Arts and Crafts Summer

Yes, it has been a long time since I have posted. I’m a teacher, and summer vacation is a schedule disruption. I don’t know what that means for other teachers, but for me it means I have a whole lot more work to do than during the school year and none of it allots time for me to sit in front of a computer and bang out a blog post. Summer is when I work on all the projects my wife has for me to do around the house and farm and for the catering business. Yes, we live on a farm, but I don’t farm it. We run a venue in the middle of all the farming. Nonetheless, there is a lot of work to do. This fall, I started connecting my class to another teacher's to make an integrated STEM experience, so that's keeping me busy. Did I mention my wife is due in November, and I'm a 46-year-old man with no kitchen in my mid-renovation farmhouse about to have a newborn? 

Also, my regular D&D sessions get all messed up during the summer because of family vacations, varying custody schedules and the like. Being that it’s been over four months and Summer is over, I thought I would pop in and share some of the projects that I’ve been working on in between odd jobs this summer.

Custom Game table Topper

Much like many D&D fans, I love and take a lot of inspiration from Critical Role. I am in love with their Campaign two table design, which allows Matt to be closer to everyone and still use terrain elements etc. My group plays in the bottom of a barn that has been decorated for weddings and events. It’s an awesome space, but logistically, it is impossible to have a permanent D&D table set up. We usually end up using the folding tables that we have for catering events. One of my summer projects was to create a low cost table topper that would allow me to create the same effect as the Critical Role table without the permanency or price tag. Here’s what I came up with.

Laying out lath as trim.

 

Covering it with indoor / outdoor carpet

Adding trim, sanding & staining

 

The finished product on 2 8' and 1 4' table

We had a piece of old OSB that had been all boogered up on the edges. I measured the general space that I was going to need, and I cut the OSB to match. Then I purchased some cheap indoor / outdoor carpet from the Home Depot to cover the OSB. We are renovating a farmhouse, and when we ripped out the old horsehair plaster walls to replace with drywall (it was necessary in order to run new electrical), we saved all the lath. I framed the thing out with some old lath, which I sanded, stained, and poly coated. In the end, it didn’t turn out too bad. It’s working great. If you want to see the steps, you can check it out on the grams, here.

UDT

So, I’ve been watching Professor Dungeon Master over at Dungeoncraft for a few years now. After all this time, I finally popped into Home Depot, grabbed some XPS insulation board, and got to work. I made a two sided UDT, that had the normal cobble grid on one side, and a zoned combat design on the other.

 

 

I did the entire thing using a rollerball pen and a sharpie marker. Despite Professor Dungeon Master’s assertion that sharpie melts XPS foam, I didn’t find it to be that useful. For the zone side, I only used the pen. I followed his instructions for painting both pieces, grabbing clarification and extra details every once in a while from Black Magic Craft’s channel.

I loved the results so much that I then made the town / Tavern UDT with Sewer UDT on the back. 

Spray paint is used to weaken the foam to sand the sluice.

All the carving is done with a ballpoint pen.

 

Scatter terrain

When using ultimate dungeon terrain, scatter terrain is a must in order to sell the scene. For pillars, doors, and doorways, I 3d printed some stuff from Open Forge, by Devon Jones and Delving Decor by Arian Croft. I also purchased this excellent pack from Dungeons and Lasers, called fantasy customization bits. They come on a sprue and require some assembly, but for small bits like this, it’s 900% worth it not to have to 3-D print them.

To paint these up, I took inspiration and instruction from the following sources:

• Dungeoncraft is the channel that got me over my fear of crafting to begin with.
• Black Magic Craft is just awesome, and goes over a lot of foundational techniques. His technique for dry-brushing stone with tan and using homemade black washes is life changing.
  
• Goobertown Hobbies is the Bob Ross of hobby painting. This is where I learned to experiment with supplies and techniques.
• I got the 411 on basic techniques and the Wet Palette from Squidmar, 
  

Miniatures

I can't believe I've gotten sucked into the world of minis. It's an inevitable part of the evolution I suppose. It all started with MZ4250's Tiamat on Thingiverse. Then my wife, a former Naval Officer saw the Lady Harpy on Facebook. Loot Studios advertised a subscription that included this amazing Pirate Ship, which I have not finished printing. Anyway, one of the guys on my Monday night group resin printed some of the minis for me and I was hooked. Now, I am also subscribed to BriteMinis on Patreon, who makes support free FDM minis that I can render beautifully on my Ender 3; I'm experimenting with making my own washes and contrast paints using acrylic inks, matte medium, and flow aid; and I recently purchased the Wizkids aboleth and painted it for my Tuesday night group. 

Final Thoughts & Parting Shots

Admittedly, I have put off the arts and crafts side of this hobby, since 1992. I always felt that it was a step too far and I would soon find myself ostracized from normal, non-nerd society, forced to find friends only at LARPing events and comic book stores. Not that I wouldn't meet some great people in those places. I just feel like my family might have disowned me. My wife does joke that I will soon have more arts and crafts supplies than her. Largely, though, this is a creative outlet I should have tried a long time ago. You don't need to be awesome right away, or really at all in order to enjoy it. I should also mention that involving the kids in these projects really gives them a sense of investment and pride. It also frees us up to be less concerned with how "professional" our stuff looks. Its very freeing to relinquish control of part of your terrain build or mini paint job to a child. It takes away the temptation towards perfectionism paralysis.