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State of the Crazy: March 30, 2021

Update Quicklinks: Printing, Painting, Blog

Happy Monday late Tuesday evening everyone! I hope it has been a productive week for you and everyone is doing well. This crazy household has been well with the largest nonhobby related highlight being that we got a new car in preparation of adding yet another tabletop gamer to the family. ETA 2 months and counting!

This week has been surprisingly productive. Overall I could have sworn almost every print i’ve done over the last 4 days was going to fail as there were record storms of thunder, hail, and rain. It was the most rainfall in 48 hours recorded for my region in over 10 years. I cannot believe that we never lost power and that I kept starting 18 hour plus prints trusting our cities electricity, like a crazy person. But huzzah! I never had a fail and power never went out. This along with several other things has put this crazy crafter in a very great mood. 

Printing Updates


Printing this week has been immensely successful for me. In the last week or so I have taken the plunge into a new resin, the Epax Hard Grey resin. Previously I have been using Elegoo ABS-like resin and many of the supports on my prints have been failing. Many of the larger monsters don’t come out at all and pull off from the supports. However since changing materials it has been smooth sailing. I feel like my failure rate has decreased by an order of magnitude but would have to consult my spreadsheets more thoroughly for a definite value.

Here are some direct examples of Elegoo fails vs Epax Hard (dark grey) successes.


I have also been successful at printing and assembling quite a few larger monsters which always feels like an accomplishment even though I feel like I go through resin incredibly faster. Sorry wallet and handsome husband. Three finished and assembled monsters include a Graveyard Stone Golem, Guardian Dragon, and Ettin models. Several more have been started and are in progress of assembly.

For the FDM printer I have been finishing up the cottages from the Kingdom of Thamarya kickstarter. In this print project I decided to print not one but two buildings. There are 3 variations of the model, one being two story and two being different 3 story options. I opted to create the two story variant and a 3 story. This took an immensely long time and even longer because either i’m juggling WAY too many projects or my little dungeon master in training walked off with several roof pieces. Even my husband tried to help me find parts that I printed. In the end I was forced to reprint several pieces. Maybe one day in the future i’ll find some extra roofs laying around to use for who knows what. At least I have the magic of 3d printing to replace pieces.

Kingdom of Thamarya Cottages


I also lost a few pieces for the Blacksmith building and reprinted them. On top of that I printed for the first time with “Transparent” filament. Although PLA is commonly more yellow in color from production after modification and treatment people can create semi transparent prints. It can be complicated and a lot of features are involved to consider when printing. Knowing I wouldn’t get a true see through print was not important but I really wanted the coals from the Blacksmith to be glowing and will attempt to paint really thin layers to give it the effect I desire. All in all i’m really happy with the result.

First usage of transparent filament for a lighted coal effect

Painting Update

This week like the consistent theme of March I have been doing very little painting. I started to paint the plaster of the Blacksmith but just couldn’t fully immerse myself into the project. I realized that I still had pieces and things I wanted to do on the print itself before I could truly call it ready for painting. The first part was that I decided I wanted to try a glowing LED portion for the first time ever in any of my collection to date. Since it was a Blacksmith why not have a glowing forge of hot coals?

So I did a bit of modification to the original design and drilled and cut out a hole for a tea light. I also used a bit of milliput to smooth up the edges as I didn’t want sharp plastic rubbing or potentially cutting people as they pulled the light in and out to flip the switch. In an ideal world I would have modified the STL file before 3d printing it but too late for that now. Not wanting to paint any of the stonework until I had the hole drilled this was something I absolutely HAD to do before continuing on in the project. I think it went really well. Although it was a bit more difficult to cut out a hole because I had to cut through not one but two floor pieces that was a seam in the building assembly.

Tealight hole drilled into Blacksmith model

Blog Update

For the blog I have planned to start a Deep Dive series of write ups posted on Fridays regarding research, experiments, and methods revolving around a category in the tabletop hobby. I am really excited to see where this goes and would be keenly interested in hearing your thoughts as I progress through the month. For more of an introduction to what is a Deep Dive you can find my write up here.
I have slowly been cataloging more miniatures & sculptors as well but the process has been slow. The goal is roughly 2 miniatures logged a day which seems reasonable however as I encounter miniatures that I have 3d printed and/or painted and they do not have write ups I require myself to have a write up for them before the go in the index. It will get done but slow and steady wins the race. 

Conclusion

All in all its been a really great week. I solved the riddle to a lot of my 3d printing issues, changing resin brands. I assembled buildings and models i’ve had laying around. I have started tackling some of the storage problems I have inevitably begun having since my printers. On top of that I did two things for the first time, the use of tealights in my builds and printing with transparent filament.

Now if only I could have this kind of week of tying up loose ends every week.

As always happy hobbying. What have you been working on? Have a specific highlight you are proud of?

Happy Crafting,

Carrie aka crazmadsci

crazmadsci Deep Dive, Goals

Introducing: Crazmadsci “Deep Dives”

Introducing a new post series: Deep Dives

As a 2021 Hobby Goal it is my ambition to work on “Deep Dives” of 4 different major topics. This is a post series i’m extremely passionate about and look forward to starting.

What is a deep dive?

From an analytical standpoint a deep dive is an “intense, in depth analysis of a certain problem or subject.” What does that mean for the tabletop hobby? Well for one I want to research, explore and experiment with all the different ways myself or my fellow hobbyists tackle a subject in the tabletop space. Either painting, printing, playing or something perhaps something else entirely. A deep dive will document my entire journey, the successes, failures, and methods.


The Never Ending Questions


The primary goal of a deep dive is to begin to answer some of the many questions I face when crafting and playing. Some of those questions include:

Where do I even start for X Project? How do I break out of the rut of doing the same method over and over again? How do I make my collection of scatter, miniatures and terrain stand out and be unique as opposed to all look the same? What materials do I need? What problems will I face? What is the lore or history around this project?

The downside is that some of these questions end up becoming so overwhelming for me, projects never get completed or even started. Uncertainty and fear of messing up especially when I have so little hobby time can be debilitating.

Since the purpose of crazmadsci.com is all about sharing my experiences in the hobby, how about also including my experiments?

Introducing…


The crazmadsci DeepDives. This area of the site is going to be the location of all my “experiments” or rather rabbit holes. For painting I admit while learning and figuring out color schemes, paint recipes, paint techniques etc. I do have an affinity for painting along with others or taking the advice and experiences of others to heart. Almost every youtuber, guide writer or instagram poster has a different method of painting bone for example. Or depending on the area of focus either via 3d printing, buying kits, or foam crafting the process of painting terrain may vary based on materials and tools on hand. The goal of my deep dives are to attempt to figure out not only why these other hobbyists make these decisions but also what suits my current skills, materials, and preferences the most. Why not take advantage of time spent by others to figure out what works?

Perhaps painting bones, wood, metal etc in a dozen different ways apiece will give me a wide array of experiences and examples to choose from to help diversify my hobby playbook.

Deep Dive Goals


What are my goals for the Deep Dives:

1) Learn numerous ways of tackling a problem

2) Increase the diversity of painting in my collection

3) Grow in both mentality and skill for the hobby as a whole

4) Understand more the mentality of others who are also in the hobby

5) Create a collection of choices or swatches, when painting for future inspiration. A portfolio of sorts.

6) Document the process so I do not forget what i’ve learned and have reference material to go back to.

Deep Dive FAQ:


1) Will the deep dives stay purely focused on painting? 

Absolutely not. I plan on doing deep dives and focus research on many aspects of the hobby such as miniature photography, materials for crafting, various aspects of 3d printing and more that come along the way. I do want primary focus for the time being to be on painting though.

2) How do I choose what is researched? 

This will mostly be revolving around the subject matter that currently perplexes either myself or a reader. Once we encounter a question we will tackle it as it comes. However there will sometimes be some larger pre-planned projects resulting in a “series” of posts and experiments.

3) Once researched once will I ever go back?

Absolutely! As I grow in the hobby i’m sure my questions will as well requiring me to constantly come back and fine tune. I”ll try to keep every major category numbered to more easily follow along. Find more guides online that you think I should try myself and add to the collection. Don’t hesitate to bring them up as I will constantly be evolving myself.

4) Where will my “research” be coming from?

All of the experimentation will have references & links to the original source of that method. Sources will come from as many places as I can find: Youtube, Blogs, Random search engine responses, Pinterest, Facebook, Discord groups, etc. No credit will be taken in my hobby experimentation but rather become a repository to hear how something is solved in numerous different ways. All ideas, methods, and concepts learned from a particular location will have the citation to go with it so you can hear it from them as well. 

5) Format of Deep dives on the site:

The current intent is to post more about my current project progress rather than just start and finish. So hobby posts which subscribers/followers of the site get notified of upon publication will get updates of project progress after milestones are completed. Eventually upon project conclusion a reference page will be created so we all can go back and refer to images, paint schemes etc as needed. This will make it easier to find information down the road if you are not following along. Also all posts will be hyperlinked for easy navigation. Posts will occur on Fridays if a series is in progress. 

Potential Future Deep Dive topics

Current areas that I as a hobbyist am planning to investigate (No order of importance):

  • Painting Bone
  • Painting Wood/ Trees
  • Printing with Transparent filament
  • Supporting models in FDM & Resin
  • Miniature Photography
  • Flocking & adding foliage to my terrain
  • Painting castle/ruin terrain, various stonework
  • Painting Skin, humanoid and other

Conclusion

For the month of April I am currently planning on doing a 5 part series on a deep dive into painting Wood & Trees. Starting with its introduction on Friday, April 2nd. Stay tuned.

This will allow me to better compile my experiments while answering some of the many questions I have about the hobby. Perhaps others might have the same questions as well or if i’m lucky answers. These deep dives could also prove valuable in the years to come as I hope to repeat or reuse pieces of builds or add to my collection. Lastly the aim of this is to instill confidence and a form of accomplishment in the hobby. It is incredibly easy to always feel like nothing is ever done in a space of never ending goals and projects.

What kind of questions do you have in the hobby space? Have any questions about painting wood and trees? 

As always Happy Hobbying,

Carrie, aka crazmadsci

Wood Painting Deep Dive Part 1

New Website Sections!

I’ve recently added new sections to the website to make this conversation and others for deep dives more easily accessible. Found under Painting you can navigate to either the homepage of all Deep Dives or directly to Wood Painting for more easily accessible information and pictures of the color palette.

Deep DIve HomePage
Wood Painting

Previous Write Ups

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Catfolk Fisher: Lost Adventures Vol 2

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

Print Log: Heartwood Tradefolk Storytelling Poses

In February, I finished only one miniature for the month. This Catfolk Fisher was a model I’ve wanted to paint since I saw it on the Lost Adventures Vol 2 Kickstarter page and extremely wanted to paint as I was working on the Fishers Hut project. In my miniature collection I have so few miniatures that are just living their life and aspiring to do more than kill monsters. Almost all my miniatures wield weapons or are monsters. I love being able to grow my collection beyond that. It also gives me a ton of opportunity to just have fun with it.

This miniature painting project was definitely one however where I feel like I dreamt beyond my current skill set. For the first time ever I created a mood board containing images depicting different aspects I wished to capture for this model. The most notable goal was in making the cat calico. Having spots of different colors yielding to a truly unique and one of a kind coat. While painting I realized I did not like the attempt and instead just turned him into an orange tabby cat. While I think I did an ok job having his jacket as red with an orange coloration of lightening really kinda just blurred the colors together. This was supposed to be mitigated by having different colors broken into the fur of his coat.

Positive things about this paint job is that I made one of my first stabs at free hand painting by painting on a woven texture to his hat. I definitely feel like the intent and message comes across well but I of course see growth potential in my brush control. I printed the wooden floor base from the Welcome Pack of the CastnPlay Patreon and painted it quickly, due to project burn out.

Overall, I see a lot of room for growth in this miniature and definitely lost focus of what paints I used, how I used them, etc due to jumping around projects so much. In the end of the day this is good practice and yet another miniature for the collection. There is nothing disappointing about that!

Don’t miss the in progress shots and final photos below! See you next time.

Sincerely,
Crazmadsci, Carrie

In Progress Photos

Final Photos

Where to Find the STLs

This model is from the Lost Adventures Vol 2 kickstarter which can be found on the Lost Adventures Co website and consumers can purchase for $8.99. Design/ sculpt of this set was by Andrew Biernier and Matt Gubser and distribution made by the company Lost Adventures Co.

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Painting: The Hobby is the Journey

So I admit it. I have been avoiding talking about and showcasing my painting skill, or rather what I consider lack thereof. While deep down I know it is not true and that I do know some things about painting figures and terrain, I admit to still feel very much in the infancy of where I eventually desire to grow and become. So what is wrong with posting about personal growth and showing in detail my painting skills?

I struggle showcasing my skill because I am aspiring to turn this site not just into a blog of my personal past time in the hobby space. I aim to turn this site into a cornucopia of material, tutorials, assistance and inspiration for others. However, it is difficult to feel like I have enough authority to write or share on a subject these days when there are so many living examples of expert skills and mastery on the internet. Imposter Syndrome begins to sink in.

So I am forced to ask myself the question. What am I going to do about it? The answer is complicated and one I have been giving a lot of thought. To start I am going to lean into the questions, lean into the experimentation and all the vulnerability that goes along with it. Perhaps readers and others will find something to relate to. Besides wouldn’t putting it out there and seeing the transformation firsthand really be something special? Showcase the journey that my boys can one day see for themselves?

I commonly listen to podcasts and watch more YouTube videos on the subject of painting miniatures then I admit to actively doing. Going with the advice of 10/90 from Uncle Adam of Tabletop Minions I am definitely not painting 90% of the time and watching to learn 10%. I like to pretend that its because of the baby and having so little hobby time. In reality there is fear related to jumping into a project and finishing it. Not wanting to “Ruin” the model. This thought process probably deserves a write up of its own in the future, and one I need to let go of.

However the most recent podcast of Trapped Under Plastic “How Should Beginners Learn” has really struck home with me. Scott the miniature maniac stated that miniature painting is not like grinding your WoW from 1 to 60. That there is no end to the hobby and it is constantly changing and growing. Attempting to jump straight to the end is meaningless. Painting is about the Journey to get there. As someone who has a video game background longer than miniature painting the difference in mentality while basic is a fundamental shift for me. MAN! Why am I so embarrassed showing my journey? So lets change that. I shouldn’t be ashamed of my current location and progress, I mean I have fun painting. That is what is important.

Introducing: Painting

Today marks the launching of a new page which will grow to do exactly what I aim to tackle my insecurities and goals. This will both serve to showcase my growth while also being full of reference material of project documentation and links to places where I’ve learned techniques and skills.

This page will consist of 6 primary categories to help navigate to different areas of the painting past time. Eventually these categories will grow into their own pages and in depth write ups. And of course like any crazy project potentially grow into more categories.

Miniatures: This will contain a showcase of my growth and painted miniature collection.

Buildings and Terrain: This will be a listing and gallery of painted buildings and terrain. I may possible split scatter terrain into another category in the future.

Basing: The collection of bases for miniatures, ramblings of techniques & thought processes of a basing a miniature as well as inspiration of different types of bases.

Tools and Materials: What are the tools and materials at my disposal? What are my personal must haves?

Tutorials and Techniques: There is no better way to learn than to try to teach. Write ups of the various techniques, documentation of information from various sources and my journey through them.

Experimental Deep Dives: How many different ways are there to paint something? How many recipes of bone, wood, leather, armor etc? What is my preference? This will be a deep dive study into how others achieve their goals and direct comparison for future reference material on painting recipes.

Conclusion

The progress of growth in all hobbies is the journey and not just the destination. I need to let go of mental barriers and just jump in. Lets grow the site to be a organized repository of this growth so people can follow along in areas they desire for themselves.

What are you working on? Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,
Crazmadsci, Carrie

crazmadsci Goals, Retrospective

State of the Crazy March 1, 2021 & February Retrospective

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

Blacksmith
Kingdom of Thamarya

EverSpring Temple (Early Test print)
Lost Adventures Vol 2

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

Waterwell
Breadcart

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

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

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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:

  1. Prime Black
  2. Earth Tone dry brush
  3. 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.

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.

Fantasy Props Kickstarter Collection


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.

Fishers Hut


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


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.

PaintingPhotographyModelingWebsiteMiscPrimary Project that Week
Week 1511Purple Worm basing
Week 23121Benchmark
Week 3511Organization/Website
Week 43211Siege Equipment
Week 53Fishers Hut Assembly/Prime
Total191533
Percentage of Month61.29%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.

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
    • 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

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

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