crazmadsci Age of Sigmar

What Kind of Wargamer am I? 2024 Age of Sigmar Nashville Teams Event

People who have been reading this blog have known that I am slowly but surely diving deeper and deeper into both the world of miniature painting and tabletop wargaming albeit slowly.

The first weekend of February was one of those pivotal moments for me where I took a leap deeper in my tabletop gaming journey. My goals for the endeavor was to determine, what kind of gamer am I? Am I casual player? Do I like the competitive scene? How competitive am I? Do I lean more narratively ? Also and most importantly do I find myself welcomed in the community as a female gamer? But i’m getting ahead of myself….

Tough Crowd, Nashville Teams 2024

I had the opportunity to be an assistant Tournament Organizer to my good friend Jacob Berry from the Rage of Sigmar Podcast and member of the Sigmar Competitive Team Tough Crowd. We have gotten to know each other while I played at the same local store in Nashville Tennessee when I lived there. Not being prepared to play in the teams event myself I offered my assistance. As an expert data spreadsheet nerd my skills were gladly welcomed. Assisting the organization of the event via predominately maintaining the score documents, etc. was the perfect opportunity to watch and interact with the community.

I also felt strongly that I did not have enough game mastery to truly compete at that level nor do I have a fully painted army yet for events like this. My largest weakness is that sneaky devil, time. Mastery comes with practice and limited time makes that slower.

This event consisted of 20 teams of 4 for a total of 80 players. With the help of the Georgia Warband, Dillion from Nashcon and Adepticon there were 40 total tables of terrain and game mats to go around. If anything going to this event was worth it for the sake of seeing and being inspired by all the terrain. For context Dillion Griffin the organizer of Nashcon and Anthony Pulcastro who 3D printed the vast majority of the terrain have been commonly noted to rewrite the script of the standard for Sigmar’s wargaming tables.

There was also another goal with going to this event, evaluate how comfortable I can be as most likely the only female gamer in the room. If I decide to be more committed to this aspect of Sigmar I significantly have to decide that I will have to join some of the incredible women at being a trail blazer to break stereotypes. As a female in games both tabletop and video games, I acknowledge that I am a minority and those communities are not necessarily the most friendly, supportive, and welcoming. In video games it is often that women play but do not use online voice chat or use user names that would identify them as she/her. In tabletop games however it is significantly more difficult as there is no hiding. It is just you and your opponent talking for several hours.

While I did eventually become welcomed in the community it did result in making an announcement that I was indeed NOT the wife of the tournament organizer and anyone who assumed so had to buy me a beer. To be honest the fact that it did require us to start this “game” was disappointing and I received about 10 beers over the course of the weekend. The original beers were for the assumption but as the weekend progressed it was more of a free drink as accepting me into the community. This opened doors for me to get to know new people and have conversations. While not ideal I do think there were productive conversations that have come out of this, exercise.

The Results

For the full overview of the tournament results you can see the list and pictures of the winners here: https://x.com/bigjables/status/1757176415118631196?s=20
Summary:

  • Best Sports: Wes Witherow
  • Tough Act to Follow (Best Sports Team): Muletown BuffBoys
  • Golden Drop Pod (wooden spoon): Coy Barron
  • You Deserved This (lowest battle with Belakor, Morathi, Gotrek): Cody Bates
  • Best Teammate (no wins on the highest scoring Team): Patrick Shepard
  • Reckless in the Face of Danger (lost the most friendly wizards due to miscasts/spell effects): Josh Hankin & Nick Raverty
  • Players Choice: David Griffin
  • Crowd Pleasers (best Team Spirit): Fungal Fanclub
  • Tough Mode (highest combined score with only 1 faction): Getting Khorney
  • MVP (best single overall): Scooter Walters
  • Coalition of Toughies (best Team balttle): Run it down for Harambe
  • Toughest Crowd (best overall team): OG Southern Slayers

How Did I Do?

Well last but not least, I also functioned as a ringer for the tournament. Meaning that if anyone was sick and needed a sub in I was there at the ready. Well as it turned out I was needed, ironically enough with my friends from my old store in Nashville Tennessee and the team I probably would have been on if I played. While I did not win a single game the entire weekend I played I did have a lot of fun.
Well last but not least, I also functioned as a ringer for the tournament. Meaning that if anyone was sick and needed a sub in I was there at the ready. Well as it turned out I was needed, ironically enough with my friends from my old store in Nashville Tennessee and the team I probably would have been on if I played. While I did not win a single game the entire weekend I played I did have a lot of fun. My team was incredibly supportive and glad that they had someone make sure that all players had a match up. I did end up getting paired into some skewed matches but that is ok I did learn a lot such as a 3d6 Charge from Slaves to Darkness prayer which killed me almost entirely top of turn 1.

Here are some pictures from my games.

I have so many take away’s from the event both on a personal and gaming level. While this is still sinking in overall my original investitive questions of if I wanted to dive deeper were answered.

Yes, I definitely want to play more competitive games and push my skills as a gamer to their absolute limits. While I do not aspire to go for a national title or be regionally ranked. I want to be confident and have a large chance of success going to local tournaments. One day i’ll win some trophies not just for best general but perhaps also best painted? I am walking away wanting to roll more dice not less and I call that a win.

I also walked away with an awesome gauntlet as a gift for being a “Right Hand” to the event organizer Jacob.

I am starting to find a theme that 2024 is going to be a massive year on my evolution as a gamer as I continuously push myself. There are already some fun things cooking and I can’t wait to share them.

Crazmadsci 

Previous Posts

crazmadsci Goals, Retrospective

Janurary 2024: Hobby Roundup

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Can you believe that 1/12th of 2024 is already over? Where does time truly go? Since i’m trying to become better at documenting my hobby collection, I have decided to attempt to create a “Hobby Roundup” summary and overview of each month of my hobby. This will include notable collection changes, painting project, and my goals for the next month. While this is something very methodical, I am testing to see if it helps me be more self aware of how I am hobbying and my overall pile of potential changes over the course of the year.

This year I have two primary goal.

  1. Be mindful of my collection growth.

While I want to grow my collection I want to grow it with models that I deeply desire to paint and play with. The goal is to remove models from the collection that will not be loved by me and give them to another home which will be loved. Using those shifted models I’ll sell off or trade for other models that I will use.

  1. Significantly reduce the overall “In Progress” project list to Painted.

One of the most insightful things i’ve noticed about cataloging my collection (iCollect Everything Minaitures Edition) is that I have as many if not more in progress models than I do completed models. This is both due to lack of confidence in having the final model not living up to its potential as well as getting distracted.

Collection Additions

For this month I have been adding a significant number of models to my collection as i’ve started the Escalation League (2024 New Year, New Army: Escalation League Begins) with one of my local friendly game stores. Finally starting my Cities of Sigmar army I have always dreamt of.

I have also decided to subscribe to the Stormbringer magazine which delivers 4 weekly issues a month and often paired with models to help you grow your collection. I intended to share more about this magazine in the future to be sure to stay tuned.

New Additions to the Collection

UnitModel CountSource
Daggok’s Stab Lads4Purchase, new underworld warband for Kruelboyz
Wildercorp Hunters11Purchase, split Warcry box with a friend
Lord Imperatant2Stormbringer Issue #8
Swampcalla Shaman2Stormbringer Issue #9
Xandire’s Truthseekers4Stormbringer Issue #10
Total23two purchases and subscription
Xandire’s Truthseekers- Stormbringer Magnazine
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot Grot
Lord Imperatant
Wildercorps Hunters
DeathGorge Daggok’s Stab Lads

Photo Credit: Product Images shown above from the Warhammer community/store pages.

Models Sold off

To help pay for the models i’ve added this month and try to keep my total model count down, i’ve been trading models and selling them to other people in my local community.

Gutrippaz X 10, Killaboss with stab grot x2, Hobgrot Slittaz 10x, Kunnin Crew x6, Shaman & Pot grow x2 (gained this month).
Total model count: 30d

Overall I am really proud of the fact i’ve kept pretty event with my total models coming in and out. I have even been on top of selling off models from the Stormbringer magazine off as they come in. Since my current primary army is Kruelboyz many of the models are duplicates and therefore unneeded.

Janruary Model Net= -7

Paint Projects

While for Janruary I have not finished many models I have certaintly started them. Starting with my Cities of Sigmar army I am definitely doing what I can to get as much dones as I can before the end of Phase 1 (February 18th) for the league. Stay tuned or follow along on my instagram https://www.instagram.com/crazmadsci/ for periodic updates.

Models Completed: 2

  • Scatter Terrain Portal
  • Dwarf Ref Bloodbowl

OnWards to February

The month of February will probably be my most ambitious month ever. If I accomplish it then it will gain a significant amount of momentum for throughout the year. We are almost halfway through and i’m starting to get nervous.

However this weekend I am giong to be stretching my tabletop experiences further than ever before and be heading to Nashville for an Age of Sigmar teams tournament i’m going to help run as their designiated score keeper. I have a feeling that this could impact my game and how I am as a miniature painter for some time to come.

Are you keeping up with your goals this year so far?

Crazmadsci 

Previous Posts

crazmadsci Retrospective

State of the Crazy: Happy New Year? Jan 22, 2024

Where in the world has time gone? I cannot believe it is already 2024. Another year is gone. The last year has been such a blur I almost can’t remember everything that happened. Also to be honest I don’t nearly have the data and understanding of the last year as I did in my 2023 and 2022 New Year posts.

So what did I accomplish of my goals for the 2023 year?

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

Overall for the year I think I accomplished more goals than I failed. I painted more models in 2023 than 2022 >42. While I don’t have the precise number I definitely know there was more than 42 as I did complete a set of 60 hobgrotz for my Kruelboyz army. However the goals that I repeatedly didn’t succeed is a problem I have started to see year after year…. finishing projects and models. I appear to keep starting new things and not finishing what I start.

I have seriously improved in my painting and think that army painting actually has helped me a bit by improving brush control of doing the same model over and over again. So instead of learning the model I focus on my brushwork. It is amazing because I have had friends and family actually be able to separate painted models in the historical order of which I’ve painted them simply due to visually looking better over the years. It is a great feeling every time seeing them comment even as someone who doesn’t know miniature gaming or painting.

Post: How To Gauge Growth in Miniature Painting

The other large victory of my year is that I have significantly pulled back in my commission printing for other people and focused on my own hobby. This has been incredible for my mental load and allowed me to really focus on my own self.

So what are the highlights of my 2023 year?

One of my largest highlights from the 2023 year was going to my very first Age of Sigmar tournament at my old game store in Nashville Tennessee. It was an absolute blast and although I didn’t finish painting my army and went 1 – 2 I felt proud of my gameplay. I did win best opponent which made me feel good that people really enjoyed playing against me.

Post: Trying New Things: My First Warhammer Tournament

I have also returned to playing Dungeons and Dragons and am hosting a game at my house. It has been a blast and I have really missed the experience. Plus our games have been looking amazing with the amount of detail we are putting on the tabletop.

Also the Carrie of several years ago would never have had the confidence to join not one but two new game store communities to play tabletop games along with joining several leagues of games for both BloodBowl and Age of Sigmar. It has been a blast and I’m making new friends in my new home and learning new games.

Lastly I have finally accomplished a multiple gear goal of mine. I cannot wait to share the project and all the work that went into accomplishing it. I have successfully cataloged my ENTIRE miniature model collection (well 99%). I have a working database, app integration, search functionality and so much more. I think I found my permanent method to share what I have with others and maintain what I own. Before I show it how do you keep track of your collections?

As for the upcoming year…. well my primary goal for this year is going to be the blog. I am ready to keep writing again and maintain a journal of my projects and goals. I really look forward to the up coming year and hope you are as well.

I know its late in January but how did your 2023 go? Do you have any goals for the upcoming year?

Crazmadsci 

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Family bonding time painting miniature figures
crazmadsci Retrospective

State of the Crazy: When You Get in Your Own Way, October 23, 2023

I have been struggling to come up with a good way to write this post for a long time, which is inevitably made the frustration and procrastination of this post even worse. So let me get the worst out of the way and say it….

Life is constantly getting away from me and has made it incredibly hard to post and work towards my hobby goals. But lately its been worse than just life. I’ve been getting in the way of myself.

Between all of the major life events this year including but not limited to; having a baby and moving 500 miles. Everything has been incredibly overwhelming, all the way down to the day to day scheduling and activities. I’ve yet to set a consistent daily routine for myself to help which I desperately need to pursue my own hobbies, mental & physical health. I’ve started to see my own family begin to thrive and succeed in their new environments and yet I am still struggling.

Over the last several months and even years I’ve seen people self advocating, pushing themselves, putting themselves out there and not afraid to talk about their own mental health.

So here I go. I discovered late and as an young adult that I struggle with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Discorder (ADHD) along with extreme anxiety. This has been apart of my entity my entire life and has lead to me feeling broken and that something is wrong with me. You see as a female ADHD can exhibit differently than the classic jumping around the walls then boys and was often undiagnosed. While I can certainly be easily distracted, bored, and impulsive I have found that my ADHD comes with so many positives. I have learned that along with the negatives it has been crucial to every aspect of who I am and what I have called a success in my life. While my ADHD can be used sometimes as a super power it does lead to a few downsides. This includes but not limited to perfectionism and the need to understand everything at a foundational level. Also and most importantly the marriage of my ADHD to imposter syndrome.

For those who are not aware of imposter syndrome:

“It’s characterized by chronic feelings of inadequacy, incompetence, and fraudulence despite objective success. It’s hard to internalize success and genuinely hold the belief that you’re competent and capable.”

Audrey Ervin, Delaware Valley University

I never endingly feel that I am not good enough in my actions, don’t deserve the victories I have and hold myself back from truly embracing the positives I have done myself. My frustration with myself, questioning the validity of any advice I could provide other hobbyists has prevented me from being able to move forward in my goals and even posting regularly. I want to change that.

Finding My Self Care

I created this blog as a way for me to work through my personal mental health issues and create a digital journal to look back on my journey. In my life I have learned a few things that can significantly helped with my imposter syndrome. But are also things I must be diligent to continue working on.

  1. Being Self Aware

Being aware that I struggle with impostor syndrome has helped me navigate what is actually true and what is irrational doubt. Although I still struggle everyday I know that a good amount of it is unwarranted concern.

  1. Writing It Out

The reason I created this site is to document my journey and growth. Writing it down and going back on my thoughts and feelings of the past have helped me see how far I’ve come. Seeing how I grew in the hobby, improved my skills and tried new things brings immeasurable joy. This is the primary reason that this blog exists

  1. Embrace All of Me

This I need to be better about doing. I tend to hate the “messy” stage or partial stage and get distracted and never finish my immeasurable projects. This leads to beating myself down about not finishing things and increased negative feelings. However, embracing the messy stages and documenting it out is immensely therapeutic for me. I need to do this more.

The tabletop gaming hobby has been the outlet I’ve needed both for getting out of my comfort zone along with meditative time to think about everything that has happened in my day and find a way to settle down from the hyperactivity and over stimulation.

The miniature tabletop hobby and painting has also helped in several key ways that I plan to continue.

Finding Self Expression

Printing, Painting, and Assembling miniatures is one of my favorite ways to settle down from the day and learn how to express myself in how I view the world all around me. Every day is better if I spend time to paint or work on models, I need to keep reminding myself that every time I don’t. I feel like I am better at tackling projects & problems if I’ve had sometime to sit at my incredible new painting desk.

For My Isolation

Since graduating college and “settling down” I have found myself becoming increasingly isolated. With small kids, a global pandemic, and a variety of at home jobs working remotely or being a stay at home mother to three children its increasingly difficult to interact with other people. This hobby through gaming has provided me more friends in my adult life than any other activity. It is also one of the only ways to engage with people that I see some of their most authentic selves.

I want to make sure I am capturing all the memories that I do not want to forget.

Community picture of most recent RTT at the Game Keep, Nashville TN September 2023
Games are bringing together a community of friends. My first RTT in Nashville TN September 2023
My first in person D&D game since early 2019!

For My Kids

Lastly, I need to get out of my own way and continue on my journey here on the blog for the most important thing in my world, my kids. As someone who works on a computer I know that screens and doing things digitally does not have the same permanence or rewarding feeling as the tactile nature of the art of painting and feeling of playing games.

I am doing my best to show my children that they should embrace their passions. Explore their creativity and not be afraid to have fun, or get a little paint on their shirt. Perfect is overrated and the act of doing is just as much fun as the end result. Some of these messages I’m still trying to learn myself but they do not need to know that, yet.

Son learning about dungeons and dragons models
Hobby with the whole family.
Family bonding time painting miniature figures

My Personal Call to Action

This week I have decided to pull off the band-aid and attempt to get back into the routine of not only doing stuff for the hobby but also writing on the site. I am writing for the one day my kids want to see their mom’s personal growth and perhaps I can touch someone else out there too who stumbles and finds my ramblings.

Picture of the messy hobby desk
My hobby desk is a true reflection of the status of my mind. Too many projects going on at one time.

Overall, I feel like in many ways my hobby is a direct reflection of my mental state in life. When my life becomes chaos in the hecticness of doctors appointments, sickness, repair work, jobs, being a parent etc. I feel pulled in so many directions and it visibly shows on my hobby table with partially finished projects all over the place. However, lately it has lead to a deeper and deeper rut where I can’t find time in the chaos to organize my mind and finish the projects which would make the life easier to handle. My hobby is my meditative time and yet even at that I’m torn. I feel so split in my goal at the table. Am I painting for the joy of painting, collecting or just get models on the table to play. I am feeling so lost and overwhelmed leading to a state of exhaustion. I wish I knew how to tackle it.

-myself, crazmadsci

I am ready to attempt to do what I can and begin the process of moving forward. I don’t know what that looks like yet but we are going to find out. For those of you that put up with my cathartic self lecture/teaching, thank you. Even though the community is small I appreciate every one of you.

How are you really doing today?

Crazmadsci 

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crazmadsci Games

Trying New Things: My First Warhammer Tournament

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

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

The BackStory

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

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

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

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

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

Fast Forward to Jeepers Keepers

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

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

Progress July 29, 2023

Progress Shots the week before Game Day

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

Gallery of Games

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

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

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

The Results

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

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

Takeaways

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

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

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

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

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

Keep painting and gaming all!
-Crazmadsci

crazmadsci Retrospective

Sometimes Life Gets Away From you: July 12, 2023

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

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

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

Saying Goodbye to My Old Space & Community

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

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

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

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

Hobby Space Evolution

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

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

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

Hobby Progress

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

Completed Projects: 60 Hobgrots

Conclusion

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

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

Happy Hobby,

Crazmadsci 

Previous Posts

crazmadsci Retrospective

State of the Crazy: January 9, 2023

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

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

Success and Final Handoff!


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

The Way too Large Batch Paint


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

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

Benchmark 2022

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

Do I finally tackle the scary shed?

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

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

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

Crazmadsci 

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State of the Crazy: December 17, 2022

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

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

What has happened in 2022?

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

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

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

So now the real question…..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Carrie, Crazmadsci the crazy mad scientist

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Week in Review: July 10, 2020

This was the week of “Lets do all the projects.” Planning a ton of different things with way too many half written posts than I want to admit. I have been learning and growing seeing how much the 3d community has changed in the year I took off or so. I have been doing a deep dive into 3d printer calibration and fine tuning. In many ways it has made me feel like “how the hell have I been printing for all these years?” Overall it has been super interesting to read all the different perspectives on how to print, how to calibration, what order you should calibrate etc etc etc.

Moral of the Story. Much like and hobby, there are many ways to accomplish your goals.

I event printed for awhile in a 0.15 mm nozzle. I worked on calibration for that for a bit but decided that I wanted to finish my dragonlock project at a 0.4mm nozzle and the castle before I deep dive. Giving myself plenty of projects to paint while the printer is slow going and I can truly focus on mastery for the Perfect Mini.

Projects in Action

3d printed:

  • Benchy with a 0.15mm nozzle
  • Calibration cubes different nozzle diameters
  • My first extruder multiplier cube. note vase printing mode is super cool and I should investigate further.

Painted

I’ve been watching a ton of videos on wood painting effects and am attempting to try a few. So far I’m not a big fan, or I really need to work on my technique. Hoping to do a few more and then posting about it.
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I’ve also been attempting to hunt down some more variety in my paint for more layering. Some of the things i want to paint i’ll have to do hundreds of times which is why i’m not mixing paints.

Miscellaneous

Oh my husband wanted to have a Battle of the Monsters and we went 1 on 1 with hand drafted monsters for an epic battle with some of my dungeon tiles spontaneously this week. It might be a trend.

Lots and Lots of organization. I’ve been attempting to create specific pages to sort some of my posts long term for easy to navigate information.

I’ve been trying to keep a database of all my paints so I can post the colors more easily on painting posts with a better visual of their tone and also so I have a directory of what I know I have for when I got to the store. I am also compiling a directory of all the paint charts of the various brands so if i’m hunting for a particular tone I can try to know what i’m looking for before I buy it.

I even braved Covid to go to Lowes! In an attempt to help reduce vibration on my prints I went to get a paving stone. TLDR: It didn’t help much.

Due to Calibration and tweaking. I have not worked on the Dragonlock Miniature project.

Well this week is a Wrap. I feel of moderate success but it is exciting to have my husband enjoying the things i’ve made and making it incredibly encouraging to keep working.

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Week in Review: July 5, 2020

The last week was not nearly as productive as I wished it was. Life definitely took over and the weather was not favorable for priming. 5 out of 7 days it rained preventing priming my terrain.

My weekly goals include.

  1. 3d Print at least 1 thing
  2. paint at least 1 miniature
  3. paint at least 1 piece of terrain

All of the above will get a blog post highlighting each goal. <- I did not accomplish this goal.

Projects in Action

3d printed:

  • Continued Fat Dragon Game Miniatures from the “Dragonlock” 3d Printed Miniatures (see below for scratched off sections of the project)
  • Calibration cube

Painted

I really dropped the ball on this category this week. Need to get better

Miscellaneous

  • In depth calibration of 3d printer.
  1. Cold Pull of filament to clean it out
  2. Deep clean of PEI coated Prusa Print Sheet (which was terrifying because nothing stuck to it for a few days)
  3. Lubricated rods on printer
  4. Flashed Firmware update of Prsua printer
  5. Checked Belt Tension
  6. Calibration Cube

Dragonlock miniature project:

  • Goblins 1
  • Goblins 2
  • Turdle Adventurers
  • Oxidation Beast
  • Angry Ball of Eyes
  • Skeletons 2
  • Skeletons 3
  • Orc Warriors set 1
  • tentacles
  • Trash Beast
  • Lizardfolk Warriors Set 1
  • Lizardfolk Warriors Set 2
  • Dragon
  • Dead orc
  • Cube O Snot
  • Goblinoid Warriors
  • Orc Set 2
  • Snake Warriors Set 1
  • Giant Spider Rearing & Swarm
  • Minotaur Warrior 1
  • Owlbears
  • Skeletons set 4
  • Goblins set 3
  • Roper
  • Giant Rats and Rat Swarm
  • Giant Worm
  • Giant Slug
  • Octopus Warrior
  • Dragon Eggs
  • Minotaur Warriors
  • Hill Giant
  • Ogre Warband
  • Mushroomfolk
  • Kobold Warriors