Train Tuesday P37: Have Bars, Will Travel

Our completed Hovertrain cars continue to pick up speed! These 3D prints have been a labor of love, and it’s insanely satisfying to see them start to roll into the RPG station. Let’s take a look through those metal bars for this week’s Train Tuesday edition!

We adore the variety of Hovertrain cars that Aether Studios’ STL catalog offers. DM Ben is all about options when it comes to his TTRPG library of goodness. He doesn’t want to flip the page on our current adventure module only to find himself flat-footed when picking the right miniatures and scatter terrain.

These pieces require some extra elbow grease to get from your printer to the game table so smart planning is everything when it comes to this DnD railroad setting.

The Prison Car is from the staple Fairhaven Line set. This Hovertrain STLs collection is definitely the first set to focus on and begin printing. We envision numerous scenarios with this iron bar train car. And as we all know, re-playability is a DnD Hobbyist’s best friend.

For the exterior, we decided to go with dark grey, as painting an entire car metallic is just a bit too intense for our liking (see our recent Sleeper Car for an example). That DecoArt Black Pearl works best on the undercarriage and as a trim color. Dwarven Forge Pokorny Paints like dark grey, green and red looks pretty snazzy on the middle portion of the car.

We dipped into our Army Painter Speedpaint collection for the bar doors and applied Enchanted Steel (so good). We like how this shade offsets against the heavy metal exterior. Plus, Aether Studios’ STL design allows a DM to easily swap doors based on the specific encounter.

We stayed true to our Hovertrain assembly mantra by ensuring we didn’t overcrowd a car. DM Ben needs a little room to maneuver some miniatures around the gameboard. Hence, we always only do up to two tiles with details and then have two clean tiles for the remaining portion of the train car.

Speaking of details, Aether Studios didn’t disappoint with this prisoner car. A standard 25 mm DnD miniature actually fits into each cell and includes a narrow opening in case your mini has some outstretched arms and weapons.

The other tile has a small table with a set of jailor keys resting on it. We’re on the fence about these subtle touches. Most of the time, we prefer to add our separate scatter terrain to match the current encounter. What if we don’t want those keys in plain sight? That sorta stuff.

Plus, these smaller elements can be a little tricky to paint. The slap chop primer method is highly encouraged because it helps hide missed spots or paint brush slips.

Lastly, let’s kick around a few potential scenarios for our latest Hovertrain car. Some darn good ones leap to mind:

• High-value Prisoner Intercept
• Added Security for Armed Escort
• Infiltrate a Crime Boss’ Inner Circle

Wouldn’t it be a blast to free a wronged prisoner from this car? How about having your players be some extra muscle to ensure a particular jailbird safely reaches its next destination? Maybe the players willingly swap places with some of these inmates to get insider info on a villain’s operations?

Look how your 3D printer is expanding your Dungeons and Dragons campaign! It’s a thing of beauty. Until next time!