3D Resin Printing Week 2: Printed Terrain Details

Week 2 of my foray into 3D resin printing continues to show real promise.  Despite the the build volume being small (3.1 inches wide, 5 inches long and 6 inches high), one can cram a good bit on the plate.  One of the terrain features I was missing for the Stalingrad table was the Barmaley Fountain and I was struggling to scratch build one.  Let's just say there have been 2 scratch build failures.

A quick internet search found that 3dPrintterrain makes a collection of WW2 themed files which includes the fountain as well as some other iconic terrain pieces.  

It took a little maneuvering to get the fountain to fit on the build plate but it printed out great.  It's also far superior to anything I would have scratch built do I am really pleased.

I doubt I'll be printing out full building using the resin printer (expect for 6mm) but key detail parts like window frames, doors and signage will be easy to do and add a lot of visual appeal to my scratch builds.

One other useful "discovery" are these cheap plastic cafeteria trays.  The raise lips are great for keeping your printer in and protecting against the inevitable resin spills.  They also make great spots for storing works in progress.

The lips have edges that are 1/8 inch thick and about 3/8 of an inch wide.  I think I can build some really simple cabinet boxes with 1/8 inch grooves and make some super quick storage shelves.

I purchased 2 sets of 12 each, which cost me 20.00 each set (used).  Thats kind of expensive for plastic but compared to the alternative cost of wood and build time a real bargain.

Obviously, "cafeteria tray" storage shelves will not look as nice as my standard box shelves but after building 36 of these wooden shelves, I'm running out of space!  Plus with wood prices being what they are, it's hard to justify the cost.  Yes, all 36 drawers are filled just like the one pictured.

First 3D Resin Prints

The Elegoo Mars Pro 2 printer has been set up in a temporary location (the card table in the game room) so I could start to learn how to use it.  Long term, I'll make some room in the shop.

The first miniature prints are a German Bison Assault gun and 2 Soviet winter infantry figures, all 15mm scale.  This picture shows the lot on the curing turn table right after finishing the ultra violet curing.  

I downloaded some all of these files from a sire called Wargaming 3D, which is a market place for vendors to sell .stl files for historical wargaming - if you're thinking about a 3D resin printer go check it out as the selection is very, very broad.

The second test print was a SU-76 and seven Soviet Naval Infantry figures (again, all 15mm).  The SU-76 is a 2 -part model - the hulls is one piece and the gun compartment a second.

I did have a minor issue with the back right corner of the gun compartment lifting off, as you can see in this picture.  It will be easy to fix with a little green stuff and maybe some stowage.

The corner lift continues around on this side.  In all honesty Ive had much worse issues with resin cast tanks from Battlefront.  I still need to remove some of the print supports from the model.

A close up of the "warping".  I'll be printing a bunch of SU-76's so will eventually figure out the right settings.  I really shouldn't complain - the .STL files for the SU-76 were available for FREE from the wargaming 3D site.  Free is a very good price.

A close up for the Soviet Naval infantry.  I am very pleased with the detail and think these figures are as good as the plastic or metal figures I'm used to purchasing for this scale.  In fact, I'd say they are better than Plastic Soldier Company.  These figures are from a file set called RKKA_naval_squad_02 which has 12 different poses and you get files for both 28mm and 15 figures.  There are also squads 01 & 03 from the same designer (mr3DPrint).  My current set of Soviet Naval Infantry are metal casts from Peter Pig - they are great figures but only have SMG's and 2 or 3 poses.  I'm very excited about the modeling possibilities here.

The Su-76 and 7 infantry figures took about 1.5 hours to print and another 15-20 minutes post production to wash and cure.  The build plate on the Mars 2 Pro isn't that large and I could probably fit another 3 infantry figures on it.

I am very struck by the reliability of resin printing.  One does have to be very thoughtful in working with the resin - its rather toxic stuff.  The key is developing a set workflow to ensure you don't contaminate surfaces with resin that gets on your gloves.  I'll do a future post on my workflow once I feel its really nailed down.

3d Resin printing is a really exciting technology for the hobby and I think it will have a profound impact on the distribution of miniatures.  Will it replace cast metal of plastic figures - probably not.  I think it will eventually reduce the sizes of those "mass produced" ranges to the basics and push the specialty troops to digital distribution.  I'll probably always get my bog standard Soviet infantry from Battlefront or PSC, but specialty troops like Naval Infantry or NKVD will likely now just be purchased as files.

Play Testing My Stalingrad Rules

 

My personal vanity project of writing a set of wargaming rules continues on.  One of the goals of using hex-based terrain is speed of play (no measuring) for large participation games.  Another side benefit, is I can test the rules using board games - as with the lovely Stalingrad board and counters from Flying Pig's Old School Tactical game series.  If you're looking for a fun and "not brain melting" complex tactical WW2 game, I highly recommend Old School Tactical.

I've been running some company level actions to test the rules and find some logic flaws.  The first game proved that KV-1's shred tiny Panzer III's if they can not be outflanked.  It also proved Germans trying to cross open ground without smoke or artillery support do not have a very good time of it.

A second test game, where that nasty old KV-1 was replaced by a T-34, proved a bit more even.  The T-34 did drive off 1 Panzer III but was worn down by successive damage results and eventually caught fire and had to be abandoned.

The infantry combat worked really well but I'm still tweaking the mechanics to make it a bit more deadly.

Close Assault in the first game proved to be a bit bloodless and that combat results process needs to be tweaked also.

One of the evolving goals for this ruleset is to allow players to stage games with miniatures on a tabletop  - lets call that "3D gaming" or using an existing hex and counter game like Old School Tactical / Squad Leader / Combat Commander to play out a "2D game". 

Why would one want to do that - to make the game more approachable to new players - there are a lot of copies of Squad Leader gathering dust on shelves around the world and to facilitate extended multiplayer campaigns.  More on that in a later post.

The working title for these rules is "Company Commander: WW2".  I suspect that will change as there is all ready a ruleset named Company Commander but it's for small scale Napoleonics.   Still I think using the same name isn't the right thing to do.  At some point I'll need to put on my "brand management" thinking cap and come up with a suitably overwrought name.   Maybe "The Brave Little Toy Soldiers".

Stalingrad Project: Third Test Game

Last night up at the club, I we ran a third test game for Stalingrad.  For a change we used the Southern end of the board so this was the first time that section has seen in "action".  This first picture is taken from the Western (German) edge.  

A second shot looking on from the Volga river bank.  The overall table is 17 columns of 18 hexes each.  It took less than 30 minutes to set up - putting the hex column and row #'s on the back of the hexes really proved useful.  I realize that seems like a very silly detail to remark about but this game is designed to travel to conventions so set up complexity and timing are important factors.

The full table if 30 columns by 18 rows!

We had a light turn out so only two players for me to torture with my draft rules.  Both Greg and Ed were very gracious in letting me continue my self delusion that I am a rules writer.  

Artillery lands from both sides and causes havoc.  The artillery rules seems to work well. It pretty devastating when it lands!

We managed to get five turns in - the forces I laid out were likely to big to be handled by only two players

Greg's grenadiers launch a two platoon assault supported by a pair of Panzer II's.  The cleared out the building.

The Univermag Department store is very strongly defended by a Guards Rifle platoon plus a heavy machine gun section.

I tested some new aspects of the rules, some of which worked, some of which not so much.

Stuff that worked:

Command Cards:

The turn sequence is based on players alternating activating platoons.  I made up a deck of command cards for each side.  It proved to be very useful to keep track of who's moved what and each card had a minot special ability that a player could elect to use instead of moving a platoon.  They were limited to one special ability per turn.  I'll do a future post on the cards but it seemed to work really well.  The trick will be to refine the "special abilities" to be usefull and fun but not too powerful that they determine who wins.

Removal of the Auto Rally Phase:

Previous games had a separate rally phase were every unit that was either Shaken or Routed would roll to rally - that proved to be too effective.  Now, the only way to Rally is when the platoon activates so it cut down the rally rolls by half.

Game Pace: 

We only got in 5 turns over 2.5 hours but these were very big forces for two players to control and they were playing with new rules.  Each side had 14-15 maneuver platoons between their 3 infantry companies and support elements.  Urban environment terrain is also very complex with all of the line of sight checks so running 30 minutes per turn felt OK - I think it can get down to 20 minutes with some rules refinements and a lower unit "work-load" per player.  Most participation games run in a 4 hour time slot, of which the first 30 minutes are dedicated to introductions and a rules overview so you get roughly 3.5 hours of play time.  If I get it to 20 minutes a turn that will allow for 10-11 turns which should be plenty.  

Stuff that needs to be improved:

Movement: 

Currently Infantry has 4 Movement Points per turn and the terrain is pretty simple - 1MP for a clear / road hex, 2 MPs for a building / rubble.  The table is 18 hexes deep so it will take 5 - 6 turns to traverse without interference from the enemy.  I think I need to bump Infantry movement up to 6 MPs/turn and make corresponding adjustments for vehicles.  Games need to have a sense of movement to keep the pace up.

Close Assault Mechanics:

The current draft rules only allows units to mount a close assault (move into a defenders hex) if they start their activation adjacent to the target hex.  That is proving cumbersome and there are already rules for overwatch fire as units move.  I'm thinking of adding a feature to allow units to mount a "Hasty Assault" while moving or a "Deliberate Assault" is they start in an adjacent hex.  The deliberate assault would get some form of attack benefit which I need to figure out.  To be honest, this is a suggestion from Greg but I am more than happy to take credit for it.

Defensive Saves:

Fire combat is pretty simple - the attacker rolls a pool of D6 "Fire Power Dice" based on the type of units that are attacking and every 4+ is a hit, the defender rolls saves on those hits, with the 5+ base save augmented by terrain and entrenchment.  Their is an ability to stack these modifiers so defenders dave on anything but a "1" - I think I need to back that off to make any 1 or 2 rolled on a save a fail.  Ed played the Soviets and he is a natural burrower and dug in any chance he could get.  Ed is a very thematically correct Soviet player.  This one will require some thinking, which as you can surmise from my tortured prose is not something I'm all that good at.

I really do want to thank Ed and Greg again for being lab rats for my little passion project.  They are both very experienced gamers and provide great feedback and did so in a way that didn't make me cry (that much).  This  game is getting close to being "convention ready" and now all I'll need are some conventions!

Weekend Basing Fun

 

Saturday afternoon and then Sunday morning was an epic basing session for both the Soviet and German Stalingrad armies.  The figures were purchased from GAJO Miniatures and look way better than what I can muster (and did for the most recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenger.

Two base scenicing methods were employed - my bog standard "country side" basing which uses a Vallejo texture gel - as pictured on these Soviets. 

Once the gel sets (about 8 hours) I mix up some craft paint to look kind of like Vallejo USA tan Earth.  The mix is roughly a quarter sized dollop of "Country Tan", a drop of "Burnt Umber" mixed with the same volume of water.  It's a pretty close match and way cheaper.

The bases are then painted and set aside to dry (takes about an hour.

The next step is adding some ground foam - i work with a pallet of 4 types of ground foam.  Each base receives a coating of Modge Podge matte medium applied with a brush, and then a sprinkling of ground foam.  I then hit the base with a spray of water to draw up the modge podge and then set aside to dry.

Here are some Germans all done.  2 full German infantry companies plus supports where based for the countryside

and some Soviets.  This session I added 2 full Soviet Rifle companies, which augment the 1 I did during the most recent Painting challenge.

The second method of basing is dead easy and used for urban / rubble bases.  The picture shows the 2 German infantry companies if prepared with this method.

The process is simple - layer the entire base with modge podge and then dunk the base in a mixtures of colored sanded tile grout and different types of model railroad ballast.  My came from the debris of making the hexes for Stalingrad.

Shake the bases to get rid of loose gravel and then take a soft brush (I liberated one of my wife make up brushes) and dust most of the tile grout powder that may be on the figures - leave a little as it's a nice form of weathering.  Once the figures are dusted, hit the entire base with a few water spritzes from a spray bottle and set aside to dry.  Once the grout sets, it's rock hard.  The bases look great and there is zero painting!

Here are two additional Soviet Infantry companies with urban bases.

I'm pretty much done with figures for Stalingrad - especially when I count the fantastic minis Tony painted up .

I've got 7 full Soviet Infantry Companies and 4 german plus Tony has another 3 German companies.

There still are some specialty figures to finish up.  I do need a few extra guns....

Project Stalingrad: A Super Exciting Administrative Task

 

Hex terrain has the wonderful aspect of modularity - you can assemble them in all sorts of ways to make just about any battlefield one wants.  It does take a little planning in design to ensure things like roads and streams match up but I really like the flexibility.

Except for one thing - if one is crazy enough (or stupid - its hard to tell) to use hexes to recreate an approximation of a historical event, for example the battle of Stalingrad, well that flexibility becomes problematic.  I discovered this fact when we were setting up the a section of the board up at the club for the recent test games.

I had help from both Ed to set up a 6x4 section and it took us way too long to do so.  I was working off a picture and trying to get the hexes in the right spots was a pain-in-the-, well you know where.

The Stalingrad table is a bit of an approximation but the street pattern and location of the main historical buildings is both accurate and specific.  The location of generic buildings and ruins within blocks created by the street grid is more an approximation but the set up needs to be consistent.  A consistent set up will also be important for how I'm planning to use an off table map for sewer movement and combat.  
 

The solution is as simple as it is tedious - mark each hex's back with its specific row and column location.  Borrowing from the late and great Redmond A Simonsen of SPI fame, I'm using a 4 digit hex numbering system where the first two digits are the column (north to south) and the second two digits are the rows (east to west).  My previous attempt at just marking the column wasn't all that helpful setting up at the club.

There are 30 columns and 18 rows for the 10x4 table and I'm about 75% done.  My home gaming table is 8x4 so I can only work on a section at time.

Just like a jigsaw puzzle, I will pack away the edge pieces in a smaller tub and set them out first and then use then fill in the rest.   The table consists of 540 hexes (30x18) and the goal is to be able to set it up in under 30 minutes.

Granted hex numbering really isn't the most exciting of war game game blog topics, but it is an example of the planning that is required to pull off a large participation game outside of your home.  You need to get all the stuff there, set it up and not be exhausted or frazzled before even starting a game.  So while tedious, putting in this level of preparation is really important to ensure the game runs smoothly and your players have a great time.  If the players have a great time, so does the GM.  If the players don't, then it's pretty much a disaster for the GM.  The single biggest influencer of player satisfaction is the GM's attitude so a frazzle GM starts off at a huge disadvantage.

OK, enough about hex numbering and the logic behind it - I suspect all of you are on the edge of cardiac arrest from the pure excitement of the topic.

Maybe, if you're lucky, the next post will be about alphabetizing Vallejo paints or organizing game components and dice.  Yes, that is just the kind of edgy, avant-garde topics one should expect from this blog and it's author - that's just the way I roll, baby.

  

Stalingrad: Second Test Game

 

Last night we ran a second test game of the Stalingrad rules using the Northern section of the table.  This game was slightly bigger as both the Soviets and Germans fielded full battalions plus support elements.  

There were three players per side, each controlling a company plus.  The scenario was based on the Soviet counterattacks of Sept 15th, 1942 which was a surprise fro the Germans as it was historically.

There were a number of rule tweaks from last time and 4 out of the 6 players had never played the game before.

The Outcome was the slimmest of Soviet victories at 25 to 24 victory points.  Artillery proved to be both devastating and unpredictable and people seemed to enjoy the rule making artillery fire persistent over a turn.  The white cotton makers outline a german strike which impact the units under the template and any units that move into those hexes over the course of a turn.  I do think its a bit too powerful and need to tone down the impact.

We played for about 2.5 hours and managed to get 5 full turns in which works out to about 5 minutes per player per turn, which is about as fast as one can get in a convention setting.  Convention games run for 4 hours of which 3.5 is real play time and I'm planning 4 players per side so I should be able to get 7-8 turns in each session which is more than enough.  

I did get a lot of suggestions for improvements to the rules which will get incorporated over the course of this week.  The new shooting rules seemed to be work well but the areas for improvement include

1) Remove / Lighten the "Free" Rally Phase

The current iteration of the rules have a rally phase for both players as the last step of every turn.  Any unit that is not in "Good Order" (either Shaken or Broken) gets a free rally roll and the results are that most units return Good Order so it's really hard to sustain an attack.  Everyone felt it was too easy to rally so I need to change this rule.  The options are to just eliminate the phase and force units to attempt to rally as part of their platoon activation or limit the number of rally attempts by forcing a platoon of company leader be in the same hex as the unit being rallied- I'm leaning towards the latter.

2) Streamline Vehicle Combat

Vehicle combat has too may steps and bogs down so needs to be streamlined.  It's also pretty inconclusive.  3 Soviet T-70's stood up to 3 StugB and 3 Panzer IIIJ for multiple turns and the germans dice rolling wasn't that bad.

3) Snipers

I didn't explain these rules very well and both sides forgot about them until. the end of the game.  One needs snipers to really do Stalingrad but its a level of chrome that may not work in a large participation game where simplicity of rules is a must.

There are a bunch of other suggestions that I need to think about but the past 2 test games are making me really confident this will be a fun game for a convention.

Now back to finishing up for the Painting Challenge.

 

First Test of the Stalingrad Rules

Last night up at the club was pretty momentous for me as it was the first time my rules and Stalingrad terrain were used by "real people" rather than just solitaire by me.  We played on the northern section of the board and had 2 companies plus supporting elements for each side.

 

Comrades Josh and Greg Surveying the battlefield as they prepare to meet the Axis invaders.  The third Soviet player Dave arrive just after this picture was taken.   The Germans players for the game were Tony, Ed and Dieter.

The soviets had 2 full infantry companies, a platoon of Naval Infantry and 3 T-34 tanks.  The german forces had 1 company of infantry, 1 company of Pioneers with a flamethrower and 3 Panzer IIIJ tanks.

Midway through the game as Ed has maneuvered his pioneers to assault Pavlov's house (the two white buildings in the center).  This was turn 5 and the Soviets finally rolled to bring on their tanks to surprise the Axis.

Sadly for the Russians, their shooting skills were poor and after exchanging point blank fire for several turns they managed to not damage any German tank while 1 T-34 was damaged and lost its main gun.  What this really means is that the rules for AT gun combat are too cumbersome and need to be revised.

Ed was able to mass his pioneers and swept the Soviet defenders away from the complex.

The critical point of the game came here at the 3 hex "Yellow House" in the center of the picture.  Josh was defending with a single Soviet Rifle Platoon against 4 German platoons.  It was an epic struggle which saw the Germans repulsed multiple times before Josh evacuated the house.  His staunch defense created a Hero unit and the Yellow house has been forever renamed "Joshinov's Hovel" in the annals of history.

Unfortunately for Josh his hero squad they were forced to retreat through errant soviet artillery fire and met an untimely demise.

We got in 9 turns of the planned 12 and the game was declared a narrow Soviet Victory.  

The rules seemed to work really well but there are a lot of opportunities for improvement.  Using hexes did prove to really speed up play.  All-in-all, it was a great first outing and I am very fortunate to have such great club members to inflict my game upon.

The task the for the next few days will be to make some rule revisions and retest the game next Monday.

 

Stalingrad Project: Supplies Running Low

 

Like any military campaign, terrain projects are won and lost over logistics.  If one does not have the raw materials, one does not make a lot of progress.  While the core tabletop has been built there are some extra details I want to add and my supplies are running very thin.  My gallon bucket of pre-mixed flexible tile grout is just about empty.  I started the project with this bucket 3/4 full so it has served me very well over the past few months.  I'll need to run out and grab another bucket in a day or two.

Please excuse the disheveled work room between the messiness of a giant terrain project and the basement flood it's a shambles.  In all honesty, it was a shambles before the flood but now there's an excuse!

Also running low on railroad ballast and talus.  I was using 4 different types and started the project with all of these bins full.  I have made a tactical error here as I never wrote down the names of the different ballast products and those are now "lost forever".   The rubble terrain making technique I've developed for this project does not involve painting so I'm lucky the supplies held out until the project was finished.

What are the blank hexes for - I'm doing some testing on making generic "countryside" terrain in 15mm scale and so have 2 road, 2 clear and 2 to be forested hexes to see how it looks.   I'm kind of all in on hex terrain.

Using lots of different texture sizes is important to getting a good look on the table top - I've found four is a really good match and its worth the few extra steps to ensure things don't have too uniform of a look.

Looks like a trip to the hardware store is in the cards for later this week

Stalingrad Project: The Third and Final Section is Done!

 

The Southern end of the Stalingrad table is now done!  This section was a smaller 2ft x 6ft section and includes the Univermag Department Store.

The last of the 11 iconic locations from the battle to be completed is the "House of Specialists". It was a large multi story apartment complex that provided an excellent observation post for the Germans to call in Artillery and Air Strikes onto the far side of the Volga.  The current rendition is a re-purposed early version of the Grundin Mill that I converted and repainted.  The model is scratch build from pink foam and was way to small for the Mill but happened to be the right size (3 hexes) for the House of Specialists!

Two of the centerpiece locations on the table is the Univermag Department Store and Red Square.  I put a lot of effort into scratch building both and am very pleased with how they came out.  I need to add a bit more battle damage to the Univermag and may green up Red Square. Having something with a little bit of greenery will really contrast with the drabness of all the urban rubble.

A shot from the front.  Some battle damage has been added but I found it strangely hard to put holes into "my precious" model.

A street level view.  The park did have small trees through out but really didn't have a row of tree along the street next to the department store.  I tossed them in on a whim and kind of like them

Just west of the Department Store is the "L" shaped  Nail Factory which saw very heavy fighting in later part of September.  Next to it is a generic apartment block.  To be honest, the apartment block is on first on the list to be replaced as I tweak the board.  There are two reasons - it's a bit to flat and clean looking (hard edges) and its too tall to be on the edge of the table - player will get caught on it as the lean over it to reach units in the middle of the board.  There is a 99.9% chance it gets "belly squished" during game play.

Some Russian village buildings that are currently being pressed into service as worker home.  At this stage in the battle most of these wooden structures where reduced to ash, rubble and a chimney so I'll likely replace these also.  The buildings are MDF kits for "Things for the Basement" and are very nice.

A shot looking at the rear of the Department store.

A last picture looking at the other side of the House of Specialists.

My gaming table is 8ft by 4ft so will not fit the 10x6ft size of the Stalingrad set up.  I will be adding some 1 ft table extensions so I can set the whole thing up but that will need to wait for warmer weather.   To try and give you an impression of how the table looks here are pictures of each of the sections:

Southern (it's just the left half of the image)

The Middle Section.  The souther section is to the left and the Northern one to the right.

The Northern section.  Since this photo was taken, I have repainted the roads to match the same color that was used on the other table sections.

The entire table is 30 x 18 hexes which is a total of 540 4 inch hexes.  That was a lot of work but I think worth it as the hexes are easy to reconfigure and break down pretty efficiently for storage / transport.  I'll probably build another 150-200 more open terrain hexes for non urban scenarios for the rules I'm writing whic have the working title: Company Command: Kompanie vs Rota.  I'm pretty sure having an over-wrought title is required for any ruleset.

There is still a lot of detail / scatter terrain work to do but that is more on the "nice-to-have" rather "got-to-have" list of things to add.  I also need to continue all the rail lines across the lower and upper sections of the board.  For some idioc reason, I decided to scratch build all the railroad track.  It has a nice "crafty-look" but it is very, very tedious to do.

Some of the items I want to add are

 - trench hexes

 - street barricades

 - wrecked vehicles

 - LED lighting effects for fires

 - artillery craters

 - a little more river front details (docks, maybe some wrecked rivercraft.