Crazmadsci

March 1, 2021March 2, 2021 crazmadsci Goals, Retrospective

State of the Crazy March 1, 2021 & February Retrospective

Update Quicklinks: Life, Painting, Printing, Blog, Hob b ystreak, Hobby Goals

Wow I can’t believe it is already time for another Retrospective, I can’t believe how much shorter February feels and it is only 2 or 3 days shorter than other months. Regardless lets get to it!

Last week I finished the Catfolk Fisherman from Lost Adventures 1. Stay tuned for a painting write up later in the week! I also spent a good deal of time cleaning up models, building another organization shelf on my desk, assembly of the Blacksmith (another write up on the way!). Not only that I FINALLY got to play a game of Frostgrave for the very first time. All of these things are actually so exciting for me I’m going to be releasing a post about each one this week.

All in All I feel almost like I’ve not accomplished anything last week. Perhaps it was due to having a visitor for several in my home for the first time since July. I kept up my hobbystreak but it was still incredibly difficult to deep dive into any one task. Instead I jumped around to various tasks and necessities I had around my hobbyspace.

Now for the retrospective….

Life of February

February was overall a quiet month. I feel like it moved in a blur without a massive milestone or event happening. The largest and most exciting thing that happened is that I saw more snow this month then I ever have living in Tennessee. Since moving further south it is rare to get snow and snow that sticks past noon the next day is a unicorn. While we didn’t get as much snow as many surrounding areas the 3 inches of ice and snow lasted almost a full week resulting in my handsome husband working remotely and the whole feeling like it shut down. There was zero infrastructure for snow that other than the interstate and highways no roads were treated or plowed. This was such a crazy concept for me as I grew up in the mountains. Regardless it was fun however I did run out of filament and almost out of resin waiting for a package that was 8 days late. No worries we still got plenty done.

Painting Overview

As for painting in the month of February I accomplished 1 miniature and 1 building. The building, the Fishers Hut took quite a bit of time and was a roll over project from January. Overall i’m happy with it. Enough so that I even put up my first display shelf in my hobby corner so I can see my created stuff and be inspired!

As for the miniature I completed the catfolk fisher from Lost Adventures Vol 1 the Tradefolk Storytelling Pose pack. While I feel like I could have done a better job and put more time into the paint job. I in truth got distracted and didn’t take good enough notes on the paints I used and couldn’t remember what to blend with. I guess that is what you get for juggling so many things at a time.

While I feel like I could have definitely spent more time painting this past month i’m still pretty happy with my progress and growth in skill. There is definitely a difference between some of the early paint jobs and now.

Catfolk Fisher

Fishers Hut

Printing Overview

For the month of February I got quite a bite accomplished in the printing category. As a whole I worked towards printing 4 different kickstarter projects I am currently juggling.

Lost Adventures Vol 2 (Greensea): This contains most of the miniatures I have printed this month including the Catfolk Fisher I painted. I am working towards printing everything and at this point have been making steady progress. Largest hurdles of what is released is two sets of models I wish to rescale smaller to true D&D scale and the 3 released buildings. FDM & Resin Print project
Kingdom of Thamarya: This is predominately the buildings I’ve been focused on printing, First with the Fishers Hut and now the Blacksmith. Next building is still slightly up in the air but I am currently leaning towards the cottage. FDM focused print project
Monstrous Encounters- Undead Rising: This FDM supportless miniature campaign I supported in 2018 and began printing in September 2020. I got distracted finishing this project when I started resin printing and desire to finish the collection. It is very close and I just got a page created for it to keep track of my progress! FDM exclusive print project
Lost Adventures Vol 1: Being the 2nd kickstarter by Danny the 3DPrintingDM from 3dPrintedTabletop, is also one of the kickstarters I aspired to complete as a 2021 goal. I have begun printing these models, more specifically the miniatures. Currently Resin Exclusive Print Project

Over the course of February I estimate that I printed:

Two Buildings

EverSpring Temple (Early Test print)
Lost Adventures Vol 2

4 Different Groupings of Terrain/Scatter:
Waterwell, Breadcart, jungle trees, and Fallen Jungle tree sets

Miniatures:
11 FDM Miniatures (Various Monsters from Monstrous Encounters)
73 Resin Miniatures (Lost Adventures 1 and 2)
Note this does not count duplicates and print failures.

All in all i’d call it a successful printing month. Wouldn’t you?

Blog Overview

As always this is the section i’m most critical. I keep having to re-evaluate my time and how long it is taking to do something. I have accomplished quite a lot in the month of February. Lets do a quick review of the blog.

Posts: 7 published (4 update posts, 3 painting posts).
Pages: 28

Posts vs Pages:
Overall I have been attempting to document the when of a project via posts and through my weekly updates. Pages currently consist of the How something was accomplished, directory of a project, or future information. Since posts do go to the “blog” section of my website and archives along with notifying followers of posts I am attempting to not spam but also publish consistently. The downside of this is that I update pages with significantly higher frequency than post resulting in the reader discovering less of the content that is being added. If you are reading this and have any suggestions i’m all ears.

Pages of note this month created are my Work in Progress (WIP) page. This houses a listing of all the current projects i’m working on. It directs to the various kickstarters I am working on and what is contained in them along with printlogs, what i’m currently working on, and what is in the print queue. I have been attempting to update each project’s page whenever I create a print log which is 2 to 3 times a week.

I have also created pages for the kickstarter projects I’m doing:
Lost Adventures Vol 1
Lost Adventures Vol 2
Monstrous Encounters – Undead Rising
Kingdom of Thamarya

The coolest part about the project page for me is that I am beginning to reference the site significantly more and more as time progresses as a way to track my own projects as opposed to using my Evernote and Trello Boards. It is really cool to see myself finding the site useful which was a goal all along.

As a result of attempting to make more of these foundational pages I am yet again behind on the print logs and data of what i’m working on. Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten and am working as much as I can.

Last but not least I surpassed my goal of the month and gained 4 new followers to the blog. I am so excited that people are showing interest. Thank you, truly and deeply thank you.

I also received my first comments to various posts on the site. I am absolutely tickled pink! I will respond to each and everyone if you have something to say.

Hobby Streak breakdown by Activity in February

Hobby streak documentation can be found on my Instagram. Breaking this down by what I did or worked on for the week helps me to visualize what I’ve been doing or focusing on. It actually has been really helpful to me as days can sometimes blur by.

Below is an overview of my month based on Hobbystreak documentation. As a whole I spent a lot more nights focused purely on the website while painting less. While I wish I painted more I do not think it is currently a loss. I do think it is hilarious that my photography time went up because I took photographs 1 more night than January.

2021 Hobby Goal Summary

February was a month of slow and steady wins the race. Nothing of significant note for the Goals but definitely making a dent.

Below I broke down my goals and color coded based on work put into. Green means essentially “on track” or “better than expected”. Yellow is “in progress” and Red means “no progress or does not meet up to goals currently.”

Painting

Paint an average of 4 days a week
- All but the last week I achieved this goal
Have greater than 183 hobby days (more days than not)
- 59 hobby days and 32% completed towards my goal
Create 12 different bases for miniatures
- Did not work on any basing in the last month
Paint to completion at least 24 models (regardless of size)
- Painted only 1 model last month making it 3 instead of 4 painted.
4 deep dives to paint techniques or methods/recipes of painting
- no progress

3D Printing

6 mega projects
- Making major progress to this goal with trying to wrap up Monstrous Encounters & starting Lost Adventures Vol 1
In-depth study of supports for FDM
- no progress
Learn how to support resin
Inventory 3D printing/tabletop collection
Develop a deeper understanding of print settings

Blog

Weekly update write ups (Mondays)
- State of the Crazy Posts do get written but not on time nor consistent.
Weekly Page addition to site (Fridays)
Complete Digital Catalog of what I have made
Complete Beginners write ups to 3D printing
Get 25 Followers to Blog 4 followers! Thank you people 25% of goal completed

Until the next time,
Crazmadsci aka Carrie Day

February 23, 2021March 1, 2021 crazmadsci Uncategorized

State of the Crazy: February 23, 2021

Update Quicklinks: Printing, Painting, Blog

Its Tuesday, I know I am late in getting the latest weekly update out. But I’m here. The last week my overall printing & painting production due to the crazy weather we had last week. I live in a southern state of the USA so winter weather is very rare. I grew up in the mountains so am all about the snow however I definitely learned that places without the infrastructure in place to take care of it the story is very very different. Our city essentially shut down for an entire week causing my husband to stay home and work remotely and my latest shipment of printing materials was delayed over 8 days before delivery so I ran out of my ESun PLA+ and almost ran out of my Elegoo ABS-Like resin. Lets just say I spent the week attempting to not have the baby interrupt his dads work day and I didn’t get much done.

Printing Updates

This week I made decent progress at finishing up sets of models currently released from the Lost Adventures Vol 2 kickstarter. I also have been working on and printing the Blacksmith from the CastnPlay Kingdom of Thamarya kickstarter and am on the last roof piece now. Assembly and print logs should be released next week!

All in all even though I did not get a long of printing done I started to knock out finishing major sections. I am going to have to pick what building to print next for the Kingdom of Thamarya. Check out the Project Page and don’t hesitate nominating what should be done next!

In Progress Printing:

Finally catching up on documenting and finishing this project from September.

Painting Update

I will absolutely admit that I am currently in a painting slow down in the last week. I have put time into progressing with my catfolk fisherman and am close to finishing him but have been so preoccupied with life and my mind on other things like attempting to flush out the blog that it has been hard to focus. My stamina with painting miniatures is also much much shorter than terrain or scatter. It is an area I am working to improve upon but until I can get all the projects down on paper this scatter brained feeling might be something I have to fight for a bit.

Latest progress shot of the catfolk fisherman from the Lost Adventures Vol 2 Kickstarter.

Blog Update

I have been absolutely loving how much people seem to be enjoying the blog. My mind is completely overwhelmed with catching up on backlogs, getting things photographed, and really cataloging my collection. This has been an incredibly difficult task since I started writing data for my print logs in July and I am caught up to September. I am really attempting to write up what I print as I print which makes most of January covered and February. So I just need to get September, October, November and December logs up to the site. I do not know why my brain is hyper focusing on this fact but I feel like that I have to tackle it in order to truly invest time into the other projects I have lined up for the blog. Slowly but surely it is happening. Perhaps next week we will see a crazy amount of print logs posted and project pages created for the Hold my Dwarf and Monstrous Encounters – Undead Rising kickstarters! Fingers Crossed.

Last week was a strange week as a whole but I was reminded by how much I’m motivated to create things that are meant to last and are truly special. My son has taken a serious interest in what I create, watching the printers run, and in some cases playing with the figures. It is incredibly difficult to keep things out of his reach but his joy is inspiring. I have started to have a box of dungeon tiles and sturdy FDM miniatures set aside in a box on the floor for him to play with. He will be a gamer yet! This keeps me going on those slow tough weeks.

Again thanks for reading. Feel free to comment on what you are working on as well. Happy Hobbying,

Crazmadsci

February 15, 2021February 23, 2021 crazmadsci Uncategorized

State of the Crazy: February 15, 2021

Update Quicklinks: Printing, Painting, Blog

Monday night! Its that time again. What shenanigans have I gotten myself into? Well in short my printers have been up and running again and I’ve been on fire producing and printing more stuff. So much so I have not yet finished all my print logs from last week. You know what that means, no more printing until I catch up! Never the less it feels really really good to be churning out stuff again after what I feel like was a series of unfortunate events for my Prusa.

Last week I finally finished not one but two major print projects and finished painting one of them. Combined these projects took me almost 3 weeks of consistent printing over a 4 week span. That is not including the downtime due to having to wait for parts or getting time in the day to repair my printer. In that same 4 week span I both rebuilt my extruder with a new heatblock and heatsink along with replacing the thermistor of my print bed. So last week felt incredibly rewarding. The two major print projects consisted of course of 1) The Fishers Hut and 2) The Everspring Temple. I have been test printing & assisting for the Lost Adventures Vol 2 kickstarter and the Temple was a building that I helped. Once the models are available for the public i’ll post my print logs for it. As for my resin printer i’ve been powering through some of the props from the Kingdom of Thamarya Kickstarter and miniatures from Lost Adventures Vol 2.

As for the blog and painting deep dives into the week check out below!

Printing Updates

This week in printing has been super productive. Overall I have been printing models from the Kingdom of Thamarya Kickstarter, props and started the Blacksmith along with Lost Adventures Vol 2 models including the Everspring Temple and lots of miniatures.

In Progress Printing:

Print Logs from last week:

Ettercaps & Matriarch: Lost Adventures Vol 2

Heartwood Tradefolk: Lost Adventures Vol 2

Heartwood Sages Storytelling Poses: Lost Adventures Vol 2

Dire Quipper & Swarm: Lost Adventures Vol 2

Painting Update

Over the course of last week I primarily worked on the Fishers Hut from CastnPlay and completed it! Wow what a long project. I truly started to doubt i’d ever finish it as I kept getting ideas to do more or was intimidated. Nevertheless I got it done and am pretty proud of it. My husband enjoys it so much that I’m also going to get my 1st display shelf hung! I know it is probably a deep dive into more and more of a rabbit hole taking over the house but i’m pumped to not have to put it away immediately.

Check out the full write up on the paint job!

Blog Update

Over the course of the last week, i’ve become a bit more confident about the site and begun to share it in more communities. Overall reception has been extremely positive and I think others are starting to see my dream and image of where I’m going with it. I still feel like there is never enough hours in the day but i’m working hard to set the foundation of what I want this to become preventing issues where an entire redesign is necessary. With that being said Printing & Painting website sections are in development to hold information, guides, and of course crazy ramblings.

I have begun to plan and scheme about a Collections section to provide a gallery or easier search tool so older projects & models do not get lost over time. The goal is for this to be as much of a catalog of my collection as well as inspiration for others.

As for write ups I did write a January Retrospective of what was accomplished and completed in January which I think I will pursue to continue throughout the year at the beginning of each month. I also have been catching up on write ups for my paint jobs in the month of January (I know i’m behind). These include the Siege Equipment from the Fantasy Props Kickstarter and the Purple Worm from the Dragonlock Miniatures Kickstarter. I still need to do my write up for the failed experiment of exploding bases and then would be caught up.

All in All it was a great week. Thank you to the TWO new followers to the blog I appreciate you! I am working hard and hope it shows. As always let me know if you have any suggestions of things you would like to see on the site along with project ideas.

Again thanks for reading. Happy Hobbying,

Crazmadsci

February 13, 2021February 13, 2021 crazmadsci Uncategorized

Fishers Hut: CastnPlay

Quicklinks: Paint Process, In Process Photos, Final Photos, Where to find STLs, Conclusion

Fishers Hut: Main Project Page, Print Logs, Assembly

This project has been both one of the most challenging and rewarding things to hit my hobby table in quite some time. This project began January 13, 2021 with the first print and overall took a combined time of 8 days and 45 minutes of printing costing approximately $22.42 in materials. I printed both in resin and filament and combined 58 unique pieces to create this fantastically fun scene. This also took about 13 hobby painting nightly sessions of painting to complete. I do not always get a ton of time to work at night due to having a young one to put to bed and my own exhaustion but I stuck with it. Thank you to all those on my Instagram who gave encouragement as I started to hit the inevitable project fatigue.

This building I tried several new things and in some cases just went with my gut to see where it would go. Previously and most commonly I like to see what others have done and attempt to emulate but for this paint job I mostly (with one notable exception) just let myself have fun with it. The largest area of experimentation that you can read about in the Paint Process section of this write up is the dock/planks of the fishers house.

I absolutely have fallen in love with the shape and color of the roof and the sheer character of the whole thing. The dock is fun and worn in color and stands out differently than the building wood which was a concern for me. I even used brass paint to detail the nails on the boards which pop in a way I didn’t expect. Overall i’m really happy with the build and do think my skills are improving.

Paint Process

After assembly of the hut, I primed the building in the 4 main categories: Base, Floor, Walls, and Roof. The base which consists of all the ground & rocks I primed Deep Gray using Krylon colormaster paint and primer. The Floor, Walls, Roof and other wooden props were primed using Krylon camouflage brown. This camouflage is supposed to be “Ultra-Flat” and I thought id give it a try. Due to constantly working at night to paint I tend to prime quickly outside in the cold and bring it inside to vent in my 3d printing enclosure. Not the best way but it works for me and there is no smell!

After priming, I couldn’t help myself and went straight to dry brushing the roof. I got the idea to use craft paint in “True Blue” by folkArt from watching GamingGeek’s video “City of Firwood 3D Printed Fantasy Terrain”. He reviewed a building and painted the roof blue which I loved and thought i’d try it. This might be my go to color for roofs in future projects! This did take a few coats and I also added a lightened True Blue to the edge as a top dry brush layer.

For the dock/pier of the hut I really wanted the wood texture to stand out. My concern is that the wood from the building and the dock would be too similar and not give enough depth of contrast. The thought and goal was to have the dock be made of older more reclaimed wood which has been bleached and aged in the sun. Taking inspiration from a photo much similar to this. Old wood can take on so many complex colors. So I dry brushed all kinds of things I could grab from various browns, tans, grays, and even included some red and orange. Originally I was not the biggest of fans but it really grew on me over time.

I did also jump around a bit in my excitement and worked on several different pieces simultaneously. One main area of experimentation was for the Base my first usage of Vallejo Ground Texture, Grey Sand (seen below). I used this on the ground base of the model and ended up needed two coats in order to get the coarse sand texture I wanted.

The building itself I used a neutral beige color to dry brush the walls and a light gray dry brush for the brick work. For the base I also attempted to use an acrylic wash technique of brown, orange and a tad bit of red to give more depth and color to the rock formation. I also painted the sand with a wash to bring the sand texture together with Agrax Earthshade. I probably should have used my own brown wash as I used a lot but was feeling a bit lazy, in the fact I needed to make more.

After the wash on the sand I also used a green wash around each of the rocks to simulate algae growth and staining due to those rocks being constantly sprayed by fictitious water. After the wash I dry brushed Delta Creamcoat Sand Dune color on top to bring it all together. I also dry brushed the rocks with light grey paint to bring the rocks into a more uniform coloration as well. This is the one thing I feel the most mixed about in terms of happiness but overall I think it works.

After all of these steps I proceeded to slowly add more props from the print and paint them as I put the onto the build.

Final Photos

Where to Find the STLs

This model is from the Kingdom of Thamarya Kickstarter which can be found on MyMiniFactory and consumers can purchase the core bundle for $35 or All In for $120. However if you would like the Fishers Hut can be purchased separately for $8.00 on MyMiniFactory. Design and creation is made by the company CastnPlay.

Conclusion

Overall, this was a marathon of a project. It is the perfect example of the great things that are happening here. The site, Instagram and much more has been done incredibly for me to stay focused and finish this project. It might have taken quite a long time to finish this but it still was much faster than how I would have otherwise.

This has been incredibly fun, i’ve learned a lot and can’t wait to do more!

See you next time. Sincerely,

Crazmadsci, Carrie

February 12, 2021 crazmadsci Uncategorized

Siege Equipment: Fantasy Props

Quicklinks: Paint Process, In Process Photos, Final Photos, Where to find STLs, Conclusion

Of all the things to paint first from the Fantasy Props Kickstarter project I did not expect that the first completed would be the Siege Equipment. This Kickstarter came with two siege equipment pieces one a Battering Ram and the other a Catapult. I did see that a trebuchet is added to the list of equipment by STL Miniatures in their most recent Kickstarter Firwood which is on my wishlist but alas I have too many buildings to print as is at the moment.

The one thing about the siege equipment that I loved is the modularity and having to assemble the set. I don’t know what it is but I love to build and assemble miniatures, terrain and buildings. So this definitely scratched the itch. While assembling I realized that painting these pieces would be really difficult to do so I was motivated to paint while assembling.

Paint Process

Painting was overall pretty straight forward with two primary components: Metal and Wood. You could of course weather these models with dirt and grime but that is currently beyond my skill set. This was also an interesting experiment because metal and wood are areas that I really want to focus on for improvement. I still do not quite understand the process of “True Metallic” painting and am frustrated painting all my wood pieces the same. Both of these pieces are deserving of a deep dive focus in my painting hobby.

Wood Paint Process

As a partial test to growing my methods of painting I decided to loosely use the Hist Arts Painting Wood guide. The wood paint process was relatively simple:

Prime Black
Earth Tone dry brush
Dry brush a bit with light gray (attempted this but did not do the whole model since it didn’t quite fit the look i was going for)

The painting technique from Hist Arts was definitely designed with large quantities of terrain to do and not requiring a lot of steps, which definitely fits their brand of creating molds for terrain.

Other things I tried was:

A wash for the battering ram I put a dark wash on the top but did not like the glossy finish so did not do the rest of the models.
The catapult I added a grey edge highlight to the model to try to get some of sculpt of metal components to pop. I am torn as to if I liked this method so did not do it on the battering ram.

Metal Paint Process

The metal component paint process was significantly simpler. I merely used a grey undercoat followed by a metallic paint top coat proceeded by a black wash. I let the wash go over everything which gave it a grimely look and since the sculpt had several dents built into the model it worked.

Overall however I felt like I could have done more or understood metal painting more. Its on the list but there are never enough hours in the day.

In Progress Photos

Photographs of pieces and some assembly.

The siege equipment was primed with a mixture of brown and grey Krylon rattle can primer. Although later I did paint most of the brown to black to follow the Hist Arts guide listed above.

Battering Ram

Catapult

Where to Find the STLs

Currently the files for the Fantasy Props kickstarter are not sold separately. These will be bundled with the entire Fantasy Props Kickstarter late backing. The sculpts and designs are now by the newly branded (November 2020) group on Patreon STL Miniatures.

STL Miniatures: Website
STL Miniatures: Patreon
Online Store: MyMiniFactory (only for past Patreon months currently)
Original Source of Files: 3D Printable Fantasy Props by Rafael Moreno Dominguez

Conclusion

Overall this was a fun project. This is also the perfect example of something I never would have made and painted without my goal of 100% printing the kickstarters I have backed. While I am working on a fully modular and functioning castle terrain build these would not have been made unless I had a campaign or tabletop game that needed them. So glad to have them in my collection and can’t wait to see what else I come up with. I finished painting these models January 30th, 2021.

Have you ever made something or painted something that is normally out of your wheel house or not something you originally intended? Let me know in the comments below.

February 9, 2021 crazmadsci Goals, Retrospective

January Retrospective

Update Quicklinks: Life, Painting, Printing, Blog, Hobbystreak, Hobby Goals

I’ve decided to do a monthly review of what I accomplished in the last month (January 2021). This is going to be great at the end of the year to evaluate my annual goals as well as have a better grasp of what i’ve accomplished. It is so easy to take for granted what you have already achieved. So here it is my January Retrospective.

This has been incredibly hard to do as there is a lot to unpack in the month, in project development, site evolution and well just life.

Life of January

The biggest life related things that threw a curve ball into everything is the fact that I truly believed I was going to move 800 miles and start over putting down roots in a whole new place. I started packing the house, signed a lease for a new place, and even started organizing my hobby stuff in anticipation. I attempted to use all of my resin I owned and finish up spools of filament left laying around in order to reduce the “stuff”. Turns out long story short, we did not move and decided to stay. WOW what a roller coaster. We also discovered that the baby on the way this June is going to be a boy! So all around super exciting for this crazy household.

Painting Overview

Overall I would say my painting is the weakest part of my hobby skill. However being able to finish projects has given me an increasing level of confidence along with all the positive comments and likes on my Instagram, yay for dopamine! As a result i’m finding myself experimenting more while painting and actually finishing projects more so than I would have otherwise. Over the course of January, i’ve painted 2 miniatures: my Dwarf 2021 benchmark and the Purple worm. I also painted 2 pieces of siege equipment and 19 Tavern Dungeon tiles . On top of that I’ve started painting the Fishers Hut from CastnPlay and should be finishing painting shortly. This is probably one of my most productive hobby months to date in painting mostly due to the hobby streak.

Printing Overview

Printing this month has been a bit all over the place. Overall my goal resin printing was to attempt to print as much of the resin I had left and use it before I moved (not anymore). I did not want to move with any opened bottles of resin so I made ALOT of small bits from the Fantasy props kickstarter along with weapons from the STL Miniatures patreon Blacksmith. As I am still new to resin printing and learning how to gauge how much resin is in my vat is a developing skill. There was a lot of slow experimentation. I also printed some props that I was missing or pieces such as the siege equipment. I also started the props and bits for the Fishers Hut.

As for my FDM printer I made the Fishers Hut building! This was an incredible amount of fun and I spent a lot of time into learning the prints and began the development of my new preferred support settings. This is one of the first released buildings from the Kingdom of Thamarya kickstarter and CastnPlay is still optimizing the files for printing. Throughout the process I took a ton of notes and submitted some feedback which I hope helps the future community. I have also started printing a very very large building as a test printer for the Lost Adventures Vol 2 Kickstarter. This is still in progress into the month of February.

Blog Overview

This is an area that has seen a lot of growth as well as frustratingly not. As a whole I am only posting approximately 50% as frequently as I hoped coming into the new year. However the pieces that I do post i’m proud of. I definitely have been going above and beyond the original goal and believe I am building the foundation of something truly great. One such example is the write up for the Fishers House with printing logs, assembly guide and in progress painting write up. I have not been writing as much content for others getting into the hobby as I would have hopped but believe it will come but my imposter syndrome makes me feel like I have to “earn my street cred” with the projects I have done before I start writing about it. I am attempting to take better notes as to what I’m posting when so I can get a better summary of all the work that is involved in the site for my own understanding and appreciation of the work I am putting into it. I know i’m being harder on myself but look forward to the day I get my very first comment on the site. So far interaction in views is growing but likes and comments are still non existent.

Thank you to the TWO new followers I gained in the month of January! You know who you are.

Hobby Streak breakdown by Activity in January

	Painting	Photography	Modeling	Website	Misc	Primary Project that Week
Week 1	5	1	1			Purple Worm basing
Week 2	3		1	2	1	Benchmark
Week 3	5		1		1	Organization/Website
Week 4	3		2	1	1	Siege Equipment
Week 5	3					Fishers Hut Assembly/Prime
Total	19	1	5	3	3
Percentage of Month	61.29%	3.23%	16.13%	9.68%	9.68%

2021 Hobby Goal Summary

As for project development I have 100% printed all the models form the Fantasy Props Kickstarter which has been a ton of fun. I have ended up with more scatter terrain than I ever thought I would have otherwise and even some pieces which are super unique and wouldn’t be in my collection otherwise. This has definitely started thoughts on future write ups for things such as “What is too small to be on your table?” “What prompts you to get out of your comfort zone” and “How much dungeon dressing do you really need?” I’m interested to see how these pieces will be used in the future. I am overwhelmed in write ups for this project but have learned some great lessons regarding the data management component of printing.

Painting

Paint an average of 4 days a week
- Estimate 61% of the month
Have greater than 183 hobby days (more days than not)
- 31 hobby days and 16.9% completed towards my goal
Create 12 different bases for miniatures
- Completed the experimental “expoding base”
Paint to completion at least 24 models (regardless of size)
- Painted two miniatures (Purple Worm & Dwarf Benchmark)
4 deep dives to paint techniques or methods/recipes of painting
- I’ve begun research but not actually dove into anything

3D Printing

6 mega projects
- completed Fantasy Props Kickstarter is finished printing, writing in progress
In-depth study of supports for FDM
- Support Tests have been started. Deepdive in progress
Learn how to support resin
Inventory 3D printing/tabletop collection
Develop a deeper understanding of print settings

Blog

Weekly update write ups (Mondays)
- State of the Crazy Posts do get written but not on time nor consistent.
Weekly Page addition to site (Fridays)
Complete Digital Catalog of what I have made
Complete Beginners write ups to 3D printing
Get 25 Followers to Blog 4 followers! Thank you people 16% of goal completed

Until the next time,
Crazmadsci aka Carrie Day

February 8, 2021 crazmadsci Uncategorized

State of the Crazy: February 8, 2021

Update Quicklinks: Printing, Painting, Blog

Its that time again! Monday and its time to recap what I accomplished in the last week. I missed last week, apologies as I got carried away with projects that it completely slipped me by. I am attempting to do this every Monday and a skip should not be common.

The last week overall was relatively quiet as I spent a lot of time attempting to game plan and catch up on write ups regarding what I have accomplished. The overall goal of the site is to “Keep Up” with the current happenings of my hobby life rather than always back track. However I have print jobs going all the way back to September that I need to write up and it is taking quite a bit of time. I’m getting better about maintaining logs of the last week but going back so far with partial notes takes time.

Anyways below are the highlights for the major categories!

Printing Updates

The printers have been pretty silent lately. I focused on data management and did some test printing for Lost Adventures Vol 2 kickstarter. It did result in my stupidity when I sheered off the nozzle to my printer and was forced to replace the heat block and heat sink for my Prusa. Waiting for some parts in the mail as I didn’t expect having to replace the heat sink killed a few days of printing but i’m up and running again!

Preforming surgery on my printer and replacing the hotend.

Painting Update

I have predominately been focused on painting my Fishers Hut print which has been going slowly. I keep trying new things and have been enjoying it. However I am definitely starting to feel the fatigue and itch to paint new things. I’m thinking miniatures are definitely meant to be next.

Blog Update

This is an area I spent the most amount of time on. Believe it or not I have been putting a lot of work to attempt to make this site super user friendly and searchable. There is a lot required to build the foundation of a project to build off of for the future. There is both a lot of work on the back end and front end that is coming through.

The largest thing that shows the amount of depth I hope to achieve with my projects, especially big projects can be see with the write up of the Fishers Hut by CastnPlay. This write up includes print logs, assembly guide and am actively working on painting as we speak. All is interactable and reference capable if you want to see what is included in the model or need help printing and assembling yourself.

I also started a home page for the entire kickstarter the Fishers Hut came from the Kingdom of Thamarya where you can see all the models in the kickstarter, what i’m actively working on, and what is currently available to print. Let me know what you think!

All in all I have definitely fallen into the rabbits hole of goals and projects that I desire for this site. It will take sometime to truly bring it to life and I greatly appreciate those who have already shown support, it really means a lot to me. Thank you to the new followers to the blog in the last week as well.

Please do not hesitate to comment down below with feedback, criticism or ideas what you would like to see. Have an idea or special request on a project don’t hesitate to ask!

Again thanks for reading. Happy Hobbying,

Crazmadsci

February 2, 2021January 9, 2022 crazmadsci Uncategorized

2021 Benchmark Model

For 2021, I decided to paint a “Benchmark” of my skill growth for the year. The goal is to see the before and after of how I have developed as a painter. This year I decided to paint a model from the Hold my Dwarf kickstarter set. This duel wielding swordsman, from the Solider Set 5 collection, contains several aspects on what I really want to focus and improve upon on for the year. The areas of desired growth and questions I ask myself are listed below.

At the end of the year I will print another version of the model and paint a new model and talk about my personal growth. I am interested and excited to see where this experiment goes.

Aspects of Desired Growth

Fur: Can I learn to paint fur better that it could even dictate the type of animal it comes from? Potential area to improve skills and knowledge in drybrushing?
Armor: Methods and ways of painting True Metallics in miniature figures. Can I make armor shine? What are the different types of metals?
Weapons: How do I make metallics & weapons look more battle worn and dinged?
Skin: Starting completely from scratch. Largest desire is to have growth and variety in skin tone for my miniature collection.
Hair: Much like skin I have not put much effort into growing or researching this area in miniature painting.
Clock: Layering and contrast. Can I improve my layering? Make smoother transitions in blending the layers? What methods & techniques work best for me?

Technical aspects I seek to improve upon

Improving Brush Control
Zenethial Highlighting & Source LIghting
Basing. Can I make the miniature tell a story

Adjacent Goals

Improve my miniature photography.

3D Printing the Figure

Can I improve the state of the print itself?
Methods to improve post process clean up
Note I did break a hand/weapon joint and had to use green stuff to clean it up again

Progress Photographs

Final Photographs

Overall I am happy and satisfied with the display of my skill for this model. I have several things that I am frustrated on such as lack of choice in hair color and knowledge to create better more defined skin. I also would like to learn how to do gems/crystals for the sword hilt. I am really happy with the little detail in the green pouch and have received several comments about the swords being a key point of enjoyment.

One interesting comment which I think could lead to a great study or discussion on personal preference was the feeling of the figure being too “clean” as in not adventure worn enough. Adding dirt and grime to the model could give this dwarf a more warrior feel.

Paints Used

Also apparently as a goal for the year I am going to improve my formatting on documentation of paints used. I mean this is a thread on improvement right?

Continue reading to see how I grew in miniature painting a year later!

2021 Benchmark Model Final Comparison

January 25, 2021February 8, 2021 crazmadsci Uncategorized

State of the Crazy: January 25, 2021

Update Quicklinks: Printing, Painting, Blog

This week has been pretty quiet as I build up to some really big projects. Overall i’ve done a lot of printing, improved upon my frequency of writing content (lets keep it up!), and worked on solidifying my knowledge of supports for FDM printing.

Not a massive amount to report on but definitely starting laying the groundwork for some really cool things.

I did post a poll asking what my readers would prefer for Area of Focus for February to add to the site. Make sure you vote before the end of the month! Your vote counts.

Printing Updates

I have almost completed the Fisher’s Hut from Cast N Play which has been a really interesting challenge. The pieces are a cross of made for FDM and made for Resin making the print challenging in both worlds. There is definitely a lot to pack into this project and will results in a major write up for its construction, printing guides, feedback and data revolving around the project.

The last major update given about the building was me figuring out how the pieces fit together as I was slowly working on the walls. Since that public post on instagram I have since finished the rest of the walls, the roof, and am currently printing props for it on my resin printer.

I’ve been also printing to tests for a deep dive support knowledgebase for FDM printed supports and experimenting on those tests for the fishermans hut. Check it out.

The resin printing has been slow due to attempting to use every remaining gram of my anycubic grey resin before I move to my next bottle to test around brands. Most of these prints this week have been isolated props to grow my “bit box”. A lot of isolated props from the Fantasy Prop kickstarter as well as weapons from the January STL Miniatures kickstarter. I am now testing Elegoo ABS-like grey and have been calibrating to go back into mass production mode.

Painting Update

This week for painting has been slower as I have mainly been working on continuing the siege equipment Catapult and Battering Ram from the Fantasy props kickstarter. I also finished my 2021 Benchmark Dwarf last Tuesday.

Also as a documentation standpoint I’ve been attempting to catalog my paint library. We will see how that goes down the road as I only got about 1/4th of my collection logged. Need to focus on getting that finished this week.

Blog Update

As for the blog a major milestone happened this week. I’ve officially paid for real domain name of Crazmadsci.com. I felt like it was more appropriate than Crazy’s Musings as Crazmadsci is who I am and encompasses me more. It feels great to finally pull the trigger.

I also posted a brief write up as to why I’m not actively playing video games heavily for my community and friends who know me in that world. I have gotten a lot of questions lately and figured it was time for a write up.

As for write ups I got my Purple Worm project published as well which was exciting to finally get off my Trello board of things to do and out there. For painting I started to document my recipes/tutorials for myself to reference and perhaps help others. The first up is my homemade wash recipe. This will eventually go into a painting homepage which is actively in development.

Print Logs posted in the last week include: Weapon Racks & Candle Holders. Lets make this goal a new print log every day this week! I’m so close to wrapping up the project and the write ups are the majority of the issue slowing me down. I have significantly improved my documentation and speed for the write ups though which is great.

Progress is happening, slowly but surely. I have really really started to have a lot of enjoyment doing this. So much contentment at the end of my day to write and create for the site.

Until the next time,
Crazmadsci aka Carrie Day

January 22, 2021February 2, 2021 crazmadsci Uncategorized

Painted Purple Worm: Dragonlock Miniatures

So guys I painted a thing! My very first model of 2021 has been completed. Although I started it at the end of 2020 I am counting this in the 2021 model count. I printed and painted the Purple worm from Fat Dragon Games. I absolutely fell in love with the model and really wanted to try my hand at glazing as a paint technique. I still have a ton to learn but overall am really happy with the result. This model I also thought would be a great model to practice on improving my layering as there is so much surface area of the same color to really try to hone my skill in that area. I did not have to worry about accidently bumping paint into fine details due to its simplicity.

Notable Achievements/Proud Moments of painting this model:

Largest model ever painted to date and not terrain. All previous models have been medium to large monsters.
First model painted to completion in 2021
First model where I attempted to glaze
First model using Vallejo Earth Ground texture.

Unlike other models I did put a lot of thought and research into the model. For more information on the mentality and evolution I took to paint this model follow along below. Otherwise check out the final product. Let me know what you think.

Printing the Figure

This model I 3D printed on my Prusa mk3s of which you can find the print log here. It is labeled as a “Giant Worm” as the Purple Worm name is a license and unique copyright to Wizards of the Coast Dungeon and Dragons.

Above is the graphical images of concept art of the Purple Worm from all 5 monster manuals going from most recent to oldest left to right, top to bottom. Image credit goes to the WOTC Monster Manuals.

Price Comparison of Printed vs Purchased Models

Overall there are 2 primary and most popular models that I could find of a Purple Worm on the market. One created by D&D Icons of the Realm: Fangs and Talons – Purple Worm (~$50) and the other Reaper Miniatures- Bones Goremaw ($29.99). Since the Icons of the Realm figures are found with collectible boxes and not guaranteed the price of that model is around $50 (found on Miniature Market). Due to its higher price Purple Worms are commonly crafted by hand as there are plenty of guides online.

However if I were to buy the STL from Dragonlock Miniatures ($2.49) and 3D print today ($1.94) for material cost. Total personal cost of this miniature is approximately $4.43. This makes this model cost 85.3% cheaper than the cheapest competitor, the Goremaw model, not including shipping. Overall i’d say 3d printing is amazing.

Monster Research

When attempting to figure out my goals in painting this project I set out and did some home work reading up on the model and most notably listening to YouTube video for Purple Worm lore. This was fascinating and gave me so many ideas that I applied while painting this model.

My favorite video was “What They Don’t Tell You About Purple Worms – D&D” by MrRhexx

Based on the description of the monster. The Purple Worm is of course purple in color with a pale yellow underbelly. Its sides have hard crests and actually has a paralytic stinger in its tail (not shown in model). It is thought that the worm darkens as it ages making the deepest of purple marking an extremely old and terrifying creature to encounter. The worm is actually a relative of an aquatic monster and has a slimly skin giving it a shine. Part of the reason why the worm is purple is due to the valuable purple blood that courses though its body.

Painting Research

Also as a beginner painter I was curious how or what methods were utilized in painting Purple Worm models. Although at the time I found a picture of the model painted on the Dragonlock & Dragonbite 3D Printers facebook group I wanted inspiration. Overall I found 3 youtube videos that I found interested and gleaned various pieces of information from each. The largest downside is that due to the size of the model a lot of the painting is done by airbrush which I don’t have

Painting the D&D: Purple Worm by OnTableTop (a 3 Part Series)
Painting Reaper’s Goremaw (D&D Purple Worm) by Doctor Faust’s Painting Clinic
How To: Paint a Purple Worm by MWG Studios

Progress Shots and Mentality

Picture of printed Purple Worm/Giant Worm model from Fat Dragon Games

My poor attempt at zenithal highlighting. The idea was that since the monster was an underground creature the light source would most likely occur from a poor adventurer holding a torch. So instead of the highlight of color being from the top down i’d come from the bottom up. It is a great idea that I really enjoyed but do not feel like I captured that mentality enough.

Colors Added:

Base coat Daemonette Hide Citadel.
Base coated Battlefield Brown for base.
Worm Spikes are Vallejo Game Color Earth

1st attempt at Glazing using Liquitex Glazing medium and starting ratio around 4:1 glaze to paint. Integrating advice from Miniac’s youtube on glazing and Vince Venturella’s on glazing.

Starting a glaze of Heavy Violet on top of Daemonette Hide left a noticeable glossy texture to figure which in the case of this model works fine but is concerning for the future.

Continuing the glazing attempt I added Hexed Lichen from Vallejo Game Color to place on the top portion of the scales. Along with a top coat of Oozing purple from Army painter. The focus was to lighten the effect from the bottom of the plate having less paint moving upwards.

Adding a few dots of Pink Horror also added some extra pop around the spikes.

I proceeded to go back and forth adding darker and lighter in attempt to smooth out the noticeable layers to make an easier transition.

The mouth started with Rhinox Hide mixed with Scarlet Red to give a dark color of the mouth. Proceeded by a layer of scarlet red and pink horror as a top layer.

Using a combination of experimentation of several colors and layers helped build up the multi layered process of the belly. So much so I do not have an accurate color order of the belly. The overall goal was to leave the recesses of the model with the purple underbelly to indicate that you could see the blood veins of the model to match the lore.

Using my favorite process of painting bones I used that for the teeth, spikes and tips of the belly spikes.

I even experimented with the thought process of having rocks “fly” or explode out of the base as you can see from my tack and hot glue testing. Overall I did not fall in love with the method and opted to just do a plain ground base.

Future experimentation on the exploding base is coming soon!

Conclusion

This was a long project and overall I am very pleased with my result. I learned a lot and testing many different things. I think this definitely marks a turning point for myself in how I am thinking more deeply and purposefully in my painting.

Overall I think I have the promise of great growth for 2021 and can’t wait to see where I go.