Story time for the boat blog!!
Beware: bowlth image heavy and verbose warning
Where to begin.. Ah yes, in
May of 2023 (before this blog even existed)
Fresh off of building a new PC for definitely not just TWW3 gaming.. a bit of a stress test for the new Compé was in order. Let’s get to meshmixing, the program of digital hack jobs and creator of unprintable mini-monstrosities cluttering hard drives and pissing on resin printing amateurs worldwide.
Giga-biting off something too large for me to chew, I downloaded.. the entire Lost Kingdom miniatures Kickstarter from like circa 2020. Glorious terrain, rarely conquered at WHFB scale except by @MichaelX and his Lizziggurats used at CDOffline 2022. Truly Lost Kingdom at its peak before their steady decline into wood aioli, jungle yetis, leg lifting to piss dynamic poses, and dogpocalpytic pet pokemon.
With my Man O’ War plans still wet behind the ear, browsing @Admiral 's blog, as one does with many hours of one’s spare time.. plans of calamitous intent had arisen. Gather your hampers in anticipation of a mighty wash-load of fear stained trousers!
Could I bring, THE ONE AND ONLY Ziggurat of the Seas, to a blog near you in full Tree-D!? Admiral already has some great lore to read on the subject in addition to the concept art.
Queue meshmixing montage replete with Nickelback clickbait.
Excuse the crappy WIPs that definitely could’ve been screenshots but instead you have to deal with pictures of a monitor. How exciting, it’s like you’re right there with me doing this agony by symmetry and pixel alignment ANY% speedrun. Each wall section, corner piece, brazier, etc are all very detailed pieces, kudos to LKM. Meshmixer is a bit of a clumsy program in my opinion and I definitely had to split this into 3 cake layers for sanity, as well as printability (more on that later). Scale is a little nebulous in games like Man 'O War but I did my best to strike a happy medium between Admiral’s reference, the Chorf fleet sizing, and what I figured would be feasible to print/paint.
Gridlines are in centimeter for reference, praise metric. Freedom units be damned, and I haven’t figured out how to change Prusaslicer or meshmixer to measure in hats. This thing is large, despite taking a shrink ray to the source terrain intended to be impossible to siege with even your tallest juggernaught. FDM printing obviously would not cut it with the scaled down detail. Most at-home resin printers wouldn’t fit it in the build area, especially a couple years ago.
Now how do I print my dream wedding cake?
Some people would’ve just said “@Oxymandias print this for me, thank you.” As everyone knows, if you thank someone preemptively they have to fulfill your request. Lucky enough for Oxy, he was retired (not dead) and not yet unretired.
@KhamdrimSkyMaster printed me piles of microanzu cannons and my meshmixed lil roquette launcher. Glad those were separated as they would’ve likely broken if pre-attached but they served as a tease more than anything. Thanks to the efforts of @MichaelX digital wizardry, the file sizes were dramatically reduced by some automated scrub-a-dub dub software cooked up on a daemon infused hookah Tuesday. Now easier to send digitally, hope remained… but hope is a dangerous thing.
The project floundered until…
July of 2024
Thanks to a buddy at Formlabs.. the Ziggurat was nearing completion! Look at it, what a beaut. Thank you industrial scale resin printers! What luck, their detail is unparalleled! Unfortunately.. this image was all I got before, through the winds of magic and a workplace cluttered with garbage from employees with unlimited free printing, it was lost. Gone. Forgotten. Buried beneath a sea of Dobby the house elf busts, chess sets that will never be played, tiny Model-Ts, and a full suit of Halo armor. My friend, chronically hard to keep in touch with. We even tried again, bits were printed, pictures never sent, he left Formlabs, all communication lost. And so was my dream. Sad, and determined not to be someone who just posts some digital WIPs without follow through and a sob story. I wept, in solitude, the project largely a guarded secret.
ironic and sad Lost Kingdom noises
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT CHANGED MY LIFE, SCROLL TO FIND OUT BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.
sigh, we oughta leave this world behind
August of 2025
In a fortuitous turn of events @KhamdrimSkyMaster was able to gain access to a Formlabs printer and made THIS happen! Astute discord enjoyers will have seen frosty the sea ziggurat before. The project had a thumping pulse once again. Praise Hashut!
Cleanup was difficult but well worth the time, trying to find the tiny supports on the clear. Milliput covered up and added some variety to the flat surfaces. Milliput (2/3) and green stuff (1/3) mixture and smooth sculpting tools proffered smooth sailing on the wave texture.
Decorating was a true joy. This micromachines crane was made using itty bitty bits from a large scale Merkava tank kit. Don’t ask how long it took to get that crane right. One of the Anzu cannons had broken wings so I leaned into the skid with a little construction scaffold made of FDM support refuse. Tau and Ork grenades and ammo proved useful as well as some other greeble bits to add a bit of industrial seasoning to the dish. A little rubble and loose rock added more visual interest (anyone who hears those in a Rock Raiders voice is a true champ in my book).
Base painting steps (Vallejo Colors unless otherwise specified):
- Zenithal prime with airbrush
- Basecoat with Earth and Warcolours Marine 3 with airbrush
- Slap on some Tinny Tin, drybrush all metals with brassy brass, bright bronze
- Layer in nocturnal red, ultramarine blue, bone white, browns and blacks on the flat floors
- Crude wash of everything except blue with black and brown wash mixed
- Highlight metals
- Highlight reds, bones, browns
- Two brush blend Warcolours translucent turquoise mixed with black wash onto blue panels
Especially given the clear nature of the print and as with most kitbashes, despite nerves, the first coat of primer revealed true bliss.
Fortunately I had the unintended foresight to put a thumb hole in the center of the base which served as a painters palette style holder and a true lifeline during the entire process. Doubtless I would’ve dropped the thing at some point without it. Really I was just being cheap and saving plastic by making the base a donut.
@chitzkoi told me I’d be letting the side down if I didn’t have all primary colors in the scheme. A bit skimpy on the yellow but I will take it. Tried to aim for Man O’ War box art with a lil Reaver grim metalwork to hopefully set the tone for the rest of my fleet. This is how she looked after highlighting metals, reds, and blues as well as painting the lava, fire, and cannon mouths.
Thanks to further bullying from the big bad graph bully himself, I labored at freehanding on the large blank panels. Was he correct, yes. Was it worth it, yes.
Freehand inspiration thanks to:
- @MichaelX painting Admiralty Miniatures relief plates
- @flagellant04 's favorite sorcerer.
- Malevolent pointing
- Zooming in on some LKM files
- White Dwarf presents Chaos Dwarfs cover
- Ishtar gate and Admiral’s various Mesopotamian threads
Slapping that water on the base.
Now the glamour photoshoot. Thanks to all who participated and voted in Artisan’s Contest XL
I may not have painted much this year but this project got me back into hobbying again during a busy time. I am happy for that and happy to close the book on the saga of the ziggurat.
If you read this, thanks! Or even just came to fosche the pretty pictures. You are what makes this forum special! Thanks to all that made this project a reality! I doubt those twig sniffers at Wood aElves Online could’ve pulled this off.