Don't Roll a One

It’s December now, and of course I’ve started far too many projects on top of the usual holiday workload.

Flexible Battle Mat(s)

I’ve made gaming terrain in the past built off of 2×2′ or square foot XPS foam tiles. This season, I tried my hand at a rollable textured mat as seen on channels like Black Magic Craft.

This desert mat is 32″x32″, with Dynaflex 230 tan caulk over 3mm EVA foam (sourced from the Foamory). It’s textured with sand and the final grit/rubble I saved from when we had our concrete driveway redone.

It went well, but the foam’s hard to come by so I immediately went out and got a canvas drop cloth to try another one. If it works, it should be cheaper and result in hopefully similar success. But right now it’s a large square taking up my printing station in the garage, which leads me to…

We Played God’s STLs Dropped

We Played God, the coop dinosaur skirmish game from Black Site Studios, is exactly the kind of game I want to play with my kids (both Jurassic Park superfans).

They released a whole host of neat dinosaur STL files to backers, including feathered and movie raptors. I want to print all of them but before that…

Tis The Season For Tiny Cars

I don’t know what it is about the holiday season that makes me want to 3d print tiny model cars. This year, I figured out a potential workflow between:

• Automation, the Car Company Tycoon game – this is primarily a way to get customizable cars into
• BeamNG.drive, the vehicular body horror simulator, which has a ton of modding support, but most notably its models are in a format readable by
• Blender

No game model is printable as-is, and each will take a lot of work to clean up and make manifold, but I’m hoping by the end I will have something at least a little bit like automotive Heroforge.

A Note On Scale

For scale quibblers like me, it’s hard to nail down the “correct” scale for gaming miniatures. I had hitched my wagon to 1:55 scale last year, because I wanted the handful of bespoke vehicles I made to be compatible with some Fast & Furious diecasts that I had.

Fact is, 1:55 does look a little small when next to a based gaming miniature. Back in my Shapeways days I’d printed some tests in 1:50 scale and to be honest, an unbased miniature car at that scale looks about right next to based minis.

Since my plan going forward should allow me to fill out a garage’s worth of my own tiny cars, I can afford this pedantic luxury.

Gaming Space

Finally (at least for now), I’ve taken on the herculean task of cleaning and organizing our basement to be a much nicer space for gaming, and possibly a much warmer place for crafting.

Have a happy holiday season wherever you are, and remember to take time out from your busy schedule for what’s really important – playing games!