Miniature Monday: A Slow Trot

Greetings, fellow gamers! Here we go again – another work week so we can pay for our insatiable DnD and 3D printing hobbies! Let’s see what miniatures joined our completed TTRPG collection this week!

Today’s featured STLs were two longstanding paint bucketlist items, as DM Ben was eager (yet nervous) to add these two animal types to his novice notebook. We had a painful time sourcing one of ’em, but perseverance pays off!

This first whipper snapper is a Dire Turtle and the maniacal work of Dragon Trappers Lodge. This monster on the hardshell is from their Journey Through The Direlands series. We got him as a free download by checking their weekly Free Friday mini releases. Just make sure you’re signed up for their e-newsletter so you don’t miss future freebies. These no-cost STLs can sometimes fly under the radar.

DM Ben was all over trying to bring this bad boy biter to life because he had such great success with his earlier Grakyura monsters! Building off previous satisfied paint projects has been huge for him. He keeps a detailed notebook and often references our little ol’ DnD blog here.

Such simple steps:

• Prime Flat Black | Slapchop Base.
• Lower Body: ASP Rigor Mortis + FAN Dark Tone Wash.
• Shell: GSW Angel Green + (optional) light White drybrush.
• Eyes: ASP Blood Red.
• Tongue: ASP Princess Pink.

Can’t get much simpler than that. With solid results and a boatload of new confidence, DM Ben will be applying the lessons learned from these miniatures to some upright turtle warrior minis! DM Ben’s age 54 eyes and sausage fingers can struggle with smaller minis, but he’s still gotta give ’em the ol UW-Whitewater college try.

With turtles and crabs securely broken out in DM Ben’s novice painter step-by-step notebook, he wanted to try some horses next! Thankfully, mz4250 has some slick free download options, including this wicked good Draft Horse. Longtime 3DRPG readers already know we have a bit of a wagon obsession, so it was time to ensure we could paint the mighty beasts who get tasked with actually pulling ’em!

DM Ben bit his lip and decided to take the color leap here by researching several suggested equestrian paint schemes on Google and YouTube. This zoomed-in image probably looks pretty messy, but trust us when we say that these look more than fine using the Arm’s Length Rule. And DM Ben definitely kept listening to Crash Davis by saying to himself over and over again, “Don’t think, just paint.”

Here were his steps:

• Prime Flat Black | Slapchop Base.
• Body: Layer on WAR Monster Brown + Soft Tone Wash
• Mane: Drybrush FAN Oak Brown.
• Reigns: ASP Grim Black.
• Saddle: Citadel Contrast Space Wolves Grey.
• Hoofs: Black + Citadel Pallid Wych Flesh.

He did a couple of layers of that Monster Brown to make it a bit darker, but it’s really stunning how the FAN Soft Tone Wash brings the coat to life. He also tried the Draft Horse’s mane in different shades of brown and black just to compare them.

Speaking of color comparisons, this is a perfect example of how we once again used a failed print to test different looks before DM Ben felt he had a winning formula. Our initial 3D print went a little south due to poor support placement, but we hate waste, so we set those aside for future stress-free color experimentation.

When doing TTRPG animals of any kind, basing becomes an important step. A great miniature base also helps hide many imperfections in the model itself. For our newly commissioned Draft Horse, a nature-style base with plenty of grass tufts looks solid. And for our Dire Turtle, a nice shallow water-esque mini base, as if the creature is coming off a beach or marsh, looks quite good.

So, are these two new DnD miniatures perfect? Nah – not even close. However, they’re darn fun to incorporate into our game. They’ll also push us to try and color some similiar animals as we strive to improve from 3D print to 3D print!

Until next time!