Train Tuesday P78: Alternate Transportation

Hey, hey it’s Train Wednesday?! Hmmmm…well, that doesn’t sound quite right. We got our wires crossed a bit this week, so we flip-flopped our posting days. Let’s see what all the brew-ha was about.

What an exciting time to be alive in Waterdeep! The Forgotten Rails is ushering in a new industrial era thanks to its rapidly expanding Steampunk-ish innovations. Once considered outcasts (and frankly, off their rockers), Gnome Tinkerers are now front and center and rushing out more and more inventions to the Rhealm. After all, technology always breeds new and better technology, right?!

When Aether Studios released this marvelous supportless FDM Dune Waste Catamaran, our DnD minds went into immediate overdrive. This crazy sand vehicle is a perfect fit for your next desert campaign, but also slots in nicely with our own Forgotten Rails Hovertrain setting. Crazy spinoffs are part of any invention cycle, so we need a few of these mechanical wonders to be spotted in the wild sooner rather than later.

We even printed multiple sand skiffs here, as one FDM 3D-print would never satisfy our insatiable sprockets’ appetite. Plus, we wanted to experiment with multiple paint schemes because sometimes you just never really know if you picked the right color palette until you try a few brush strokes out.

This TTRPG model comes in five pieces: a deck, two pontoons, and two turbines. The STLs are designed to fit together really smoothly. We cringe at assembly stuff sometimes, but this model was a breeze.

DM Ben had plenty of anxiety painting this one as he just couldn’t get comfortable with his colors. In hindsight, that angst was quite silly because experimenting is part of our beloved DnD hobby. You don’t get anywhere with your pile of shame unless you take some chances and jump in with both feet. It’s no big deal if you don’t nail the colors on the first try. As Aaron Rodgers once said, “Relax.”

Besides, we want multiple vehicles for true encounter building flexibility. And they would never be colored exactly the same. It’s not like you go to your local Skiff Dealer and pick one off the lot. These beauties are more like kit cars with their own personalities and styles.

Also, there’s plenty of space on its central platform for some hair-raising battles as you zip across the desert. Can you imagine drawing swords as this beast rumbles across the sands? That’s one bumpy battle if we ever saw one.

We initially fell in love with Army Painter’s Hoard Bronze Speedpaint when we colored this Flickering Knight by Loot Studios. Alas, we learned that this particular metallic works well on smaller minis, but the color can overpower a 3D print if it covers too large an area. It’s not a major deal, as we could always prime it again, but we’re digging the junker paint scheme.

So, where do we go from here since we have two fully assembled 3D prints here? Well, it turns out the talented crew over at Galladoria Games published a brilliant Sand Tutorial on their Instagram many moons ago, and we’ve never gotten around to trying it! This FDM print seems like the perfect place to finally try it out!

• Prime Flat White
• Apply a light Reaper Paints Sepia Wash (09310)
• Continue with a heavy spotted Polished Leather (09430) Drybrush
• Finish with a Bleached Linen (09436) Drybrush

So, we’ll move to painting the entire second skiff in this scheme and then circle back and add subtle touches of various metallics, like ASP Enchanted Steel and Fanatic True Copper, so no one color overpowers the piece.

Until next time!