01/18/2026

Happy Sunday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts!

This week was a quieter one overall, but I did manage to knock out a few important items for my Etsy store. It wasn’t the most productive stretch in terms of variety, yet getting those pieces finished still felt like meaningful progress. Sometimes it’s less about doing everything and more about moving a few projects across the finish line—and that’s exactly what this week ended up being.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but I managed to print and paint 24 more square pillars this week. That brings me up to three full sets of eight pillars, which helps refill what had been marked out of stock in the shop. Below is a shot of them set up on the table during an encounter, showing how well they fill space, create cover, and add some solid vertical interest to the scene.e is a picture of the set up on the table in an encounter.

Since I used black filament, I was able to jump straight into the painting step—PLA takes acrylic paint really well, which makes this part easy. I started with a heavy overbrush of a pewter gray to establish the stone base, then went back in with a mix of browns and tans to pick out individual bricks and break up the surface. After that, I hit everything with a light white dry brush to bring out the edges and texture, followed by my homemade black wash to tie it all together. Once they dried, a matte clear coat sealed and protected the pieces for tabletop use.

I also managed to get two more sets of my cavern pillars painted up this week. For these, I leaned into my Underdark color theme, and I’m really happy with how they’re turning out on the table—it gives them a moody, otherworldly feel that fits subterranean encounters perfectly.

The process starts with black pillars, followed by an overbrush of Midnight Blue to establish that deep, shadowy base. From there, I dry brush with an Aqua tone to start bringing out the texture, then, once everything is dry, I add a very light dry brush of Ocean Breeze to catch the highest edges. To finish it all off, the pillars get sealed with a matte clear coat, locking in the colors and protecting them for regular tabletop play.

I also released another video on YouTube where I walk through my full process for taking a miniature from an STL file to a finished, tabletop-ready model. I start in Lychee Slicer, comparing standard and pre-supported STLs, fixing file issues, generating supports, and explaining why I tilt minis to keep supports off the face before slicing and printing on my Elegoo Mars 3.

After printing, I cover my cleanup workflow—safe resin handling, washing, curing, and prep—before moving on to basing, priming, and a full slap-chop paint job with Army Painter Speedpaints. I paint two identical trolls in different color schemes to show how much variety you can get from one sculpt, wrapping up with a side-by-side look at manual versus pre-supported results.

While the paints were drying, I shifted gears and put some focused time into my Shadowdark Magic Supplement. It’s been steadily coming together, and I’m really happy with the direction it’s taking—at this point, it’s shaping up nicely and is still on track to be finished by summer. A lot of the groundwork is in place now, and it finally feels like the ideas are starting to lock into something cohesive.

I’ve also started digging into the Delve supplement from Bob World Builder, giving it a proper read-through and making notes along the way. There’s some inspiration in there, and it’s already got my gears turning. You’ll definitely be seeing something related to that pop up here before too long.

As for goals, the main focus right now is getting more miniatures finished and ready for the table—or the shop. Lately, I’ve started to realize just how little idea I actually have of the sheer number of miniatures and terrain pieces I end up producing over the course of a year. It’s kind of staggering when you stop and think about it!

When I set the goal of 150 miniatures for the year, I honestly thought that would be a real stretch—something ambitious to push me through slow weeks. But looking at my pace so far, it’s becoming clear that I’m well ahead of schedule. If I keep at it, I could realistically reach that 150-miniature mark before the end of February, which is both exciting and a little bit surreal. It’s a great reminder of how quickly small, consistent efforts can really add up over time.

2026 Goals Progress

• Minis Painted: 99 / 150
• Large Models / Terrain: 2 / 6
• YouTube Videos: 2 / 24
• Game Reviews: 0 / 4
• Games Played (TTRPG + Board Games): 0 / 4
•  Thursday Drop-Ins Created: 0 / 12
• New TTRPG Systems Tried: 0 / 3
•  Shadowdark Mini-Campaign Sessions: 0 / 3
•  Shadowdark Release on DriveThruRPG: 0 / 1

Keep on gaming!