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Trying New Things: My First Warhammer Tournament

One thing that I’ve learned over time is that we are creatures of habit. It becomes harder and harder to get out of your shell and try new things. As someone who has grown increasingly more anxious even trying new things, meeting new people and stepping out of my comfort shell I have finally done it!

As of last weekend I have officially played a competitive series of matches of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. Lets just say that playing Age of Sigmar has completely revolutionized both my painting journey in the hobby as well as playing.

The BackStory

I started playing Age of Sigmar after I purchased a super cheap box of the Start Collecting Greywater Fastness in the beginning of 2022. But it wasn’t until Summer of 2022 that I found a community supportive enough to help me learn the game.

There were a few key things that changed my entire perspective of the Warhammer gaming sphere.

  1. I met a few key individuals who welcome, embraced and encouraged me each week to play and were not afraid to tease if I ever didn’t show up for a game day.
  2. No one treated me different for being a female in the hobby
  3. There was a dedicated game night for everyone in the area to play Sigmar so it was easy to meet the community at large and feel apart of it.

However, the one thing I learned very very quickly is that the Cities of Sigmar army was massively huge and had a high level of entry. So I instead pivoted to begin with one of the most cost effective armies I could find Kruelboyz. This is where I’ve largely lived for the past 10 months. With the help of an escalation league in the end of 2022 I finally accumulated enough points for a full 2,000 point game.

Over the course of the last 10 or so months I have been adapting and changing my list. Adding and removing models to attempt to truly capture and support my innate playstyle that I have slowly grown my army well beyond 2,000 points. The painting process is not nearly as complete but more of that to come. However unfortunately I have since moved from the area and away from the close friends I’ve made playing these games.

Fast Forward to Jeepers Keepers

Last weekend I decided to go back to Tennessee and try another new thing with the group that was so supportive in the past, my first Rogue Trade Tournament or RTT. An RTT is the old GW supported format for small tournaments at Local Game Stores which consist of 3 total games.

Before the weekend I worked furiously to attempt to complete my Kruelboyz army but alas I am still too slow. Although I didn’t get everything in the army completed I have made some significant headway. Look at a few progress shots with the time being a little over a month and a half. The largest improvement is the completion of 20 Gutrippaz, basing and painting a good chunk of my snatchboss and Vulture and almost completing 9 Bolt Boyz.

Progress July 29, 2023

Progress Shots the week before Game Day

I have had to come to terms that I paint my army and take as long as I hope and desperately just want to get it right. But I am still determined to finish an entire army as it is a gamers bucketlist item.

Gallery of Games

Over the course of the day I played three games the first one against a friend named Bri who walked away with the best painted army. Her Gloomspite gitz were incredibly done and I absolutely loved her vibrant red squigs. It was the best looking matchup of the entire day. I won with a score of 17 to 7.

My second game I matched with a new friend Van and his Thunder Lizard Seraphon army. Van did an incredible job and absolutely knew his stuff. It was obvious that he did his homework on my list beforehand and played with intelligence. He said it was one of his best games of all time and he rolled crazy well. His first turn priority choice of me going first was genius and messed with my deployment with my rabble rowza regiment and he funneled me with the terrain. Playing an army with no magic I had difficulty getting to him and was picked me off with his stegadons. Super well played by him. It was by far my most interesting game of the day but he played incredibly well and walked away with the win 21 to 17. We are seen with the desert backdrop in the photographs.

Lastly I played Rayne and her Khrone army and lost again with a score of 24 to 16. Lets just say here I learned a very valuable lesson in how Khrone hates magic armies.

The Results

This left my day with a 1-2 win rate placing 9 out of the 14 there. Rayne and I were tied going into game #3 and were playing for 3rd place of which they earned.

As my very first competitive wargaming event ever I felt proud of my accomplishments but am most honored to have taken home the title of favorite opponent as every single one of my opponents voted for me as there favorite games of the day. This was either for pushing them to do their very best or just making those three hours of gaming fun. This is a title I will always feel the most proud of.

Takeaways

Overall the weekend was a lot of fun. Brandon our organizer put on a great show and answered many of our questions. It had good turnout and a decent amount of traveling players from all around Tennessee Memphis, Crossville, Cookeville and me. The skill level of the players overall was not incredibly high but lead to great games none the less.

I went home admittedly a bit frustrated with the fact that I really want to be competitive in skill but my time and opportunity cost is holding me back. I am learning the hard way that I cannot be 100% invested in every one of my interests. I only get to play a game a week and have so far been only playing one army so my knowledge of the game as a whole is still incredibly limited. I want to change that but one of the largest hurdles I have to overcome is my adversion to playing a tabletop wargaming game on my computer through the use of tabletop simulator. I am worried it wont feel the same. Anyone try it and like it?

Everyone as a whole was incredibly kind and always made me feel welcome including some of my long time friend to those I met for the first time. One of my new opponents even gave out little trophies to the winner of various games which make each game feel fun. I ended up coming home with two whole trophies! One from tournament and one from the night before.

I was beyond nervous stepping into the competitive scene for tabletop because I have not always heard great things and ended up really enjoying all my games and found them intellectually stimulating more so than regular weeks. I definitely hope to keep up the trend and go to more tournaments in the future but feel limited to the number I can go in the upcoming few years with three small kids. This was definitely something I checked off the gamer bucketlist and see that I have a large room for improvement but satisfied with where I am today.

What about you. Have you ever played in any tournaments?

Keep painting and gaming all!
-Crazmadsci

crazmadsci 3D Printing, Retrospective, Skills

Top 10 things to Consider when 3D Printing on Commission

Skies of Sordane Airship

Over the last several years of 3D printing as a hobby I have had my fair share of people approach me with an idea, an easy project, or something random they found on the internet they wanted printed for them. In general my typical response has been, “absolutely no problem” and taken the mantle of the challenge as a new way to challenge myself in 3D printing. However some of these “easy projects” were of course the most difficult tasks I’ve ever encountered in the hobby. General rule of thumb, just because there is an object file or STL in existence and someone has found it does not necessarily mean that model is actually printable, but I am getting ahead of myself… let’s start at the beginning of one of these “easy projects”. 

An idea of the complexity and size of the Skyship

In July 2022 I was commissioned to print the LARGEST 3D and most time consuming project I have ever attempted. This project was the Sentienel Light Cruiser by the Skies of Sordane kickstarter in March 2020 which raised over $280K CA or $208K USD on kickstarter. The reason why I say how much it has raised is that there are very few 3D printing stl crowdfunding projects to have ever gone over the 200K mark let alone this early in the 3D hobby printing revolution.

I remember vividly this project releasing and the waves it has made in the community. I even have a ship or two in my own STL collection that have been given to me as cross-promotions over the years even though I never backed the main project. So being asked to print the largest of the medium class ships from the core bundle of this kickstarter, I immediately felt it was safe enough to agree to the project with such a wide community backing it, instantaneous name recognition, and enough time has passed since it’s initial launch that surely there is strong documentation of the project and troubleshooting. 

So using this project as an example I thought I’d share the lessons I’ve learned with you.

Skyship with the elemental ring attached

Since completing the project, I have completely changed my view and approach on commission 3D printing through trial and error. Here are my top 10 lessons/rules and takeaways from the project if you are considering 3D printing for commission.

#1 Know your Value

One of the largest things I struggle with personally is making sure I receive payment for my services and time investment. I’m the type of person who significantly undervalues myself with the goal of bringing things and being as accessible as possible to others. I typically only charge printing cost in materials and file cost in almost all of my prints with an expectation of people tip what they are able to. Letting them pay for the print in what they value it as or can afford. This of course breaks down as you need to do much more in order to make the model print.As a result i’ve had to set a value per hour or minimum service fee for a product i’ll be printing. If a file requires work before or after printing put it in your service fee. Be transparent of your cost breakdown and expectations up front. Your time should not be for free.  

Make sure you have a point in the clause where cost could change if you over estimate or under estimate project. 

Post processing support removal

#2 Know the Terms of Service

I am not a 3D printing studio or have a merchant license to print and am merely a printer as a service for people that do not have a printer but find files they are strongly interested in. My first rule is that the person asking for a file to be printed is always either 1) buying the STL and send it to me to print with proof of purchase or 2) I purchase the file and add the STL cost to the final cost breakdown at the end. This ensures that the original creator always gets paid for their work and its single use print and purchase. Always make sure you are reading the terms of service for your files before printing them to verify nothing you are doing is breaking terms, General rule of thumb, I only print something once per purchase of a file for personal use.

#3 Determine the Scale, Commitment and Cost of the Project

In some cases this is incredibly hard to estimate without seeing the files beforehand and diving deep into the project but here are the

The moment I realized the true scale of the project I accepted to do

5 primary cost factors in a print commission. 

1) Digital Model cost

Discussed in the previous bullet but if you are buying the file for the client then make sure you add it to your total.

2) Material Cost

Most of the time you will need to put the file into your software to get an estimate of total materials used in the print job so this can be difficult to blindly estimate unless doing something similar in scale and scope frequently. Oftentimes keeping track of slicing estimates or using software like Octoprint for filament printing can help give estimates but only after you have gotten the files in your hands and are deeper in the project. I have also found that you should never be cheap on the materials you purchase. You’d end up paying more for it in the end. Use materials and quality of products that you would be happy with. In which case I am always a perfectionist.

3) Print time & Printer maintenance 

Some individuals and print shops charge per hour their printers are running as business. Often if the print commission is a singular print that takes an hour or two I consider this negligible. But in the case of this project I estimated over 31 Days of non-stop continuous printing. Perhaps including costs for new nozzles, print beds, etc should also be factored into the equation. 

4) Tip for service

Most often when buying 3D printed models from sites like Etsy tips are not often considered. But when working on one off projects such as these and their customization in nature it is strongly encouraged that you ask for a tip for your time. If you are not comfortable asking for a tip think the question of “what is the minimum amount you will do this project for.” Add that value to your print cost.

I often use tips as a method of which I can gauge the satisfaction of my client on the project. These I consider as icing on the cake and a bonus and not part of my rate.

5) Shipping

Shipping can be an extremely tricky factor when working on 3D prints as well as keeping your print safe and secure. I have come to depend on USPS priority mail system and their free flat rate box. They come with a default insurance value of $100 a tracking number, arrive in a decent amount of time, boxes are free, and are the most affordable shipping options. Their prices are also transparent:

Box NamePriceSize
Small Flat Rate$10.208 5/8″ x 5 3/8″ x 1 5/8″
Medium Flat Rate$17.1013 5/8″ X 11 7/8″ x 3 3/8″
or
11″ x 8 1/2″ x 5 1/5″
Large Flat Rate$22.8012 1/4″ x 12″ x 6″
USPS Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes

#4 Agree upon Deadline


One thing you will hear commonly regardless of type of commission is that they can commonly hang over your head as something you “need to do” and detracts from other aspects of your life or even your own hobby time. Setting a deadline can help eliminate the “when will it be done” questions and force you to focus on getting the project out the door and no longer hanging over your head while also building consumer transparency. 

#5 Set Expectations of Product Quality


One of the hardest things about printing commissions from files others have found on the internet is the simple statement that all files are not created equal. Not all files SHOULD or CAN be printed. A render for a file could be absolutely breathtaking but it doesn’t mean that the considerations of 3D printing the model are taken into account and could make your job extraordinarily more difficult. That on top of expectations. How much post processing are you expected to do? If printing in PLA do they understand that layer lines are going to be visible? How much support scaring is acceptable? Is the model going to have to be assembled on your own time? These things should be asked or you determine as a result of your product if you open your own store. Often times it might take more than one print to optimize the quality of a print due to the design of the model itself or your print settings. Proper calibration as well as familiarity with the company helps tremendously.

Poor print quality due to support removal and print orientation. Required a reprint

#6 Keep Track the Project as you Go

There is nothing worse than finishing a large project and then having to go back and calculate the time commitment and cost breakdown for final billings. Make sure you are breaking down what you did and why as you go. If you had to manipulate a file on your own, presupport a file, any reprints etc. Trying to remember what you did months ago can be incredibly challenging. If the scope is extremely large.

My print progress tracking: part, material usage, print time

#7 Don’t be Afraid to Say No

If this is not your primary form of income and it is merely for fun on the side. Don’t hesitate to turn down projects that you don’t want to do or necessarily have the time to do. Sometimes these things can massively take away time from your own projects and hobby time. People can find others to print projects or wait until you are ready. 

#8 Maintain Communication of progress and project Status

As a way to help build confidence, keep everyone honest and on track. I commonly find that sharing work in progress pics is fantastic to maintain positive energy on the project. Their excitement helps keep you motivated while also making sure that they are still invested in the project.

One of many project progress pictures

#9 Account for time variance for printer repairs and real life situations

Not every project goes as expected. There are times when you will have to spend days repairing, troubleshooting, replacing parts on your printers which can be incredibly frustrating. Account for taking time off. The printers do not have to run 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

#10 Make sure the process is still fun

In the end of it all this is most commonly your hobby and enjoyable past time. Don’t focus so heavily on making a profit from it and become a professional hobbyist. This is for fun and not a job. If it isn’t fun don’t do it.

Conclusion

Every project you undertake you can learn a lot about yourself as well as your hobby. Do you print professionally? Do you buy printed projects? What takeaways have you made?

As always Happy Hobbying,

Crazmadsci

Fun Facts

Skyship project

  • Total Filament usage: 6.348 kg
  • Resin usage: 247.38g
  • Filament length 2,094.87 meters or 1.30 miles
  • Print time: 748.66 hr or 31.2 Days
  • Total number of pieces: 98
  • Estimated post processing time: 30 hr
crazmadsci Retrospective

Sometimes Life Gets Away From you: July 12, 2023

I cannot believe, well maybe I can, that it has been 6 months since I recently posted something to my blog. Sometimes I truly cannot believe how much time can fly, especially when tangled by major life events.

Where have I been over the last few months? Well the answer is simple life has truly taken me by storm. We have accepted a new job for my husband, packed up, moved twice (one temporary living), sold a house, bought a house, had a baby, lost a beloved family member, shipped a world wide launch to a game I was working on and adapting to our whole new world and routine. Let’s just say I’m ready for a bit less life events and more just sitting at my hobby space and painting away at projects.

Although life has taken hold I haven’t stopped painting and trying to maintain momentum, although not what i’d like it to be its still forward.

Saying Goodbye to My Old Space & Community

While I absolutely loved my old hobby space. It was definitely cramped and a bit noisy. I made do with the space I had available and it was definitely used as you can tell. One of my favorite things about moving is that I was promised I get my own dedicated office and hobby room. No longer will I share with our TV, Laundry room and guest bedroom!

However in order to move it required a lot of organizing, getting rid of old things and cleaning. Thank goodness my local game store let me set out a pile of 3D prints and models I no longer wanted in wanted in my collection.

I even gave a new painter my old 3d printed paint racks as I wanted to upgrade in the new space. I’m glad they will see another life (paint not included)

The biggest thing I’m going to miss about my area is how amazing and wonderful the Age of Sigmar community is in Nashville. If you ever go through town on a Tuesday night the Game Keep is where it is out.

Hobby Space Evolution

There was a very long period of time when I had all kinds of temporary painting setups. I will say that those who have to paint at a kitchen table, clean up, put it away or have temporary setups I feel for you. I was starting to go crazy myself not having a consistent meditative space.

I couldn’t articulate how excited I was to have a massive clean slate for my new space.

Although far from done I have been making significant progress on the new space.

Hobby Progress

Also its not complete without some progress on the painting desk. Including a notable completion of 60 hobgrots for my Kruelboyz army, significant progress on 30 gutrippaz and plenty of starts on others like my Gobsprakk and Frost Giant

Completed Projects: 60 Hobgrots

Conclusion

I am sorry that I have been gone so long. I’ve deeply missed writing for the site and putting it back on the regular routine.

What have you been up to in the last 6 months?

Happy Hobby,

Crazmadsci 

Previous Posts

crazmadsci Retrospective

State of the Crazy: January 9, 2023

Good Day and Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a productive first week of Janruary. Life for our household went back to “normal” with full work schedules and of course with it the wave of sickness as everyone traveled all around to see family for the holidays. I guess this is what happens when you don’t travel that as soon as we got back to our routine we immediately got hit with a round of colds. I myself amd nursing a cup of tea while writing. However that has not yet stopped me from hobbying. 

As for the past week I have been immensely productive for both completing a multiple month long project, being extremely close to doing so in another, working to clean up the hobby space, and get organized for the projects that are going to hit the hobby bench in the upcoming month or so. 

Success and Final Handoff!


As you can expect this week a full story of the lessons I learned from this project. I am happy to say that I have completed a 4 month long 3D printing project and the largest one I’ve ever attempted. Taking over 31 non-stop printing days and consuming more than 1.3 miles of filament (6.4 kg) I can say I’ve handed off the Sentinel Light Cruiser from the Skies or Sordane. This mammoth of a project definitely got out of hand and is a 3D print commission I’d never attempt again. Lets just say it was a strong life lesson for me. 

The Way too Large Batch Paint


This week I have also completed the painting process of my hobgrot slittaz from the Kruelboyz army in Age of Sigmar. This batch of painted grotz was 4 units strong or 40 individual models making it the largest batch paint I have ever done at one time. Due to its size it was definitely slow at times and motivation was definitely draining. I now just have to varnish, add basing bits and resin pour the swamp and these models will be 100% completed. Fun fact these models alone are just 2 shy of completing my 2023 hobby goal of painting more than 2022! Do you think it is cheating to have a goal that was so close to being completed already in the new year?

Now that I have 40 less models on the table and several square feet of space in my hobby room. I also had the opportunity to spoil myself with a new paint rack! This is my very first rack that I have not created myself but rather purchased and I have to admit that I am not an expert in my craft like this fantastic Etsy store. I can now officially store all my turbo dork paint, speed & contrast paint in my collection all in one place. It really feels good to get organized. Its still on my to do list to create paint racks that go on a peg board for some of my larger supplies. Pictures of updated hobby space are coming.

Benchmark 2022

Since the 2022 has wrapped up it is that time again to repaint my Benchmark Model from 2022. I am excited to see how much i’ve grown in my painting hobby especially with the airbrush. Although I know I could have put in more time all around I am hoping to see noticeable improvement. This week I 3D printed the rest of the model, assembled it, and green stuff sculpted the steams to try to improve its final appearance. Paint hits the model this week. 

Do I finally tackle the scary shed?

As some know I have two minions constantly running around my home and not necessarily a ton of storage space. In the past when I rapidly needed more space in the house or got too overwhelming working on too many things. I’d throw all my in progress projects into boxes and just stuff them into our outdoor shed. Well as I am working on completing more projects then I start this year it is safe to say that this shed is slowly being taken over by a dishealved disarray. Everyday I am attempting to organize and categorize just 1 thing in an attempt to tame the mess as well as make things easier to find. I’ve also been playing around with apps and software to help me keep track of my collection. Everything highlighted by a red square are part of my unorganized collection.

I normally don’t have this successful of a week but it does feel really great to get some big things off my shoulders so I can start working towards other things. I am excited for the projects the new year brings and I already anticipate this upcoming week to also be pretty productive. 

How has your hobbying been going? Trying anything new? As always let me know if you have any questions and Happy Hobbying,

Crazmadsci 

Previous Posts

crazmadsci Goals, Retrospective

2023 New Year, New Ambitions?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yes as we all know its time for that annual breakdown and preview of what is to come with our hobby goals. People have set New Years Resolutions and of course always end up broken and I am absolutely no different. For 2022 I set upon myself a list of lofty goals and have accomplished very few if you are curious on my track record check out my past write ups 2022 Hobby Goals & 2021 Hobby Goal Retrospective. 

“Yes I know what you are thinking, hobby goals, showcases these yearly posts are cliche and exhaustively overused.”

2022 Crazmadsci

But I inevitably find it incredibly useful in seeing my personal mentality from year to year. So bear with me as I gauge how my mentality and goals in the hobby have shifted.

What did I accomplish last year?

My universal motto and approach will be, “Improve my skill, output and performance over the previous year.” So I am planning on using last year as a benchmark of comparison so I can more definitely see how I match up. I’d argue that my performance is ehh comparable to the year before because so much of my free time shifted to actually playing games rather than just preparing for them.

Of my entire list of 2022 hobby goals I only succeeded in two hobby goals.

Success!: Paint more models than 2021
Success! Play two new tabletop games.

Group photo of my 2022 Painted models.

For the past year I have painted 42 models to 100% completion this is greater than the number in 2021 which was 26! Yes I know it still does not feel like enough but for me building a routine and navigating my perfectionism in models it is harder to accomplish. I do have easily do have easily double this number with only a few hours of paint time left. This list includes a Snotling Bloodbowl team (20), my 2021 benchmark model, my 2022 benchmark model and 2 units of hobgrots from the Kruelboyz army in Age of Sigmar (20 models).

I have spent a very long time assembling, gathering, priming, basing and painting a Kruelboyz army for Age of Sigmar in 2022 but tended to jump around quite a bit and didn’t finish as much as I would have hoped. As you can see a lot of progress has been made it just requires a bit of focus to knock it out.

As for playing two new tabletop games I actually count playing 3 games. The first two are Age of Sigmar which has been my primary go to game for the year, Gloomhaven online (which still counts in my book), and Dungeon Bowl.

Game of Dungeon Bowl in Progress

New Goals for 2023?

While I have a lofty list of goals for the upcoming year I have decided to boil it down to five “simple” items

  • Finish more projects than I start
  • Finish more models than I buy/print
  • Limit the amount I print for others and focus on my own hobby
  • Paint more models in 2023 than I did in 2022 (42 in 2022)
  • Focus on improving the skills of my painting

Some of these definitely sound easier said then done especially the reduce the backlog goal of painting more than I buy. With the new Cities of Sigmar book coming later this year I need to do a ton of painting to reduce the model count. But overall I think its more doable than past years while also tackling the backlog of projects.

Conclusion

What do you think? Do you set annual goals for yourself? How did you do last year, let me know in the comments below.

As Always Happy Hobby,

Carrie the Crazy Mad Scientist

2022 Hobby Goals
crazmadsci Uncategorized

State of the Crazy: December 17, 2022

How have I gone so long without doing a state of the crazy? Can you believe I haven’t written anything since February? This year has absolutely flown by and i’m utterly speechles.

Hello! I’m here, trying to get the cobwebs out and get back into the thick of it.

What has happened in 2022?

In short a lot has been happening here at the crazy household and I apologize for my absence. Every since February I have been on a long journey of re-entering the workforce full time in the video game industry. If any positive from the global chaos is that the game industry has drastically opened to be more remote friendly. This has resulted in so many more possibilities and opportunities for my background in game design. I have since been back into it for about 6 months and finally getting back into a routine. I’m really excited by this opportunity and it is an area of game development that is new and challenging.

I have also hung up my stay at home mom hat to put my tiny minions into daycare which has come with numerous colds, flu, and two rounds of covid… ugh. We are all fine and healthy but after spending two years in quarantine getting back out in the world has taken a toll. I have also lost a grandmother who was the one who opened the world of hobbying to me to be a lifelong pastime and something to be proud of. Picking back up the blog is something I know she would be proud of.

Beyond those major life events, construction on our home, expecting another player addition in our family early next year, and the general chaos life. Well it has drastically pulled me away from being able to write.

So now the real question…..

What have I been doing in my tabletop gaming in 2022?

Well that answer is not nearly that simple but yes I have never stopped hobbying and am still as in love with it as ever.

First of all I am currently no longer doing presupports for Tableflip Foundry due to having another job that keeps me busy. I love the gang over at Tableflip and will always support and endorse what they do. I loved participating and being a part of the community to help artists bring their models to the average every day consumer but now I have time to put some personal models onto my printers instead. I have resulted in gaining a ton of random models that I have extra and don’t really need. One day i’ll figure out what to do with all those prints I don’t really want….

Secondly I finished painting my snotling Bloodbowl team which I absolutely love. I have not dove into Bloodbowl as much as i’d like this year because I have been sidetracked.

The largest project and undertaking I’ve gone on this year is by starting and learning Age of Sigmar by Games Workshop. Starting with the Dominion box for 3rd edition. I have started playing the Kruelboyz from the Orruk Warclans. Painting has been on going slow much like all my projects this year but I love it.

Well maybe not the largest undertaking i’ve done this year. I’m still working on the largest 3d print I’ve ever attempted in my life. I am still not quite done but perhaps in a week I’ll share the final product!

Anyways I know this has been short and sweet but I am working on turning things around. Its great to see everyone. I hope you have been happy and hobbying,

Carrie, Crazmadsci the crazy mad scientist

Previous Posts

Frost Giant Final Photo Black backdrop
crazmadsci Developing Skill, Goals, Retrospective, Skills

2022 Benchmark Model: The First Attempt

For 2022’s benchmark I have decided to paint the giant model from December 2021’s CastnPlay release Adventurer’s Guild. This included a group of adventurers coming in from their days dungeon crawling and drinking at the tavern resting and relaxing. The models also include an amazing tavern bar build and a quest board which is on my painting agenda. The giant in question I do not think was sculpted with “Frost Giant” in mind but rather a friendly giant adventurer. However I painted a Hill Giant last year and wanted to accomplish something different. Applying one of my goals for the year of trying to paint in different skin tones I decided to approach the model with a blue skin for Frost Giant and do something I’ve never done before, apply paint to a model that wasn’t primer via a brand new tool in my arsenal.

Printed, unassembled Frost Giant Model
Frost Giant printed and unassembled.

While painting this model I was faced with a few hurdles that I am sure you are familiar with.

  • psyching yourself out
  • burn out
  • being paralyzed from self imposed extreme expections

Well in my 2022 Benchmark Model I encountered all the above. I have had such a difficult time trying to articulate everything that I felt, did and aspired to do while painting this model that I even have been procrastinating in writing this post.

Regardless I am incredibly proud of this years benchmark model and can’t wait to see what I come up with in improvement for the year. But before I get ahead of myself, what the heck am I talking about?

What is a Benchmark Model?

A benchmark model is essentially a painted figure or model which you can use at a later time as a form of measure of standard to compare to. Therefore a benchmark model is my attempt at gauging my personal growth in the miniature painting hobby. The rules are simple I’ll paint a model to the best of my ability and then I will paint a second version of the same figure (thank you 3D printing) in one year to see how I’ve grown in that year. 

Can I See My Growth Two years in a Row?

I did a benchmark model comparison for 2021 and it was actually really quite incredible as a way to Gauge my Growth in miniature painting. I never thought i’d be able to see my growth yet let alone have people actually comment guessing the areas of growth I focused on for that year. Interested? Read More from 2021’s Benchmark

Front view 2021 Benchmark Model first painted January 2021, left. Right benchmark model painted January 2022 to see personal growth in hobby.
Left 2021 Benchmark, Right 2022 Benchmark

Battling your Worst Enemy, Your Mind.

So if I successfully set a benchmark last year and could see my growth, why was it so intimidating this year? Well to put it simply I kinda felt surprised that I could see growth in the last year as I didn’t paint many models and put as much time into gaining skills as i’d like. My mind is my enemy married to my low self esteem that I could pull it off again. 

I also suffered from burnout. Painting to the best of my ability two models in a row was exhausting. Sometimes not seeing much completed on your hobby table can make you feel like nothing will ever get accomplished. Spending so much time on these really exhausted my desire to paint and push through. It also didn’t help that I decided to paint one of the largest models I’ve ever tackled. A frost giant. 

On top of that I have decided to focus on areas of painting that are difficult or out of my comfort zone. This has resulted in more anxiety in my color palette, techniques, etc. 

So What am I working on this year?

2022 Painting Goals

While I did make a lengthy list of things I want to work on for my 2022 Hobby Goals. The goals for painting this year are simple….

Master the airbrush

Having just receiving an airbrush I have barely started utilizing it to the best of its ability or know how it can help me in painting. I am aiming to get started in airbrushing and making it a regularly used tool in my toolbox.

Learn more Skin Tones

Learn how to paint non Caucasian skin tones. This includes different colored skins like green, blue, purple, red etc. for monsters. I have recently started my airbrush journey and am still not confident in my knowledge.

Paint out of my comfort zone

I am tired of painting generic fantasy character with a green or blue cape. I need to stretch my imagination beyond and try more color schemes.

Gain a better understanding of volumes

I want to understand how light hits various shapes and be better at highlighting models. This will start with muscle groups but I hope to go beyond that and especially show in armor.

Color Theory?

Begin my long long journey into a greater usage of color theory. 

Painting Hair & Fur

I am ready to build on the above statements and paint hair and fur to a more realistic mentality and result. 

Utilization of Environment & Basing Methods

I deeply believe that a base can drastically change the story of the model, its tone and really elevate figures. I am going to try to improve my basing game while also improve model storytelling.

Setting the Standard: Benchmark 2022

Now lets get into the painting of the model.

Breaking Out the Airbrush

I received an airbrush for Christmas 2021 and up to this point have only primed a few miniatures with it. I have gotten better and have to say that I am immensely proud of the zenithal highlight of this model. It might be the best I’ve ever done.

Frost Giant Zenithal Highlight
Frost Giant Zenithal Highlight
Frost Giant in airbrush booth primed
Frost Giant in airbrush booth primed

After priming I applied a blue contrast paint for the skin to see how contrast paint would go through an airbrush followed by various browns that make up the leather of the body. My goal was to try to go from largest areas of the model to smallest in the attempt to improve my aim via practice. I have never used my airbrush to apply base coats to a model before and am genuinely surprised and thrilled by how fast it was to get a model base coated. 

Frost Giant Side
Frost Giant airbrushed blue skin front
Frost Giant front
Frost Giant airbrushed blue skin back
Frost Giant back
Frost Giant leather airbrush front
Frost Giant leather front
Frost Giant leather airbrush side
Frost Giant leather side

The entire time I was doing this I was being supported by my friends of Goobertown hobbies as the continuously encouraged me to Paint Bravely. I pushed through and worked up the various layers of skin. I definitely feel like I should have pushed this highlight more but alas I did not get to it.

Frost Giant building up skin color
Frost Giant Midtone
Frost Giant building up skin color
Frost Giant Skin Highlight

To finish off my spray basecoats I painted the tree and did my best to not have too much overspray. An area of improvement is definitely improved aim, masking off areas of a model to prevent overspray, and gaining a better understanding of how to angle my airbrush to help me in highlights and volumes. 

All in all I feel like this was a pretty strong showing and attempt for using an airbrush to paint for the first time. It definitely helps that I choose to paint a large model knowing that my aim was not going to be very great and wanted a place to practice before I paint a standard miniature.

The Devil is in the Details

Once I put my airbrush down I set to work on the details. Picking up a brush to paint the model was actually really exciting and I felt a significant sense of relief now that I am using tools that I am familiar with. I set forth to do colors and choices I have not used before, namely in trying to not use brown hair and fur. So I decided to go with a blonde head which was mostly a dirty blonde. I know air is on the agenda and perhaps i’ll learn how to do different colors better this year. I also wanted to try to contrast the bright blue of the skin and went with a dark black, grey fur for the areas of clothing that had fur. 

Frost Giant starting painting blonde hair
Blonde hair addition
Frost Giant Fur beginnings
Painting fur and textured hair

I then started to work on details such as leather work, skulls, pouches, etc but… I got worn out. I spent several nights at this point painting the figure and I walked away from it. And it sat on my shelf for probably about two weeks before coming back.

Just Calling it Done

Seeing that all motivation to keep pushing through the model and feeling a significant thread of diminishing returns I decided to base the model, varnish, and flock with snow to call it done. At this point I was truthfully disappointed with myself because I always feel like I can do better. I could catch more detail, improve a highlight but there is a point when you should just call it done. 

Frost Giant final paint job
Frost Giant final paint job

It all comes together!

Know how I mentioned that I want to improve my basing game and telling a story in my basing. Well I feel like this model is  the perfect example for that. I felt for so long that the figure was missing something and that wasn’t until I added the snow. And oh boy did it feel great to see everything just slowly come to life. Adding the snow to this model and its base really had a great marriage between the two. However I couldn’t fully realize it until a friend recommended that I add snow heavier on the feet like he has been wading through the snow. Boy did it really make a difference. I think the snow was one of the most commented aspects of this paint job.

Added Snow effect on frost giant
Added Snow Effect Added
Heavily applied snow effect on frostgiant
Heavily applied snow on boots

Final Photoshoot

A benchmark would not be complete without a good ole photoshoot of the figure. And this has been an aspect of the hobby that I think is super important to capture the full detail of the model to convey to readers, inspire others, and capture mistakes. I worked on taking photos of this model in both black and white backdrops (poster paper). I think the black backdrop was the better choice in the final shots. What do you think?

Frost Giant Final Photo white backdrop
Frost Giant Final Photo white backdrop
Frost Giant photoshoot
Frost Giant photoshoot
Frost Giant Final Photo Black backdrop
Frost Giant Final Photo Black backdrop
Frost Giant Final Photo Black backdrop
Frost Giant Final Photo Black backdrop

On to 2022

While I am happy with this model and would be a fantastic figure to put on my table I still desire to grow and improve. I tried many new things and even color choices on the figure such as the skin, fur and hair that were well outside my comfort zone. Now that the benchmark is set. Lets see what we can accomplish for the rest of 2022.

Happy Hobby,
Carrie, Crazmadsci the crazy mad scientist

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State of the Crazy: February 25, 2022

Has a week gone by already? Where does the time go when you are having fun. This week was mostly focused on trying to eliminate the number of active projects on my desk. You see, the state of the crazy has been so chaotic that I am rapidly losing focus and losing track of what I have accomplished and completed. So instead of the organized categories lets show you some of the chaos in its raw form.

Let’s do a quick breakdown of the currently active projects on my workbench…

First thing first is that I have a friend interested in buying some of my old models from me and misprints which could be models with slight defects. I have been going through the stash and trying to cull out a lot to reduce the backlog to make space for new prints.

Zilvren Skyhold

Secondly I have been commissioned for a long term project to 3D print a game board from the models of a currently active kickstarter Zilvren Skyhold by Tired World Studios. This is their first kickstarter and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. Campaign will close next week and it will be about a month until I get my hands on the first batch of files but I have 3D printed a sample building for the board so my friend can practice and determine a color scheme. This is exciting because I have never done something like this in a collaboration with someone and am super excited to print which I love without hurting my own backlog. 

Miners Shack front view
Miners Shack backview
Kickstarter product image credit: Kickstarter.com

Broken Anvil Miniatures

I have also been mass printing the demon set from Broken Anvil Miniatures which was released this month. I do not own many demon based models and am super excited that they are also doing paint along streams with a commission painter Josh Davis. I hope to go back through some of the past broadcasts and paint along in hopes to learn and grow in my hobby. Some models have given me trouble in printing and even assembly. For example this bat has been significantly difficult and is even not in perfect shape now that he is assembled. It will take a little bit of work to clean him up but regardless this is an incredible sculpt and I can’t wait to put paint on him.

Collection of minis so far

Graveyard Golem

Inspired by our return to Frostgrave I have also assembled and built a new Graveyard Golem to play with for our Hunt for the Golem scenario. We are going to have one fun time trying to find and kill this guy.

Loot Studios Dragons

Did I say I needed more Dragons? Well…. this guy got printed too. He still needs clean up, glue and one of the wings tore with printing. I haven’t decided if I should reprint the wing.

Priming

I have also spent a good deal of time priming models and figures on my workbench in anticipation to paint including. 

  • A goblin warband for my green skintone deep dive.
  • Class tokens from CastnPlay which are too big for my scale in use on a tabletop as they are about 32mm in diameter so I am magnetizing them to use as labels for my model storage. I’m actually pretty stoaked about the idea.
  • Also I have been putting primer on a bunch of Infinite Dimension tavern and banquet scatter terrain which is some of the best tavern content i’ve seen to date. 
  • Oh I also primed my quest board! Super pumped about this.
Goblin warband
Tavern and Banquet terrain
Class tokens
Quest board

Bloodbowl grows!

I have assembled a team of humans for Bloodbowl to take on my snotlings which now need gap filling for the slotted bases and dirt. I am also of course still painting my snotlings. Not much movement has happened to them this week. 

I did actually buy a Blitz Bowl box this week which was on clearance at Barnes and Noble. This is a short skirmish version of Bloodbowl but was one of the best ways to get blood bowl dice and actually yet more teams at a crazy steal of a deal. We also can play shorter games for when we are limited on time!

Imperial Nobility team
Getting rules!

Wait another game?

So I have been flirting with jumping into Age of Sigmar by Games workshop so I purchased a “Getting Started with Age of Sigmar” Magazine. This comes with two models which are perfect for teasing the game.My husband and myself have been teasing buying a Dominion Box as one of the most affordable ways to get our hands on a full core rule book and armies to get started. I will however be building up a Cities of Sigmar army in the long term.

Age of Sigmar models

Forestlands Model Assembly

Since I was in the process of assembling and print clean up I decided to assemble and glue all my Frostlands Terrain as well. The trees came in multiple pieces and I am excited that this project will showcase the difference between resin and FDM pretty well.

FDM printed frost tree
Multipiece cave
Frost trees multipiece

For SCIENCE!

Because I want to see for myself I have decided to create a massive 100 model test for the new mega speedpaint set from army painter and need the models to get me there. This is only about half to he total Dragonborn count. This is the mascot for Tableflip Foundry and am currently about a month ahead of schedule!

And army of Puck

Conclusion

I think that is everything? Overall I have been making strides to continue work on all my many projects and am sincerely aiming to reduce the active projects, on my workbench. However what can I say this is truly a state of the crazy. Also as painful it is to admit these are the ones that were just actively worked on this week.

What do you think? What project are you most excited about seeing? Am I truly crazy or do you also have a million active projects to?

As always I hope to see you next week. Thanks for sharing my passion in the hobby with me! What are you working on?

Carrie, Crazmadsci the crazy mad scientist

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crazmadsci Battle Maps, Games

My Valentine Wargame: Frostgrave Continues!

I will admit I am not the largest of fans of Valentine’s day. Going the extra mile to show our loved ones we care I have always considered to be something that we do 365 days of the year rather than 1. With that being said I got a fantastic surprise last week when I received a text message stating….

“PST, wanna play some wargames for Valentine’s day?”

The Handsome Husband
Frostgrave Board Front View

This was an open statement to play and/or learn any wargame in my desired list of games I want to try. I considered several games but do not have any of the other games prepped and my perfectionist ways along with not owning some of the rules books yet prevented me from paying them. I prefer to build, paint, or plan for a game before playing or making an emotional investment first rather than just collecting books this means i’m more likely to play said game as opposed to having rule books sit on my shelves.

In the end we decided to pick up our past warbands that we started last September and continue on in our adventures of the Frozen City, Frostgrave. It has been hard for me to play Frostgrave ever since my warband fell to pieces on the floor (The Shattering Reality of My Miniature Collection). As I still have not had time to rebuild a new one I soldiered on and used the miniatures of what is left of them and a few I glued together.

Overall the Necromancer warband went pretty unscathed with the largest casualty of a zombie thief which was utterly destroyed, so I found a replacement that I already printed glued her on a base and kept moving. My dwarves however are in so many pieces. My wizard doesn’t have a spellbook, and the apprentice is missing a large chunk of his cape , wizard staff, and quite a few fingers. My crossbowmen didn’t have strings for their crossbows. Many were missing arms. It was quite pitiful. But you know what? That didn’t matter, we had an absolute blast and I hardly noticed while actively playing the game.

Some of the broken models of my Sigilist warband

The Setup

This has become one of my favorite times of playing the game as my husband and eldest son spend a considerable amount of time putting together the board. I love to see the configurations they choose and encouraging my 2 year olds imagination to go crazy is such a beautiful thing to watch. I’m going to make a gamer out of him yet! It might help that he is currently absolutely obsessed with dice and saying “Di” is one of his earliest words. He loves to place scatter terrain on things, in things, and sometimes depending on the mood smash things (we are working on that). My FDM printed terrain is so durable and cost effective I’m not worried about most of it breaking as it is an acceptable loss for the sake of including him and fostering a love of games and birth of imagination. I also never fully imagined how fulfilling it would be to see him play with things I made before he was born. 

The Game

The intent of the board was to start the mini campaign, The Hunt for the Golem, from the Frostgrave Folio expansion and play the first scenario while simultaneously utilizing for the first time Ulterior Motives. Ulterior motives is a Frostgrave expansion which can provide a wizard an extra objective. In some cases this can be completely different than just capturing treasure and lead to magic items or experience as a reward. 

Frostgrave Expansions

The game as a whole was an absolute blast and something that I needed. I did feel somewhat rushed due to the time of day and trying to get everything together that was scattered everywhere from traveling and of course the various project states. Overall it was a warm up back into our long casual campaign setting. 

In the end we had an even split of treasure 3 to 3 and the Necromancers inched out a magic ring from the ulterior motive card capturing notes carried by a zombie they had to kill. Ironically in the excitement of playing again we completely forgot to do anything relating to the golem hunt campaign. I guess we are saving it for next time.

Frostgrave board side view
Knight trying to get into the fight on top
Thief trying to escape with treasure but being attacked by wondering monster
Frostgrave Board Front View

Game MVP was by far the zombie, Haggatha the necromancer summoned at the beginning of the game. Being not afraid to die again he bravely tanked a wraith and killed a bear and two wolves all on his own all while taking zero damage. I can’t believe those monsters rolled so low. Realizing the poor planning of our ways and being not prepared when stepping into the Frozen City. Between both warbands the Sigilist and Necromancer only had one ability which could apply magic damage to kill Wraiths that have been summoned, Explosive Rune. Having a zombie bravely avoid all attacks by the wraiths was an incredible feat that no one could have anticipated. 

One single zombie fights off a Bear, Wolf, Two Rats and a Wraith

Feeling Inspired

After playing this game of Frostgrave I am so excited to create more minis and am really desiring to make my own spell, monster, and item cards for the table to attempt to eliminate excess papers on the table and need to flip through books. One of my goals this year is to paint a complete bestiary for the game and I think its about time to start!

I am also hoping to learn how to better write battle reports and showcase all the great games to read back. 

An unexpected fan of miniature war gaming

I have also noticed a significant trend when playing wargames. My cat Turtle always wants to play. Who knew there would be such a large wandering monster. Its a pity he isn’t the most gentle when it comes to my models. As you can see however we tried to deter him off the battle field but the draw of fun was too strong.

Stay Tuned

This is not the last of our adventures into the Frozen City. I am super excited for some of the new things I’ve been working on and FINALLY our frozen battle mat is coming in the mail!

Please share with me your battle reports! I would love to see how others play their games of Frostgrave and document it.

Until next time. Happy Hobby as always.

Crazmadsci the crazy mad scientist

I will admit I am not the largest of fans of Valentine’s day. Going the extra mile to show our loved ones we care I have always considered to be something that we do 365 days of the year rather than 1. With that being said I got a fantastic surprise last week when I received a text message stating….

“PST, wanna play some wargames for Valentine’s day?”

The Handsome Husband
Frostgrave Board Front View

This was an open statement to play and/or learn any wargame in my desired list of games I want to try. I considered several games but do not have any of the other games prepped and my perfectionist ways along with not owning some of the rules books yet prevented me from paying them. I prefer to build, paint, or plan for a game before playing or making an emotional investment first rather than just collecting books this means i’m more likely to play said game as opposed to having rule books sit on my shelves.

In the end we decided to pick up our past warbands that we started last September and continue on in our adventures of the Frozen City, Frostgrave. It has been hard for me to play Frostgrave ever since my warband fell to pieces on the floor (The Shattering Reality of My Miniature Collection). As I still have not had time to rebuild a new one I soldiered on and used the miniatures of what is left of them and a few I glued together.

Overall the Necromancer warband went pretty unscathed with the largest casualty of a zombie thief which was utterly destroyed, so I found a replacement that I already printed glued her on a base and kept moving. My dwarves however are in so many pieces. My wizard doesn’t have a spellbook, and the apprentice is missing a large chunk of his cape , wizard staff, and quite a few fingers. My crossbowmen didn’t have strings for their crossbows. Many were missing arms. It was quite pitiful. But you know what? That didn’t matter, we had an absolute blast and I hardly noticed while actively playing the game.

Some of the broken models of my Sigilist warband

The Setup

This has become one of my favorite times of playing the game as my husband and eldest son spend a considerable amount of time putting together the board. I love to see the configurations they choose and encouraging my 2 year olds imagination to go crazy is such a beautiful thing to watch. I’m going to make a gamer out of him yet! It might help that he is currently absolutely obsessed with dice and saying “Di” is one of his earliest words. He loves to place scatter terrain on things, in things, and sometimes depending on the mood smash things (we are working on that). My FDM printed terrain is so durable and cost effective I’m not worried about most of it breaking as it is an acceptable loss for the sake of including him and fostering a love of games and birth of imagination. I also never fully imagined how fulfilling it would be to see him play with things I made before he was born. 

The Game

The intent of the board was to start the mini campaign, The Hunt for the Golem, from the Frostgrave Folio expansion and play the first scenario while simultaneously utilizing for the first time Ulterior Motives. Ulterior motives is a Frostgrave expansion which can provide a wizard an extra objective. In some cases this can be completely different than just capturing treasure and lead to magic items or experience as a reward. 

Frostgrave Expansions

The game as a whole was an absolute blast and something that I needed. I did feel somewhat rushed due to the time of day and trying to get everything together that was scattered everywhere from traveling and of course the various project states. Overall it was a warm up back into our long casual campaign setting. 

In the end we had an even split of treasure 3 to 3 and the Necromancers inched out a magic ring from the ulterior motive card capturing notes carried by a zombie they had to kill. Ironically in the excitement of playing again we completely forgot to do anything relating to the golem hunt campaign. I guess we are saving it for next time.

Frostgrave board side view
Knight trying to get into the fight on top
Thief trying to escape with treasure but being attacked by wondering monster
Frostgrave Board Front View

Game MVP was by far the zombie, Haggatha the necromancer summoned at the beginning of the game. Being not afraid to die again he bravely tanked a wraith and killed a bear and two wolves all on his own all while taking zero damage. I can’t believe those monsters rolled so low. Realizing the poor planning of our ways and being not prepared when stepping into the Frozen City. Between both warbands the Sigilist and Necromancer only had one ability which could apply magic damage to kill Wraiths that have been summoned, Explosive Rune. Having a zombie bravely avoid all attacks by the wraiths was an incredible feat that no one could have anticipated. 

One single zombie fights off a Bear, Wolf, Two Rats and a Wraith

Feeling Inspired

After playing this game of Frostgrave I am so excited to create more minis and am really desiring to make my own spell, monster, and item cards for the table to attempt to eliminate excess papers on the table and need to flip through books. One of my goals this year is to paint a complete bestiary for the game and I think its about time to start!

I am also hoping to learn how to better write battle reports and showcase all the great games to read back. 

An unexpected fan of miniature war gaming

I have also noticed a significant trend when playing wargames. My cat Turtle always wants to play. Who knew there would be such a large wandering monster. Its a pity he isn’t the most gentle when it comes to my models. As you can see however we tried to deter him off the battle field but the draw of fun was too strong.

Stay Tuned

This is not the last of our adventures into the Frozen City. I am super excited for some of the new things I’ve been working on and FINALLY our frozen battle mat is coming in the mail!

Please share with me your battle reports! I would love to see how others play their games of Frostgrave and document it.

Until next time. Happy Hobby as always.

Crazmadsci the crazy mad scientist

crazmadsci Uncategorized

State of the Crazy: February 25, 2022

Wow so I have definitely been carried away in the last week. I know I’m pretty late for the state of the crazy because I was just having way too much fun. In summary the last week I would title as snotling filled. Both my sons suffered from colds with runny noses but I also have been having an absolute blast painting the Snotling bloodbowl team.

While I have been working on other things such as finishing up a presupporting job, getting started on a future mega printing commission for a Kickstarter, and begin printing a mega collection of models for a future deep dive into the Army Painter speed paint set. So lets get into it!

Painting

As I said above this week I have spent almost every day painting my snotlings. There are roughly 26 little snotlings which will be on 20 total models. There is a large pump wagon of which 4 ride on but I have decided to paint them in subassemblies. That way I can paint the pump wagons and all the snotlings separately without worrying about reaching to paint everything. 

My goal is to try to finish a snotling a day to my “finished” standard and slowly batch paint some others to reduce burn out. Slowly they are all moving to completion with 6 out of the 20 waiting for varnish before I apply static grass so it seems like they are on a field. I am tempted to also litter mushrooms in the field base as well. Would that be too many mushrooms? It could tie the bases with the models really well but I haven’t decided yet. Also there is no place to put uniform numbers on these models and probably am going to look into 3d printable nameplates. I also can’t decide if I want to do magnetized rings so if a player is carrying the ball it can magentize to the base. What do you all think?

Here is a few of my finished models. Here is hoping I can get as many done before the end of February as I can. I am really trying to push myself to finish more models this year and this might make it so I could out pace my 2021 model number by the end of March!

One also major highlight is that I am teaching my 2 year old son how to paint. He has shown significant interest in my hobby space and I’ve decided to encourage it.

3D Printing

This week I have printed quite a few scatter terrain pieces from Infinite Dimensions tavern and banquet sets.

I also finally finished printing the Frostlands Core set from CastnPlay’s Terrain Essentials. This is a mix between filament FDM and resin prints and I am going to do a break down to fully show case the pros and cons of each different technology in 3d printing

I also have been struggling with a new resin called zMud by Uniz. I don’t know why but it has bee producing wildly inconsistent results and I cannot get an entire plate to have successful prints without one failing. I have been doing a ton of troubleshooting but I could just be a bad bottle of resin. I might start mixing it into other resin to slowly use it up. It isn’t always successful but we have to roll with the punches.

Website Updates & Changes

I have officially gotten to the point where I am crazy behind of documenting what I’ve been doing on my hobby bench and putting it on the website. I think this is going to lead to a March Madness for myself as I go crazy trying to play catchup. However that’s a great problem to have as it shows I’ve been having a ton of fun and hobbying. I have to keep reminding myself that this is something I’m doing purely for fun and there are no such things as deadlines. I am just too excited to share it with others and also truly appreciate the journey. 

Conclusion

As always I hope to see you next week. Thanks for sharing my passion in the hobby with me! What are you working on?

Carrie, Crazmadsci the crazy mad scientist

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