Scatter Chatter: Here and There

Greetings, fellow Friday Folk! We’ve got another mishmash of delightful and useful DnD Scatter Terrain suggestions for your 3D printer today. We even snuck a free miniature in there, too. Let’s go!

The reason we even started this TTRPG scatter terrain series is because we simply hate wasting paint. Whenever we’re coloring a new group of 3D prints, it’s just inevitable that we dab too much paint from a particular pot. Discarding that excess isn’t cheap and is wasteful, so we try to use as much as possible.

So, a popular trick is to have a group of pieces 3D printed, primed, and in clear view on your hobby desk. Even better, pick very common STLs that share a lot of colors, like browns, greys, greens, metallics, etc. We think today’s pieces we’ll help highlight this batching method.

Let’s start with a follow-up to our popular Hanging Around DnD blog post. DM Ben has used corpse markers for as long as he can remember, but Tiny Furniture makes a number of really cool Dead-Body-Themed sets. We liked to paint these because they’re very forgiving. You can cover up any oops brushstroke with dirt or blood spatter, and no one is the wiser. Plus, these poor souls really dress up your gameboard.

Next up, we’ve got an adorbs town sign by Custom Miniature Maker and a whimsical Gnome by wif1973. We love this tinkerer’s sculpt, especially his mighty hair and beard. Even better, this hammer wielder is a free download. Our business sign is from CMM’s Goblin Market Bazaar set, which we highlighted in an earlier post. These don’t necessarily go together, but they still have plenty of uses for any dungeon master.

Now let’s shift our DnD minds to The Printing Goes on Forever and their fun Animal Tracks set. DM Ben did this one to start with just to see how it would turn out. He utilized a fav ground cover scheme of ours: layer on DecoArt Burnt Umber, then drybrush a little ASP Forest Sprite. Then we did a little AK Interactive Wet Ground to better sell the mysterious insets.

Since these turned out so well, we’re going to crank out the others. However, we’ll do them in FDM this next time around instead of resin, since skinny flat pieces sometimes curve up a little.

Lastly, we’ve got a classic scatter piece by STL Miniatures. This hide tanner rack is from their fabulous Fantasy Props 1 set. They’ve released several Kickstarters like that one, and we highly encourage you to do a late pledge. You won’t be disappointed with the huge variety of dressing pieces at your disposal.

Notice, though, how all of today’s STLs utilized very common colors and were simple to paint? That was no accident, my friends. DM Ben got 60% of these pieces colored, and he just couldn’t stand to finish them…so this method is a great completion motivator, too!

One more publishing note. We’re very excited to welcome our newest office mascot, Bailey Mae! She’s a cavapoo pup and is joining DM Ben’s family on 10-3-26! This little teddy bear is just twelve weeks old and needs a lot of TLC next week. He also has to acclimate his one-year-old pup, Winnie Lou, to having a sister. So, we’re taking next week off to catch up on some behind-the-scenes work and give DM Ben some well-deserved time with their second pup. We’ll be back at it starting 10-12.

Until next time!