Rastl’s blog

Casting is prepped

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:23:01 -0500

Well, as much as I can be.

I had a little time so I pre-weighed my plaster. I prefer to do this so I can cast portably. But I couldn't do this until I had transferred the plaster from the fifty pound bag into the one gallon jugs.

I did that earlier this week. Thursday I believe.

The digital scale was being used as a postal scale so it was upstairs. I took it back to the basement and while I was down there I weighed out lots of little bags. I weigh out 200g of plaster at a go.

Now, I can take the container with the bags of plaster and my tray with the rest of my casting equipment and cast in a reasonable amount of time. No weighing, just pour out the water (a coffee scoop is 1/8 cup (30ml) so three of them equal 90g of water. Handy that), pour in the plaster and mix.

Next week is out for casting but the week after that! Hrm. Maybe I'll make a couple of custom molds this week. I need to remake my gothic dungeon builder with a more durable silicone and I have a couple of other ones I want to make. My big container of silicone should be used before it starts to age so I need to plan a bunch of molds to use that up. Once it ages it becomes far less useful.

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I primed

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:08:33 -0500

Skeeters tried to eat me and I think one was sizing up the giant eagle for battle over territory but the entire elf army is prepped and primed.

Until I find heinous mold lines and missed primer but that's what brush on primer is for.

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Tonight I will prime

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:14:29 -0500

Come heck or high water .. Wait. High water would mean humidity. Humidity means no priming.

So, just come heck.

I just want to get those last pieces from my elf army primed so they're all done and I can have them ready for when I can paint.

I have four figures to finish up from an exchange first then I can settle on a color scheme and slap paint. On my army. Not just slap the paint. That serves no purpose.

I painted and inserted the door to the magic shop. Now I just need to decide if I'm going to fix the furnishings in place of have them loose so I can set things up as I please. I'm not sure. I need to discuss this with the person who started me on building a village and see what he's doing.

I'm torn. I would like to have things so they stay where I put them but I would also like to be able to use them in other situations. I'm probably going to leave them loose. But don't take that one to the bank.

Pictures of the magic shop when I have the rest of it done. I have a scale to make, signage to hang and landscaping to do. Then the shop is done and I can turn my attention to the mage's workshop above.

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It's all about me - part 2

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:51:44 -0500

I did the ultimate ego-trip today. I finally put the stake in the ground to start up my own mincon.

RastlCon

How cool is it to name a convention after yourself??

OK - as of now I can't firm anything up since a lot of it depends on my local gaming store putting itself together. And if that doesn't happen then I need to find an alternative location.

What's a minicon? It's a small one or two day event. Nothing at all like the big ones but something small, local and fun.

And there will be t-shirts.

Update! Looks like the game store isn't going to be ready in time for what this thing looks like it is becoming. So we're looking into nearby venues that are cheap, roomy and don't smell of bodily fluids. I'm picky that way.

That frees me up to pick a date so hopefully that will be coming soon.

Anyone interested in running an event let me know. I like advance warning.

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It's all about me

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:36:26 -0500

Sure, there's been devastating floods with the torrential rains we've had in the last couple of weeks. Yeah there's been tornadoes and all kinds of nastiness.

But I just want the humidity to stay down long enough for me to prime the rest of my elf army!

Is that so selfish?

Well yes it is.

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There's always one...

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 09:17:53 -0500

I'm posting the progress of my elf army over on the Reaper Miniatures discussion forum because, well, they're Reaper miniatures, they're for a Reaper game, and it's fun.

I posted a quick update stating that I had used epoxy putty (green stuff) to mount the one-piece figures and since they didn't really look any different they could use their imagination.

And there's always one.

A very jovial post said that my loyal fans demanded pictures of the green stuff. Never one to disappoint, here's what they got.

Assembled with Greenstuff

Because I was in that mood I added the red arrows showing there really was green stuff used.

But arranging the figures did show that one of the fairies had a wing malfunction. The giant eagle fell over after I took the original picture and clipped one of the wings. I can repair it while working on the rest of the figures. Better now than later!

So all the figures in this picture are ready for primer. Let's see if the weather cooperates this weekend.

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Alert - word overuse

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:55:49 -0500

I don't know why but the word 'whilst' seems to be my favorite word at the moment. I try to type 'while' but my fingers betray me and decide that 'whilst' would be a better choice.

Take heart that I shall be having a stern conversation with them ~~whilst~~ while I work on my projects.

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Quick update on the elf army

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:23:17 -0500

No, it doesn't have a name yet. It's going by the clever code name 'elf army',

Here's the combination of primed and unprimed minis. I didn't get to filling in the gaps last night so that's something to do before moving on. Some of the unprimed ones are single cast (no assembly needed) so I can prime those whilst working on the others.

Initial Primed

These are the elves that started it all. Mostly grunts there's a sergeant and a warlord in there somewhere. And I think a cleric. They kind of blur together when they're all in one place.

Assembled

And here's the ones I assembled this week. The giant eagle still needs lots of cleanup at the joints but overall the figures went together well.

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Prepping minis. Lots of minis.

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:30:24 -0500

One thing I did whilst at ReaperCon was trade in all my blistered (unopened) pewter and my scrap pewter. They let you do this at ReaperCon. I had a bunch of blistered stuff that I was never going to use for various reasons and I had a lot of scrap pewter. Let me explain.

A while ago I purchased a mixed lot of Warlord factions. Warlord is Reaper's miniature strategy game. Well, with the release of the annual update I actually sat down to see what I needed to make these mixed lots into playable armies.

Turns out, a lot.

I scrapped three factions completely. Mostly because I didn't like the sculpts and had no real interest in painting them. That left me four factions to fill out.

I asked for advice on the Reaper forum for how best to fill them out and got lots of helpful stuff. So I sat down and made my lists.

Let's just say that I 'spent' more on minis that day than I payed for tuition my first semester of college, not adjusting for inflation. But since it was all trade-in I really only rearranged the pewter.

Now that I'm settled back at home I wanted to get started on these. Painting four armies doesn't happen overnight. I had a plate full of elves that were already prepped and primed so I decided to start with that faction. As of now I have twenty minis prepped and assembled with one left to do. But that's a really big one.

Tonight I'll use the epoxy putty (aka greenstuff due to the color) to smooth out any joins and help them adhere to their bases. That will give it the twenty four hour cure time it likes before I start priming.

Oh. Priming. Now that the weather is nice I have to prime outside. I could get away with priming the occasional single figure in the basement during the winter but that tolerance has ended and Mr. Rastl won't make me a spray booth. But we've been getting a lot of wet weather so I don't think it will dry out enough by Saturday so I can prime. I'm holding out hope tho.

Then I'll have all those minis to paint. The amount of paint love they get is directly proportional to how long I expect them to be upright and fighting for me. Grunt - not so much love. Warlord - much love.

I'll post piccies to show progress. Right now they're just a mix of primed and unprimed minis. I'll start the photo journal when they're all primed.

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Squirrels. Why did it have to be squirrels?

nobody@vox.com(Rastl) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:52:23 -0500

I think the squirrels dug up and ate all my sunflower seeds. And one of Mr. Rastl's corn plants.

I might have to start some sunflowers indoors and move them outside if I want them this year.

And they're black squirrels so you know they're extra evil.

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