The Painted Thumb

More prints have come out of the 3D printer. I purchased some excellent science fiction models from Warlayer .  I made some cargo containers, some shield/power generators and a simple storage box. Cargo containers from our Rogue Stars game Shield Generators in play. Also, I finally painted the Rampage Castle Tower . I purchased a paint triad from my local big-box hardware store. But, the mid tone I selected was more of a highlight. I think it came out okay overall. The plastic took the paint very well and the cheap, clear-coat spray I used was very good at covering the 'shiny' look of the plastic. The front door opens and closes. The floors are textured A trapdoor on the top level. I've also experimented with 15mm Team Yankee models. This one is a M113 with a machine gun turret on top. I think a .50 cal model from a traditional plastic kit might be an nice addition to this model.  M113

Recently, I've backed a few Kickstarters for 3D printed terrain. One of those was the Rampage Castle from Printable Scenery. The Rampage Castle is a system of parts that can be interchanged and connected like Legos to create very detailed and custom castle walls, towers and battlements. Each part is connected to other parts by a licensed technology called OpenLock clips. Each clip is compatible with models from other manufacturers/designers. Thus, you are not tied down to models from one specific manufacturer. I am very impressed by the foresight of this idea. For my first construction, I decided to do the relatively simple square tower with 4 levels. Each level required a floor piece, 4x walls, and 4x corner support columns. The first few pieces Getting taller... The result came out very nicely. The parts printed out cleanly and were very dense. I was hoping to reduce the amount of filament used in each piece. However, no matter how I adjusted my slicing software, the...

Finally, I have a moment to blog about my latest project, a 3D printed pontoon bridge suitable for Flames of War or any 20th Century-era battle in 15mm. The idea started as a from a Facebook post on the FoWSA discussion group. Someone was looking for specific terrain for a Team Yankee scenario. Said scenario involved some combat engineers hastily constructing a bridge or some type of river crossing. There didn't seem to be any easily found bridges available for purchase. I took it as a challenge to 3D print it. I searched briefly on Thingiverse to find a suitable bridge. There were a few very detailed bridge models there. Most of them looked very spindly and breakable. But, I found a cool design for a pontoon bridge. For those not familiar, a pontoon bridge is a series of simple boats tied together across a river or water feature. Some type of roadway, wood or metal, is fastened to the top of the boats thus providing a functioning bridge across the water. The concept has been u...

My last big birthday present was an XYZ daVinci 1.0 3D printer. I finally sat down and starting messing around with the thing. And I truly enjoy it! Most of the shapes I've been producing are still mostly 2D "ish". I've tried some models with height and ran into some technical stuff. No worries, the issues will get resolved. it has something to do with the extruder getting clogged.  Most of the items I've seen come out of a 3D printer have been trinkets and baubles. Busts of Yoda or Chewbacca and such. I'm far more interested in generating something useful. So, as a beginning project, I printed up some stocking stuffers for the young people on my Christmas list. Every superhero needs a comb! The 'Comb'caster A pair of Mulan hair accessories For my autistic nephew, some connectible pieces that can produce interesting shapes. Like this thing. So, what would I like to make with this gizmo? War gaming terrain of course! My ...

Sometime in the early 2000's, my wife and I started collecting the ceramic village houses that would go on sale around the Christmas season. We purchased the various models such as shops, houses, office and government buildings. Back then we would have friends and family come over to our house and spend some time painting the stuff. We would spread out the houses on whatever flat surface we could find in our house as part of our Christmas decorating. After a few seasons, we had assembled a fairly large collection. I think it was Christmas of 2005 that we were too busy to setup the village and the models remained in storage. This was all done before I became interested in miniature figures and wargames. This year, we've decided to restart our tradition. I pulled the best looking houses and setup a small street on the mantle. I added some lighting, painted a backdrop and printed out some dungeon tiles for use as a cobblestone street. In case anyone was wondering ho...

He's big. He's nasty. He wreathed in unholy fire! Mom, can I keep him? I was able to purchase this handsome devil from a local 40K gamer.  He had purchased a large lot of Games Workshop models and the Balrog was part of it. He thought it was some sort of 40K unit and never really knew what it was. Strange. Anyway, he was willing to sell it at a decent price. The Balrog came partially assembled and a bit beat up. That's nothing a little TLC and a lot of modelling putty can't fix. The legs and wings are barely attached. There are many visible seams and mold lines that will need to be cleaned.  And, there will be the challenge of painting him with realistic looking flames. Eventually, it will be the leader of my Moria Goblin army and will be whipping up on meddling wizards who wander into the deep places of the earth. Also on the 'Thumb'-bench. were these little paper terrain walls. Oringinally, I printed them out from a PDF file and taped them together to m...

Readers of this blog will notice that I've started investing in more paper terrain.  Though paper walls and buildings do not compare to the excellent resin and plastic models, it certainly is a much more economical option.  Specifically when it comes to sci-fi scenery, which can be ridiculously expensive!  Just take a look at some of the Games Workshop models here Warhammer 40,000 Scenery | Warhammer 40,000 | Games Workshop . So, I used some paper models in the last "Song of Blades and Heroes" game at MillenniumCon 16 and they worked out just fine. It even inspired a discussion after the game about paper modelling with some of the game participants.  Who knew there were other players out there trying to stretch their modelling budgets? Paper Crypt Model in 25mm My process for making the models starts with a good PDF file.  I get my models from Dave Graffam Models .  Most of his products are available for less than $4, and some basic models are fre...

Every year, my lovely bride organizes a “Girl’s Weekend” party. She and her entourage rent a house and spend the weekend there. The girls eat, drink, gossip and party far away from husbands, boyfriends or SO’s.  This year was no exception. So, since she was having fun without me, I decided to do some partying of my own. This past weekend, I hosted the first “Man Summit”. The simple goal was to have one big game party that would last the whole weekend with my house as the venue. Well, I had several different games planned for this lovely event.  On Friday, I had planned to have an 'RPG' night.  I wanted to continue my Gurps: Prime Directive campaign with a new adventure.  Most of the players were excited to start up again but they had schedule conflicts. So, the PD campaign will wait until there is a better time. Saturday morning was to be the 'Hex Paper and Counters' session which involved Avalon Hill games and similar stuff. There was no interest at all...

Alternate rules for placing terrain in HotT from the "The Stronghold" The Stronghold Rebuilt: Random Terrain For HOTT : Introduction Basic ideas for this variant are freely nicked from the 5 th December draft of DBA 3.0. They allow variation in terrain ...

Critical Mass Games put together an incredible miniature table for the Salute 2012 convention in the UK. It is an alien swamp world for a 15mm skirmish game.  Please click the link below for the posting on the Alien Dungeon blog. I would have loved to use this map for my GURPS: Prime Directive game .  Alien Dungeon: Alien Swamps : I often marvel at the amazing terrain and miniatures that people produce that never gets the recognition that they deserve. Along those line...