05/26/2026

Happy Tuesday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts!

This week is looking like it might actually be a productive one around the hobby table. I’m on vacation from my main morning job this week for my birthday — something I try to do for myself every year — which means I finally have some extra time to spend painting, printing, and working on projects that have been waiting for attention. It’s always nice to slow things down a bit, sit at the crafting table without feeling rushed, and just enjoy the hobby for a while. With any luck, there should be plenty of progress and new projects to share throughout the week.

I’ve also been working on a new swamp UDT for the tabletop this week. For this build, I decided to try a different approach by adding foamcore on top of the XPS foam instead of melting the foam as I did with my first swamp board. So far, I’m really happy with how it’s coming together, and the layered look gives the terrain a bit more structure and definition. I still want to add another layer of gloss Mod Podge to the water sections to give the swamp a wetter, murkier appearance, and I may add a few more plants and details around the edges before calling it finished.

For gameplay, I’m continuing to stick with the zone-based setup: the middle land section would count as near range, the surrounding water and outer land sections would be considered far, and anything beyond the board itself would be treated as out of range.

I’m planning on using this UDT for the May 2026 Play video for the Print, Paint, and Play series, and I think the Ironmoor Troll is going to look fantastic standing in the swamp surrounded by his Frogfolk minions. The whole setup already has a great grimy fantasy feel to it, and I’m excited to see it all come together on the tabletop.

I also recently printed out the Villagers 2 set from Fat Dragon Games. Right now, the miniatures are waiting for a little cleanup work before I move on to curing and priming them for paint. Even straight off the printer, the models already have a lot of personality and look like they’ll make great additions to taverns, town scenes, and random encounters on the tabletop.

If all goes well this week, I’m hoping to get at least a few of them painted up while I have the extra hobby time. Fat Dragon Games always does a great job designing miniatures that are both fun to paint and useful in just about any fantasy campaign, so I’m looking forward to getting these villagers ready for the table.

Here’s another Fat Dragon Games tree fresh off the printer. I still need to get it assembled, cleaned up, and ready for primer, but I’m hoping to have it painted sometime this week while I’ve got the extra hobby time. Fat Dragon Games’ terrain always prints nicely and adds a lot of character to the tabletop without being overly complicated to put together.

I might even finally finish up a piece from the Bones 5 Kickstarter that has been sitting around on my hobby table for years now. At this point, I think I’m just tired of looking at it every time I sit down to paint, so it may finally be time to get it finished and moved off the table for good. Every hobbyist has those long-forgotten projects that somehow survive multiple cleanups and reorganizations, and this one has definitely earned that status.

On top of that, I still have a giant bin full of primed and highlighted miniatures waiting for paint, along with terrain pieces and prints I need to finish for restocking the Etsy store. So even though I’m technically on vacation for the rest of the week, there’s still plenty of hobby work ahead of me. Honestly though, spending extra time painting, crafting, and working on tabletop projects sounds like a pretty good way to spend a birthday week.

Keep on gaming!