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!

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...

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...

Designing and 3D-printing soda can terrain...

Because I haven't played any sort of 40K for well over a decade I have no scenery or terrain for this game... 

Some time ago (before I had my Mars) I printed this soda can terrain piece on my school's Ultimaker 2+. While not very detailed (this kit was designed with FDM-printing in mind), the print upgraded a humble soda can to a piece of attractive and functional terrain. Because I had no 40K at the time, I donated this piece to a gaming buddy, who painted it and now uses it on his battlefield. 

While browsing Thingiverse for terrain pieces to print I came across this very same upgrade kit again and thought of how it could be improved to make use of the capabilities of my Elegoo Mars.

I took more inspiration from another design made by the same user (be sure to check him out as he has several cool upgrade kits). I ended up not using any of his components, but he inspired me all the same!

While I know my way around Tinkercad I lack the ability to draw intricate/organic designs, that's why I used two pieces from this set. Using the gothic grate and the round fan I gradually worked towards creating a set of upgrade pieces. 

I have three kinds of cans available, the standard soda/beer can (be it 0,33 or 0,5L) and two kinds of cans commonly used for energy drinks. Funny thing is, we don't drink soda, beer or energy drinks, so I ended up buying a couple of the cheapest cans I could find and poured the contents down the drain... 

All these cans have different diameters and heights, but I wanted to create kits for them all. All kits are different, but share the same components to create an overall theme (I am a sucker for uniformity). To prevent ending up with a dozen identical terrain pieces, I made the upgrade kit modular, featuring several different versions of key components and several optional components. 

An example of the parts used to upgrade a can... 

At the moment I have sets for the two largest diameters, and I am thinking about ways to do something different with the smallest cans.

I have completed three different cans so far... 

Two of the different front caps...

Two of the different end caps...

Two examples of how to add variety by using different parts to detail the can... 

I have uploaded this modular upgrade kit to Thingiverse, check it out if you are interested!

3D-printing Normandy... pt. II

The 3D-printer is steadily buzzing away and the Sainte-Mère-Église church is slowly taking shape...

As far as printed scenery goes, this is a pretty ambitious model. Already consisting of more than ten parts and it still needs most of it's roofs. Apart from it's complexity it's also pretty big, printing it has taken several days worth of time.

The church is big... This is a A3-size cutting mat, you can get an idea
of the footprint of this building...

The church tower is almost 20 cm tall... 

When the printing is complete, I will take a couple of pictures and compare it to my own scratch-built church and the Battlefront model. 

Tight-fitting windows...

The church I am printing comes with all the files to equip the windows with frames. These only take a couple of minutes to print but do add a lot to an already impressive model...

At the moment I am printing the roofs for this massive structure, these should be done before the weekend.

The set of which this awesome church is a part can be found here: Jens's awesome 3D-files

If you go down to the woods today... pt. III

Under the guise of 'you can never have too many trees' I have been working on a new set of, you guessed it, trees...

This expansion comes in the shape of ten woods (a base with three trees) and ten single trees. All the trees and bases are made by hand as can be seen in part I and II of this series... The based trees are a good way to add some more diversity to an already very flexible terrain set.

Finishing these took me a good while longer than I expected (and hoped), but work is absorbing most of my 'free' time at the moment. On the other hand, a small and relatively simple project like this is perfect to clear the mind...

The trees after being basecoated... 

The finished set... 

With these new trees I can almost double the number of based trees for my 6mm Hex terrain.

When spread out, the added trees hardly stand out... 

While this evenly spreads the cover it can make for a very different type of battle, where you can move from tree to tree...

The trees can be easily clustered together to form larger woods... 

The trees can easily be clustered together to form larger woods, giving the battlefield an altogether different look... From a small distance, I must admit I prefer this approach. Slowly, the woods I want are beginning to show.