02/08/2026

Happy Sunday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts!

February has been packed, but despite the chaos, I still managed to crank out a solid haul of miniatures and terrain. Lots of paint, lots of progress, and just enough hobby momentum to keep the dice gods satisfied.

A young green dragon surveys its woodland domain… and decides you look like lunch.

Starting things off, we have the Young Green Dragon from EC3D Design! This beast was printed in resin on my Elegoo Mars 3, then primed black with a rattle can before I hit it with some quick highlights using a makeup brush (seriously, makeup brushes are hobby cheat codes).

For the main body, I used two different green India inks to build up that rich, toxic-dragon vibe. The eyes, tongue, and bony spikes/teeth were picked out with traditional model paints to give them a bit more definition and contrast. The tree was done with speed paint, and I finished off the base with some green flocking and even tossed on a grass tuft for a little extra life.

Overall, I’m really happy with how this one turned out.

Two adventurers walk into a cult ritual… and suddenly the chanting turns into screaming.

The elven archer and human cleric are new additions to the party this week! The elven archer is from EC3D Design, and the human cleric comes from Fat Dragon Games. Both models were printed in resin and primed black with a rattle can.

Since these sculpts are a bit beefier (which is always a nice bonus), I was able to hit them with some quick highlights using a makeup brush before moving on to paint. From there, I used a mix of speedpaints to bring them both to life, and I’m pleased with how much character they gained with just a few layers and some careful color choices.

The skeletons should’ve been the warning… then the wyvern showed up to confirm it.

These two adventurers are fresh off the printer and ready to cause trouble. The human wizard came from a HeroQuest bundle I picked up on MMF, while the human warrior is from Fat Dragon Games.

After priming, I gave both models a quick highlight pass with a makeup brush to help the details pop, then jumped into paint. A mix of speedpaints did most of the heavy lifting, and it’s always satisfying to see how quickly a couple of well-placed colors can turn a plain mini into a character that looks ready for the next dungeon crawl.

The drawbridge welcomes you. The troll disagrees.

The troll is from EC3D Design, and I believe the drawbridge is a leftover piece from the Bones 5 Kickstarter. The troll was resin-printed, then primed, highlighted, and finished with speed paints.

The drawbridge got a few dabs of burgundy, caramel, and dark brown applied with a makeup sponge (the smaller pores help it cover more evenly). After that, I gave it a light gray drybrush and finished it off with my homemade wash.

I really like how the stone texture turns out with this method.

Two small chapels, one graveyard… and not a single comforting prayer left.

These small chapels were FDM printed on my Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro. I printed them in black filament (which has basically become my default lately), so I didn’t even bother priming them. PLA takes acrylic paint surprisingly well, and starting from black makes it easy to build up shadows naturally.

For the stonework, I used the same stone paint scheme I mentioned with the drawbridge, and I’m really happy with how consistent it looks across the terrain. The wooden parts were finished with speedpaints, and the roofs were kept simple—just plain craft paint with a quick drybrush to preserve some natural highlights and texture.

I managed to get back to my dungeon tiles project this week. Everything is built, primed black, and already has a base layer of caramel craft paint laid down. Next up, I’ll be dabbing on the other colors (burgundy and dark brown), then finishing them off with a light gray drybrush and a black wash to really bring out the texture and depth.

I’m still on the fence about whether I want to magnetize the tiles or just leave them as-is. I do have a neoprene mat I can flip over and use to help keep everything from sliding around, so magnets might end up being an unnecessary rabbit hole… but we’ll see how strong the temptation gets.

I also spent some time finally breaking the supports off a bunch of miniatures that have been sitting around in the “I’ll deal with it later” pile. I’m trying not to print anything new until I catch up a bit… but those monthly subscription releases keep dropping, and resisting them is way harder than it should be.

Keep on gaming!

2026 Goals Progress

• Minis Painted: 113 / 150
• Large Models / Terrain: 5 / 6
• YouTube Videos: 2 / 24
• Game Reviews: 1 / 4
• Games Played (TTRPG + Board Games): 0 / 4
•  Thursday Drop-Ins Created: 1 / 12
• New TTRPG Systems Tried: 0 / 3
•  Shadowdark Mini-Campaign Sessions: 0 / 3
•  Shadowdark Release on DriveThruRPG: 0 / 1