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Part 4: Status Update

Past Hobby Blog Posts

September 13, 2021September 13, 2021 crazmadsci Developing Skill

3D Printing: Science or an Art Form or Just Plain Luck?

September 13, 2021

I’ve recently been reflecting a lot about intricacies revolving around 3D printing. As a member of many different forums, discords, and groups around the subject for tabletop gaming I see repeatedly several of the same questions.

“What printer should I buy”

“What settings do you use?”

“What materials do I need?”

“Why did this print fail?”

You get the idea. These questions have been amplified over the course of the last year because 3D printing for tabletop has absolutely exploded due to Covid-19. In short, companies have had issues manufacturing and distributing models to their consumers. While consumers themselves couldn’t go to their local game store and buy models. This resulted in a mega boom of digital model availability and users wanting to 3D print. However many consumers jumping into the hobby were not expecting that 3D printing is not always a plug-n-play experience, resulting in the magnitude of questions.

While asking questions is not a bad thing and I vastly encourage it and one of the purpose of this site is to grow to become a place to find answers. The vast multitude of repeated questions indicates one main trend…

Many do not realize that 3D printing is a hobby much like miniature painting. It requires time, study, determination and most importantly practice. Not all hobbyists are at the same skill set. Not all printers or materials have the same capabilities. With a large variety of programs and settings how does one approach the hobby? Should it be approached with the scientific method of trial and error of slow changes? Or is there no real “right answer” and final product resulting from your individual personal taste or rather a production of art?

This now leads to the question on my mind: Is 3D Printing a Science an Artform or just Plain Luck?

While it might not seem to actually matter, I find this1 subject wildly interesting. Much like miniature painting there is a significantly noticeable difference between my very first print and one of my most recent ones. Personal growth and improvement are obviously evident.

So what has changed between the two images above? The largest difference is probably in the printer used, a publicly available $180 printer Anet a8 and my personal $700 Prusa mk3s. However I could also argue the growth in knowledge with improvements to slicing software (software used to generate printing code) as well as my rapid growth of knowledge of the settings within these programs. There is also a very very important role and understatement of the importance of practice.

When is Science & Testing Important?

3D Printing is very is well known for its vast settings and available materials you should use when producing your product. Slowly changing variables and acknowledging the slight variations helps me as a hobbyist narrow down what is my preferred best result. As someone who went to university as a Chemist the scientific method and note keeping are my strengths. The power of observation plays a significant role in being able to grow and adapt to improved printing.

One primary way to slowly build and modify is the use of varying calibration tests such as that seen below. This series of tests was used to specifically test different geometric supporting structures to hold up your prints.

FDM is not the only type of printing where I constantly test and explore. Iteration can be key in attempting to get the perfect print such as that using various exposure times on my resin printer.

Sometimes setting modifications are not enough. There are times that using a different material or brand can drastically impact both print quality and success as seen by the owlbear below. I noticed significantly more issues printing using Elegoo ABS-Like Resin with improved experiences using Epax Hard Grey resin.

Epax Hard Grey Resin (left) vs Elegoo Abs LIke resin (right)

Overall you could easily argue that testing and experimentation are crucial to improving the quality of your printing as apart of the hobby of 3D printing.

What about the Art?

In many ways the quality of your 3D print and its final appearance is dependent on the incredible collection of artists & sculptors the community has to offer. It is significantly noticeable and evident both in the final quality but also the success rate of your print job if that modeler is familiar with the technology you are using.

Let me explain. Not all 3D artists are used to creating art for 3D printing. Some come from different backgrounds such as game design and are working towards adapting that knowledge into the 3D printable space. These artists may not know all the intricacies, restrictions, and considerations when designing a model for a 3D printer. Likewise not all artists design with FDM printing in mind or resin for that matter. There are wide splits in the community in the as to what is best but there are also modelers out there specifically designing with specific technologies in mind.

Lets take two examples.

On the left for the image below you will see three skeletons. These skeletons are from the Dragonlock Miniature collection and made by Fat Dragon Games. These models are designed to print completely supportless on an FDM printer and be easy for someone using filament to produce miniatures for their tabletop game. You can see that all the objects like shields build from the capes or legs as ways to cheat the need of using supports. These models are also thicker in their arms and weapons to accommodate larger nozzle sizes and the mechanical restrictions of FDM printing. (Want to see more supportless Dragonlock miniatures? Check out the Dragonlock Miniature Kickstarter project I 100% printed).

For the example on the right you will see my wizard for my upcoming Frostgrave game. This miniature produced by Miniatures of Madness is obviously designed for resin miniatures. There are details on this figure that are so fine that I cannot express the difficulty of trying to get them to come out on my FDM printer. Printed using my Sonic Mini 4K you can see incredible detail in the shoulder pads, chains on the robes, and even a book floating in the air and held together with thin magical essence coming from his hands.

Dragonlock Miniature Skeleton (Filament)

These two comparisons show you the vast difference in goals and vision for their art in 3D printing that is capable. Because of the difference in goals the final version, model style, and print appearance are different because they knew the capabilities and restrictions of the method they wish to produce their models.

Now before I get people commenting down below that resin is the only way to produce miniatures or better choice. I want to stress the importance of Art. Each and every hobbyist has a different vision for their projects, its uses, as well as constraints when printing figures, terrain, buildings, etc. Also while some are designed for one method of production it does not mean it can’t be made both ways.

I recently have been test printing for the Lost Adventures Volume 3 Kickstarter: Uncharted Lands. As a test printer I am asked to sometimes print in filament or resin or in rare instances both. In this example below I have printed two kobolds from the Kobold Coalition. One is in filament and one is in resin. While an experienced hobbyist can tell which one is which most will not be able to especially with paint and on your tabletop. If the purpose of your hobby is to play on a table does it matter which way it was created?

Filament (light grey left) vs Resin (dark grey right)

Much like creating art with crayons vs oil paints there are considerations as to cost, durability, ease of use etc. For example I absolutely love my filament based miniatures because they are more durable and safer for my one and a half year old son to handle. While in the same breath I love my resin miniatures as a way to produce more models in the same amount of time with incredible detail.

The image and desire of final product will drastically influence the method and direction I approach a print.

Why Can’t It Be a Bit of Both?

Here lies the crux of my reflection. 3D printing isn’t just scientific and you can’t just create the most perfect artistic piece. I do not believe that you can just brute force yourself into the hobby in only one method. To truly become an expert and master I believe that a good balance between the two aspects of art and science must be achieved.

As someone who is constantly trying to learn and grow I admit to needing to approach my hobby with more artistic flair rather than pure mechanical perfection. Reading the numerous questions about the hobby space continues to provide insight as to the perspectives of others and can still teach me things.

It is not always easy to reflect on the elements and things to work on and improve in my hobby but has been an interesting thing to think about.

Conclusion

While I don’t think there is a perfect conclusion to this post and the answer to the question “Is 3D printing an artform or science” is different for everyone. I’m curious as to your thoughts about the hobby space. If you don’t 3D print what is your opinion from the outside looking into the hobby? What would you consider it to be? If you do print how to do you approach the hobby?

I am currently approaching the hobby in a super fascinating way which is pushing the limits of my understanding. While I’m not quite ready to mention it here yet, I can’t wait to share with you my experiences. I have about a week or so to go before the Frostgrave campaign officially starts, and I am racing towards the finish line to paint up the warbands in time.

What is on your hobby table? Working toward something fun?

As always, Happy Hobby,
Carrie aka Crazmadsci the Crazy Mad Scientist

September 6, 2021October 11, 2021 crazmadsci Games

Frostgrave Part 4: Status Update

September 6, 2021

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.

Frostgrave Series

Part 4: STatus Update

Hill GIant Painting: Skintones Base Line

Past Hobby Blog Posts

August 30, 2021August 30, 2021 crazmadsci Skills

Contrast Paints: Understanding Their Usage

August 30, 2021

Last week I posted I paint job of the Hill Giant Tyrant Ogi Skullcrusher and my experimentation for painting skin. While it was setting my baseline for skill and observing room for improvement when painting skin I also really wanted to finish the model.

Since I already spent quite a few painting sessions on the miniature and already am behind schedule in painting my Frostgrave game with over 15 miniatures over the next month I decided to try in more detail the usage of citadels contrast paints. I am still very much new to using contrast paints and acknowledge a lot to learn. However here are some of my first experiences and observations using the paint.

What Are Contrast Paints?

Contrast paints are a paint formulated by Games Workshop to help assist new painters or even those who choose to speed up their painting process. Contrast paints are designed to base coat, shade and highlight the miniature in a single coat and most commonly used over a light undercoat. By suppling so many steps in a single application it can help a novice painter glaze over some technical steps and save valuable time going back to apply multiple coats or even colors to achieve similar effect.

The largest benefit of these paints can be used in tandem with a zenithal highlight (light color prime over a dark like the sun is shining at its zenith). Contrast Paints appear similar to a wash or shade but also appear somewhat thicker to allow for full coverage in painting the model.

While there are other companies who have created paint similar to the contrast paint, access to Games Workshop paints are widely available in my area and are considered by some to be the best of their type.

My Bias

Since the release of contrast paint in 2019 into the hobby space, I admit I’ve avoided buying and using a them. Having watched many YouTube channels during their release reviewing the product line the consensus was along the lines of interesting but not necessarily valuable to the experienced painter. You see the market of contrast paint was aimed towards the new painter as a way to do several painting techniques in one; base coat, shade, and highlight. Why would a experienced painter want to use them? An advanced painter has significantly more control and finesse doing these things the old fashioned way. As for me, why would an aspiring painter use them if it takes away from the practice of other techniques. I aim to grow not necessarily avoid tasks.

Over time however I’ve begun to notice an increase of usage of contrast paints in various applications for people. Many paint models for their games and are absolutely happy with the tabletop standard contrast paints provide. There is a growing category of people who have begun to use contrast paint as a unique tool in various situations providing yet another SKILL to use rather than a shortcut. Due to the increase in the latter I’ve decided to over come my prejudice and try them for myself.

I will also admit the that cost of contrast paint is something that has turned me off over time as well. Contrast paint can be roughly 40-50% more in cost than a standard container of paint.

My First Use of Contrast Paint

I was inspired to use contrast paint for the very first time during my woodworking deep dive color palette test. I saw several people in the painting community painting wooden objects such as doors and barrels with contrast. I absolutely loved how they turned out and asked “What was your process?” “Did you use a particular color?” The response: Contrast Paint.

Since contrast paints are commonly referred to as a “transparent filter” I loved seeing the difference in behavior using the three different undercoats: white, gray, and black. The biggest difference was noticed in the Gore Gunta Fur Contrast Paint. With a white primer the paint appears more red as opposed to brown.

I absolutely loved these colors and to be honest testing contrast myself on these tavern tiles made me excited to use contrast paint in my arsenal for other projects.

Contrast paints tested for Wood painting deep dive

My First Real Application of Contrast

After the wood working testing and not knowing how I wanted to finish painting the Hill Giant after my experiment with skin I realized that there were three areas on the Hill Giant that I technically had contrast paint for: Wood, Leather, and Fur. This was the perfect opportunity to see the contrast paints in a real application for a three dimensional miniatures instead of a relatively flat base. This distinction is valuable as contrast paints are intended to help add shade to a model.

For this test I attempted to experiment with three different starting processes to see how they responsed and behaved.

Tree Trunk: this tree trunk is mostly white but technically a zenithal highlight and would represent the most default usage of contrast paint. This would ideally produce shadow and contrast upon the addition of the contrast paint.
Fur texture: I painted a light grey color as a uniform bright undercoat to see what would happen. With a consistent color and not preshaded. This would be most similar to the white primed Gore Gunta Fur painted base from above.
For the leather I wanted to try to use two pre toned colors and see if the contrast paint was transparent enough to be impacted by the contrast paint and therefore potentially produce two variants of leather.

The Leather

When I applied the snakebite leather contrast paint to the leather you can absolutely see below that the contrast paint completely over powered the under coat color of the hill giant. There is zero indication that any work went into painting the leather differently. This was by far the most disappointing portion of my testing with contrast paints. In order to fully use them the way I want to in the future I will have to learn more methods to thin down the contrast paints or mix them to increase the variety of color and tones for the paint itself.

To help compensate for this singular hue in color I did end up dry brushing and a small amount of edge highlighting to try and get more of that worn leather look.

Close up to the Leather work after Drybrushing

Fur and Wood

Applying the contrast paint to the wood and leather also yielded interesting results for me. While the fur behaved approximately as expected with darker recesses and lighter tops the wood overall did appear very splotchy. While this works very well for a tree trunk as there is no uniform color to the bark of a tree I am left frustrated in the consistency of the paint and my skill working it. I found the paint pooling in locations and not applying in a smooth layer. Again learning how to thin out the paint would be ideal.

Highlighting

At this state of using contrast paint I was largely disappointed. I know I am not the most skilled of painters but was frustrated that I could not move the paint in the direction I wanted to go and could not anticipate the results. Which is of course silly because the whole purpose of using these paints was to see how they behaved and to learn and grow.

Deciding to move forward and see what would happen I decided to apply more dry brushing and highlights to the contrast areas of the model in order to get more areas to pop and add variety of color. I added some of my original light gray color to the fur and some light brown to the tree. Overall I am really happy. I do and think overall there is much more life to the model and applying highlights yourself over the contrast paint is a necessity.

Perhaps I just need to learn more to add skills of contrast paints to my arsenal overall? What else could I have done?

Painted Hill Giant

In the end I am really happy with this model and the quality of its paint job. This is a fantastic tabletop standard piece and looking at it across the room brings a smile to my face. There is always aspects of any project you want to grow upon but in the end I think this figure is a great representation of my current skill and knowledge.

I also am really happy with the usage of some vallejo earth texture paste and a mixture of grass toughs to add final touches to the base. I tried to add the tuffs in between the rocks where grass or shrubbery would grow.

What’s Next?

While I have learned to no longer write off contrast paints and consider them a valuable tool. I definitely realize that I want to do more with them. Talking to some other hobbyists and watching more videos I realized that the use of Contrast Medium or some water will help thin down the contrast paint. I think perhaps the use of thinning down my contrast paint could help me unlock its potential. There is also different types of contrast paints. There is so much I can do and learn!

Maybe contrast paints deserve their own deep dive? Do you use contrast paints? What has worked for you and not? Lets start a dialogue to add this tool to our range of skills. How do you feel the model turned out?

As always Happy Hobbying.

~ Carrie the Crazy Mad Scientist

Previous Writings

August 23, 2021August 22, 2021 crazmadsci Deep Dive, Skills

Skin Deep Dive Part 1: Setting a Baseline

August 23, 2021

Recently on my hobby desk I picked out the Hill Giant Tyrant Ogi Skullcrusher from the Lost Adventures Volume 1 Kickstarter to paint. This was largely before I decided to dive into my Frostgrave series and I decided to attempt to work towards paining some of the models that I have printed. I refuse to call it a pile of shame but rather a collection of opportunity since I am really proud of my printed model collection. 2022 I’m looking at you as a major shift towards painting my backlog (already thinking of next years goals).

One of the things I wanted to do and focus on with this model was to set a baseline for myself and figure out what kind of questions I had when painting skin on models. You see in the past I have almost only used a flesh skintone paint and a wash in the past and call it done. This results in a glossy dirty finish of my miniatures. You can see the image below of some of my past painted models (2018-2021). Some of these represent models that I’ve painted perhaps only 20 miniatures ago (took a long break in 2019-2020) this does not include any of the terrain and building painting.

This collection showcases two 3D printed models and 3 figures from Reaper Bones. Other than the lack of depth of expression, and in the case of the bugbear on the far right any facial features painted what so ever. You can see I have quite a long way to go for improvement.

Other observations I can draw from these are a few things.

Even though I have painted very few models I feel as if my skill has grown tremendously
The skill sets and tools I have at my disposal for painting miniatures have grown.

So it is the perfect time to attempt to gauge my current baseline of skill for painting skintones. As I want to document my growth in the hobby more and current understanding to watch my growth of long period of time these baselines are incredibly helpful. I also attempted to dig more into contrast paints, how to use them and expectations of the paint but there is enough there that I am going to release a contrast paint deep dive part 1 from this model next Monday!

The Research

Around the time I really wanted to do more research around painting skin I was listening to a fantastic miniature painting podcast. I love to listen to and highly recommend: Paint Bravely the Podcast. In their July 5th episode “The Best Primer is NOT Black, White, or Grey” they discuss that using a red brown primer on models is great on showing the blood flowing through the figure. It is incredibly rare not to see a red or rosy hue on people of skins somewhere.

I also watch Squidmar Miniatures youtube and keep going back to one of his “Professional Painting Secrets – Squidmar Masterclass”. I have continuously watched the first 20 minutes of him painting the muscles of the bust. I really appreciate him breaking out into photoshop and explaining more about muscles. However in some ways I am still confused (more of that to come).

Regardless, this is a great spring board for me starting to do more.

The Inspiration

Now that I have more knowledge as to the mentality of painting skintones the second thing I struggle with is what colors to use. However as I was going through the Shadowfey Kickstarter updates for my Frostgrave buildings I noticed that they included a painting guide for the giants they released. I used their guide as the initial color reference and found paint similar in my collection although not perfect (thats ok).

Printable Scenery’s Giant used as inspiration

Paint In Progress

Using the Printable Scenery guide as a starting point I used paint conversion charts online to attempt to get as close as I could. The largest challenge for me is that I did not get a large chunk of time to paint and constantly had to remix the same tone since my workspace can dry out my wet pallete if i’m not careful and its been incredibly dry lately. This is when my paint journal came in really handy, I would commonly paint small squares next to my “official” mix to see how it compared before placing on the model. If you don’t keep a paint journal I highly recommend it. You can actually see all my “test” mixes next to the original as tiny dots clustered around a main one. I really struggled with my mix when I started using Elf Skintone.

For the very first base layer I used Citadel’s Deathclaw Brown, Terracota & Scarlet Red from Vallejo Game Color. I attempted to mix it so that way it had a strong red brown tone and after painting it on the model I actually really loved it. It felt like I already had great variable of the skin tone and a color I really appreciate.

Layer 1 (Mix #1): Deathclaw Brown, Terracota & Scarlet Red

I then used this layer and mixed in more Deathclaw brown to lighten it up and painted on top. This was the beginning of my first area of confusion. Watching the Squidmar master class it showed that I was supposed to paint the lighter tone into the muscle recesses and use the dark I believe only for the underside of the muscle. This is what I attempted here but do think it was the beginning of just “dark in the recesses” painting behavior.

Layer 2 (mix #1): Mix #1 + Deathclaw brown

I began to then continue building up and attempt to slowly paint less and less on the model to give it a better transition. This time my mix included the Vallejo Game Color Elf Skintone

I then built up two more layers and the 5th layer was barely applied.

Layer 4 & 5: Elf Skintone & mix of Elf Skintone and Beast Hide

At the end of the skin I was torn on using a wash and for the sake of this experiment I decided against using a wash. Perhaps it would have lent itself to more depth? I have been attempting to improve my skills with layering and am finding myself using washes less on my paint jobs. I will definitely need to back to using shades and washes and attempt to use them in more sophisticated ways.

There was definitely a small bit of painting fatigue due to the number of painting sessions this took, getting large chunks of time to paint is really hard with small kids. While I would have liked to put more time on his skin I was happy. Also the six foot rule for how it would look on a game table told me it looks awesome enough to play with. The one benefit there is that the more definite and darker muscle is visible across the table and showcases him well.

Quick Reference

One thing I made for future reference was a handy quick reference of my layers, its overall transition, and ratios of paint mixed in my painting journal. I actually really loved how it came out and let me know if this would be useful for you and if I should continue to include my reference guides.

Painting After Skin

After I finished painting his skin I still felt the need to experiment. The first experiment that I did was to see how I felt about using a blue linen or leather on his waist.

After throwing on some paint I realized it was absolutely not what I wanted on my model. Also thanks for the conversations and ideas from the 3D Printed Tabletop Discord.

I decided to revert back and paint his clothes a classic leather color. I wanted to showcase two colors of cloth with a reddish fur. So instead of trying a new color I decided to try some of my contrast paints which I do not have as much experience with. However II think a conversation about my obversions and questions around contrast paints deserve their own separate discussion, stay tune for next week on that!

Areas of Improvement

As for the skin there are definitely areas where I feel like the darker recesses on the model are too thick and transitions too short. I feel as if I should have had more visible transitions. Several of my middle layers such as #2 and #3 are not nearly as visible.

The lighter color paint and layers definitely overpower the red hue of rich living flesh I was going for. While I did end up with a Caucasian skintone it was not as rosy or red hue as I wanted. This made me remember at the very end that I should have used more of a glaze of thinner consistency which would help the transistions as well.

Lastly I realized I have no idea how some muscles of the human body actually work. For example I had no idea how to appropriately paint his back and hands. You can see that the transitions in muscles are very thick, not as well definite and look kind of goofy.

Finished Image

While I do admit I need to take more photos of this guy I am extremely happy with his final result. Check it out and let me know what you think. Biggest highlight is that these are probably the best eyes I’ve ever painted.

What’s Next?

I definitely want to continue focusing on improving my knowledge and experiment a whole lot more with different skin tone colors and also increase the amount of diversity in my models. Learning more about the skin of different people around the globe is going to be a ton of fun and I want to see if I can truly capture peoples heritage in color.

Next step in this experiment is my testing of different base colors for undead flesh before I paint models for the Necromancer Warband.

As always Happy Hobbying.

~ Carrie the Crazy Mad Scientist

Previous Writings

August 20, 2021October 11, 2021 crazmadsci Games

Frostgrave Part 3: Printing the Warbands

August 20, 2021

Quicklinks: Chosing a Wizard, Hiring a Warband, Team Necromancer, Team Sigilist, Terrain Status Update

36 Days Til Frostgrave!

Another week has past and I’m well on my way to getting closer and closer to Frostgrave game day. Last week we discussed the planning stages and ideas associated with the epic Frostgrave gameboard I have planned for an upcoming battle of wills with my other half. If you want to hear more about my Elder Scrolls inspired battle board check out the (Map Design) post from last week.

Have no idea what so ever as to what Frostgrave is? Well start at the beginning of my epic adventure to my most ambitious tabletop project of all time, and on a deadline (Frostgrave: Beginnings). We aren’t quite a month out but I’m already starting to feel the pressure.

This week I worked with Graham to select the models we wanted for our warbands and I 3D printed the teams if the models were still in digital form. Check out our rosters! I will break into the individual models, their source and our thoughts in choosing our schools of magic and models.

Also stay tuned at the end for an update of my printing progress of my board and if I’m currently moving on schedule.

Choosing your Wizard

The most important figure in the entire game of Frostgrave is your Wizard. The wizard is the main figure head of your warband and sets the cadence and theme of gameplay for your party. Before you can start playing Frostgrave you must 1) name your wizard and 2) select the school of magic that best represents you. It is key to select something that fits your gameplay style and what you consider to be fun.

The 10 Schools of Magic

There are 10 schools of magic of which you can choose from that will open up a realm of possibility for you arsenal of spells to use in combat. While you can learn spells from other schools of magic it is more difficult to cast those not from the school of which you choose for yourself. Just to get an idea lets give a quick summary of your available choices.

Chronomancer: Users of magic to manipulate time itself.

Elementalist: Magic focused on controlling the four elements. These are your typical fireball casters

Enchanter: Wizards who apply magic to objects or people. These would be crafters who are capable of creating magic weapons.

Illusionist: Use magic to “fool the senses, case confusion and fear, and convince people of things that aren’t true.”

Necromancer: Study the magic associated to death and the creation/control of undead creatures.

Sigilist: Magic through reading and writing. These can see the mystical patterns in writings of all types.

Soothsayer: Allows the wizard to extend their senses beyond their body.

Summoner: Work magic by opening doorways to different planes of existence.

Thaumaturge: Draw magic from positive energy.

Witch: Draw on the powers of nature for their magic, they brew potions, cast curses and seek the aid of plants and animals.

Hiring a Warband

To go along with your wizard every player is given 400 gold crowns to hire and assemble a crew to adventures into the Frozen City. You then of course spend 100 gold crowns of that to spend on a wizard’s apprentice making two spell casters on your team. The rest of the money is at the players disposal to hire the various soldiers available to you.

To hire a warband there are two main types of soldiers: Standard and Specialist. A maximum of 4 specialists may be hired as they are more advanced soldiers. Each soldier comes with various stats, weapons and cost. You are allowed only a maximum of 8 soldiers making it a total party size of 10. You can of course modify that number slightly to be higher in specific scenarios.

Now that we have a basic overview of what makes up a warband lets introduce the teams! All models shown are 3D printed with a combination of filament and resin models.

Warband #1 Team Necromancer

So I’m not saying that my husband is predictable but well my husband is predictable. I do not know what about a necromancer makes him so happy but any opportunity to raise undead and attempt to create the largest army possible…. well that is what he will choose. As one of the most well known magical types Necromancers can create and control undead creatures.

Since he is already so biased towards Necromancers he has decided to use some models he is already partial too such as one of his dungeons and dragons player character models hekumi?????

The models selected for his team consist of four different sculpting companies and all are attempting to convey the theme around a risen undead warband.

Role: Necromancer Wizard
Name: Hagatha (temporary?)

Model Name: Swamp Witch
Sculptor: CastnPlay
Set: Swamp Collection

Printed: Resin (Epax Hard Grey)

Graham decided on this swamp witch as his necromancer wizard. We loved the storytelling and detail of death and decay oozing off her. I mean she is even dragging a bag of sculls beside of her.

I am currently considering of painting the branches/antlers on her head and back with a necrotic green glow storytelling that the magic is growing out of her control, literally. What do you think?

Role: Necromancer Apprentice
Name: Hekhumi

Sculptor: Heroforge

Printed: Filament (Hatchbox Pla)

Hekhumi is painted by Graham my awesome husband and was a dwarf cleric with necromancer tendencies in the last dungeons and dragons campaign I ran. He couldn’t resist the urge to use the model he designed on Heroforge and grew such an attachment to previously.

Role: Archer & Tracker

Sculptor: Dragon Lock Miniatures
Set: Skeleton Set 2 (standing) & Skeleton Set 3 (kneeling)

Printed: Filament (Hatchbox PLA)

These skeletons were apart of a set of miniatures I printed and painted last year as I was getting back into the hobby with the birth of my first son. They are from the Dragonlock Miniatures Kickstarter which I printed 100% of the models.

Role: Thugs x 3

Sculptor: Dragon Lock Miniatures
Set: Skeleton set 2, 3, & 4

Printed: Filament (Hatchbox PLA)

I think Graham felt bad as to all the painting I was going to have to do and picked quite a few models i’ve already painted. I definitely appreciate it but i’m going to have to paint more skeletons for the scenarios now so they don’t match!

Role: Thieves x2

Model Name: SheGhoul C (female) & Ghoul C (male)
Sculptor: Broken Anvil Miniatures
Set: Graveyard Shift

Printed: Resin (Epax hard Grey)

Finally a first on the website! A brand new sculptor that I have not showcased yet on the website! Broken Anvil Miniatures is a fantastic up and coming miniature company which make both physical and digital miniatures.

These ghouls have so much character and Graham thought they would be perfect as undead theives for his warband.

Role: Knight

Model Name: Undead Knight 1
Sculptor: Broken Anvil Miniatures
Set: Graveyard Shift

Printed: Resin (Epax hard Grey)

To finish up the warband is the powerhouse. The knight to fight for the treasure and protect the necromancer!

Role: Zombie

Model Name: Zombie Butcher
Company: Lost Adventures Co.
Set: Zombie Lost Adventures Volume 1

Printed: Resin (Anycubic grey)

Since Graham is playing a necromancer there is a chance that this zombie will be able to join his warband. Using the spell Raise Zombie an additional member can be added.

Graham chose this Butcher model as a fun piece to story tell long dead citizens being raised from the dead to battle.

Warband #2 Sigilist

You might be thinking to yourself, “What in the world is a sigilist?” Well a sigilist is a wizard of knowledge through the writing word and languages. They utilize special abilities to do a ton of fun utility actions. They can transform a piece of parchment into a bridge or ramp. They can also even summon a quill to furiously distract their enemy. I decided to choose a wizard slightly different as they do not have any obviously offensive spells right out of the gate but do have the capabilities to level quickly through absorbing knowledge or write scrolls to sell later. Since we are playing a campaign with these warbands I decided to build for a different approach and develop for a long game. We will see how that turns out!

As for the models in my warband, I decided to use some of my favorite dwarf models and one of the “Mega Projects” i’ve chosen for my 2021 Hobby Goals and have yet to really dive into, Hold my Dwarf. This kickstarter by Miniatures of Madness is a collection of dwarfs of all kinds of fun character and storytelling. So every model in my warband minus my wardog will be from this collection.

Role: Wizard Sigilist

Model Name: Kamli the Summoner
Company: Miniatures of Madness

Printed: Resin (Epax Hard Grey)

Since the Sigilist is all about the power of the language and the written word, why not have a wizard who is literally pulling power from a book. I absolutely love this model as it is completely floating in the air and the wisps of power come into his hands.

Role: Apprentice Sigilist

Model Name: Hesur
Company: Miniatures of Madness

Printed: Resin (Epax Hard Grey)

I absolutely love the power this miniature conveys. Where is the wind coming from? I cannot wait to work on blending in this magnificent robes.

Role: Crossbowmen x 2

Model Name: Soldier Set 3
Company: Miniatures of Madness

Printed: Resin (Epax Hard Grey & Anycubic Grey)

Did you know that archers and crossbowmen in Frostgrave have the exact same stats? It is purely just the aesthetic that you want in your warband. Will be interesting to see who comes out in the battle of the archers vs crossbowmen.

Role: Thugs x 2

Model Name: Tegnar the Bloodthirsty (banner) & Doran Grimlook
Company: Miniatures of Madness

Printed: Resin (Epax Hard Grey)

Doran Grimlook printed with a failure on his arm and it didn’t come out. He is supposed to hold a shield but we decided that we kinda like the badass feeling of a thug with only one arm. What do you think? Should I reprint him and fix the issue?

Role: Thief

Model Name: Felin Fastep
Company: Miniatures of Madness

Printed: Resin (Epax Hard Grey)

First female warrior of the warband! I absolutely love this dual wielding fury. Also the detail on her shoulder pads came out exceptionally.

Role: Infantryman

Model Name: Lomli Longclaw
Company: Miniatures of Madness

Printed: Resin (Epax Hard Grey)

This two handed warrior is ready for the cold weather wearing his gear out of furs of monsters he has slain.

Role: woah “Man-at-Arms”

Model Name: Mimma the Melee Housewife
Company: Miniatures of Madness

Printed: Resin (Epax Hard Grey)

Mimma is one of my absolute favorite models. She might not be completely set for battle but comes with pot lid shields and will hit you with a ladle instead of the butcher knife at her hip. Also you will see once I paint her but her shirt even has hearts on it. I mean who can harm such an innocent housewife?

Role: Wardog

Company: CastnPlay
Set: Hawkers of Thamarya

Printed: Resin (Epax Hard Grey)

Although very small and as Graham would say “has no neck” this beast is ready to run to the rescue and yipp his way to success!

On to Paint!

Now that I have showcased all the models that have been printed for game day I now have to get them ready for the game table. So far I count 15 models to paint. I’m such a slow painter here is hoping I paint them in time and all the terrain. I am just going to need to paint bravely!

Necromancer models primed and ready to print. Yes I have a mega sized hag as well for fun.

Terrain Status Update

I’ve been printing miniatures for my warbands on my resin printer, previously filament models were done last year so the filament printer has been printing non stop.

So far I have finished printing the Burgomaster’s Office from Printable Scenery’s Shadowfey Kickstarter. This building comes in a modular three levels and three different pieces. I’ll be sure to share more 360 degree photos later.

I have also chosen the Printable Scenery Graveyard Walls after comments on last week and oh boy do I love them more than I thought I would. They have great height to them, a graveyard tombstones on one side of the walls and is super dynamic. I don’t have a complete set yet but quite a few check it out.

I even started to scheme the layout and spacing for the graveyard. I naturally gravitated to a 6 inch graveyard playable space on each side of the mausoleum however Graham pointed out that I still had way too much open line of sight so I think I’m going to bring it in for a more congested playing feel. You can definitely see that I still have a good bit to print to completely flush out the space but I’m getting excited about the prospects.

Whats Next?

My printer is currently focused on finishing the graveyard walls, small pieces like tombstones and scatter inside the graveyard. I also am working on printing the river and bridge sections. Hopefully these areas of the tabletop will be printed within the next week but I am going to take a break briefly and help a call to action in printing pieces for face masks. I have a friend who needs some for a school and I offered my services. It will feel good to contribute what I can to help fight off Covid-19.

After I finish printing those I plan to start printing a few Hagglethorn Hollow models for the battle map! So excited as they finally released some ruined buildings like the cottage.

Do you have a favorite model? Is there something you are looking forward to the most in seeing? Feel free to comment down below.

As always Happy Crafting,

Carrie aka Crazmadsci the Crazy Mad Scientist.

Frostgrave Series

Part 4: STatus Update

Past Hobby Blog Posts

August 16, 2021August 16, 2021 crazmadsci Uncategorized

State of the Crazy: August 16, 2021 Life of a Crafter With Too Many Projects

August 16, 2021

Update Quicklinks: Printing, Painting, Blog

Wow, I can’t believe there hasn’t been a state of the crazy status update since June 5th as I was leaving the hospital with the birth of my second kiddo. I think it is about time that I brought everyone up to speed about what is going on here and all the moving pieces that are happening. Perhaps a snapshot of the craziness that is floating around in my head, a behind the scenes as it were.

As a few of my readers could have already guessed, I am someone who always pushes myself to accomplish insane and almost impossible tasks. Such as my current plan of creating almost from scratch a 3 x 3 foot game board for Frostgrave by September 25 (Follow the series here). I have also written almost twenty ridiculous 2021 Hobby Goals encapsulating so many aspects of my hobby such as painting, printing, blogging and even video games & reading. How in the world can I accomplish these things with a toddler who loves to “join me in my hobby” and a newborn? To be honest I am still learning the answer to that one. If you can navigate hobby time around small children or have in the past i’d love to know your solutions and stories.

On top of these blue sky goals, I am a crafter who can’t seem to handle only one project at a time. It appears that I am someone who needs to juggle many. I have always so many active projects that I have developed an entire system above my hobby space designated to holding and storing the various projects I am in progress of creating. It consists of a homemade foam core box containing five shelves. Those shelves then hold boxes which are then typically designed only to just one project. In the picture below I believe i’m counting (13? two on the side) individual boxes with different projects. I have a problem. I also have an active workspace, a shelf to hold the random things my son has gotten into that day that needs to be sorted daily during valuable hobby time and objects that need to be boxed up and put into storage as I do not necessarily have the largest area in the room for things not in active progress.

An embarrassing live photo of my hobby desk taken yesterday

Normally this is not necessarily an issue but I am finding it difficult to focus on my current goals, Building my Frostgrave Map, when I have so many loose ends sitting around that can take my attention. So I need to make a plan. Almost all of my current projects could be wrapped up if I only added more write ups of my print data. I most commonly go through massive productivity spurts of producing large amounts of models and need to then take the data, take photographs, and write it up on the website. While tedious this has been an incredible boon for me to better visualize my hobby spending but also gain a better understanding an appreciation of my collection. I hope to continue to digitize my humble collection and eventually have it all on the site, including my digital STL renders.

Contained in my “current projects” are:

Kingdom of Thamarya Prints (Waterwell, potions cart, Class tokens)
Lost Adventures Volume 3 Test Prints: Mostly Kobold Coalition that needs catalogged
Broken Anvil Monthly Graveyard Site models
CastnPlay Hawkers of Thamarya Models
STL Miniatures: Blacksmith & Carpenter sets
Lost Adventures Volume 2: Various monster pieces
Hold my Dwarf models

Printing Updates

So we now know all the crazy things I have been working on lets tall about recent works and actual progress.

For my Frostgrave map I am almost complete with the Burgomaster’s Office from Printable Scenery. I really really enjoy this model but definitely have a few points that bother me. It will take a bit of cleanup and postprocess in the form of magnets but I think it will look amazing for gameday. Now to decide on a paint scheme. Here is a sneak peak of the building and my Frostgrave Wizard below.

Burgomaster’s Office in Progress and a sneakpeak at my Wizard.

We have also taken out a bunch of printed models and had a fantastically fun night of drafting models for my opponents filthy necromancer’s team. It feels incredible to be able to bust out a bunch of models and see what I have accomplished in mostly printing and sometimes painting (2022 I’m coming for you for the biggest painting year yet). Stay tuned for Friday as I talk about how to make a warband and the teams we have drafted along with models i’ve printed for the upcoming rumble.

Lastly, I am an official test printer for the Uncharted Lands: Lost Adventures Kickstarter running now until August 31, 2021. This has been an absolute blast and is my 3rd Kickstarter I’ve done with them. While I don’t print every model I do get a healthy glimpse of what is to come. What has been really cool lately though is the amount of community response as to my print quality for miniatures using my FDM Prusa Mk3s. Printing in filament for miniatures is not as common as resin is the better choice with improved resolution. Getting good quality FDM prints is an accomplishment. Due to popular request I also wrote a guide on how to print and do supports for FDM miniature printing.

Kobold Bottle Brawler: Filament (light grey, left) vs resin (Dark grey, right)

Painting Update

In the painting category I can at least say I’ve been painting more than I have been in recent months. I’ve recently painted an adorable little boy from CastnPlay’s Hawkers of Thamarya patreon release for July. I absolutely love all the models in this release as they are designed as citizens for the buildings i’ve been making all year. I still haven’t put him on a base yet and am looking for ideas.

I’ve also been attempting to paint skin to the best of my current ability and attempt to create a better baseline in that particular area of painting. I decided to paint Ogi Skullcrusher the Hill Giant from Lost Adventures Volume 1. I am still working on my transitions and feel like there isn’t enough variety in the skin (perhaps more variety basecoat?). I also think there is too much dark gap in the muscles. Definitely offer criticism as I’m trying to grow and improve. Also I agree and hate the blue leather as well. I plan on changing it to brown and finishing the model up shortly but its been difficult to find time to paint the past few days.

Blog Update

As for the blog I’m really happy to say I am finally starting to carve out time in my week to write. I find it so incredibly enjoyable and love connecting with others in my hobby. Painting and making terrain can sometimes feel so isolating especially in times such as these. I feel like i’m starting to make a community to share this hobby with and makes it feel less lonely, so thank you. I don’t currently have a gaming group to share my creations with.

I am also really happy that for the first time in months I’m starting to post consistently on Mondays again! It has been hard with a newborn but i’m getting there.

There is still so much I want to add, do and share my knowledge especially in 3D printing for the tabletop space. So many people have been recently joining this brave adventure but are commonly frustrated right out of the gate. I hope to at least help some to find as much joy in the pastime as I have. If you have any questions about 3D printing in any aspect, ask. I am planning to do a getting started, FAQ, series like my Frostgrave one after that is completed.

For the short term I am going to attempt to make my Monday posts about the various projects I have laying around that need to be discussed and writting up. While Friday posts will be a continuation of Frostgrave. This should help me tackle the numerous things I have laying around.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of the behind the scenes of what it means to truly be “The State of the Crazy”. One day I keep telling myself I’ll just focus on one thing, but today is not that day.

How about you? Are you a crafter working on a lot at a time or are you capable of focusing on one thing? Do you have a system to stay organized? I love hearing how others manage their hobby.

As always happy hobbying,

Carrie aka crazmadsci

August 13, 2021October 11, 2021 crazmadsci Battle Maps, Games, Goals

Frostgrave Part 2: Map Design

August 13, 2021

Battle Maps, Games, Goals

43 Days Til Frostgrave!

Tick, Tock. The clock is moving ever closer to my epic gameday with handsome husband over the icy cold city of Felstad. Herein lies the second installment (Part 1: Frostgrave Beginnings) of my quest to create the most involved, detailed, and “completed” battle mat I’ve ever accomplished in my tabletop hobby career. This has recently become a “challenge” for myself and my husband as I have been 3D printing and painting for the predominate portion of the year but have played very little of any tabletop game.

Feeling the drive to play a game again I have decided to draw a line in the figurative sand, call it good enough and just play. However I have a small problem, I’m a perfectionist that wants everything to be painted and completed. So this series will document my journey and you can follow along and hold me accountable to finish this project.

I have decided to make my Frostgrave board epic, bigger (3 ft x 3 ft) with more wiggle room, more terrain of not just buildings but also scatter, rubble, ruins, and objects to break line of sight. But most importantly I want to take the lessons learned from February’s games to make it a more enjoyable experience.

Lets see my process in designing and picking out key elements I want to put on my battle map!

Learning From Past Mistakes

When I played my first few games of Frostgrave with my husband back in February I realized that my terrain was significantly lacking. As someone with game design experience it became quickly evident that game balance was DRASTICALLY impacted by game layout.

When setting up our 2 foot by 2 foot board I missed a very very key piece of advice from the core rule book.

Setting up the Table

“The ruins of Frostgrave are a dense labyrinth of broken buildings, collapsed walls, shattered statues, and patches of ice and snow. In truth the exact nature of the terrain isn’t overly important. What is important is that there is a lot of it! The table should be crowded with terrain, leaving only a few areas or avenues of open ground, and giving figures plenty of places to hide and take cover. It really shouldn’t be possible for a figure on the group to draw line of sight to any point more than a foot or so away.”
FrostGrave 2nd Edition, Joseph A McCullough

Ouch, looking at the Frostgrave board above you can definitely see line of sight avenues going every which way across not just one foot but all the way across the map (2 feet). Why is this a problem? Well i’m glad you asked. “All shooting attacks have a maximum range of 24 inches.”

Since our map was 2×2 feet, that was the entire length in all directions of our battle mat for a small standard game. Due to this emphasis and success of your warband was significantly skewed to hiring more ranged attackers such as archers and crossbowmen. The aim of the game would be to climb into a fortified area, shoot through the windows or protected area, and pick the other time off slowly and then claim the treasure. This did not feel fun for both people involved, the game felt broken. So this time around I’m planning my game board ahead of time to attempt to balance everything out.

Key to Map Design: Educate Yourself

OK rulebook, fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice… well we wont get to that.

This time around I refuse be the victim of my lack of knowledge about the game. To fully plan my map I want to take into account all the types of movement and shooting defense modifiers in the game. This would make the world feel more dynamic instead of two dimensional while also tackling my previously experienced ranged shooting imbalance.

First things first.

Shooting Defense Modifiers

Much like other games like Dungeons and Dragons, my most familiar tabletop game. Taking cover is a large part of the game in combat. Hiding behind obstacles such as walls, trees, or even other creatures can make you less of a target and become more difficult to hit. The difficulty of hitting your shot in Frostgrave is similar to dungeons and dragons as there are three types of cover. Instead of half, three quarters, and total cover the game uses somewhat different jargon.

Intervening Terrain (+1 to hit): “Every piece of intervening terrain between the shooter and the target gives a +1 (cumulatively).”

Light Cover (+2 to hit): If an obstacle obscures up to half of its body for hard objects (i.e rocks, walls) or almost the entirety of the body (bushes)

Heavy Cover (+4 to hit): “target is in contact with solid cover that almost completely obscures its body”

This is telling me that I don’t just need ruins for my game but also a variety of terrain and objects of which to hide behind the more the better. Although I cannot cite it at this exact moment I believe I have read somewhere that ideally there should be no more than 6-9 inches of line to sight in any given direction for best experience.

Movement

In the game of Frostgrave verticality and variable terrain are such a big part of its gameplay. To play in this there are several types of movement.

Rough Terrain: Any kind of terrain that is difficult to move over or through (1/2 movement speed).

Climbing: Players can climb over obstructions at 1/2 movement speed (1 inch climb per 2 inch movement).

Jumping: “A figure may jump any distance provided it moves an equal distance in a straight line before making the jump”.

Swimming: water comes in two varieties shallow and deep water. Shallow water is considered a rough terrain but deep water does have a swimming modifiers table. Essentially if you are wearing heavier armor, carrying objects or treasure, swimming across deep water is more difficult.

Falling: Fall damage is possible and a key part of gameplay. If a figure falls more than 3 inches, they suffer damage equal to the number of inches they fell multiplied by 1.5.

These movement aspects tell me that I should ideally have multiple stories in builds, a lot of ways to climb and get around. Perhaps a few sections where you can jump from building to building? How about even some water running through the city.

My Inspiration

Now that I have a better understanding of things to look out for and considerations to make while making my map I need inspiration as to how it will be laid out and perhaps even look like.

I have had the perfect inspiration for this map stuck in my head for a long time utilizing The Elder Scrolls Franchise. You see the Elder Scrolls Online MMO RPG was the game that changed my life, helped me to step out as a proud gamer girl, and even where I started my career in game development as a combat designer.

Memorial District, Imperial City Elder Scrolls Online

The inspiration i’m drawing for this map will be loosely based off of the Imperial City. The Imperial City is the capital city of the entire continent of Tamriel which holds the infamous White Gold Tower and the Ruby Throne of which the empire sits. This city is broken into 6 sections or districts of which you can play and explore. Utilizing the time period around the Elder Scrolls Online, the city has been invaded and now in ruin, where the throne is empty, and armies (or players) fight for the right to be emperor.

When I imagine the empire of Felstad for Frostgrave my imagination makes me believe that each battle map is only a snapshot image of a fraction of the city of which my wizard and warband are exploring. Why not only try to recreate a snapshot of one of the districts of the Imperial City? The Imperial City is also a player vs player zone so map design already considers some of my line of site concerns in the world building itself making it a perfect spring board for my plan.

Of the little terrain I already own and have painted one of the primary focal pieces is the Mausoleum. Since the mausoleum has its own scenario I have decided to start my campaign into Felstad there. Which leads me to the Memorial District. The Market District of the Imperial City districts was converted into the Memorial District and turned into a mass graveyard for its dead, after a mass rebellion (not important).

The Memorial District consists of four corners of tall Market city buildings and roads leading to its center which holds a massive graveyard in its center ring. There is also a river/ sewer that runs around the city. This variety of large ruins, center graveyard, and terrain including water is perfect to utilize our Mausoleum and capture the various movement types the game can provide.

Map Layout of the Memorial District Imperial City

This is the perfect inspiration with its arches and high crosswalks, courtyards, statues, fences and so much more.

Goals

The overall goal of this board is of course to be cool and wow people, most namely my husband. This game mat should give me a feeling of accomplishment because so far this year I’ve worked on many things but haven’t quite felt “finished” in anything. Hopefully this board will also be so fun it would motivate more gameplay in my house. Perhaps even entice some players in my area to want to join via hubs bragging about it at work.

Also most importantly in the spirit of what I want to do here at crazmadsci.com my goal is showcase and feature a large variety of talent, stores, and models that you can bring to your 3D printed tabletop. I will of course be keeping track of all my data for helping you print your future battle board or even understand the cost and time commitment on bringing your dreams a reality. The the moment I have an estimated 5 terrain companies & 3 miniature companies featured in my current battleplan.

Trying to Make the Plan

No that I have a rough idea as to what I want my layout to be, what type of terrain and aesthetic I desire its time to attempt to plan my layout.

Using the above inspiration I went to draw my 3×3 board to scale on paper. I broke the map into 9 sections and proceeded to draw a central square to mark the mausoleum location and space it will occupy. Then attempt to cut construction paper to scale of the various objects I wish to have in the space and eye ball how much of what I’d need where.

Beginnings of my city layout. Blue (river), Black (roads), Purple (buildings), Orange (featured Building)

Over the course of this week I realized I have encountered two primary design blocks

City Layout is largely dependent on Graveyard surface area

In attempting to block out my city to scale I have a major design flaw. I cannot conceptualize how large the graveyard itself should be with tombstones, crypts, trees etc. How big should it be to ensure a fun area for skirmishes. Until this section of the board is roughly laid out it is immensely hard to plan the surrounding area. Therefore It appears I am going to have to plan this out block by block with a more “living build”.

2. What walls should I make my graveyard with?

Since the center of the board will be its focal piece the method of which you get to its center is also important. What is the best way to funnel players? Should the fence be intervening terrain or provide partial/ complete cover? I have several different graveyard walls and fences to choose from. Some ruined in design and others structurally sound. Should I curve my walls? Or keep it straight. I have so many options to choose from and much of the choice depends on block #1. Filtering the ways you can get into the graveyard sounds like a fantastic idea to funnel soldiers or utilize climbing.

Here are my current options, nominate your favorite in the comments.

Of the list I think my personal favorites would be the Frost Kickstarter walls since they are curved and have a good amount of versatility and am capable of using them in other builds in the future. I also really like the printable scenery walls as they are extremely thematic and are not straight linear fences. However the ones from CastnPlay and Broken Anvil are also more true to what I imagine a graveyard fence to be.

Notable Featured Pieces in this Map

Since I cant completely plan out where everything will go, I am including some of my ideas and concepts that I am currently planning to bring to the table as a little tease. All have their own strengths and I am definitely going to showcase and discuss the various companies and prints in more detail as we lead up to gameday. If you see something that catches your eye or have something to add do not hesitate.

A River

I really desire to bring a river to this map. Mostly to provide a larger diversity in the terrain that I see online when I see other Frostgrave boards but also make rivers which I am going to need to have for some Rangers of Shadowdeep Scenarios which I hope to do in the future. Plus even the Felstad has a river called the “Might Mergile River”. I have settled and owned the Infinite Dimension Games modular river set for sometime as i’ve always enjoyed their product and got these files for a steal of a deal when they originally released.

2. A bridge

Makers Anvil is a new company to the community that I have been keeping my eye out on for quite some time. I finally decided that this is the perfect opportunity to use their Bridge design and even incorporate their ruined section since I need some way to cross the river.

3. Ulvheim ruins

The Ulvheim ruins and buildings are probably some of the most famous and commonly spotted ruins on any 3D printers table. These are made by Terrain4Print and have been free on Thingiverse for over 3 and a half years. It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t showcase more of what was freely available to print for your Frostgrave board as well. I also want to bring these ruins to life more and plan to incorporate ruined beams and Trusses made by ecaroth as I cannot stand a table of just stone buildings.

4. Hagglethorn Hollow Ancient Ruins

To be fair until yesterday I was not planning at this exact moment to play Frostgrave with any Hagglethorn Hollow pieces. I am however planning a major write up series around the Hagglethorn Hollow kickstarter later this year. This kickstarter has been one of my most anticipated kickstarters of all time. Hagglethorn Hollow first teased its designs in 2018 on Adam Savage’s TESTED youtube and ever since i’ve been impatiently waiting to add it to my table. I plan to have at least one ruin section of the Ancient Ruins in time for gameday.

5. Shadowfey: Burgomaster’s Office

The Burgomasters Office from Printable Scenery’s kickstarter late last year Shadowfey features some of the best collection of ruined buildings and terrain for Frostgrave. In my ambition to increase my verticality of gameplay while also making it appealing to the eye. As a result one of my center piece builds will be this Buromasters office. Featuring complete modularity this is a perfect piece to showcase what Shadowfey has to offer.

This is only a sampling of what I hope to be able to create. Make sure to follow me on my journey, cheer me on, or give me pointers! Comment down below what you are looking forward to the most.

Whats Next?

Well for now I am attempting to print some of the largest pieces that I know I want on my table such as the Burgomaster’s Office. I have also been selecting my warband and 3D printing both mine and my husbands for game day. Next week I plan to discuss how to build your warband and the models we have selected for those.

While this is a journey largely based upon my preparation for my own game; I hope to incorporate knowledge so you can learn more and potentially play for yourself. If you have any questions on how to play Frostgrave or want to know more about it do not hesitate to ask below.

As always Happy Crafting,

Carrie aka Crazmadsci the Crazy Mad Scientist.

Frostgrave Series

Part 4: Status Update