Welcome to Scopperloit! 3D-printing a 28mm Fantasy town... Pt. I

"It may not look like much, but to us, it's home..." Gertrude, servant at the local tavern

So, welcome to Scopperloit! The inhabitants of this small but ever growing town are called Scobberlotchers and fill their days with typical NPC stuff. This town could be situated just about anywhere, and it probably will be... For the forseeable future I can see these buildings being used in our current D&D campaign and in my first adventures as a DM...

A couple of months ago I purchased a FDM 3D-printer, so now I am the proud owner/user of a Creality CR-10S Pro V2! Apart from adding a magnetic and flexible build plate the machine is still stock. I did have to replace my heat block, but that's because I am an incompetent fool...

One of the reasons I wanted a FDM printer was the ability to print larger buildings and terrain in 28mm scale. So far I have focussed on printing scatter terrain for D&D and Warhammer 40K. 

For a larger and more complex project, I want to build (part of) a Fantasy town...

There is a huge quantity of different designs available. I have found several designers that had some buildings I liked, but I really wanted a comlete range of buildings in a good Medieval/Fantasy style so I would be able to print several buildings for a small town, ideally without spending my entire hobby budget... 

To be able to compare designers, I mainly looked at Taverns/Inns because, whatever the setting, every range worth it's salt at least includes a tavern of sorts... The buildings needed to be modular and have detailed interiors, but preferably without having fixed furniture as I have plenty of that already. Besides, smaller details print better in resin and are easier to paint when not fused to the inside of a building. 

While browsing, I found 3Dlayeredscenery and decided to check out their Leichheim set. I originally found them through their free sample on MMF, you should totally check that out...

The set is, simply put, vast and represents incredible value for your money... There are several more or less generic dwellings/houses and numerous specialist buildings, most of these are quite large. Some of the buildings can be combined into larger structures and feature some customization options.

The smallmarket shop...

To get started I opted for one of the smaller designs (as can be seen above). While relatively small, printing this shop already took me almost six whole days (I might have to look into the printing speed). However, that time was well worth it! The level of detail is just great; the texture of the wood and the stones will make this little shop very easy to paint. The fit of the different parts is also very good.

This building comes split in three different parts (ground floor, first floor and roof). The model printed with only minimal supports. I think the website even advertises with 'supportless', but I used a few anyway...

This particular building allows for a bit of customization; there are several different chimneys and doors to choose from. This feature can be found in almost all of the ohter designs, too.

I think I will thoroughly enjoy painting this building! The detail is very crisp and the quality of the print ensured a pretty smooth finish.

Now that my first building is printed, I want to get to work on the Tavern. 

Quite a beautiful and imposing structure... I think you can see why I chose this particular set of designs...

I just sliced all the different parts for the main structure: 18 pieces in total, split over three levels. If I am to believe Cura, the total printing time exceeds 600 hours... I still need some time to let that number sink in... The shortest print will take only 5 hours while the longest takes almost 70 hours to complete.

The building's itself (meaning all the structural parts) will be completely printed on my CR-10S. All the smaller parts, like the doors, will be printed on one of my resin printers.

3D-printing Normandy... Pt. III

After printing a couple of houses and farms to replace my scratch-built foam buildings (more on that in another post) I figured I might as well update the rest of my scenery, too...

First up are my trees... Since no battlefield is complete without at least a few trees and my table measures 220x160cm I ended up having more than a few... My trees are split between single based trees and forest bases. A quick count yielded almost 30 forest bases and at least as many individual trees. 

Safe to say, I like my WW2 battlefields green, and for most of my games, I put all my trees on the board. 

A few months ago I picked up a set of trees to print as scatter terrain for D&D. Great looking Fantasy trees, suitably twisted and gnarly. 

The full set... As far as scatter terrain goes, this is all I need for D&D.

The design included a canopy, but I haven't printed those yet. These trees are meant to serve as scatter terrain for our D&D sessions, and the canopies would only get in the way and block our view of the board.

One of the many benefits of digital designs is that you can scale them any way you wish... I cut a bit of the bottom of the trees to remove the wide base of the trunk and made them a lot thinner. These trees are part of a Fantasy range of models and are thus scaled heroically (is that even a word?), by which I mean their shapes and measurements are slightly exaggerated, so to fit in with 15mm Historical terrain they needed some tweaking. 

I ended up with this set...

This batch represents four full plates on my Elegoo MARS. The tallest trees are using the maximum of height the MARS has to offer.  

I used round MDF bases to mount the trees on. I decided to use several different sizes, making a distinction between large and smaller trees.

There is no way I will be able to replace all my trees in one go, but this first batch is a nice start.

The painting was fast and easy; a basecoat of Dryad Bark and a very quick overbrush of Gorthor Brown. The bases were covered in a layer of textured paint. 

As soon as the textured paint has dried, I will give the dirt a quick drybrush with a lighter shade of brown. After that I plan on adding some static grass and larger tufts. For the trees I have several shades of clump foliage...

More pictures coming soon!

Fix bayonets! 3D-printing Valour Korps... Pt. V

After kitting out the standard Korpsmen with all their extra equipment I put together some additional pieces of gear for the Sergeants and Voxtroopers.

The Sergeants are all wearing capes, so they can't carry a backpack. The Voxtroopers carry their radio on their back, also preventing them to carry a backpack. For these models I made a large satchel to be worn on their belt. 

I also designed a bag to be carried by a belt over the shoulder. These bags could contain anything from medical supplies to explosives or classified material... Every Squad has a Korpsman with such a bag.

For the moment, I haven't included any special weapons in my infantry squads, but I do want a few heavy weapons mixed in with the regular troopers. The heavy weapon of choice is going to be the missile launcher. I put the crew on regular bases. In this way, they fit on the movement tray with the rest of the Squad.

I also equipped the missile launchers with belts, just like the lasguns of the Korpsmen. For these teams I designed a tube containing a rocket, which I included in a special backpack and carrying bag. 

The choice for the missile launcher is mostly based on looks, I like the way it resembles a panzershreck; I think it fits well with the theme of the army... But it also helps that it is very flexible.

Fix bayonets! 3D-printing Valour Korps... Pt. IV

Last week I sold my Feudal Guard army to make some space for a new project and, to be honest, also to generate some hobby budget... 

This new project comes in the shape of the Valour Korps. When this fantastic range from The Makers Cult was first released, I already did some test models, which can be seen in previous posts labelled 'Valour Korps'. These early models were painted in reasonably historically correct colours, but for this new incarnation I wanted something a bit more striking...

Bright red coat and shiny black armour...

Even though the models are very detailed and pretty awesome to begin with, I decided I wanted a little more. With the Feudal Guard I missed the opportunity to add some personal flavour to the models, with the Valour Korps I wanted to change that... My little Korpsmen will be going to war lugging around a full set of custom gear.

I started out by digitally kitbashing a simple backpack, this quickly escalated to a whole range of more than 20 different backpacks (and counting), similar in style, but with small variations in their configuration...

A few of the backpacks I put together...

All backpacks have a respirator-shaped hole in them...

The first few loaded Korpsmen...

I used mostly TMC bits to bash these backpacks together. This saves me the trouble of sculpting anything other than simple geometric objects (which I still can't) and it ensures the style of the backpacks closely matches that of the models themselves. The backpacks fit snugly over the respirators on the back of the models, making it very easy indeed to add more detail...

After the backpacks I digitally equipped several bodies with even more extra gear. All bodies were equipped with a canteen and I added several large and small pouches and the odd shovel (not too many of those, as most backpacks already include one). All these extra bits ensure a lot of different configurations and interesting detail to paint. 

After that, I enhanced all the regular lasguns to include a strap or belt and bayonet. The bayonets were already part of the Infantry Builder from TMC (I only thickened and lengthened it a bit, to make it stronger), but the belts were all designed from scratch. I then merged the arms, lasguns, belts and bayonets together so I can print complete sets, which has the added benefit of saving me the hassle of having to sort out the matching pairs of arms when assembling the models...

All geared up and ready to go...

The first few squads... 

I wanted these squads to look like they are 'at ease', so no running, shooting or agressively waving their weapons around... All these Korpsmen are idling, reloading, fixing bayonets or just standing around... 

More updates coming soon, and this time I might even mean it! Next up are more custom bits of equipment, bases and some heavy weapons...

Déjà vu; here we go again...

Oh man, life goes on and typing this makes me feel a bit like deja-vu...

Over the last couple of months I have spent plenty of time on my hobby, but I haven't found/taken the time to keep his blog up to date...  

So, what have I been up to? 

Well... A lot of different things, actually... 

First up, I have purchased two new 3D-printers... After my two Elegoo MARS, the larger Elegoo SATURN is a proper upgrade; the larger print volume gives a lot more options. I also picked up a FDM-printer: A Creality CR-10S Pro V2... Having a FDM-printer with a large print surface, allows me to print bigger pieces of scenery. My printer prints at a very nice quality, mind you, it can't compare to resin, but for scenery or terrain it's perfect! It might not be faster, but the ability to print bigger makes all the difference, and that it's cheaper is a bonus, too.

I have printed a whole lot of resin 15mm buildings for my Flames of War scenery. Most of these still have to be painted, but my table now has a proper village. Even better, my friend and neighbour has been busy building and painting two whole armies and together we have been playing some games. 

Well, maybe not a proper village yet. Mind you, this is a 220X160 table...

I have completed a whole lot of pieces to decorate The Dungeon. I commisioned a set of full-plate armoured suits to put on display. I found the sculpter of Uncanny Minis on Thingiverse, joined his new Patreon and contacted him with a proposal. If you are interested in fantasy miniatures, check out his Patreon or his Thingiverse. Most of his models are absolutely free and, most important, very good! 

Two of the full plate armoured suits...

A painted example of one of his designs... 

After the set of armoured suits I asked him to design my D&D character: Gabnast, a Gnome Ranger wielding a heavy crossbow...

Meet Gabnast 'the bullfrog' Millwop... 

Speaking of D&D... Almost a year ago I joined a group of players for a new (and my first) D&D campaign. After our lockdown ended, we switched from online to physical game sessions. So far, I have printed and painted all the character for the players and I have been printing miniatures for our DM, too. 

I have also started printing scatter terrain for D&D. So far I have printed ánd painted (yes, I'm surprised, too) a set of trees, a complete cavern/mine set and a whole lot of ruins... We have been using my terrain during our sessions, which serves as a great motivation to actually paint all these pieces.

The cavern/mine set, all VaeVictis Miniatures...

Most of these ruins will form the basis of a new set of terrain for 40K. This set of terrain should help me to get back into playing 40K.

And because an update without some fresh pictures is just lame, here are a few from last weekend, if only as proof I actually printed and painted something...

These ruins are from Devious Games and are easy to print (they require minimal supports) and fun to paint... I think they are equally usable as scatter terrain for D&D or other Fantasy games as well as terrain for 40K.

I have designed a full set of detailed round bases, which I uploaded to Thingiverse. Originally I designed these for a project of my own, but for now, that project is on hold... Judging by the number of downloads, I think other hobbyists enjoy them, too. You can check them out HERE.

I sold my orange Feudal Guard army, clearing some space for a new Valour Korps force from The Makers Cult. Even though the VK models are pretty awesome to begin with, I found some room for improvement... 

I have kitbashed and designed a set of extra gear for the standard Korpsmen, resulting in kitted-out models which are a joy to paint! I digitally added bayonets and belts to all the lasguns, so I can print them as complete sets.

This army will get it's own series of posts. Well, that's the plan, anyway... 

So far, I have settled on a colour scheme, as can be seen below, and I have printed several squads of Korpsmen to get my army started.

A painted test model...

A squad of Korpsmen, equipped with extra gear...

Painted test model of a Sentinel...

This is the part where I normally say that more updates are coming soon, but looking back, I shouldn't be making any such promises...

Welcome to the Dungeon; getting lost in D&D... pt. I

While the Dungeon-project is well over a decade old, it has rarely been used for any serious gaming. Over the years we played some WFRP-games in it, some Morheim and Warhammer skirmish and even a few games of Dungeons & Panzers (patent pending), but we never played Dungeons & Dragons...

Well, today I had a test-session, together with my long-time gaming buddy. It was his first game of D&D and my first time as DM...

I set up a small, two level dungeon for this first run... I tried to include quite a lot of furnishing, giving the dungeon (well, actually it was the basement of a brewery) an inhabited feel...

Due to having had a very busy week at work/school I hadn't worked out a full scenario. We had prepared his first character (an Elf Druid) earlier and put together a second one (a Dwarf Fighter) on the spot. As this session was meant as an exercise in exploration and combat, the background of the characters was minimal at best. 

I tried to enhance the game by giving detailed descriptions of the walk through the rooms and corridors, something I really need to learn... 

For a first game, it went rather well... As is typical for my buddy, his very first dice roll was a natural 20, a feat he repeated another four times over the session... We had to look up almost every single rule, but as the afternoon progressed the pace quickened. We ironed out quite a few issues and I now have a pretty clear idea of what direction I want to take...

We managed to learn quite a few things and I gained a lot of respect for the way the DM of the game I play in organizes his sessions...

3D-printing dungeon decor... pt. VIII

After joining my very first campaign of D&D with a new group of players, my interest in the Dungeon is as high as ever... 

I have been dividing my printing time between 40K-related projects and Fantasy stuff for the Dungeon, printing monsters, npc's, characters and scenic pieces...

One of the most recent projects was expanding my set of loot piles and updating the existing set... 

The new additions...

I added ten new and unique pieces. The crates and barrels are all plaster casts, hence the occasional bubble, most of the smaller pieces are 3D-printed. These simple pieces add a lot of character to any room they are placed in. Furthermore, they provide cover and add an opportunity for gathering loot...

The full set. More pieces will likely follow...

I have used a lot of different bits and pieces, most are from Thingiverse, but there are quite a few VaeVictis designs, too.