2nd Dynasty has built a reputation for detailed, modular sci-fi terrain and spacecraft, and their latest project—GridForge: Exoplanet Colony, now live on Kickstarter—continues that tradition with a retro-futuristic aesthetic. While the terrain is impressive on its own, designed for colour FDM printing, when combined with BrickBling’s compact LEGO-scale lighting, it really comes to life.
BrickBling’s micro-LEDs have been tested extensively with the Exoplanet Colony prototypes, and the Kickstarter already includes unlocked stretch goals for cable management, light holders, and novel ways to hide the circuitry.
Why lighting works so well with the Exoplanet Colony
The GridForge-based terrain system, which allows hot-swapping out tiles, can be easily rigged with our lighting. 2nd Dynasty founder and lead creative, Ben Mowbray explained the following:
I am primarily an artist and designer; I don’t know much about wiring and electronics. I’ve
tried wiring up a few engines before on our spaceship designs, running off battery power
supplies, but I have to admit – I don’t really know what I am doing.
I learned about BrickBling lighting, attracted to the modular nature of it. I started out by
getting an Ornithopter and Razorcrest kit to test out with our terrain, and loved it so much I ended up ordering a ton of piecemeal parts because of how easy and flexible it was!
You plug it in and it just works, and there is nothing quite as satisfying as plugging in the USB adapter and flicking a switch to bring an entire tabletop of scenery to life. It is easy to plug and play, and pretty much impossible to get wrong – letting me focus on what I am good at instead of wiring.
2nd Dynasty stands out in the STL 3D printing space. They have been around since 2017, and are known for their complete 28-mm-scale starships that you can print yourself on your own home 3D printer.
What makes this new Kickstarter stand out is that they have started designing for colour FDM printing. While not as flexible as just painting miniatures and vehicles on their own, mixing only 2-6 different filaments (colours), different material types can be used, for matte, silk, metallic, translucent or even glowing finishes.
But it is not until lighting comes into the picture that we see the true benefits of multi-material printing. Light reacts differently, depending on the material type used in the printing, so you can get a mixture of light-absorbing surfaces, reflective surfaces, and materials that alter the properties of light, such as softening the results.
Most of these effects simply cannot be achieved with paint, and look fantastic on game night. The brilliant part is that 2nd Dynasty’s new designs come ready for colour printing, and once fresh off the printer, are immediately game-ready. No glue or paint required!
GridForge: Exoplanet Colony features a sci-fi base on a desolate planet-scape. It includes both various sections of the base, from research labs to vehicle garages, power plants to executive offices. While system agnostic, the set is primarily designed for science fiction tabletop roleplaying games and war games, such as Alien RPG, Stars Without Number and Traveller.
A wide variety of 28mm-scale vehicles are also available to truly bring the scenery to life.
While there is no dedicated list of lighting to use with Exoplanet Colony, a good start is our BrickBling Light Accessories for LEGO DIY Building Blocks Model Parts, and an 18-key Multi-function Remote Control for BrickBling Light Kits. This will give you the basics to light your Exoplanet Colony, with the ability to turn on lights in sequence, or emulate power fluctuations, flickering lights, and other cool effects to change the game state on the fly.
Check out 2nd Dynasty’s amazing Kickstarter campaign, if nothing else than to just to enjoy the eye candy, and gain inspiration for how you can integrate BrickBling into your own scenery.
