19 Days Til Frostgrave!
We are over half way through the timeline of my Frostgrave project. So far it has been a wild ride and to summarize my feelings over the last two weeks, overwhelmed. I’ve spent a little bit over a month on my most ambitious terrain and miniature project to date. Its going to be extremely close to succeeding my goals and reaching the deadline of creating a 3×3 foot epic and immersive war gaming board to play with my husband. It has been hard to schedule games lately and this will be a real treat. If you want to follow along my journey from the beginning. Start at the Frostgrave Beginnings post of this series.
Since we are over the halfway mark lets reflect on my current project status. It has been two weeks since my last project update and I have quite a bit to talk about so buckle up.
Laying Out the Map
Since this project has so many moving pieces, I definitely began to loose track of what I had and what I needed. I couldn’t figure out what should be in the queue to print and produce, what was missing, and needed to visualize what our gameboard would look like. So like any person I decided to play with my toys and set it up as if I would play today.
Using some 12 inch x 12 inch colored construction paper I laid out my total desired board spacing to best visualize not only how much space a section of terrain will take but also if a region would “ooze” into other quadrants. Overall i’d call the experiment a success but my tiny assistant, did start tearing apart paper as you might be able to tell from the pictures.
Overall i think i’m beginning to have enough large terrain to be satisfied but still want one or two more feature pieces that really stand out along with significantly more verticality in movement such as bridges, planks and more. I’m also going to incorporate scatter terrain such as crates and barrels to provide more cityscape clutter for line of sight breakers and cover.
Printing Status Update
Since this project began I do not think my 3D printer has truly stopped producing more models and figures. I tend to have a few mass production cycles for the year and this for sure is one of them. So lets list the highlights of pieces made (definitely not all).
Infinite Dimensions Modular Rivers
While I only have a few pieces printed of the entire set of available pieces I do have enough printed to cross a section of our board. I am calling these pieces “good enough” to play with without producing more and are currently in progress on the painting bench.
I definitely have high goals and ambitions for river tiles and currently consider these more experimental pieces. I want to use some water effects, maybe stone pebble the river a bit, along with perhaps some grass? I know its the game of Frostgrave but by having some greenery on these would give me the best versatility for my tabletop as a whole. Maybe the Frozen City is showing signs of thaw?
Printable Scenery Graveyard Walls
These walls come from the Shadowfey Kickstarter of printable scenery. I decided upon using these over the options presented in Frostgrave part 2: Map Design. I am so glad that we choose this one as the walls themselves are taller than I anticipated and will be great for unique sections and break a decent portion of line of sight.
My wonderful husband has decided to help me and worked on these. The really wanted to try unique choices with orange stones and the white pillars and tombstones match the aesthetic of the original mausoleum.
Hagglethorn Hollow
I am currently in the process of printing the Hagglethorn Hollow ruins and some of the ruined buildings. Although difficult to see these ruins scream character and are perfect for play with a variation of verticality, windows, places to take cover, and places to add crosswalks and bridges.
The biggest thing i’m going to have to decide is if I should paint them a classic gray color or stay more true to the Hagglethorn Hollow color scheme (shown below). What do you think?
Printable Scenery Rope Bridge, Ladder, Stairs, and Gangways
Since laying out the models I had on my tabletop I’ve started to begin printing more pieces that would connect buildings and terrain in multiple story play.
While this is only a small portion of what I want to print I plan on making more and painting up these pieces.
I’m sure I’ve printed other things in the last two weeks on this project but it has honestly been hard to keep up with all the moving pieces. Also since so much of my hobby is printing in general I doubt I’d ever be truly done with printing stuff for my tabletop.
Graveyard Almost Complete
With the completion of painting the graveyard walls the graveyard feature piece for our Mausoleum scenario is almost complete. While some pieces like tombstones only are primed the whole area is just screaming for a game day. I’m so thrilled with how much fun it all looks and I even finished painting the Zombie set from Lost Adventures Volume 1. I was testing different skintones for what I wanted to use for the Zombie thugs for the Necromancer Warband.
It takes a Village
Last week I definitely suffered from the beginnings of feeling overwhelmed and hobby fatigue with how much i’ve produced and needed to paint. However at that time my wonderful husband offered to have a painting date night when all the kids went to bed (with a cat supervisor). What an incredible blast it was to share my hobby joy with him again. He had so much fun he even painted all days that weekend even on nights where I was too tired to paint. He is not someone who paints often but finds joy and pride in anything he gets done and ends up on the table. This is one of the most perfect of examples of sharing games and crafting with others and the joy it brings. I’ve greatly missed crafting with others and sharing the joy of experimentation and color choice. Also I really love seeing the color choices and techniques others use as they are different from my own.
In the last few days as well I had the incredible opportunity to teach a lifelong friend how to paint miniatures. I had no idea that he has always dreamt of trying to paint minis so I handed him some of my sigilist warband to try. We only got to spend a little bit of time together but he helped me start to basecoat my thugs and crossbowmen. I hope that I have corrupted him into joining the ranks to miniature painting so we can meet up and play games together. I still haven’t decided if i’m going to send him a care package in the mail of 3D printed models to kickstart his collection.
This Frostgrave project has become something truly special this year. My friends and family have been cheering me on and following along on my instagram as well as everyone reading here, so thank you. I have appreciated all the support and when I started to feel a lull in motivation i’ve been so surprised who offers to help or mention how motivating it has been for them.
Can I Make My Deadline?
For the goal of building my gameboard for Frostgrave I am well on my way to have all the terrain pieces I want to really make it a fantastic and fun experience . This will also work on improving some of my previous frustrations from past games.
My secondary goal of having everything painted for gameday will be cutting it really close. I would say that this goal of having all the terrain and miniatures painted will hinge on this upcoming week. You see i’m traveling back home to see my family to get some much needed vacation time in as well as celebrate the life of my grandfather who has been my inspiration in gaming. He will always have the title as one of my largest influences in my life to make me a gamer at heart. That along with my love with fantasy books.
In order to make this deadline I have packed some hobby stuff, perhaps too much paint and am working on using some of my time to paint on the road. I also bringing the warbands as well as scatter terrain and various pieces. Handsome hubs has still really enjoyed helping me so am bringing plenty to give him options and give him inspiration while trying to knock out my most time consuming pieces the miniatures. Stay tuned next week and find out how much I’ve accomplished. My goal would be to have at least my warband miniatures painted but time will tell.
Whats Next?
We are coming down to the wire and although I almost completely lost all momentum my friends and family have really come through in supporting my hobby which has felt incredible. Even a few have shown interest in playing. Maybe i’ll work towards expansion to a 4×4 board and more warbands for Christmas with a complete bestiary for a mega game with 4 to 5 players.
So far setting this deadline and chronicling the process has been an incredible motivator as well. The blog has been such a fun addition to my tabletop crafting hobby this year and so glad I finally started it. I still really want to add up all the data on materials, product sourcing, time printing etc to give people perspective as to how long or how much certain things take before the big game day. Maybe i’ll get some writing in as well this week.
What do you guys think? Think I can make my goals? Have you set a goal for yourself? Post, comment down below.
As always Happy Crafting,
Carrie aka Crazmadsci the Crazy Mad Scientist.
With Hagglethorn Hollow the decision to go grey (or any other colors) compared to JFA’s original painted scheme is a tough one. Mrs. GG likes the original look but normally prefers grey stone and that is what we largely have with our other models. Maybe you can do both as you are able to print more? Have you seen JFA’s video on how to paint HH? It gives examples of grey HH buildings to compare.
Your project is inspirational. I love your table design and buildings.
It is great to share the hobby with others. I really hope you get more folks to play and end up with a bigger table. My wife is an excellent gaming partner but we both wish we had a situation where we could expect more folks to come over to game with us.
I think you will make the deadline.