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. 

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

While it has been a while since I last worked on my dungeon, the project is never quite forgotten... I am always looking around for stuff to add, especially things like furniture and other clutter. This update was written back in December '20, but I totally forgot posting it...

I had already found a few great designs on Thingiverse by Ecaroth and Curufin. One of my very first prints was this Large Cask Shelf. I have since printed several of these and recently finished painting them.

A set of simple pieces, but I like them very much! This piece is part of the Aleworks collection and this week I printed some of the other parts of the set... 

Scaled down a bit to fit on the plate of my Elegoo MARS, this is a very big piece of Dungeon furniture. I tried to add a bit of variety by using three different shades of brown for the wooden containers. 

There are more pieces to the set, but these aren't painted yet... All these pieces combined make for a nice-looking brewing system

These designs then directed me to their website Hero's Hoard. I picked up both the Tavern sets and the Blacksmith. The Library set followed a few days later as I had printed some of the free cabinets and was suitably impressed with the detail.

I made some cabinets with half the depth...

The half-depth cabinets are very useful and use only half the resin...

A few samples of the modular library set...

The library set is extremely versatile and complete and allows me to print and build and almost infinite combination of cabinets... The detail is pretty good as well, adding nice touches like the carved owl.

The blacksmith's forge was a bit of a challenge as the full model is too large for the Elegoo MARS. I decided to reduce the size a bit, but the piece is still quite big and it will dominate any room it will be put in. Pictures will be coming soon...

The pieces for the tavern kitchen are very, very nice. I have been thinking about adding something like these for years... I have tried making my own, both with wood and plaster and digitally, but these are so much better. 

All of these pieces print very well and more are sure to follow...

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

I've got a big dungeon related update to show you...

One of the best miniatures I have printed so far is this Dwarf merchant...

This model will be an excellent NPC but could just as easy be used as player. It has a lot of character and it printed flawlessly. I think he will be very fun to paint!

I have started painting the suits of armour...

While the paintjob is quite simple, these manage to look pretty good. I still have a lot more of these to paint, but so far I am very happy with how they turned out...

I have also painted a round cabinet from VaeVictis. This model is from their Patreon and is part of their Magic Workshop set. The design comes in a couple of variants, one with empty shelves, one filled with books and potions and the option to print those as one piece or two separate parts (top and bottom).

I had printed the empty version previously and painted it last week. Due to the detail of this piece the painting was fast, easy and yielded a pretty nice result. This weekend I printed a couple more pieces. I made them a little bit larger, by accident, but as it turned out, the larger scale works very well...

Apart from printing these ready-made pieces I have tried to digitally kit-bash some unique combinations. These digital conversions were inspired by this piece from Zealot Miniatures. I purchased this table a year or two ago during the last expansion of dungeon clutter but I haven't painted it yet.

The source of inspiration from Zealot Miniatures...

The first attempt at creating something like this was relatively simple. Below you can see the original design I came up with, using a round table and castle, both of which I found on Thingiverse.

The first design... 

This printed very well but lacked some detail and style so I continued tinkering with this idea. Eventually I came up with the following designs...

The first model is the castle of the hand...

The second model is this super fancy fantasy castle... The smaller spires did print fine, but got knocked off during the clean-up. I have recovered most of the spires and will repair them.

While the first two models are fictional designs, the third is a modelled after an actual, real castle: Neuschwanstein castle... It can be found in Bavaria, Germany and was built for/by order of king Ludwig II in the late 19th century. This castle formed a source of inspiration for Disney's Cinderella castle...

The base for these conversions comes from VaeVictis. I split the bottom half of the model (the base is from the round cabinets) and removed a layer of drawers to lower the top surface. This allowed me to make the castles as large as possible to preserve as much detail as I could.

The castles in these prints are all created by very talented designers and are all incredibly detailed. However, I had to scale down the designs considerably and some of the detail was lost because of that.

The castle of the hand
Fancy fantasy castle
Neuschwanstein castle

The idea behind these designs is that an NPC could have a model of a castle in his study. Maybe it's just for show, it could be a toy or maybe it could even be magical, who knows... Such an item could be very interesting when it comes to RPG's...

Here you can see the first, failed print of the fancy fantasy castle... Due to the delicate nature of the design some of the finer details were lost or failed to print entirely. After curing the model even split open due to uncured resin being left inside...

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

While digging through Thingiverse, something I started doing on a daily basis now I have my Elegoo MARS, I found a set of medieval suits of armour. According to the creator, these are from Fable III, which would explain why I felt I had seen them before.

Immediately I thought of filling the halls of my dungeon with these pieces...

The first print turned out too small (my own doing as I scaled the model to 35mm), in this smaller scale the sword proved too thin to be printed properly. To fix this I imported the file in Tinkercad and put in another sword I thickened considerably.

Compared to the first print I further enlarged the next batch by 15%, bringing the suits of armour more in line with the rest of my dungeon furniture.

The suit of armour in the middle is one from the first batch, both the models
 on the outside are from the last print. 

When compared to a miniature the suits of armour look a bit oversized, but next to the other pieces of furniture they look just right.

The suit of armour comes in two variants, one with a sword and one without... 

I printed 24 suits of armour in two prints of 12 each...

I based the suits of armour on small, round MDF bases. The small bases allow easy placement all throughout the dungeon.

Below are a couple of examples of how I want to use these.

The small, recessed arches are a perfect fit for these armours, but because they have such a small footprint they can be placed just about anywhere. I hope these new pieces will add to the medieval atmosphere I am trying to create for my dungeon.

I will be painting these soon...

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

I have been printing some more furniture for in my dungeon...

As with the other wineracks, these were found on Thingiverse...

The two sets together...

When combined they make quite a good set... I love the way they work together, these models match really well! These cabinets are very well designed and will look very good when they get painted...

These will work great in any tavern or kitchen, or even a store room or pantry...

After joining the VaeVictis Patreon I got access to a whole array of their scenery items... I have already printed their stage and bar and the quality of these designs is unquestionable.

Some scenery from VaeVictis... The design of these pieces is just lovely...

The first pieces of furniture for a guard room...

The VaeVictis designs just ooze character and are very detailed. What's more, they are also designed in such a way they print very well... There will be many, many more...

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

After signing up for the VaeVictis Patreon I got the designs for this amazing stage. Printing the whole thing took some time as there are a lot of different parts, some of them quite large... 

All the printed parts... 

It took me 15 separate prints of varying duration to get all the parts printed. Due to the size of the printbed it was a bit of a puzzle to get the most out of the printer. Not really a problem, as I like tinkering with Chitubox...

 Now that it is ready, I can't wait to build and paint it...

Digital render from the VaeVictis Patreon...

The design is incredible, very detailed and full of character... The stage is also accompanied by several musicians, some of which I already printed and the rest is coming soon.

I also found this awesome design!

A set of very nicely detailed candelabras...

These beautiful candelabras are designed by Rocket Pig Games and can also be found on Thingiverse. These are very delicate, yet printed flawlessly with very few supports.

Both of these additions will fit right in with my collection of dungeon clutter and furniture. More updates coming soon...

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

Apart from printing 15mm tanks my Elegoo MARS will be used to print stuff for my HirstArts dungeon project...

With a dungeon this large it takes a lot of stuff to make it feel habitable (the atmosphere I am striving for)... To get an idea of the size, check the two pictures below.

Big... Very big... But also very empty...

Last year I managed to add quite a few pieces of furniture and decor to the dungeon, but nowhere near enough... Some of the pieces I can cast myself using plaster and rubber molds, other items were bought. This can get rather expensive, fast... Especially when you want to add some of the more special items.

The pictures below give some good examples of the kind of items I have been adding to my dungeon...

Various piles of stored goods... Resin, plaster and metal bits...

A closer view of a filled storage...

Various cupboards...

Depending on the source, these items are almost free (self cast plaster) or a couple of €/£/$ a piece for the storebought resin items...

Enter my new 3D-printer...

With this machine I can make just about anything I want/need and in quantity, too...

A rack with barrels... I just LOVE this design!

I picked up this item from Thingiverse for free but I will be visiting the webshop of this designer... I have printed two sets so far, but I will do a couple more...

I scaled the desing down, just a bit, to fit my corridors and end pieces...

Another design I picked up at Thingiverse is this set of wine cabinets...

Just another great example of something I would love to add to my dungeon.

All these designs will mix very well with my current collection of dungeon clutter.

I also found this innkeeper and his modular bar...

These were designed by VaeVictis miniatures and are free... I was so impressed with their designs I joined their Patreon! Expect many more of their models soon...

The results of a weekend 3D-printing...
Quite a nice addition to the dungeon decor, I'd say...