the original sculpt make sure to check out the Blacksmith Status Update.
Next for Thamarya
Since printing the Blacksmith building in the Kingdom of Thamarya kickstarter I have since printed three additional buildings with two buildings already in the print queue. This brings the current printed & assembled house count to five.
Two of these buildings are the Cottages which you can find the Status Update and Project Page.
I have also printed three additional buildings which I am working to add to the website. These are the General Store, Mausoleum, and Library.
Overall I am going to take a brief break from painting buildings and will get back to them shortly but in the end I very much miss painting miniatures. I am doing this in order to prevent burn out which I experienced with the blacksmith.
As always thank you for reading. Let me know your thoughts. What is on your hobby table today? Don’t hesitate to comment down below.
As always,
Crazmadsci, Carrie the crazy mad scientist