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

2022 Benchmark Model: The First Attempt

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is a Benchmark Model?

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

Can I See My Growth Two years in a Row?

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

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

Battling your Worst Enemy, Your Mind.

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

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

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

So What am I working on this year?

2022 Painting Goals

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

Master the airbrush

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

Learn more Skin Tones

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

Paint out of my comfort zone

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

Gain a better understanding of volumes

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

Color Theory?

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

Painting Hair & Fur

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

Utilization of Environment & Basing Methods

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

Setting the Standard: Benchmark 2022

Now lets get into the painting of the model.

Breaking Out the Airbrush

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Devil is in the Details

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

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

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

Just Calling it Done

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

Frost Giant final paint job
Frost Giant final paint job

It all comes together!

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

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

Final Photoshoot

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

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

On to 2022

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

Happy Hobby,
Carrie, Crazmadsci the crazy mad scientist

crazmadsci Developing Skill

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


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.

  • First Ever Print August 2018
  • One of the Most Recent Prints August 2021

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 Support Calibration Testing

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)
  • Hold My Dwarf, miniatures of madness (resin)

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

Previous Posts

crazmadsci Developing Skill

Cottage Kingdom of Thamarya Status Update

Typically when you aim to create a building for tabletop gaming the first building is typically a cottage or standard house would be created as a starter piece. However this is my third building type from the Kingdom of Thamarya Kickstarter (Previous: Blacksmith & Fisher’s Hut). What is most unique about this particular building from CastnPlay is that you can choose to print three different variations of the building making it one of the most bang for your buck.

I printed two of the three versions, the two story and a three story with an attic/ gable on top. The only version that I did not create was the standard three story. Overall these buildings were the easiest of all the buildings thus far to print. For FDM printers the majority of all layers of the buildings printed in singular pieces, with exceptions of the roofs. I did choose to print the entirety of the 3rd floor in pieces rather than a whole for FDM 1st layer choices and supports (More info: 3rd Floor Print Log)

Feel free to check out the Cottage Project Page for the Print Logs, Assembly Guides, and overall summary/review of the Cottage so far.

As for the current status: I am now officially on the final Painting step for these buildings! WOOHOO. The hope and intent is to paint them in tandem with the Blacksmith. However I did attempt several new things regarding my post processing steps with these cottages after assembly.

Two Cottage Buildings Primed and ready for painting.

Always Trying Something New … Or Forced To

Whenever I do projects it is very common to attempt new things for personal growth and learning. In this case I tried three new new things.

  • The Use of Spackle/ Drywall Compound for smoothing the underside of my roofs for improvement in finish.
  • Magnetizing some of the layers for the building.
  • Use of 0.5 inch foam for architecture flavor!

These were important steps for finishing the cottage but added a significant amount of time to its overall steps before priming.

I also was forced to try something new after priming my models because they melted and warped in the sun… Oops! I’ll talk about what I did to save these pieces as well.

The Search for the Best Compound for Terrain Gap Filling

On each and every single building so far I’ve attempted to use a different medium for gap filling between the pieces in the assembly for the buildings.

Fishers Hut: Green Stuff (Base & Roof)
Blacksmith: Milliput (Blacksmith Roof & Stair Modification)

So far each of these various tools had pros and cons in its usage. I have enjoyed Green Stuff for its sculpting capabilities but spreading over large areas was a problem. For several of these buildings I have not been the happiest with the underside appearance of the roofs due to support settings and the difficulty of the curvature of the sculpts. I have experimented using different settings such as support density but still have not perfected these prints for this particular set of buildings.

In general the underside of the pieces would never matter and almost no one would see them however I have a particular opinion that “I’d know and would see it”.

Example of Underside of Roof Pieces.

For the Blacksmith however I tried Milliput on the underside of the roof which had better spread capability than Green Stuff. It also dried harder and was easy to sand and cut away. The downside was that I tended to use a lot of it and it bunched together with itself to become bumpy without the use of lots of water.

So this time around I decided to try Dry Wall Compound also known in the US as Spackle. I ended up buying a small container of it online: “DryDex Spackling” as a 1/2 Pint (8 Fl Oz or 236 mL). I didn’t want to buy a large container because I had no idea if I would like it.

The fascinating thing about it was that it starts pink and as it dries turns white. This is great if you want to know if you can move onto the next step.

Before and After Drying

Overall I found it easy to smooth but terrible for sculpting. Some of the underside of the wood beams of the 3rd floor for example I tried to sculpt and found it extremely difficult and almost not worth it. The dry wall compound tried well and you could sand it smooth. Personally I hate the chalky texture and it definitely makes a mess when sanding. The use of a damp wash cloth or paper towel helped to clean up my workspace though.

The Sculpt attempt at wooden beams

Due to Dry Wall Compound and its actual purpose in home building you can simply prime on top of it without need of any additional steps once done.

What Did I learn? Its a great cheap choice for covering a large area, easy to smooth, see when dried, but not idea if any sculpting or more specific work needs to be done.

Have you used dry wall compound on any of your hobby projects? How was your experience? Is there something else I should know or test?

Do I like Magnetizing too much?

Ever since I experimented with magnetizing the Hydra model to have swappable heads, (Read Here: “How Do You magnetize Models Anyway?”), I admit to being a bit of an addict to using my new pin vise toy and magnets. Since these buildings came in so many sandwiched layers of; floor, walls, floor, walls, roof, walls roof, I did notice that the buildings as a whole were a bit top heavy. I want to keep the buildings completely modular and have playable interiors so gluing them all together was not idea. Instead I decided to experiment with magnetizing my FDM buildings to provide more structural integrity.

Magnetizing FDM is slightly different than Resin as my buildings in particular have very little material inside. I most commonly print all my pieces with only 5% infill meaning that 95% of the space inside the model is completely hollow. The buildings are still quite strong but simply drilling a hole in the model could lead to a magnet falling into the abyss.

The steps for magnetizing these models:

  1. Find the two pieces that fit together & check their fit
  2. Use a small pin vise and drill a pilot hole (I used a 2 mm bit)
  3. Use a larger bit to drill out the hole for the magnet. (Predominately used a 6.5mm bit)
  4. Mix some green stuff and push into the hole. This creates a sticky compound to keep magnet at surface of print without falling in.
  5. Check the fit of the magnet (6x2mm magnet)
  6. Check the polarity of the magnet. Make sure opposing magnet is opposite pole. To mark side that goes into the model I would mark with a black sharpie.
  7. Apply Glue. Not necessarily needed for FDM since green stuff will harden and hold magnet in place.
  8. Use toothpick to navigate magnet into hole.
  9. Once dried check model again for fit and polarity.
  10. Optional: If desired could add super glue on top of magnet to ensure it does not fall out.

Note: Bold indicates new steps for FDM and crossed out is not needed.

In order to make sure magnets on both ends would match I did add bright acrylic paint on top of the magnet and combined the two pieces together to indicate where the opposing magnet holes are needed.

In Progress Shots of Magnetizing the Building.


In the end I magnetized the 1st floor Base & Walls on both buildings. I also magnetized the entirety of the 2 story Cottage and 3rd Story addition to 2nd Story roof. Overall I did use 6 x 2 mm magnets and once used 4×2 mm magnets but preferred the strength of the the 6 mm diameter. The strength and fit feels really great with the one notable exception of the 2nd Story roof. I ended up putting magnets and drilling into the dry wall compound and due to the extra layer of spackle the pull force was not quite strong enough and is debatable on its value.

Trying to Add Architectural Elements

The one thing I wasn’t the happiest with regarding the design of this cottage is unfortunately a combination of weakness in printing models in filament and the sculpt itself. However it is also one thing I love about these buildings. As you can see the cottage gets wider as you climb up from the 1st story to the 2nd story of the building. To my knowledge this was a common architectural element of the medieval time period. The process of widening on subsequent floors in known as Jettying. If my rusty high school history lesson memory can be trusted, this was done because people were taxed based on square footage of 1st story. Therefore slowly expanding your house’s footprint going up was used. Others say that this technique is to increase space on the ground level for street traffic. Regardless I wanted to see if I could include it in the build itself.

The largest feature visible on these homes is the addition of support beams used and extruding from the underside of the next floor. I absolutely love this additional flavor in detail.

Stock Photo of French Street depicting Jettying

Why is this important for the Cottage? Well due to having to print the 2nd story floor completely flat against the build plate. There is absolutely zero detail for painting on the underside of the floor. This one aspect of the design of the building drove me nuts so I decided to try my hand at cutting foam and using it in conjunction with the building to add this architectural element. As a result it would add detail to an area of the building greatly needing it.

However, I have never tried using foam before. I know that foam is one of the core elements in almost all tabletop crafters toolboxes but has not been apart of mine…. until now.

I ended up purchasing Pink Insulation Foam, XPS that is 1/2 inch thick (6.35 mm) and cut a long sliver out of it to match the thickness of the existing wooden beams on the exterior of the cottage. Then cutting down length to size glued to the bottom of the wooden floor. I learned the hard way that you SHOULD NOT use superglue to glue the foam to the PLA which apparently melts the foam… oops. Silly Chemist you should know these fundamental principles. Well guess not. If you want to glue to PLA with XPS try PVA (Elmer’s Glue) or Hot Glue.

In general I was pretty happy with the appearance of this extra, wooden beams. To solidify the foam I also put on two coats of Mod Podge which stiffened and added extra adhesion for the foam to the PLA while also making it easier to paint later. The only downside is that I did not sculpt out the detail for wooden timbers before adding the mod podge. Guess I will have to go old school and paint on the detail. I was also able to prime the foam after the mod podge with a can of spray paint without melting the foam!

What do you think? Is this a worthwhile addition in detail?

How Much Heat is need to Melt your Building?

Yay, I finally finished all the post process cleanup to be able to paint! Or well so I thought. Since I do not own an airbrush I will prime my miniatures and terrain outside using a spray can and bring inside my enclosure to dry and ventilate out. However since I was working on two different copies of the Cottage I had many large pieces and they did not fit easily in my enclosure. So I left them to sit overnight outside.

Little did I know that it was going to be an incredibly warm the next day and my filament 3d printed pieces warped under direct sunlight. I almost entirely print on my Prusa MK3S using PLA or Polylactic Acid as the filament material of choice due to its ease in printing, releasing less toxic fumes as other alternatives, and low cost. However printing PLA requires a melting temperature of around 180 C or more for printing. Even on a hot day where I live my heat would only get to around 30 C or (85 F), 5 times less than what I print at. Regardless around lunch time when I went out to get the prints from the back porch I found this….

Both the 1st Story and 2nd Story floors warped. You can see the curve in the pieces themselves. Needless to say I was really frustrated and disappointed especially after taking the time to magnetize the 2nd story floor (I did not have the 1st story magnetized yet).

Talking to my amazing husband we cooked a plan to bend them back. Using the same heat that warped them we set the pieces out in the sun and used wooden blocks and weights added pressure points to bend them back flat. Overall It did really really well. I’m pretty satisfied with the results.

However the downside which was completely unpredicted. The pieces themselves shrank. This resulted in the male/female pegs of the floors not matching up with the walls anymore. None of the connections to the warped pieces would work. This was the primary requirement for magnetizing so much of the building. To salvage the parts without having to reprint I ended up cutting off the male pegs and magnetizing walls to all previously warped floor pieces. The end result definitely shows some more gap than I would like between sections of the building but we did save the buildings without having to reprint so much of it.

I am super surprised that the pieces shrank and will definitely have to go read more on the mechanical properties of PLA.

Read More About the Cottage Review, Printing & Assembly

What’s Next?

I have really been enjoying catching up on the documentation of my projects and working on these houses. So far I think the Kingdom of Thamarya Project is a fan favorite for many of my readers and Instagram followers. I am still a write up or two behind for this particular project as I finished printing the General Store and am currently in the process of assembly. Stay tuned for the project page on that building! I have also started printing the Mausoleum. Pretty soon I am going to write a status update on the Kickstarter as a whole and an in depth review of the project so far.

I have also been working really hard to update all the print logs for the Lost Adventures Vol 1 Kickstarter project.

Thank You

Lately I have received so many positive messages regarding the work I have been doing on getting this site up and running and following along with my projects. It means so much to me, Thank you.

Let me know in the comments what you think of my latest installment to the Kingdom of Thamarya.

Happy Hobbying,

Carrie aka Crazmadsci the Crazy Mad Scientist.



crazmadsci Developing Skill

How Do You Magnetize Models Anyway?

Over the last several weeks in between a nice vacation to see my family after almost a year, my 30th birthday, and preparing for our new arrival to the family (about a month to go!), hobbying has been slow but steady. Overall I’ve been working on tieing up loose ends in my attempt to 3D print all the miniatures from the Lost Adventures Vol 1 Kickstarter. I have been printing a significantly large amount of miniatures and keeping track of them has been complicated along with keeping the models safe from my one year old. However I’ll get into that storage and project management at a later date.

I recently did a project that i’m immensely proud of and thought i’d share my experiences…. I magnetized my first ever miniature successfully!

Magnetized Model of a Hydra


For some this sound silly but for others this is an incredible feat that opens up the realm of endless possibility. If you do not understand what I mean by magnetizing miniatures let me explain. Magnetizing miniatures commonly occurs on models where the player or hobbyist desires to be able to swap out arms, heads, weapons or more on the model. This could be done for aesthetic reasons or be a functional part of gameplay. Players could “purchase” weapon upgrades or armored machines could be “destroyed” and fall apart while actively playing a game.

In the case of this project I magnetized, a Hydra. This Hydra model I got my the Lost Adventures Vol 1 Kickstarter and it has been on the list of things to print. Finally getting it printed and coming out terrifically I decided to add some extra TLC to this figure. For information regarding my print history check out the print log, Hydra Horror.

For the extra work for this model I desired to simulate a core behavior of this ancient Greek and Roman mythological monster. If you are not familiar with a Hydra, it is most famous for its mythological fight with Hercules son of Zeus.  I was first introduced to this ferocious monster in the 1997 animated film “Hercules” by Walt Disney Pictures.

In the movie Hercules is seeking to become a hero and is baited by the minions of  Hades to fight a Hydra. This young and arrogant man takes his sword and repeatedly cuts off the head of the Hydra. Little does he know is that a Hydra is capable of regrow its head and replacing it not with one but two new Heads. This was the behavior I wanted to simulate.

Animated Hercules fighting the Hydra in the beginning.
The result of the Hydra after getting heads cut off in the movie.


While working on my project of printing the miniatures from the Lost Adventures 1 Kickstarter I encountered the perfect model.

Their Hydra Horror named “Malgáthez the Devourer” sculpted by two freelance sculptors,  Artem Bespalov & Deryck Pelligrini, is a Hydra that comes with a main body, 5 neck slots and the choice of either 1 neck or 2 necks for each slot. This allows for the flexibility of this model to be created with 5 to 10 heads in 120 possible combinations. Now I will admit that I did not actually realize that there were 10 printable necks for only 5 printable slots until I accidently printed them all up regardless. I mindlessly just filled my Phrozen Sonic mini 4K build plate with models and hit go. Not wanting to waste any resin and seeing the opportunity for something really and truly epic I decided to attempt magnetizing the model. Yay for happy accidents.

I then again was faced with questions in the hobby space. How in the world do I magnetize a model? Where do I begin? What tools do I need? Is this worth investing into?

Normally I would be hyper critical and ultra analyze others and their projects for magnetizing models reading blog posts, searching forums, watching youtube videos. But for some reason I decided to blaze into the challenge blind. Which I should say was a ton of fun. I was not completely oblivious to the process of magnetizing models as a viewer of hobby youtube channels have shown this being done several times throughout the years of watching. However those are typically 30 second clips in 15 minute videos with no obvious guide.


In this case I knew a few things that I needed.

  1. Magnets
  2. A way to create recesses in the model for the magnets

Goals:

  1. Magnetized each neck to be replaceable on the model
  2. The magnet should be strong enough to hold the neck in place
  3. The magnet cannot impede the fit of the neck on the model and sit as seamlessly as possible.

Project Shopping

Now I had an idea of what I needed I decided to tackle the first problem: what size magnets? Knowing that I desired the strongest possible for the size chosen regardless I restricted my search to rare earth, neodymium magnets. I have previously used magnets in terrain such as my magnetized dungeon tiles using 5mm sphere magnets. I have also gotten magnets for other projects and had 3x1mm cylinder magnets for a previous attempt at magnetizing miniatures. These were not strong enough for the weight in last attempts for magnetized storage. I also had some 6×2 mm cylinders from a project I was supposed to do years ago…

Knowing this I decided I needed a bigger magnet than 3×1 cylinders but smaller than the 6x2mm. The end goal was to hide it in the model itself and not have it show through. Therefore I needed to purchase something in between. Normally this is the time where i’d go online and try to hunt for the very best deals and in some cases wait months for my magnets to arrive. Since in this case I wasn’t sure what I truly needed and wanted to get stuff moving off the tabletop. So I decided to go through Etsy to buy magnets. Etsy is not only a site where people can buy most commonly crafted goods & even 3d printed miniatures but also materials. Finding a vendor I ordered some 4x2mm cylinder magnets. My order was quick and much faster than if I ordered from a large magnet site that could take months.

With part 1 of the things I needed down I had to figure out a way to make holes in the solid resin model pieces to place the magnets. I already owned an affordable pin vise as I tried to learn its variable uses. Pin Vise link shown on the right.

However I did not have any drill bits that were big enough to make one hole for the magnets I ordered. Knowing I wanted to make only 1 hole to cut out as clean of an area as possible I ordered a set of big bits for these types of projects.

Being so excited to have my pin vise, magnets and models I set out on my mission. Only to discover that the pin vise would only hold up to 3.5 mm bits…. well I guess I need to find another tool for the job. After doing some research and even considered 3d printing a vice from thinigiverse I merely purchased a beefier vise on amazon that can hold all my new drill bits.

Magnetizing in Summary:


After buying all of my fun toys. I was off to the races! Overall this was surprisingly easy to accomplish. Each neck had a great fit into the main body and overall lead to making sure the alignment of the magnets went by super smoothly. I did not have to worry about the neck being too off center from the body due to the pretty impressive male/female pegs cut in the STL. Shout out to Lost Adventures Co and their sculptors for that hard work. In almost all cases the fit and form of the neck to the body was pretty close to seamless, well for a body that has swappable heads.

As for the strength of the magnets I only encountered trouble on neck #2 (moving left to right). Due to the fact that this neck is pointing down with gravity this neck needed a stronger magnet in order to stay in place. I ended up not realizing that this was such an issue until after the magnet was glued into the body. However I was able to cut out the magnet from the double necked head and replace it with one of my 6×2 mm magnets. This provided extra strength and helps attach the neck. Unfortunately the neck is very sensitive to movement and is more likely to fall off. All in All i’d recommend potentially gluing this head and magnetizing the rest to make it more sturdy.

Magnetizing Process:

  1. Find the two pieces that fit together and check their fit.

This was the time to check to make sure that no support marks were left on the model and I indeed have the correct pieces to go together.

  1. I used my small pin vise and drilled a pilot hole

I did this to help with the use of the big drill bit and assist in not shattering the resin model with force. Overall this helped to center the larger bit as well.

Hydra with pilot hole
  1. Use the larger bit (4mm) to drill out a hole.

I always ended up having to go a deeper than I thought I needed to. This accounts for potential space with the glue & fragments. I’d rather have the magnet slightly inside the model as opposed to sticking out.

  1. Check the fit of the magnet.

    If magnet did not fit correctly then I extracted the magnet from the hole, commonly using a pair of metal tweezers and repeated step 3 as needed.
  1. Check the polarity of the magnet.

    Overall I wanted the necks to always be attracted to the body. This was overall accomplished really well with the exception neck 2 of which I got the polarity flipped.  Most commonly I would mark the side of the magnet that would have glue on it and go into the hole drilled with a black sharpie pen so I could remember which side was which.
  1. Apply glue.

For my 3d printed resin models I used super glue.

  1. Using a tooth pick help navigate the magnet into the hole.

I made sure not to use a metal tool placing the magnet so that way the magnet would actually go into the hole and stay centered in the hole. If using a metal tool the magnet was “accidently” pulled away and glued to the tool. No of course this would never happen to me…..

  1. Once safely dried enough check model again for fit and polarity.

If polarity was accidently reversed then models would not connect and magnet would have to be removed and flipped. This only happened to me once or twice and was relatively easy to fix. I know this will not always be the case.

An example of a neck swap of one and two necks on the model.

Conclusion

This project has been a ton of fun and is one that I will take pride in. I am definitely intimidated with the concept of having 15 total heads to paint and what color scheme to paint the whole body. Should each neck slot be a different color like the famous Dungeon and Dragons Tiamat dragon? Should it all be the same? My husband thinks I should make the 2 neck variant a lighter color than the one neck to represent new growth. What do you think? Have you magnetized anything cool?

In Progress Shots