Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Paint Me a Match!

Greetings, fellow dungeoneers! Weekend gaming eve is nearly upon us! Let’s celebrate with one of our favorite terrain makers and see if we can make them even a better fit in your busy 3D printing lives!

So how did we get here? Welp, the 3DRPG Studios team came to the conclusion that there simply isn’t enough time in the day to 3D print and, more importantly, paint, everything we produce. We had to make a conscious design to draw a line in the sand and formulate a better plan of attack. Hence, we decided to tackle all the different DnD game environments and categories like so:

• Caverns: 3D Print and Dwarven Forge.
• Dungeons: Dwarven Forge.
• Village: 3D Print.
• Egyptian: 3D Print.
• Hovertrain: 3D Print.
• Miniatures: 3D Print.
• Scatter Terrain 3D Print.

We even went heavy on Dungeon Ruins 3D prints initially, but it was getting overwhelming, and our initial paint jobs just weren’t matching up the way we wanted. Still, the huge takeaway is we were all over the place and lacked focus! Since we righted the ship, we’re really cooking with gas these days!

Enter Dwarven Forge and their 2025 Dungeons Reforged Kickstarter! A stunning amount of brilliant dungeon pieces remastered and magnetized for avid collectors and new hobbyists looking to break into the space! A lot of their terrain had been out of print for ages and was extremely hard to acquire. DM Ben was ecstatic to see this new offering and went all in on his pledge. It was going to be a huge relief to use pre-painted Dungeon pieces and just have our 3D printers spit out complementary terrain. Plus, this gives us more time to focus on everything else! Win-win.

Once pledged, it just became a waiting game for everything to arrive on our doorstep. The campaign went live in October 2024, and by early January 2025, all our boxes arrived safe and sound. Amazing timing, given the crazy amount of logistics involved. It was a joyous day in the DM Ben household when the packages arrived! While this TTRPG windfall was amazing, it also created two new minor conundrums, but we were determined to solve ’em!

The first issue we had to mitigate was efficient storage. Thankfully, the Dwarven Forge Discord is an amazing communal place filled with gamers from around the globe who truly want to help others succeed in this space. A very kind user (“Bender”) initially suggested these really slick A4 storage containers by WestonBoxes. Alas, those beauties aren’t available at an affordable price here in the States. We found one online distributor, but sadly, their website turned out to be a fraud. Thankfully, our bank refunded everything without any trouble.

We refused to give up and did a tremendous amount of online searches to find something similiar. Thankfully, DM Ben’s girlfriend is an expert Amazon shopper, and she found these amazing IRIS USA Board Game Storage Craft Organizer Boxes. From an affordability standpoint, you can get a pack of six for about $35-ish. The dimensions are darn close to those WestonBoxes at 12.25″L x 13.04″W x 3.15″H. We try to pack ’em nice and tight whenever possible, but even looser pieces fit just fine in a case. For example, we put all the traps in a single tray without issue.

Everything from our shipment arrival-day pic above fits in about 15-ish of these slick storage containers. They also stack on top of each other perfectly and don’t buckle under the weight! We just keep the heaviest ones near the bottom. DM Ben is also going to put some clear labels like “floors,” “LEDs,” “Walls,” and so forth to ensure he grabs a box quickly as he builds out new dangerous dungeons. We’re just over the moon with these containers and can’t recommend them enough!

As good as Dwarven Forge is, our 3D Printers still had a lot to contribute to the terrain environment. Their products can still be tough to acquire outside of Kickstarters, and it’s a higher price point (but you often get what you pay for in this hobby). Painting your 3D prints to match Dwarven Forge is no easy task. The classic Prime Flat Black and apply a Slapchop base isn’t ideal here.

There are two core reasons for the paint trickiness here. First, Dwarven Forge pieces are produced with tremendous detail and texture, while 3D prints often have much smoother surfaces. Their Dwarvenite material takes paint extremely well. The other critical area here is that initial base coat. You definitely want to use the Pokorny Paints and start with the darker Dungeon Gray. This starting layer gets you as close as possible to the unpainted factory pieces.

One of the new releases that came with the Dungeons Reforged release was a new paint color: Dungeon Dry Brush. Previously, you had to combine Cavern Dry Brush with School Bus, which was always a little cringeworthy, since we don’t enjoy mixing paints. It can be tough to match things between paint sessions, so this new bottle was a welcome addition to their paint line!

So, let’s talk paint steps here!

• Basecoat with Pokorny Dungeon Gray.
• Apply Earth Stone to random bricks.
• Drybrush Pokorny Dungeon Drybrush (new).
• Drybrush a couple of spots with Pkorny Moss Green (optional).

Nothing crazy, right?! Welp, as good as all the Dwarven Forge painting tutorials are, they don’t exactly fall in line for 3D prints. No worries – Dwarven Forge Discord to the rescue!

Previously, following those paint steps above got us close, but not enough to be immensely satisfying. And it turned out, the paints weren’t the problem. It was more so how we were applying that Dungeon Cavern Dry Brush step. Kind souls like Nikko the Vogon Bard Poet and cb9756 gave us a eukera moment. Again, the typical texture of 3D prints means you can just use a feather-duster dry-brush motion on that last lighter color step. Instead, the key is to apply that last core color with a dabbing motion or, even better, with sponges.

Now, as cbw9756 perfectly stated, “No one can prepare you for sponges. It’s trial by fire…” And boy, was he right! No matter how much paint you think you have on your sponge, it’s probably still too much. Our first attempt on this Cast n Play arch was overdone, even though DM Ben thought he had barely any paint on that sponge. Too much paint means your 3D print gets blotchy quickly. So, he just went back and did a black dry-brush dab on it to break up that color. For his very first attempt, he was pretty satisfied.

DM Ben put the other gargoyle fountain test piece against a factory-painted Dwarven Forge wallpiece, and again, we like what we see here! We might be putting too high expectations on getting that really subtle brick accent color perfect, but we definitely feel like we’re in a satisfactory zone. With some practice, DM Ben thinks future 3D print coloring attempts will only improve (thanks to a great community of Dwarven Forge enthusiasts)!

Until next time!