Miniature Monday: Slow and Ratty

Greetings, fellow miniature collectors! We hope you had a wonderful weekend of gaming. It was a toasty one here in Arizona, but that’s why we love our 3D-printing hobby so much…our DnD miniatures and scatter terrain can be crafted under a soothing AC vent. Let’s get to it!

Today, we’re revisiting some existing monster squads and their paint jobs to grow out their ranks a bit further. DM Ben doesn’t like having anything less than five miniatures of the same type for a particular encounter prep. That certainly doesn’t mean he’ll use all of those DnD minis, but he requires this flexibility, or he gets cranky.

Our fondness for those hardshelled terrapins started because DM Ben was obsessed with some half crab, half turtle monsters by STL Miniatures. He did three versions of their shell and the group was like, “dude, let’s try a few of these color combos on some turtle soldiers.”

Then we got on some Ratfolk kick and that spawned several different posts. Part one focused on the initial soldiers by Dutchmogul. From there, we did a couple more versions as well as a bigger Rat Monstrosity by Brite Minis. There’s just something very freeing about coming up with a core paint scheme for the more popular DnD baddies.

So, this paint-scheme comfort transitions perfectly into our first featured DnD miniature today. We loved all our various Ratfolk fighters so much that DM Ben requested we find a party leader. So, we downloaded this free Ratfolk Druid Mother mini. A great sculpt and the perfect mother hen to lead the group.

We love when creators show off the painted versions of their STL creations. Dutchmogul (and others like Brite Minis and Cast n Play) are known for this, and that nudges us to 3D print their work. You can see in the first pic that there wasn’t a lot to this paint job. DM Ben already knew how to do the rat’s body, so taking care of her cloak and fancy head dress was a snap.

When it comes to spiders, we like to use ASP Holy White for the base layer, FAN Uniform Grey for the edging, ASP Blood Red for the eyes, and then do some light black drybrushing for shadowing. For its cloak, we used GSW Military Green as that felt nice and Druid-earthy to us.

Next, we’re tapping mz4250, who seems to share the same affinity for turtles as we do. He has a whole line of sculpts of D&D’s Tortles. We especially like these different gadget versions: Bard with Bagpipes, Barbarian with Horn and Axe, and Cannoneer Artificer. Mz4250 has plenty of soldier versions, but he’s also done one for each player class (pure awesome).

DM Ben didn’t mind coloring these up this weekend. He did slightly different shell versions because he prefers to avoid seeing a big splotch of the same colors on his gameboard. No dungeon master wants their beloved setup to all blend together, right? ASP Rigormortis with a Dark Tone Wash makes for a great terrapin skin color. We also dab on some of AK Interactive’s Swamp Green Water Gel and a grass tuft here and there so things come off a little marsh-like. We lost our big axe in that Barbarian’s other hand, but oh well. Snapping happens (pun intended).

Lastly, another favorite 3D-print creator, the mighty Schlossbauer, has his own free version of turtle warriors in several fun poses. We’ll ultimately make them all, but let’s start with Boomerang Bro. No shade to mz4250, but we like Schlossbauer’s versions a smidge more, as they’re not quite as fragile. We prefer our STLs to be thick and durable whenever possible.

We’re klutzes when it comes to removing supports, so we damage more 3D prints than we like. Call it excitement or eagerness, but we can butcher a fresh print like a pro.

DM Ben colored this STL as he did all of these DnD shellpad prints over this past steamy weekend. He chose a different shade of green for the hard shell, and all the other colors were core staples. We’re zoomed in pretty tight, and this isn’t our finest pic, so this one looks much better than we’re revealing here. Just be comfortable in your own painting skin, own the Arm’s Length rule, and be focused on using your miniatures and scatter terrain more than 3D printing them. 😉

Until next time!