A Viking Longhouse

 I created a variation of dutchmogul's Longhouse found on Thingiverse at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4245111

The original files were able to build the open shelters, but don't allow for a longer building. My modification allows for a longer building. Both are visible in my second picture below.

I will try to upload the STL files by this weekend. The location will be is https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6613687

The view from Blender

Ready for a small engagement

A 3D Marx Vehicle

I really like Marx Cars of the Future designs.

They are hard to find on the market, and so I decided to design something and get more practice with Blender and my 3D printer.

The Plan in Blender

Here's my humble first attempt:

A stream-lines 50's future car

The Result

And here is the printed version, painted next to a 28mm Dragon Lady from Pulp Action (now Northstar) Figurines.

You can the Blender file and OBJ file here on ThingiVerse at https://www.thingiverse.com/kitrok/designs

Diplomacy 3D Glow-up

So, at one point I decided to create a gift for a friend who like the game known as Diplomacy.

I went at it for several weeks. I had thought I posted that information here on this blog site months ago, but I didn't find any evidence. 

After I completed the set, the plan was to get together seven (7) dedicated players from among our circle of gamer relations and do an all-day gaming session. Our industry (tech worker) is pretty harsh and fast moving. That plan never took off because people started moving away. 

Pictures

3D Printed via FDM for 7 players. WWI Tanks and battleships.

Labels for the supply center control tokens.

All of the ship bagged up.

A closer look at the set for the yellow player. Shown are the tanks and the ships.

I created this large frame of ferrous metal upon. Each section is collapsible and can be stored.

The map, mounted. I never created a frame.

A close-up of the map I created using Adobe Illustrator.

The interior of the large box I crafted using thick polystyrene foamboard. That tiny box holds the tanks and ships. The magnetic sections from the frame are kept at the bottom of this box.

The box exterior. Nice and portable.

The map and frame mounted upon the wall of my friend's flat.

Know More

The originally went to Boardgame Geek. Click on that link to get more imagery.

3D Models

 A while back I got an FL-SUN QQ S-PRO 3D printer. 

I have been printing a bunch of 3D art (via STL file format) from a bunch of people. I'm learning the limitations of my FDM printer in that it is best suited for larger things such as terrain and buildings. However, I have been working with the Blender app and creating small things.

Thingiverse

I'd like to present to you my two latest creations! Both are now on thingiverse.com.

• Spiderbot
• Two Spiders

Spiderbot

This is just something I've always wanted. It is sort of like a tachikoma but without the human pilot inside. I created it using metaballs and simple hard-surface modeling. It is very low detail and the legs are sort of meh. However, it is my first 3D figurine from design, modeling, to printing, and painting! 

I like to think that it will fit into my MEST Tactics settings somewhere, perhaps in Combat Modern. It may also fit into the Mech, Beast, and Infantry rules set. 

Spiderbot Mark-I

High and Low versions. These have turrets which can swivel.

Two Spiders

I always see single giant-spider minis or swarm of small spiders. I have also found three spiders on a disc but never two spiders on a disc. Until now, because I just created it. It is low-detail but it paints up well enough. I mount these on 40mm zinc fender washers. It will be used with my other figurines in the Dunjon of Death and Sarna-len settings within the Fantasy genre.

Two spiders

Painted up. 

WIP 28mm Farmhouse :: Finished!

I finally did a big push and got my farmhouse finished!

Lessons learned; I used Nuln Oil wash for my weathering on both the interior and exterior of the farmhouse building. Black instead of brown because it fits what I've done before for my other minis. Nuln Oil apparently goes pretty quick and it is expensive. I think I will need to either go back to water + acrylic black or learn how to make my own acrylic flow solution.

The Farmhouse

This is a conclusion to https://matter-energy-space-time.blogspot.com/2020/10/wip-28mm-farmhouse.html

I tried something new here. Take a look at the captions for more information. Basically I created several inserts within the first floor so that I could have more interior flexibility for use. I also created a false additional door which allows me to use the second floor by itself.

The Pictures

Front of the farmhouse.

Side with a false door addition. This is for later.

False door addition removed.

Back with the chimney. The paneling on the first floor was made by my daughter using coffee stirring sticks for a school-project which I co-opted when she gave the house to me. When I decided to build the top floor, I found some old balsa wood paneling which I used.

Other side. There are two functional doors and a third from the false addition.

Top of the farmhouse. The roof and the second floor are removable.

First floor. The stairs and partition walls are inserts.

Walls partition removed. 

Stairs removed. My immediate and crazy desire at this point is to purchase or print some 1:56 scale furniture. Well, at least an upright piano and maybe a stove and a stool.

Second floor. The staircase is at the back and egresses into the direction of the chimney. This floor is ideal for pulp-era wooden crates.

Second floor by itself.

Adding the false addition.

With the roof. The false addition allows me to use the second floor of the farmhouse as though it were a smaller building.

3D Printed Gaslands Barriers

 This next set I've been working on for a while. They are a set of barriers set up for the Gaslands game which I thought would be a perfect fit for my use of them within the MEST :: Retropocalypse setting.

These designs are available on thingiverse.com at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3990615 and https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2933354. They are created by sablebadger and I scaled them up to be correct for 1:56 (28MM) figurines.

Technopunks against some Radspyiders.

Different view. I have an LED lantern for that crazy light.

Threw more scatter elements atop the terrain blanket. It looks to me that those two Technopunks are gonna die. Also looks like I need more terrain!

Among Us WIP

This is a start of a boardgame experiment for my kid using the Traitor mechanic. I don't want it to be similar to Secret Hitler, Mafia, or Werewolf because it needs to work for just 1 to 3 players if necessary. It also needs to be lighter and with less fiddly bits than games listed here; https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1657498/games-traitor-mechanic

Prototype Art

Here's the pieces I printed and painted. The design is from Thingiverse.com by usre swlhonda at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4635009

Sample hall with six of the Among Us crew members. I will eventually create a total of 12 and include the alien impostor variations.

Game Design Outline

These are my current thoughts on how the game should operate. I'm quite sure that the final design will be very different.

Overview

1. This is meant to be a 2 to 4 player game. It has player elimination.
2. Each player controls a competing Team of Science and Engineering crew comprised of 3 to 5 members. One of which is an agitator known to that player but not by the other players.
3. Work environment is a Deep Space Research Facility on the surface of Europa with competing budgets all reporting to the Corporate Director.
4. Goal of the game is to sabotage the efforts of the other players while promoting own team.

Elements

1. There will be a 3D map with multiple Facility Areas, and a Task Deck. 
2. Facility Areas include several Connecting Hallways, Recreation Rooms, and Dining Area in addition to Med Bay, Engineering Deck, Command Center, Data Bay, Crew Quarters, Docking Area, Engine Room, Weapons Bay, Bio-sciences Bay, and Hazardous Waste Container. There's a different ability for each section. 

Preparation

1. The Task Deck is stuffed with actions which include cards for Sabotage and Kill.
2. During the Initiative Phase determining Crew Order.
3. Draw one card from the Task Deck for each crew a player controls to an hand. Examine the cards and assign them face-down to each crew controlled as part of its Action buffer.
4. During the Exchange Phase, crew within the same Facility Area may exchange cards freely. Sabotage and Kill cards may be given to other player's Crew's buffer face-down. Do not look at yet.
5. During the Activity Phase, in Crew Order, navigate crew to each Research Area and place a known card from their hand or one drawn at random from the Action buffer for that crew face-down at that terminal.
6. Crews without items in their Action buffer can wander to adjacent the Facility Areas.
7. During the Wander Phase, each Crew may continue to move about spend time in their present Area.
8. During the Inspection Phase, each Area's terminal with Task Cards face-down has them revealed. If there is Sabotage card; that Area loses ability and it affects the entire Research Facility.
9. If there is a Kill card; one crew in that Area, per the Crew order, is injured and goes to the Med Bay.
10. If there are are multiple Kill or Sabotage cards; the damage is increased.
11. During the Vote Phase, players nominate Suspect crew to be Spaced! Suspect crew are those which remained are in the Area where a Sabotage or Kill card was revealed.
12. Crew which are Spaced! are removed from play. A player with no remaining Crew is removed from play.
13. Game continues until just one Team remains in play.
    

Concerns

I want to use Victory Points for placing Tasks, and for remaining near Facility Areas during the Inspection Phase. I want to allow players which have been eliminated from play to continue scoring VP. I want the winner of the game to have the highest VP.

An idea could be to place Task cards which build sets. Each Team is given a secret favored Set type, and each Task card has different colors. Scoring the most favored sets gives VP at the end of the game.

3D Printing :: The Shores of Tripoli

I took some time to tinker with my 3D printer and scoured through Thingiverse for STL files to print in order to craft a custom play-set. I started this journey in a previous post here.

Here are the results of my effort. A similar article which I wrote in parallel appears at boardgamegeek.com via https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2540417/article/36274186#36274186

The Game-board

I went to Home Depot and had a technician there cut 0.25-inch MDF into those exact sizes. I upscaled the board using Deep AI so that it could be much larger; about 40-inches by 14-inches. The result of the upscaling was a crisp but an enhanced painterly effect, which is what I wanted to pursue. I also needed to use the clone-stamp tool within Photoshop to create additional art mimicking the existing art. I then used Illustrator to re-label everything and to clean up the lines of the various compartments, icons, and shapes.

After mounting the sheets to the MDF, I applied several layers of PVA glue ("Mod Podge") with a large paint brush so that the surface of the game-board looked textured like a painting.

The 3D Printer

I used my FDM printer which is an FL-Sun QQ-S Pro that melts PLA plastic filament and builds things upwards from a hot plate. I think as a first printer, it is good enough for projects involving small printed objects. The largest thing which I've printed is about 5-inches (75mm) tall and about that wide.

The Custom Bits

I wanted to have the entire game to have a painterly finish. To this end, I primed everything with black and then painted that quickly with a base color, ensuring that I leave enough of the black showing. I then did quick dry-brush using mostly white.

Armies

These are half-inch wood cubes I purchased from Michael's Art Supplies. I painted them all in a base color (red, blue, white) and then dry-brushed their edges in tan (for the white cubes) or white. I then added some black just lightly on many edges. I like the final effect.

Wood cubes painted and textured. Tripolitan Army is reddish. Americans are blue. Arabs are white.

Ships

These STL files are from Thingiverse.com. The idea was to have all of the fleets be atop the same size bases (15mm x 40mm) but the gunboats be rendered smaller. The frigates are all three-mast designs. The Swedish and American frigates are the same design but different colors (blue or yellow). The Tripolitan frigate is a different design entirely.

Swedish frigate.

Tripolitan gunboats. Two masts not three.

Tripolitan frigate.

American frigate.

Reinforcements for the American player.

For the Tripolitan raiders, I made them be two-mast designs. For the American gunboats, I printed them as smaller three-mast designs which I think was a mistake because it was hard to differentiate them from the frigates. I will print them again as two-masted ships.

I particularly like the caravels; I wanted to make sure that the Corsairs looked like a fleet and so I made two appear upon each base. 

Caravels for use by the allies in Tunis, Algiers, and Tangier.

I think here the American player should worry about corsairs in Algiers!

Tribute

I decided that the tribute would look better as chests of coins instead of individual pieces of gold. I found this also on Thingiverse and they painted up nicely when I applied several colors each using the dry-brush technique. 

Tribute chest. There's 12 of these.

Unclaimed tribute.

The Overall Look

I am terrible at framing my subject matter properly especially for ensemble or atmospheric arrangements. However, this is what I've got and I hope you like the gestalt of it.

WIP 28mm Farmhouse

I've always wanted to craft a farmhouse building for my Mythos genres for use by MEST. Recently, I've decided to start using my 3D printer for creating small terrain elements and this farmhouse project was a good a place as any.

Printed Items

I either altered the original STL files from thingiverse.com using Blender, or I crafted them directly. 

• Doors
• Windows 
• Stairs
• Ladders
• Roof

The Farmhouse

These are various shots of the work-in-progress. I will provide an update once it is painted.

The exterior shot with two 28mm figures. These are Pulp Figures minis, I think. The tiny half-wheel is 3D printed. Blue-foam is nice for shaping, but is very brittle.

The ground floor. The three doors swing open and close. The staircase is removable.

Also removable are the inner walls. This will allow me greater utility for how to use the floor.

Close-up of the second floor. The roof is 3D-printed. It is "good enough" for tabletop. The windows are also 3D-printed.

Inside the second floor. The staircase doesn't quite align with the ingress of the floor, but it works for me! The two large windows are 3D-printed.