Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: EndTransmission on May 06, 2020, 03:51:59 PM
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It's been quite a while since I was last posting on LAF, so rather than dredge up the very dim, very distant past, I figured I'd be better starting a new thread. Since the last time I was on here, I managed to actually build a modular gaming layout, so I'm able to play games now! This was "finished" just in time to take to a 7TV day at Board in Brum last year and went down well with those that played on it.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520124438-46164267.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520124438-46165925.jpeg)
The primary theme at the moment is folk horror as it fitted with the 4Ground buildings I had as well as the cast I wanted to play at the event, which was a collection of animated scarecrows and flocks of crows to keep people busy as they slowly shambled across the table.
The modular manner means I can keep on adding bits, so most of this blog should be progressing through new additions as much as new casts for 7TV. The intention is to try and work out new bits for the table that open up new cast options, for example I've a bunch of shifty looking morris men on the painting table, so a may pole seems like a reasonable addition.
Given that the last few bits in the setup were finished in a rush, I suspect there will be updates to some of the pieces you can see above. If there's anything you want a closer look at, shout and I can do better photos. I'm also open to new ideas of things to add to the table, so feel free to thrown ideas into the pot. The next post will be the current ideas list that will become an index.
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Future plans
- Archeological dig site
- Camp site
- Cave entrance
- Church ruins
- Cliffs
- Dock/fishing village - Innsmouth style
- Electricity substation
- Hills
- Marshes
- Maypole
- Mill
- Mine entrance
- Power pylon
- Railway under construction
- River
- Roads + telephone poles
- Village fair/carnival
- Watch tower
- Wicker man
- Witches hut
Complete Terrain
- Graveyard (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=124414.msg1573064#msg1573064)
- Infected well* (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=124983.msg1576350#msg1576350)
- Meteor* (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=124983.msg1576350#msg1576350)
- Stone circle (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=124414.msg1569249#msg1569249)
- Summoning ritual (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=124414.msg1569249#msg1569249)
- Village pond (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=124414.msg1569249#msg1569249)
- Walls (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=124414.msg1567631#msg1567631)
Items with * link to another thread
Free STLs are available for the walls and gates on https://www.myminifactory.com/users/MrMagpieCreates
Complete Cast members
- Dragon (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=124414.msg1567840#msg1567840)
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Great looking board, love the scarecrows as well! :)
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". . . shifty looking morris men . . . " indeed!
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Nice looking table so far. What about a wicker man?
Who makes the flock of crows?
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Thanks all. The crows are the zombicide flocks cut off their usual bases and put onto perspex circles. I do have one of the crooked dice Strawman monsters, which is not *quite* a wickerman. I do like the Ainsty one (https://www.ainstycastings.co.uk/product/alan-the-wicker-man/), so I'll add it to the list :D
This post is going to be a long one... Just before Christmas I invested in a resin printer, which has been fun to play with. During lockdown I've taken the opportunity to start playing with Blender which has made the investment well worth it. Years ago, I had a play with carving some brick walls out of plaster to cast in resin, but never got further than doing one side of the wall. After 1 day with Blender I managed to create and print these beauties. All these walls are about the same height as the Garden of Morr walls and actually look really good next to them. This is a comparison with an early version. the height has been tweaked slightly since, but I don't have a photo
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520193813-4617975.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520134033-461681580.jpeg)
There were some issues with overhangs that caused minor print failures, specifically the cross supports on the wall. A few tweaks and test prints later and all of these have been designed and tested
Two different straight walls with a single pillar. These are just long enough to go across the widest part of one hex
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520190031-46177741.png)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520190030-461762148.png)
A straight wall with no pillars. This is to go across a shorter part of the hex, allowing for an angled layout
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520185354-46172937.png)
Three different corner styles, one even and two offset. I needed the offset ones to fit onto a hex; the equal version is in case I decide to release these files for others as they won't have the same limitations that I do
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520190030-461752048.png)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520185355-461742169.png)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520185355-461731464.png)
One collapsing wall
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520185353-46169642.png)
And one archway with a door!
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520185353-46171881.png)
I'll try and take some better printed pictures tomorrow, but you can see them here with the local Laird and Lady and waiting for the grass to be applied
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520193815-461801196.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-060520124644.jpeg)
Still undecided what to do with the files...
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Beautiful work, those walls are amazing.
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Really fantastic work on the walls. Not buying into having a 3D printer is getting harder by the day.
I may have missed this in earlier posts, but are you buying the hex bases or making them yourself?
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There are so many decent Patreons for 3d models, all churning out fantastic sculpts for fantasy games or terrain that you're spoilt for choice and it's so much cheaper than buying plastic/lead. Pulp is a vastly under served one though. There's some learning to do with the printer, but it's been (mostly) fun to learn.
For the hex bases, I'd originally backed a KS for mdf templates to create the hexes by hand, but it took forever to actually get the basic shape right that I gave up and got a company to cut them out for me. I think £80 got me enough hexes to keep me busy for years. With a 6x4 layout already cut out, I'm only about 1/5th of the way into the box! The foam is three times thicker than I need for one hex, so I do need to slice them up, but that's seconds worth of work compared to the 15 minutes per hex originally. Currently trying to determine if I can 3d print the hexes for more detailed tiles, but my printer will only do one at a time and take about 8 hours... so logistics at the moment rule that option out.
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Quick update. This morning a friend asked to see everything that had been made so far and, to be honest, I didn't know either... so I laid it all out full width on my gaming table to see what would be needed in edge pieces. It looks like it currently covers about 1/3rd of the length, so a fair bit to go.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-070520104912.png)
So far the mausoleums are just sat on the table and need their own tiles creating to allow for a bit more character to be added to them. I just need to work out what to put inside them as you can see through.
The graveyard is next on the painting queue as I finally got around to finishing the giant Shadows of Brimstone dragon last night. Not sure what he's gong to be used for yet, but there is 7TV Fantasy in the works, so I'm assuming there will be a dragon at some point
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-070520104404.jpeg)
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Great looking table! All the little scenic sub-assemblies are very cleverly done. I guess this is an infinite project - you can just keep adding as need arises. Love the 3D printed walls too.
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Infinite project is likely to be true. The list of additions that I have on my whiteboard are all currently for folk horror-type games, but I will want to add sci-fi, weird war and post apocalypse elements eventually.
Oh dear... I just thought of some more bits that need to go into the list. Feet for a power pylon (mainly because I'm not storing a full pylon!!) and an electricity sub-station. Folk horror and those 70s safety adverts are the same thing, right?
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While clearing up the office I found a few more bits for the table that need finishing that I'd completely forgotten about...
4 houses, 1 stable, 1 shed, 1 witches hut, 1 gallows, 1 water mill and a watch tower!
Not sure how you forget all of that...
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Folk horror and those 70s safety adverts are the same thing, right?
Yes. You're familiar with Scarfolk, I hope? Absolute total 70s safety advert folk horror and glorious. (For more information please re-read.)
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Oh absolutely, Scarfolk is an essential thing in this house. I should probably try and weave some of that in somewhere...
This weekend saw progress on a few additions to the board options. No self respecting countryside village could happily call themselves a proper cult without a stone circle and sacrificial altar. The altar and one stone were previously done, I just had to add the other 5 stones
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-110520092713.png)
The village also now has a nice little pond. It isn't *quite* complete yet as I need some ducks (currently waiting for Warbases to reopen). Multiple layers of ready pour water, with some Vallejo slime weathering effect painted on between the layers so it is murky
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-110520093143.png)
The graves have now all been painted/grassed. There is still, however, some work to do before the graveyard can be considered done. You can see in the picture how I plan things out. The joy of having so many of these tiles is I can just scribble on them to work out placement and if it's wrong, flip it over and try again... or just grass it for another flat tile. The pathways will lead through from a Lychgate, which still needs designing/printing, through to the ruins of a church off to the right. There's also going to be another broken, sort wall up the top of the graveyard. There are a few more graves printing to fill in some empty space inside the graveyard too.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-110520094207.png)
Oh, I also made a bunch more edge pieces from available scrap tiles to make it longer. Previously I'd only cut enough to make a 2x2 square, now it should be 2x4... so there's still some more edging to do before then. No photos of this one as it's just a stack of half hexes with grass.
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very nice work :-* :-* :-*
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oh my, hexes ... flipping fantastic, everything. I want your board.
and 'scarfolk' ...
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Thanks!
A few steps forward yesterday thanks to some webinars that were interesting to listen to, but didn't require keyboard interactions.
The graveyard pathways are coming along nicely. They still need dirtying up a little bit as who keeps their graveyard pathways *that* clean? I'll be adding some weathering powders in to dirty it up a little bit and maybe some leaves scattered across them. Who knows what inspiration will strike ;)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-130520070845.jpeg)
I also started work on the Lychgate for the graveyard in Blender. Still a few tweaks before I'm happy to try printing it, but so far I'm happy with it. At some point I need to work out curves and the texture sculpting properly... currently the textures are fine, but not as smooth or controlled as I would like.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-130520070239.png)
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I got a question via PM earlier about how I create the hexes, so i figure a flashback is in order :D
The toolset I use is from https://www.hexterraintoolkit.com/, which gives you modular template pieces to make the basic hexes as well as hills, rivers and trenches. I wouldn't worry about sheets 5 and 6 for the interlocking bits, unless you're really desperate to stop drift. Given my table has raised edges, it fits in nice and snugly. As mentioned previously, I was not enjoying cutting out squares and then cutting the hexes. There was a lot of waste and the process assumed good alignment to make sure the hexes are correct... so I decided to cut corners and get the hexes bulk cut.
To do this, find yourself a company that does custom foam cutting services for sign writing and events. I forget who I actually used, but there are places like http://www.foamcutting.co.uk and have a chat to them about costs and file formats required. The foam comes in sheets, so there is a minimum size available, but the sheets come in multiple thicknesses. I went for one that was just over three times the thickness (about 50mm deep; one tile should be 15mm) that I needed, so i could make cliffs more easily in the future. I think it cost me about £80 including postage for a box so big I'll have enough for ages to come.
The company that I went with just needed an image with the cutting plan on. So the easiest way to do that is to use Quickhex (https://zhodani.space/goodies/hex/qh.html) to generate it. You can put in the dimensions of the foam sheet that your chosen company will supply. The hexes from the original tools had 50mm edges, so I used that as the edge length in Quickhex. If you want larger ones, you can use that instead.
The toolkit comes with a nice cutting guide, so using a hot wire cutter becomes very quick to divide it up
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-130520174638.jpeg)
For edge pieces, you need two types and helpfully there are enough pieces in the kit to leave these permanently stuck together. The other sections for hills etc. will need dismantling every now and then, depending on how many sloped sides you want. At some point I need to start practicing with hills as some of the sample boards on the Hex Terrain site look really nice.
For some of the larger pieces, such as the buildings and fields, I still use these hexes, but glue them together with wood glue and tape over the bottom to provide a bit of rigidity. These ones tend to also get a layer of Vallejo texture paste over the top to help strengthen the joins as well.
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thank you very much ET (!).
must admit, my brief experiments with a hot wire cutter (prob. a naff one) wouldn't give me much confidence in achieving your results. But keen to see more of your set-up.
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Not much progress on the actual board this weekend, other than slicing a load more hexes and edge pieces while the printer was working its merry way through the Lychgate parts and an archway for the graveyard wall.
The Lychgate is being modelled here by our resident necromancer, Bob. You can see his nice halloween style accents the graveyard beautifully...
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-180520153527-46550501.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-180520153528-465512336.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-180520153528-465522110.jpeg)
The roof is a separate model as I didn't want to have to wait 10 hours to see if the print failed. I probably could have saved time by printing it all as one piece, but having it in 2 makes it a little easier to paint as getting in under that roof would be a pain. I'm still slightly confused by the gate height though. In Blender the bottom bar is sitting above the floor, but as you can see from the photos, the bottom hinge and crossbar are embedded in the floor... if I ever get around to releasing the models for public consumption, I'll need to go back and look at that again. If.
As for the archway, this is the first time this has actually printed out properly. I suspect adding a new flat plate to the bottom covered up some rogue pixels that were causing it to fail... to I may do that to all the items in future, just to make sure. On the left you can see the new archway with it's wooden door. On the right, you can see an earlier print of the archway all cut up and turned to rubble. This was printed a while back and accidentally broken at the archway as there wasn't the door there to strengthen it. The old one was also a few mm too wide for the base, so this helped bring it back into the hex so that it sits nicely with the other walls.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-180520155357.jpeg)
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That's looking great. A lychgate is one of the things my church/graveyard setup still needs, so if you ever clean this file up I'd be interested in a copy!
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Well there's a driver to clean it up if ever I've heard one! I'd love to see what other people do to it, so sure! I've been contemplating uploading all the files to MyMiniFactory, but I always get concerned that people that know how to do 3d modelling *properly* will be scornful that they aren't optimised... I should get over that as I know they print on an Elegoo Mars without issues; not tried an FDM printer though. What do you have?
Today's update is quite small. I needed to print a couple more walls to finish closing off the three sides of the graveyard wall... and there was so much space left on the print place that it has been expanded a few more hexes with four more tiles of graves and some more pathways... now I just need to design a mausoleum that fits with the GW plastic ones to fill the last hex. It's not too far off having a complete 2x2ft graveyard as it's own board for 7TV games. They are all curing at the moment, so I can hopefully try painting it all tomorrow.
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That looks fantastic, another piece of work that inspires me to get a printer.
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Given that today has mostly been undercoating stuff, I've a small present to anyone that wants it. I've started to clean up the models, fixing those last niggly bits that annoyed me after the prints... and uploading them to MyMiniFactory for free. I'd love to see if anyone prints one for their boards, so please either PM me or post a link in here to your threads :)
The first one to be approved is the lychgate: https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-122536
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Well there's a driver to clean it up if ever I've heard one! I'd love to see what other people do to it, so sure! I've been contemplating uploading all the files to MyMiniFactory, but I always get concerned that people that know how to do 3d modelling *properly* will be scornful that they aren't optimised... I should get over that as I know they print on an Elegoo Mars without issues; not tried an FDM printer though. What do you have?
My brother (who posts here every so often as Burgundavia) has an FDM printer, an Ender 5 I think it is. I commission prints from him and he gets paid in having good scenery to game on and/or beer.
I'll send him the link to the lych gate and see what he says about printing it out on his Ender.
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Excellent stuff, sounds like a good deal to me! If we weren't in lockdown I'd be getting a friend to print me one on his Ender 3 Pro, which is leading me to have this daily fight with myself. I shouldn't really buy an Ender until I make models that need it. Then it becomes a necessity, right?
I'm just creating all the screenshots needed to upload all the matching wall options, so hopefully the whole set will be printable tomorrow/friday.
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For anyone that wants them, all the walls and gates are now free to download over on https://www.myminifactory.com/users/MrMagpieCreates
I'd love to see what people do with them, so please post links to your blogs or provide feedback here!
Today's update is hills.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-210520140316.jpeg)
The template set includes pieces to make various hill slopes. I've tried these in the past with poor results, but I gave it another try yesterday and, with a bit of polyfiller as a skim over the top, they actually worked this time! On the table they look really nice, providing a rise in the terrain... but you can't really see it in this photo unless you're looking hard for it behind the Mantic hedge. I've removed two segments to show that the windmill really is one level higher than the base. I spent lunch cutting some more hill pieces and sticking gravel to them to make it a bit more obvious they are hills... it will be nice to make it a bit less flat. Sadly there's quite a bit of waste material cutting these out... but not enough to be of use in other tiles. The intention is to make enough hill pieces to raise the windmill up another layer or two so there can be some cliffs added to the board as well... that will eventually lead to a mine entrance. One step at a time!
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Fantastic thread! Some really great craftsmanship, and I absolutely love the mood of the terrain.
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Thanks! It's been fun making the terrain. It's something I avoided doing for years and have only just had space to do it. Unfortunately my brain is not suited to the 3d geometry required to build modular hills that are more than one level today... I've had to give up on that for a bit before my brain melts.
On the plus side, this morning I did manage to finish painting/flocking the lychgate, some more walls, the side gate and four more sets of graves. For now, the graveyard can be considered complete! At least until I decide to print some more graves or wall variations... This is double the size it was originally intended to be, I just kept on filling spare space on the build plate with more graves or walls... oops! Unfortunately I clearly wasn't paying attention at 4am when I painted the new walls as they are a slightly different colour to the rest of the brickwork *face/palm*
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-220520151430.jpeg)
I'm pleased that the grain on the gate is visible at this scale. I thought it was too faint when I printed it, or that paint would fill it all... but lo and behold. Washes pick it out nicely
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-220520151738.jpeg)
I also had an earlier version of the archway without the door that got broken... so I broke it some more to create a ruined archway
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-220520151955.jpeg)
I also managed to base the mummer men to go with the dancing girls, who are now making their merry way through the graveyard (completely missing the giant werewolf behind them)...
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-220520152444.jpeg)
On their way to the yearly sacrifice of the nosy journalist sent to cover the may fair
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-220520152558.jpeg)
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Everything looks great but I especially like the Brimstone Dragon.
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very nice work :-* :-* :-* :-*
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:-* :-* :-*
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On their way to the yearly sacrifice of the nosy journalist sent to cover the may fair
Ooh. Will the wicker man show up shortly then? lol
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Ooh. Will the wicker man show up shortly then? lol
You can see an animated wicker man in the background or the zoomed out picture, slowly making its way towards the graveyard. I do have my eye on a large wicker man though
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The last few days have been spent trying to learn some important things that I should have looked at *before* uploading all those stls. Optimisation. The process I took in building them all was to create some bricks and then build it by hand to give it an authentic look and I think the time spent is worth it. Unfortunately this means each model is about 50+ separate objects, which leads to large file sizes and lots of artefacts within the model. Most of the files seem to be ok when you go through and merge everything into one object (give or take some weird clipping that occsionally happens, leaving voids where a brick should be)... but some are just refusing to play nicely with the validator tools MyMiniFactory like to use... so I fear those ones will remain unoptimised. Future models will, hopefully, be better as I now know more about the tools available.
Between all that, I built a new addition to the board and got the main part printed yesterday. What rural scene would be without a pigsty?
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-280520075419-466791563.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-280520075420-467191860.jpeg)
I also picked up the 3d model for some really nice looking pigs from Cast N' Play (https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-pigs-100645) to go in the pigsty, or to be wandering around the board as an objective. To make the piglets, I just scaled the model down to 60% the original size.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-280520075421-467201462.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-280520075421-467211366.jpeg)
Today I need to recreate the roof for the pigsty as it is having problems with the validator and I've no idea why. Shouldn't take too long to do to be fair as I have a master file with wooden planks in. I need to get work meetings out of the way first though!
Once the roof has printed properly, this will be made available for download as well.
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gosh brave new world - fascinating stuff for the non-3d printing conversant. Look forward to reading more of your experiences with the technology.
and my goodness the quality these 'home' printers are capable of now - lovely sty and pigs - and smooth as you like.
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The resin home printers are an absolute godsend for gamers the world over, with far more options available for fantasy and sci-fi things than you'd likely find as physical products. The only after print work that needed doing on those was a was in isopropyl and leaving out in the sun for a bit to finish curing... which at the moment isn't really an issue!
I may have my eye on the new Elegoo printer that is due out in a few weeks time that has a print base more than double the size of the one I have, which means much larger buildings become possible :D
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Some more additions to the gaming table, this time inspired by Nicholas Cage's Color from Outer Space, bringing a splash of extra colour to the tabletop.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-010620192525.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-010620192445.jpeg)
The well was one I already had made, but it didn't have much purpose on the tabletop until now, when paired with a mysterious glowing meteor. I also made a few more hill pieces, including a tree embedded in the slope of one piece. I've started to hack up the last two Citadel trees to try and add some variation to the layout. After these are done I need to start printing some extras when there is downtime on the printer as 12 is really not enough trees for a decent haunted forest... unless anyone has any spare Citadel Woods that they don't want any more, I may need to order a *lot* of resin in the near future as ebay prices are now extortionate.
On the plus side, downloads are still going strong on the walls! We're now up to over 220 downloads, which is blowing my mind a bit...
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No new 3d work recently, I've not really been in the mood after the roof for the pigsty failed to fit properly. I need to go back and fix both parts at some point, but I've sorta lost interest in that one. Aaaanyway. I have done some more bits and pieces to go around the table though
To get a bit more shape to the table, I cut a bunch more hill sections. I'm slowly getting to grips with cutting these things and only worrying about the edges cut to the right level neatly and hacking the rest in to allow for some variation in shape/curvature once the polyfilla goes on
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-110620193235-46893428.png)
The woodlands got some nice extensions too. These are the last two Citadel wood trees that I own now built, so I had to go searching for some alternatives. The joy of a 3d printer is there are a few decent alternatives out there. The ones I settled on were the Winterdale Gnarly trees from Printablescenery.com (https://www.printablescenery.com/product/winterdale-gnarly-tree-pack-50/). They look pretty good, but not quite up to the same standard as the old GW plastics. Still, $9 for the file and about £1.20 per tree in resin and more variation is pretty good value for a bit of a quality drop. The added bonus is I've also printed out a bunch at 10mm for a different project that will get it's own thread at some point
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-110620193451.jpeg)
The bushes are from the free sample pack on the Lost Adventures kickstarter page (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3dprintingdm/the-lost-adventures-all-in-one-3d-printable-adventures) and the free Black Carrot Designs tree stump (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3588387) on Thingiverse. The fun of 3d printing is the ability to merge models to provide some variety, which you can see from the bushes merged into the treestump. I also added a little rabbit hiding in the bush, to see if anyone is paying attention while playing on the table ;)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-110620193235-46892953.png)
There are also some squirrels and a magpie hidden in the trees if you look carefully.
The last addition doesn't really fit the more fantasy theme, but will be a fun objective in more weird war/pulp games. I had the shelter for a while all painted up, but kept forgetting it existed... so it is now part of the table.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/46/7996-110620193235-46894138.png)