Gorilla Grouping

Hope everyone had a swell holiday! The 3DRPG went into ultra chill mode, but ol’ DM Ben was a 3D-printing and painting machine for thee, so let’s get into the swing of things (pun intended)!

We haven’t done a Kinda Sorta Portal random table entry in a while, and even though we just did a jungle one-shot, these damn dirty 3D-print apes have been staring us in the face for months now! Besides, we think you’ll go bananas over these free STLs.

Our master maker is good ol’ mz4250, an absolute staple in our wondrous 3D printing community. He offers a Patreon but also releases all his weekly STLs for free. His library is gigantic, and we’ve lost count of the number of pieces we’ve printed over the years. We’re also going to feature another ape from Brite Minis because batch painting is the way.

For the overall paint jobs, we used a great painting tutorial by Miniature Hobbyist. We can’t always get our stuff to match his brilliant work, but he’s inspiring nonetheless (and also calls out every specific paint he uses). Be sure to check out his marvelous channel. Additionally, we admire the modern apes in the modern Planet of the Apes movies, particularly their menacing faces, so that’s the vibe we decided to emulate here.

Let’s start with Brite Minis and their fantastic Gorilla miniature. We print their dollar-value Patreon releases without fail. Supportless and fun as all get out! Additionally, they’re usually all-in-one prints and feature fun bases (like the stone one shown here).

Not sure why we only have a group pic of him here, but the Brite miniature is the one on the left. The other fella is a mz4250 piece who is a little smaller than we like, so we’re not planning on doing more of our weapon-toting White Ape.

Next up is adorably titled “Ape Riding Ape Enjoying Life” with a sculpt that’s tough to beat. DM Ben loves monsters with multiple attacks (especially with larger parties) because he could technically get in ten attacks here (eight claws and two bites). Now, the standard DnD 5e Ape usually only gets two fist attacks, but you’re the DM, make it a fury of blows!

Next up is another mz4250 monstrosity – the Giant Ape, but that name might not fit because we can’t recall if we sized this one down during slicing. Oh well, what’s in a name anyway? We love the design here because you can feel this guy just bearing down on you during a jungle chase.

Last but not least, we have a mighty Gorillion who has an imposing face that just can’t be beat. Five nasty attacks coming off this anger management primate, so again, as a DM, what’s not to love? He doesn’t exactly look like he wants ya to come in for a hug.

With our booming Aether Studios’ Aztec jungle monuments at the ready, you now have two tropical forest scenarios from our random table to choose from on the dice. Our last entry focused on porting right into a mysterious warrior tribe, but if you’re not a fan of that story angle, now you can just go ape!

DM Ben suggests keeping this one simple and having your players teleport into an ape habitat, where, at first, they don’t even notice the party (due to the thick surrounding vegetation). However, they quickly pick up the scent, and all heck breaks loose!

Until next time!