14 posts tagged “miniatures”
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.
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.
I've been working on these off and on for a while. I wanted some decorative little founts to toss around the dungeon (not literally toss but scatter decoratively) and I had some casts from the oh-so-wonderful Hirst Arts Cavern Accessories Mold so I decided to have a little fun. Of course, this was after I decided on my 'no new projects' way of doing things. Like anyone thought that was going to happen.
This shows the fountain and the 'water' I used. I tried something different this time. Instead of using resin I tinted gloss varnish and used that to put in a layer of water. As you can see, all the varnish went to the edges of the piece. Not quite what I had in mind. I still used 5 minute epoxy for the water from the spout but didn't really do a froth where it hit.
Backstory. I have time to think whilst making and painting these things. And that was a lot of marble to paint. I actually made four of these founts so it was a lot of assembly line work. Rastl doesn't like assembly line work.
I wasn't being particularly careful on painting the marble so it isn't the best quality. And the lion heads all have some air bubbles. Without the stippling the alabaster is certainly second rate. So here's my explanation for all that.
The contractors building the dungeon must get pieces in the job lots that just aren't up to the standards needed in the BBEG's lair. But they already paid for it and had it hauled down to the job site. So rather than waste it they make up things that will be useful in various 'staff' areas of the dungeon and not really seen all the time by the guy who pays the bills. Now, you would think that the contractors would be doing their very best not to cheese off the BBEG but there's a pretty strong dungeon builder's contractor's union and there are very steep penalties for turning the contractors into undead (sub-contractors need to work out their own arrangements) so it's just easier all around for the less-than-perfect pieces to go into the less visible areas of the dungeon.
And if you're wondering, acrylic paint really doesn't have fumes so I don't have that excuse for what I just wrote.
Note - BBEG is the abbreviation for Big Bad Evil Guy. Essentially the reason for most quests and the fella you find in the center of the dungeon doing bad guy things.
Got the reds pretty much done and started on the metallics. At least, figured out what will be silver and what will be gold and got the silver started.
Metals will be a combination of silver and gold. Technically both are neutrals so I'm good with having them both on there. Then it's just cleanup and I can call them done.
Still working on these little guys. I did get an idea on how to paint what from someone else who suffered through painting them so I'm well on my way to being done.
For those who don't paint minis, red is one of the more difficult colors to paint. It just doesn't cover and then you have to be careful highlighting it so it doesn't go all pink on you. I stopped tonight after getting everything red I wanted red. Trying to do more would have been .. bad. As it is I have a little cleanup to do where red went places I didn't want red.
I'm saying 'red' a lot but that's because it was what I painted tonight.
Here's a better shot of the violet skin and stuff.
For those who want to know, you get a good deep red by painting it another color first. Red by itself doesn't cover very well so you end up with splotchy coverage. I painted all the red areas a rust brown that has fantastic coverage. Then the red only had to darken that. It's what we call "a trick of the trade".
The person who sent these want them done in what is called the Fire Triad. It goes through oranges and yellow. So I'll start bringing the highlights up to that yellow, probably starting tomorrow. Then it's just the metallics and some detailing, like the horns on some of them, buckles, etc.
The end is in sight.
A fella on the Hirst Arts forum was showing off his latest projects and he had these wonderful bottles on the crates. So I pestered the heck out of him until he gave me all the details.
In a nutshell:
- Glue beads onto a straight pin
- Base with white acrylic
- Paint with ink
- Varnish
For whatever reason superglue isn't liking me these days. I just can't get it to work. I think the house is too dry for it to adhere so I may have to experiment with that but not right now. So I used regular tacky glue. While this fills in the gaps between the beads so they look more cohesive it takes longer to dry and I seem to end up with crooked bottles. Those are going in the back.
Two coats of white craft paint make the proto-bottles a nice smooth white. It also reinforces the glue bond and fills in the spaces even more. Since I'm trying to look like they're one unit this is a good thing.
On to the ink. I do have Reaper inks and haven't really had a chance to use them much. This was a great opportunity. It took two coats to get it looking smooth. I probably could have done a third coat but didn't for two reasons.
- I didn't want the color to look too opaque
- I'm lazy
I let those dry really well. Because I had other things to do.
On to the last step - varnish. The originator used three coats of Future Floor Wax. If you haven't used this stuff in your terrain and other miniature making adventures you're really missing out. Great gloss finish and tough as nails. Downside is that it is really thin so if you're looking for something to stick on the surface you're going to have some issues.
So begins the Great Varnish Experiment. The idea is to give the bottles a decently thick layer of clear so the eye is fooled into thinking the bottle itself is clear. I decided to try out the layers of Future vs. straight acrylic craft varnish (gloss). The craft varnish is much, much thicker so it sticks to the surface and leaves a thicker result. At least, that's my hypotheses.
Without further ado, here's the current state of the experiment:
That bottle is actually painted with two coats of Reaper Clear Plum. The Clears are pigment in a clear base. So I thought I would give it a try. That's with one coat of the acrylic varnish.
The odd blue-green bottle is two coats of Reaper Clear Viridian and again, one coat of acrylic varnish.
The deeper green bottle is two coats of Reaper Green Ink and one coat of acrylic varnish.
The lighter purple bottle to the right is two coats of Reaper Purple Ink and two coats of Future.
Personally I like the hard gloss of the Future. But the acrylic varnish gives a thicker clear coat. So I think I'm going to combine the best of both worlds and do two coats in the future: one of the acrylic and one of Future.
I was wondering how the Reaper Clear colors would turn out. They're much more opaque than the inks but have a richness that will work for more pottery-like bottles. They still have enough of a clear feel that they might work nicely.
So tonight I'll hit everything on the board with one last coat of Future. Then I get to start painting caps and such.
The glossy surface is also just crying out for me to try out decals as well.
Finally I sat down and finished these things. I know I could have used colored paper and not painted the drawers in place but I like how the base coat of paint unifies things. Otherwise it would have really looked like pieces of card stuck to a piece of wood.
I have a 'price chart' for the things in the cabinet where each color is a different price. That will go up when the whole shop is assembled.
Now I need to make a balance scale for the counter, since I have things that need to be weighed out.
And I'm making bottles. Every mage needs empty potion bottles!
Howdy! I haven't introduced myself yet because I haven't had anything to show.
I just posted a big ol' post on my blog about my latest project. It has pictures and everything.
Here's a teaser:
To give you an idea of scale. The stone piece is a 3 inch diameter circle. The figure is in what they call '28mm scale' which means it is supposed to be 28mm from feet to eyes. A quarter will come to about the middle of his chest, if that. So it is kind of 1:60 scale.
I do like working in 1:12 and 1:6 but right now I'm doing a lot in the 1:60 size. Pretty much all of my current projects are on my blog but I hope to get back to the larger stuff in the near future so I can share it here.
FYI - the stonework is from molds by a company called Hirst Arts (and/or Castlemolds). They're like Lego for castles. Way addicting. And the miniatures (both wizard and Mr. Rat) are from Reaper Miniatures. Wonderful products and the best bunch of people you could hope to meet.
So I hope I've introduced myself properly and showed off the latest projects.
Rather than edit the last post I'll just put them in a new one. Makes it look like I've been doing more work than I actually have.
Well, the fountain is kind of back where it was before I broke it. The difference is that now it has the red granite detailing it didn't have prior to my test of epoxy strength. There's no water effect yet since I want to varnish it prior to putting that in.
I also moved the part with the fountain heads around so they are going to be spewing water in the widest part of the base, like they should have been in the first place. I know there's a couple of other things that are different from the directions but this is my fountain and I like it.
I'll try to get some closeups when the lighting is better.
Too busy doing stuff to stop and take pictures. Actually, either the item isn't able to be moved to a good place to take a picture, isn't dry, or isn't interesting enough yet.
The fountain has been reassembled. I finally took the time to remove the old epoxy and put it back together. That takes just as long as making it in the first place! I'll make a note of that for future reference - don't break.
The bookshelves that are shown below with the books and scrolls just don't work for the books. The shelves aren't tall enough to let any of them stand upright. ~sigh~ Measure twice, cut once. To be honest, the shelves were made waaaay in advance of the books. So I kind of have an excuse. So I made new ones.
The new shelves are made from balsa instead of the Hirst Arts wooden plank mold. I'm finding wood easier to use than the plaster pieces for things like this. Especially cutting and sanding to fit. The new shelves were assembled, detailed and stained. The stain will take overnight to dry completely so I'm just leaving them alone.
The books are done. I finished the last dozen or so on Saturday. I'm starting up a D&D3.5 game and some of my players were rolling up characters. Since we're using the straight rules I didn't have much to do besides tell them what region of Faerun they were from. They took the rest from there.
Finally, I cut the blocks for the new cabinet units to go behind the counter in the magic shop. Right now they're just blocks of wood. I need to add the fake drawer fronts and make them look much better. But I'll show a progress picture when there's something beyond a block of wood.
Good news is that Mega Miniatures has some figures I can use as shopkeepers and my friends want to combine an order so we get a break on shipping. If you haven't looked into John's figures I highly recommend you do so. They're a nice figure at a great price.
