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...

3D-printing Feudal Guard... pt. VII

After the last update, I picked up the Feudal Guard Troop Transport (counts as Chimera)... The kit comes with just about all the options you could possibly want for a Chimera and is just as detailed as I have come to expect from TMC designs.

While the design of this kit is absolutely amazing (I think it's miles better than the GW kit I owned more than a decade ago, which is still being sold today, only at twice the price), I still felt the need to add a little personal twist.

For the Chimera I wanted a wheeled chassis. The wheels were found on Thingiverse and were scaled to fit the hull of the Troop Transport. I also added a new hubcap, more in line with the rest of the design... 

Big ass wheels instead of tracks...

The last thing I changed, was placing a vent over the holes meant for the lasgun array. Can't help it, but I just don't like the way these look. I disliked them on the original model and, even though it looks better, I dislike them on this version. However, thanks to the wonders of 3D-design, it was remarkably easy to convert the model slightly and cover up these holes while still keeping the design intact...

Vents instead of the standard lasgun array...

The finished model is just sooooo gorgeous...

Armed with all the bolters I could fit on...

I also wanted to print a Hellhound flamethrower tank. On the Discord channel of TMC there were a couple of very nice designs made by other users, but they didn't have the look I wanted. Working from the original hull design, I used Tinkercad to create a suitable extra fuel tank for my version of the Hellhound.

The detail on the back of the fuel tank...

I replicated the rivets from the original model as closely as I could and tried to mimic the style of the rest of the model. I ended up with a big, well armoured fuel tank, not bad for a novice designer like me...

The printed version came out very good.

The finished Hellhound... 

The prints came out near flawless; only one of the track guards is slightly bent (just like the Battle Tank did), but that's hardly visible... 

Both models weigh around 200 grammes (the Chimera weighs about 190 and the Hellhound just about 240 grammes) and took four separate prints each. I printed these at a resolution of 0.03mm. While this adds several hours to the printing time, the detail of the prints is very, very good... 

Armoured support...

These vehicles represent a sizable investment in time and resin, but I am extremely happy with the results. My Elegoo MARS continues to impress me...

I will be printing more Chimera's, but first up is an Elite Feudal Guard squad with grav chutes and some Cavalry...

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 Feudal Guard... pt. V

While I still have a couple days vacation left, I figured I'd print some more Feudal Guard models...

First of all (per request), the recipe of my orange...

From left to right, from base and wash to highlight and edge...

I opted to print the models from the Elite special weapon set... For both the Heavy Stubber and the Heavy Flamer Team I used a couple of helmets from the upgrade set.

I also replaced the rock with an ammo crate I found on Thingiverse. I really like the pose of this model. Don't know if I will be able to use him, but he will be fun to paint!

For the Heavy Flamer Team I decided to use the bodies from the Engineer set as I really like the heavy overcoats they wear. As with the Heavy Stubber, I don't know if I will be able to use them, but these, too, will be fun to paint.

For this team I needed a new base. It was a bit of a puzzle, but worth it as I will be printing some Cavalry soon. 

Getting two names to fit meant I had to use short names...

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

You can never have too much loot... And that's why you can also never have too many loot piles. These piles are very versatile and can be used just about anywhere in the dungeon, they can be used to store/hide loot (well, they áre called loot piles for a reason) and serve as cover during sneaking or combat. If all else fails they just look good... 

This is an overview of my current set of loot piles...

These loot piles originally started out as barricades for Mordheim, but a year or so ago I updated and repainted them to enhance my dungeon. The base of each of these piles is a stack of home-cast plaster crates, the smaller and more detailed pieces are a mix of plaster, metal, plastic and resin parts.

Having a 3D-printer opens up a lot of possibilities and the last couple of days I have spent some time putting together and printing a couple of complete loot piles and some separate pieces to further enhance the excisting loot piles.

The first two, relatively simple, loot piles...
These were printed as one piece.

The third pile, also printed as a single piece... 

For the third pile I wanted to try something a bit different. I searched, and found, a chicken and a birdcage.

The cage was printed separately, mainly for ease of painting...

On Thingiverse there are a lot of interesting and usefull pieces that can be used for this purpose. Most of the new pieces are designed by a very friendly designer from France. He designed the wicker baskets with tomatoes and apples, the bottles with a wicker shell, the bag of potatoes and the sacks... The wooden crates were found elsewhere on Thingiverse.

Three 3D-printed loot piles mixed with some of the models
from my collection...

The separate pieces... The detail of these items is amazing!

The printed pieces used on a couple of existing loot piles...
The size of these bits is just right!

This is just the first addition to the loot piles, I can imagine there will be more to come!