I've had a little too much fun today. My Citadel Skulls arrived in the mail today, so I'll be returning to working on my scratch built vindicator tanks:



I also went to what I believe is my closest FLGS for the first time today. I was given a gift certificate to it back in December and haven't gotten to go until today. I also had a gift card that can be used anywhere, so I went to town.

I bought "Waterdeep Dragon Heist". I think it came out this month, and I've heard very good things about it. I have no idea when I'll get to play it, as I'm not very far through "Lost Mines of Phandelver", but I hope I get to play it eventually.


I picked up some minis, and unless the D&D board games count, these are my first official D&D minis. As you know, I like to make most of my own stuff. I've been planning to make an owlbear, but have been worried that I might not do a good enough job. This owlbear has one of the best sculpts I've seen. I've also been trying to decided on good zombie minis. I have a lot from "Sedition Wars" but I worry that they're too gruesome for the kids in my D&D group. I like HeroQuest zombies, but 12 identical zombies with cleavers bothered me too, so these will be a nice addition. The booster box was just because I had some money left over on the cards (and probably because I watch too much Blandco). I also picked up some Blood for the Blood God paint (Thanks Cam!)

Contents of the booster box

I just saw that waterdeep heist supplement this week, yesterday I also saw for the first time a compilation of old D&D modules brought up to whatever the current edition is. It had the old Keep on the Borderlands cover on it. I remembered that one very fondly. I’ve also been eyeballing some of those primed figs including some rock elementals.

That's really great to hear that they have a compilation of old D&D modules in a book updated for 5E. I didn't see/notice that one, but I'm excited by your news. I have a bunch of old modules updated for 5E that I bought through humble bundle. I haven't played any of them, but they have been fun to read. Those elemental minis are nice looking, if I didn't already have minis that I'm going to use for elementals I admit I would have bought them just for how nice they look. Thanks for stopping by, I'm going to read the old Keep on the Borderlands, I haven't played or heard of it before, thanks for bringing it up

Seriously thinking about D&D, memory is fuzzy but all good. The figs look great.

Are you happy with the skulls?

Hi Cam, I am happy with the skulls. There's a great amount of variety, and I'm thinking of so many uses for them. Some of these horned skulls will be great to convert some sorcerers. I really like the huge variety of human skulls. I am confused by the daemon skulls, there are blood letter and plague bearer skulls. In 40k daemons are incorporeal and disappear back to the warp when defeated, so it doesn't make sense to me to have their skulls. I wonder if it's different in Fantasy/Age of Sigmar. I also like the bird skulls, which I didn't know about when ordering, they will be very useful if I make any Raven Guard.

As for D&D, first of all, I wish I could play with you. I hadn't really had anything to do with D&D since the AD&D days when I was in elementary school. I picked it back up last year with 5E and I have to admit that I am really enjoying it. I know you're already stretched pretty thin with your hobby time, but if you can find a group of people to play with, or if your family would like to play it with you, I would encourage you to try it out. It's a lot of fun, all of my players and I enjoy it more than computer/video games. I can certainly see you being an amazing crafting DM if that's the root you choose. Just don't make me look too bad

The new D&D figures are great. I just can justify to myself to buy any of them as I likey have a metal or bones version of it already. I had a rust monster in my hand and started walking to register with it before I recalled I already own two older models for it. For people with less extensive collections, the average price of $2.50 a model isn't bad at all.

@adamsouza: That's where me starting my collection from nothing last year has some advantages I would have trouble bringing myself to buy new minis for models I already have too. Heck, I have enough trouble buying minis I don't have but think I can sculpt well enough. This newest sculpts are beautiful though. Do you have any pics of your collection?

Speaking of D&D, I've been working on having 12 zombies for the starting campaign encounter. I'm happy that my strange collection of minis that I'm using as zombies are each unique to some extent.

I have two converted Azog minis an orc from Lord of the Rings Heroclix, I have two "infected", I think they were called, from sedition wars (one heavily converted), 3 undead from the Magic the gathering board game, and my two brand new official D&D zombies which are the best looking of the collection. I don't know how well the Azogs work, with how energetic their pose is, maybe it doesn't work for a zombie. I also plan to convert some peasant minis into zombies. I might need to throw in a HeroQuest zombie for good measure.

That's quite a varied collection of zombies! I'm sure a good paint scheme will help them all blend together

Scullz... that's not something I'd ever order. Shudder... It's great You already have so many uses for them, I remember myself always struggling withe these boney bits when building GW kits. Said Beasts of Chaos / the Beastmen player...

But these DnD monsters and characters are great! Too bad it costs a lung and a liver on the other side of the pond, :(

Good luck with them!

@Commander Cain: That's a good point, I will need to make sure to help tie them together since there's such a variety of brands. Scale doesn't seem to bad, more differing bulkiness of the sculpts which I think will be ok.

@Wirecat: Wow, you would have been working with a lot of horned skulls playing those factions. I'm sorry to hear how expensive it is to get D&D stuff where you live. If you can find enough time you could always jsut sculpt a better collection than can be bought

It felt a little like an early Christmas today. A cool custom piece of terrain arrived for me today courtesy of Fango, to add to my trench system (no pics yet, sorry). It fits very well with the other trench pieces. Also my order from em4 miniatures arrived (my other Blandco inspired moment of weakness). It arrived pretty quickly, but felt long because there was no tracking on the package.


Here are the dwarves I orders. 48 of them in three poses for $22 after shipping. I'm quite happy with that deal.


I also did some more work on the zombies I'm making.


On an unrelated note, I use the skills I learn from crafting for wargaming and D&D for other things, often for my classroom. I made this fake wooden tray to hold something in my classroom. My students were really surprised and impressed that it's made of foamcore.

You got wood!

Nice dwarf collection.

Nice bunch of dwarfs, and a steal at that price!

Thanks guys. It's been quite a while since I posted anything on my own blog. Work has left me too tired to feel like doing any crafting. I finally got back to work on my scratch built chaos vindicator tanks with my skull kit and adding some paint. One is getting close to done, I think.









Let me know what you think.

The scratchbuilds are really cool. Liking the chain between the exhausts, it adds a lot. Few more skulls it'll look even better and Khorne will be pleased!

The milk tanks are looking good. I like the graffiti-like scrawl, just like a crazed cultist would do!

Tanks are looking good! I don't think I would be brave enough to try and build a whole tank out of bits but you pulled it off really well. The freehand really pulls it all together as well, looks like it must have taken a while to paint!

Wow, thanks guys. It's flattering to see this much activity on my blog.

@Commander Cain: Thanks! I imagine chaos vehicles to constantly be getting changed both through the warp and constant field repairs, so it makes it a little less intimidating to me when I make mistakes (like how all three tanks of quite different heights). I'm glad you like the free hand, and yes they did take a while to paint, but I doubt they took even a fraction as long as your army in a month goal. Those the red paint did take an annoying number of coats to look decent.

@JoshInJapan: Thanks Josh. I don't do graffiti for my orks, like many talented crafters here on Dakka do. It doesn't quite fit my vision of orks. But what you said is exactly what I was going for with the grafitti-like scrawled symbols and text. I imagined cultists wanting to make the chaos gods happy by covering the vehicles with symbols of worship in a crazed manner.

@Tyranid Horde: Thanks, I'm glad you like them. Thanks for the advice on adding a few more skulls to the chained exhaust area, I was considering that and like having verification. I do want to please Khorne, and I think both you and Khorne will like what I did with one of the other tanks (2nd and 3rd picture).




Skulls for the skull throne!


view from the back

Excellent work, love the way the symbols come together over the 3 doser blades. Got a nice vibe to them.

Thanks Cam, I saw a chaos symbol stretching across three vindicators' dozer blades years ago and really liked how it looked. It stuck with me, so I wanted to copy it.

Not much progress to report, I've been adding chaos devotions to the central vindicator. I'm not sure if I'm sold on the line going through the center of the second chaos circle on top.

I think there's two things I would do, first I would shade that line down a bit and add a slightly straighter line over it, so the existing line looks like a shadow. Secondly add a perpendicular line across as well. Still looking great and realistic. They look like they have been done by a fanatic, so if that is what you were after perfect bud.

Thanks for the advice Cam, that curving line didn't look right, so I'm painting over with hopefully better luck. I'm also experimenting with chaos circles that are open in the middle to see if they look better. Let me know what you think (still very WIP), and I didn't realize it was blurry when I took the shot.




How's this looking Tyranid Horde? Thanks for the suggestion, I'm liking the look more.

I like your dozer blade decoration. I remember the vindicator lineup with the symbol like you did. I think it was back a few editions when they first started detachments and they did the line breaker detachment. It was either iron warriors or black legion.

Yep! I'd say that's a good amount of skulls! It looks good and it feels a bit more fleshed (or skulled) out.

Thanks Theophony, good memory. I looked up the line breaker formation and I'm pretty sure that is where I saw this idea originally.

Thanks Tyranid Horde

I've been sick and not feeling up to doing much, but I crafted for a few minutes today.


A Jack-o-lantern out of insulation foam


The beginnings of three scarecrows for D&D

A free Halloween one shot for D&D about a haunted scarecrow was released a few days ago, along with being in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist I wanted to make some scarecrows

Sorry you're not feeling well- glad you got some crafty-time in- these are great! (Now I have to view with suspicion _any_ packing peanuts; clearly they are all sentient, clearly they are align against the Reign of Man....always watching, waiting.....

Heh heh, thanks Meer_Cat: I'll have to see what other innocuous everyday objects I can turn to evil

I'm finally starting to feel better, and did a bit more crafting today because of it.


Primed the skulls on these two

And covered this vindicator in chaos graffiti:





I'm continuing to work on the scarecrows for D&D also.

Err... these tanks are coming a bit more rough than Your other stuff, but who can say these chaos followers are paying attention to details? Unfortunately, news from Near and Middle East provide plenty of examples of tons of crap being welded to almost working tanks and other vehicles. Just don't be cautious with dirt, sand and scorch marks and they will look just good enough!

But these evil pumpkins... they remind me what month it is and I will thing of something Oct 31 styled too. Thanks!

Good eye Wirecat, I am purposely doing the white paint in a sloppy manner to look like cultists did graffiti in a crazed manner. Do you think that's not coming across or being taken too far? Thanks for the advice on the weathering. I've never actually weathered any vehicles before, so this should be a learning experience.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you make themed to Halloween

Loving the crazy writing! My only suggestion would be to take a very fine detail brush and add some paint streaks underneath the words and chaos stars, something like this maybe?



Weathering is also super fun to do once you get the hang of it. I am particularly fond of using a sponge to dabble on spots of paint as it gives a nice random effect unlike a paintbrush. You can also grind up some coloured chalk, dilute it with water and add to any recesses to create a nice rust or mud spatter effect (or just buy the awesome weathering powders from FW).

 Commander Cain wrote:
Loving the crazy writing! My only suggestion would be to take a very fine detail brush and add some paint streaks underneath the words and chaos stars, something like this maybe?

Spoiler:

Weathering is also super fun to do once you get the hang of it. I am particularly fond of using a sponge to dabble on spots of paint as it gives a nice random effect unlike a paintbrush. You can also grind up some coloured chalk, dilute it with water and add to any recesses to create a nice rust or mud spatter effect (or just buy the awesome weathering powders from FW).

Thanks for the suggestions Commander Cain, I'll try them out

I consider these two scarecrow minis finished. I based them on descriptions from the two adventures I've seen them in:

Spoilers for the Haunted Cornfield one shot by James Haeck


Spoilers for Waterdeep Dragon Heist:

Jeepers Creepers (Parts 1 and 2)! Nicely done!

I was in the mood to make beds for D&D today. I'm using what a learned from a DMScotty video for the larger beds, and am making piles of straw of my own design for goblin beds. Not very far yet, the watered down PA glue is taking forever to dry.


I've also been working on the third and most complicated scarecrow mini:


And being that I am easily side tracked, since I've been thinking a lot of about making beholders, and I need a spectator eventually for the campaign I was DMing it makes perfect sense to instead see if I can make a gazer, right?

The elf king is only there for scale.

I've continued working on the gazer, and I am super happy with the results:


I have also been sculpting a rat familiar for D&D, I still need to make the ears (The apprentice wizard is for scale)

Fun stuff! Especially the pumpkin-headed scarecrow. A bit stiff, but it fits him. These small things really liven the game and provide a good immersion for players, not even saying anything about the creative hobby side... Cheers!

Thanks for stopping by Wirecat, I'm glad you like the pumpkin headed scarecrow. Also thank you for your kind words, I really enjoy making all the little extras for my dungeons even though it takes forever.

I think in only three days I managed to to built a mini from scratch and have it fully painted. That's really unlike me (Maybe I secretly had Cam visit, to do it for me). My gazer mini is now done, I'm very happy with how it turned out.


I've also worked some more on the beds, here are the bunk beds getting close to being done, and being tried out by some adventurers (and a zombie).


Thanks for stopping by.

I love the scarecrows and the gazer. They look great, I can't believe they are scratch-built.

Thanks so much Josh! I hope you like this newest addition too. Yesterday, I started making a flame skull for D&D and finished it tonight.


I started with a Hero Quest skeleton head from a mold I made. Simple gray primer, Ushabti bone paint with a brown wash (Army painter: strong tone)


I made the flames with my hot glue gun. Small blogs of hot glue dragged out into spikes with the hot tip.


I took this pic because i thought the flame skull looked so much like a super saiyan.


Yellow base coat with orange and red highlights directly on the glue to leave with some light passing through it


Scale shot

Thanks for taking a look, I hope you like it

Great idea for the flames! I might have to steal that technique for my Thousand Sons sorcerers

I'm glad you like it, and by all means please do use it if it would be useful. A little extra info is that I do all the hot glue work on a silicon baking mat, it all peels up very easily. Each little bunch of flames was made separately, peeled up, and then I clean it up a little with a hobby knife or scissors if needed. Then I melt the bottom edge and maybe add a little new hot glue to attach it. If you go this route, best of luck

Flame skull? Is that a thing in 5e? I have the books, but haven't had the chance to really look through them.

I have been seeing a lot of hobbyists working with hot glue recently. I may have to experiment with it myself.

@JoshInJapan: I find working with hot glue to be a lot of fun. Plus there's much less wait time. I understand your feelings about the flameskull. It is a monster in the starter set campaign, which is why I am making it, but I haven't seen it in any other campaign book or adventure I have read. They are kind of interesting, they can cast spells, shoot fire out of their eyes, and at CR 4, it is the second highest challenge rating in the campaign.

I just finished making my third and final scarecrow mini for D&D. Does anyone recognize him?

Great work on the gazer and scarecrows are really fun looking projects . The flaming skull is fantastic though, well done.

Love it, crazy stuff all looking fantastic.

Turnip Head!! Who knew he'd show up in D&D of all places! I mean considering face down in a rock on a mountain.....it's possible...

@ acrowsperch: Woohoo! I'm happy to know someone recognizes him and the movie he is from. I admit it is pretty strange to put him in D&D, and I'm not sure if I have the heart to use him as an evil scarecrow... I may need to make an additional scarecrow

@Camkierhi: Thanks Cam!

@Theophony: Thanks Theophony, I'm glad you like them. I'm also interested in how the flame skull seems to be your favorite of the group. I'm personally more proud the of gazer.

Not as much progress today, but still some:


I've started painting my gricks and alpha grick. They are still WIP and I think I need to darken them


I finished my goblin beds. Made to look like piles of hay with a rough dirty blanket thrown on top

Thanks for stopping by

I've been getting back to work on some of the D&D models that I started 5 months ago (like the gricks) I sculpted a baggy sleeve for my evil wizard "Glass Staff" to match the wizard arm I made from molding Gandalf's arm.


I also finished the rat mini I've been making for D&D, just need to paint the base


I was also running out of white and black paint. Being how useful these two colors are I went overboard and bought myself half a gallon of each

 Syro_ wrote:
@ acrowsperch: Woohoo! I'm happy to know someone recognizes him and the movie he is from. I admit it is pretty strange to put him in D&D, and I'm not sure if I have the heart to use him as an evil scarecrow... I may need to make an additional scarecrow

Depends on what side of the war you are on! I think it'd be great for some adventurers to work through a tough area and then, suddenly, instead of respite all of a sudden appears *thunderclap, lightning crack* TURNIP HEAD

@acrowsperch: I really like the idea of Turnip Head, just appearing out of no where during a dark stormy night. Thanks, I'll have to try to work that into an adventure.

Sorry it's a little blurry, too much caffeine today is my guess. But I have finished my evil wizard "Glass Staff" mini and I wanted to show how it has changes from the Thorin Oakenshield mini I converted him from. (Luckily, I started with 2)


I have also finished painting all my gricks. I didn't push myself too hard on the paint job (remember I slapped these together really quickly from aluminum foil and hot glue mostly), but I think they are good enough for the one to two times they will appear in the game.


Also because of the very generous deadline, I've entered the 27th round of the League of Extraordinary Riveters terrain contests. I'm going to build a cistern/fountain out of a nerds candy cardboard box. So far I've only done some measuring.


These contests are a lot of fun, and the encouragement everyone gives each other is really great for improving. I think most people who visit my blog already take part, but just in case you can click here to check it out (or the one in my sig):

There's also more than two months left to finish our entries, so why not join?

Been a while since I checked in, you have been busy!

Love the Gazer scratchbuild, great work especially on such a tiny, fiddly miniature. But my favourite thing of your scratch builds is the flameskull. Brilliant work, it looks awesome!

I think the Gricks look proper creepy and if I was a player and you plonked that down in front of me in a dark, dank tunnel I would be pretty intimidated.

Thanks so much Da Boss, it's great to see you around again. I'm very happy to hear that you like the stuff I'm been making. Has the beginning of school been keeping you busy?

Today was a good day for hobby time, so I've done some more stuff since when I updated earlier today. I've put together the parts of the nothic that I have sculpted and chopped off the scythe witch from Sedition Wars. Don't mind the bed, it's jsut holding up the arm while the green stuff cures.



I've also decided to try to sculpt the last of my 12 zombie minis from scratch. This is the armature for it.

Thanks for stopping by

That Nothic is creepy as hell. Like it already.

Other works are good, Gricks in particular are looking great.

Good luck with the sculpting, patience is the key, that's why I am struggling with it.

Very cool Gricks, well done !

@Camkierhi: Thanks Cam. And unfortunately you are totally right. Patience is key when sculpting, especially with apoxie putties. It furstrates me that I have to wait when I want to work on it, and then later when I'm busy or don't feel like working is when I should be doing the next step. When I'm excited about the art I'm doing I get impatient, that might be why I enjoy working with hot glue so much, very little wait time. For you, who works hard and gets so much crafting done in a day, it must be agony waiting for the sculpts to dry.

@KernelTerror: Thanks!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think this will auto-append, but I've done some work on the LoER terrain comp.

I made several mistakes as making this unfortunately, but the build is still going alright for making this cistern.


I've started sculpting a hawk head statue that will be spitting out water into the pool. This cistern in in the basement of Tresendar Manor (Lost Mines of Phandelver). The only information on the Tresendar family was that one of the family members was known as the "Black hawk". I decided that the a hawk could be the family crest (as apposed to a helicopter):

Way too many cool things to comment on individually! It is a lot of fun following Your progress and more of it to see finished stuff in detail. Keep going, You are really getting places! Thanks!

Thanks so much Wirecat! The compliments mean especially a lot coming from such a great sculptor. I'm glad you're enjoying my work.

I have started attaching the spikes on the nothic's back (more of them to come)


I've filled out the armature a bit for the zombie, still a long way to go


Gap filled the cistern for the LoER contest


And attached the beak on the hawk head statue/fountain


More to come, thanks for stopping by

Some more progress on the nothic, zombie sculpt, and hawk head sculpture

Lack of sleep and work left me so exhausted that my regular progress disappeared as the week wore on, unfortunately, but to celebrate Friday night being here I did some more crafting.
Biggest news is that all the sculpting and converting is finally done on the nothic, all that's left will be painting after this.





I have also continued work on the zombie that I am sculpting from scratch. This now includes the first human head I have ever sculpted.

That alien is looking super creepy, great stuff!

You also inspired me to take a stab at the terrain competition though you seem to have a good headstart over me

Thanks Commander Cain, it's great to hear that you'll be trying out the terrain competition.

Also I wouldn't worry about my head start with your legendary speed for completing goals

I've done a little more sculpting of the hawk head fountain. I burned my finger on hot glue pretty badly yesterday so crafting came to a sudden halt.

 Syro_ wrote:
I've done a little more sculpting of the hawk head fountain. I burned my finger on hot glue pretty badly yesterday so crafting came to a sudden halt.

Ouch! That is really unfortunate, I hope the burn isn't serious to call for a medical attention? One of the reasons I no longer have courage to use melting equipment when noone else is around... I wish You a speedy recovery.

The fountain looks a bit weird, but this is a good thing, Very intriguing how it will end! Oh, and I've been browsing Your recent photographs again - that water effect acrylics produce really interesting effects! Ice staff in wizards hand is very well done, congratulations!

 Syro_ wrote:
I've done a little more sculpting of the hawk head fountain. I burned my finger on hot glue pretty badly yesterday so crafting came to a sudden halt.

Huh. You almost had me convinced to try hot glue sculpting. Now I'm not sure I want to...

Thanks WireCat, I didn't need any medical attention luckily. It hurt for about 4 hours which was more than I expected but I just kept swishing it in cold water to keep the pain down, and then started applying a lot of aloe. I still have quite a blister, but I'm fine other than that. I burned myself much worse than this about two years ago (also with hot glue), so I'm not worried. It's a shame you don't use melting equipment anymore, but it is a wise choice. As for the fountain, I'm still kind of up in the air with where I'm going with it. I've been trying to decide if I want to make the water effect with hot glue, paint, and a gloss varnish or try to pick up one of those two part epoxie glues that people sometimes use for water effects. And thanks about the wizard, I am quite happy with how the staff turned out.

Thanks Josh, I hope you still try out the hot glue sculpting, just don't be a careless as me. If it makes you feel better, I was already using hot glue again this afternoon even though the blister is still prominent on my finger.

Speaking of playing with hot glue, I was in the mood to make another gelatinous cube tonight. I don't know why, when I have more than I will probably ever use in game, but they are really easy to make with a silicone baking mat. Today's was made with about 40-50 cents of dollar store hot glue and a single skull from the citadel skulls kit. It's my 5th gelatinous cube that I have made this way, and right in the middle of this "family shot"



The silicon baking mat I use, even has inch measurements printed on it, so it's very easy to create 2 inch square panels of pure hot glue (they peel right up from the silicon).


Then it's just lining the panels up, melting the edges a little to help them line up, and adding more glue to where they connect. A very quick and easy gelatinous cube.


I also have some pulled apart dollar store jute twine from a failed project, that I'm thinking could work well if I make some shambling mounds for D&D, what do you guys think?

You won't know until you try!

--B.

Your cubes look great and I'm interested to see what you do with the mounds. If you were able to get some Sylvaneth bits, it might make some cool additions to them.

The Nothic is coming along really nicely! Fair play for working with armatures too - I am always too intimidated to try that.

The cubes are great. I saw a similar technique using transparent plastic with hot glue on them, and one my students made one that he brought in, but yours look more sturdy and durable.

I reckon shambling mounds will be most convincing if you do a couple of small details like leaves on them as well - the suggestion of wood elf bits is a good one!

Wow thanks for all the replies Brian, Tyranid Horde, and Da Boss! What kind of Sylvaneth/wod elf bits are we talking about? The treeman branches? I'm willing to try to make similar stuff, but I'm worried that I may be descending a slippery slope if I buy bits because of not wanted to waste about a penny of jute twine. I'm still willing to consider it though. I have some spare aquarium plants for making stirges, I could try that. I'm also trying to decide about mushrooms on the back, like the official art.

Not much progress today, I sculpted three more feathers on the hawk head, and started the very bare bones armature of an ogre I'm going to try to sculpt. Hopefully, i will have bigger updates soon, as I'll be starting to make a band of 10 orcs for D&D each customized to be different.

The sprues come with little sculpted leaves and roots and so on, as well as little faeries.

I think actually the aquarium plant stuff will probably add enough detail particularly if you also sculpt some mushrooms as well. It just needs a little bit of appropriate detail to draw the eye and make the idea that the twin is actually roots and vines convincing.

Out of curiosity why are you not sculpting the feathers individually and then placing them on the hawk head? That way you could make them all at once and also fashion them around each other much easier.

Love the cubes, really smart way of making them!

@Da Boss: Thanks for the advice and information. I'll try out what you suggested. Also please let me know what you think of the progress so far.

@Commander Cain: Thanks, I'm glad you like the cubes. As for the reason way I'm doing the feathers the way I am, I do have a reason but not a particularly good reason. I wanted the feather to fit together better than I thought I could do with making them in a big batch separately, and also wanted the feathers to flair up away from the head at the ends. I've taken a picture to hopefully show you what I mean. In hindsight I probably should have just sculpted them separately.


I've started working on the first shambling mound with really basic cheap styrofoam and a sci-fi base that I will cover up:


From there I made the main vine/branches using wire and hot glue.


After I started adding the shaggy jute twine with PVA glue. Because of the PVA, I stopped there to wait for it to dry.



From there I'm thinking of making trails of hot glue over the jute twine to simulate more vines, I'll be adding teeth to the mouth, touching up more detail for the head and back area, and adding some foliage and mushrooms like Da Boss suggested.

Wow that has come out really well!

Thanks Da Boss! I need to decide how many shambling mounds I want to make. I imagine there isn't much need for multiples of them.
There is still more detail I can add, but I am also tempted to call the zombie sculpt finished, so I can move on...




I have also finished the feathers on the hawk head statue



Thanks for stopping by

AFAIK, shambling mounds are generally encountered alone, but they can sometimes come in groups. I would say 3 is enough, then if you had a random encounter table with d3 on it, you would have enough.

In 3.5 edition, this was a level 9 druid spell...
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shambler.htm

 Syro_ wrote:



From there I'm thinking of making trails of hot glue over the jute twine to simulate more vines, I'll be adding teeth to the mouth, touching up more detail for the head and back area, and adding some foliage and mushrooms like Da Boss suggested.

Simple yet effective. Great trick with that organic stuff!

@Da Boss: Thanks for the advice, I'm aim for three, that should perfectly use up my pulled apart jute twine also. I went through more of it on the first model than I expected to. And wow, that druid spell is cool. I may need to create a villain creating and sending forth large amounts of shambling mounds.

@Wirecat: Thanks Wirecat! I didn't expect it to turn out as well as it did so far.

I've continued work on the shambling mound, adding vegetation and some mushrooms, plus sealing down the twine.


Here is the batch of mushrooms I made for this project, nice and simple


I've also started on a second shambling mound


And least interesting is adding a little more to the frame of the ogre I'm sculpting

Good work with those mounds

Those mounds are coming along nicely, the added vegetation is sweet and those mushrooms are really nifty!

Are the gelatinous cubes transparent? I've seen Cubes with a open bottom, when a PC gets swallowed by the Cube you just pop their miniature inside the cube. Looks really cool.

Thanks monkeytroll, thanks Tyranid Horde, and thanks Shadow Captain Edithae. I'm glad you like the stuff I've been making.
@Shadow Captain Edithae: To answer your question, I've seen cubes with the open bottom and like how you can put the minis inside when they are engulfed too. For that reason, I made mine with an open bottom also. Sadly, the cubes aren't as transparent as I would like, but you can kind of tell when a mini is inside. I've taken some pictures to show you:
The five cubes and 5 minis to use as victims

Here the minis are inside the cubes with the light source on the same side as the viewer

And there they are backlit instead


I have also finally finished all the beds I was making for the D&D starter campaign (only thing I might do is age or paint the wood

Those beds look great, and comfy.

Excellent work going on here as usual.

As a btw, easy mushrooms are, plastic rod, any kind will do. Light the end over a candle, and pretty much immediately stub it out on the desk, instant mushroom.

Thanks so much Cam, and thanks for the info on making mushrooms, I never would have thought of that.

I was reading through the "Lost Mines of Phandelver" campaign book again, when I came to the description of the NPC Sildar Halwinter I noticed some information that I had no memory of and may not have had much meaning to me before. It said he is a former griffin rider from Waterdeep. I don't know much D&D lore, but after having read most of the adventure book "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist" and having gotten a griffin rider mini in the single blind box I bought, I decided to start making a new mini for him.

I am converting a MTG: Arena of the Plainswalker mini of Gideon into Sildar Halwinter.


After sculpting a griffin rider helmet, I also made him a long sword (heavy crossbow to come).


Speaking of MTG: Arena of the Plainswalkers. I can't find these amazing deals that I've seen some people talk about getting these for $5 at Walmart, but for me it's dropped to $12 on Amazon. $12 for 35 minis sounded good to me, so I bought myself two more boxes of the game

I've been very busy at work, so there was a drop off in my crafting, but I've started up again. I began working on the third shambling mound this morning

Great work on those beds

If this is what it is like in a "drop off" in your work rate, I am seriously impressed. I have had a bunch of parent teacher conferences recently and only had the energy to play video games in the evenings. You are doing fantastic work here. The shambling mounds are coming out way better than the actual official miniatures!

Thanks monkeytroll!

And thanks Da Boss! It's hard to achieve more than occasionally, but it gives me such joy and pride when someone says something I make could be mistaken for an official mini and in your case, even better. Thank you so much! That is also a good point about claiming my work rate dropping off, lately I have been so into modeling for D&D that I'm excitedly doing only that, not even really doing video games anymore. It's been my main way to relax and unwind so I've been posting almost daily. But that's only recently, there have been much longer droughts over the life of this blog than the 2 days or so I didn't post and claimed a drop off. I guess it's all perspective . Luckily my parent teacher conferences went well, and I hope yours did too. No matter what, they are always exhausting, huh?

Not much news on the hobby front. I've spent most of my hobby time and skills repairing a porcelain fish sculpture I gave my mom which was recently broken by the cat. It's not perfect but it's in one piece again, and I painted up the gaps and new pieces as best I could. Buying the gloss varnish for LoER really came in handy for the finishing touches. I did however get started on a statue that I think looks surprisingly good so far for how little work I did. In the game story it's supposed to be a wooden statue, but I plan to make it a bronze statue and try painting patina for the first time. I think the statue looks very Athena-like which I think is a plus.

_Outstanding _ use of a milk carton pull for the shield- the statue is going to look great. Very Athena-esque indeed!

Thanks Meer_Cat, I can always rely on you to notice well placed milk pulls

 Syro_ wrote:
I did however get started on a statue that I think looks surprisingly good so far for how little work I did. In the game story it's supposed to be a wooden statue, but I plan to make it a bronze statue and try painting patina for the first time. I think the statue looks very Athena-like which I think is a plus.

THAT is not just nice - it is GREAT! What little difference a 54 mm scale can give. Thumbs up, Syro!

Wow, that statue is awesome too. Did you sculpt that!?
Yeah, I struggle a lot with workflow, I have had 6 month gaps before where I fall out of it and fall behind. What keeps me going is running games and needing stuff painted for sessions. But I struggle to get all that stuff posted on my blog in an organised manner, hence my huge photodumps every so often.
I really like that you post WIPs consistently because I can see how you did it.

Thanks Wirecat! I've snapped a pic just to show how little conversion I did. The mini started as a magic using princess or something, all I did was file down the wand into a spear point, and add a shield, but I think it really changes the feel of the mini. I bought these right when I was starting D&D wondering if I could use them as cheap alternative minis but the scale is so different I can't use most of them except for stuff like this.

@Da Boss: Thank you so much for even considering that I may have sculpted the statue, I'd like to get that good, and will keep practicing. The green plastic really does look like greens stuff too, doesn't it? It's from a "Toys R Us" brand of figures. It's called "True Heroes Mythical Warriors Bucket" I wouldn't suggest buying it, especially since it's double the price now compared to when I bought it, but here's an Amazon link if you want to take a look:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MW7JH0I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Also thanks for the kind words about the way I do WIPs, I like to show any little bit of progress I make in case anyone wants to follow along or try what I do.

The very simple conversion for the statue

Aha! It does indeed look like GS, and I was amazed that you would suddenly spring forth with something so fully sculpted with no lead in! Haha.

Happy Tanksgiving everyone! Realizing what day was coming up, I got back to work on my scratch built vindicators yesterday. Except for weathering, I'm calling them done. I have named them "Gore Plow", "Breaker", and "Skull Taker".


Line Breaker formation


side view


other side


backs


detail of Gore Plow's plow with having used Blood for the Blood God effect for the first time.


detail of Gore Plow's chain of skulls


detail of Skull Taker's skull pile and blood covered spikes

They are looking brilliant bud, really good job done.

Thanks Cam!
I've gone back to the scratch Leman Russ tanks I started (I think 2 years ago). Not much progress yet, nothing worth showing.

Along with hours spent organizing my out of control hobby supplies, I spent some time crafting today as well.

I've gotten back to work on my Sedition wars minis. I've decided to convert the male soldier models into females, for an all female elite force of imperial guard (maybe storm troopers?). I shaved down the waistlines, and sculpted on the female style chest and rear armor of the other models. In hindsight, I should have included some of the original models that I'm copying in the photos for comparison. Next time



I've also begun making some brickwork to hold prison bars for D&D, and finished making a sci-fi match out of thin cardboard.


Thanks for stopping by

 Syro_ wrote:
@Da Boss: Thank you so much for even considering that I may have sculpted the statue, I'd like to get that good, and will keep practicing.

You know, this should be taken as a vote of confidence. We believe You can do that, so go for it! Wink-wink, nudge-nudge! Really, practice may not make perfect, but practice makes good.

The mini started as a magic using princess or something, all I did was file down the wand into a spear point, and add a shield, but I think it really changes the feel of the mini. I bought these right when I was starting D&D wondering if I could use them as cheap alternative minis but the scale is so different I can't use most of them except for stuff like this.

That is why I've made simple cardboard stand-ins to take with me to various shops for this winter season. Figures, vehicles, trees, doll houses, even, erm... pony houses? can provide a lot of scatter to add to bases and tables. And this princess with Your modifications is really fitting most Fantasy settings. Great stuff.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Wirecat I will keep practicing and working on improving. That's good thinking, with what you bring with you. Are the cardboard stand-ins to be able to check how well the scale fits 28mm? That's a good idea, I should start doing that.

As promised here are some photos showing the female troopers that come with Sedition Wars compared to my conversion of the male troopers. Unfortunately I don't have any male troopers left to show how they changed.

Original female trooper front:

Female trooper conversion front:


Original female trooper back:

Female trooper conversion back:


I hope I succeeded in giving the same feel to the armor while making it passably feminine. I didn't have them in the same picture because the male bodies are noticeably taller and bulkier, and I felt it made it harder to compare.
Thanks for stopping by.

Ooh Sedition Wars stuff, not seen anyone working on that for a while! Your conversions seem to have a much more sensible pose, the ones that came with the game has some very interesting stances

I like the baddies for gribbly stuff and servator bodies, you have done a great job on the conversion. looks sneaky.

@Commander Cain: Heh heh, yeah the game does have interesting stances. Trying a little too hard, right? Until I started the conversions, I didn't realize the pains they went to have the sculpts so different for the male vs female troopers. They follow a somewhat similar style, but they made the female armor much more organic everything rounded and appearing more like anatomy. They male armor has some of the anatomy themes but everything is squared off with hard edges unlike the female armor. It's been a while since I last worked on this stuff. Thanks

@Camkierhi: I really like using all the sedition wars stuff for conversions too (after all I got the idea from your blog). A lot of the more human gribblies I'm using as plague zombies, but I've had the most fun with the scythe witches. One's arms and legs became my nothic for D&D. I'm planning to make one into a Callidus assassin. I hadn't thought of servators, thanks

Hey Syro, I'm loving all of the crafting and sculpting going on in here over the last few pages...I've dropped off from my regular posting as life got real busy for me. I have been doing more buying than playing recently, and Fallout 76 has distracted me further.recently. I'll do an update on my Plog soon.The backlog keeps growing!

Keep up the great work!

A bit late to the party, but better late than never right?
Browsed trough the pages and it's really great to see so much self crafted stuff. Very well done sir!
All of this is just so inspiring. Looking forward to see more progress!

That line breaker formation is just awesome

@Fango: Hey Fango, great to hear from you! Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you like what I've been making. Real life happens, but I'm glad to hear you'll be doing an update soon, I'm looking forward to checking it out.

@Ezki: Thanks so much Ezki. It's never too late to check out a blog in my opinion. Trying to make the stuff myself is a big part of the fun for me, I'm glad you enjoy it. I'll try not to disappoint in the future.

I got distracted, and have been building a cottage as terrain for Dungeons & Dragons. The good news is, I did this because I taught my class today in art today about building models and structures with XPS bricks. They had so much fun. I showed them this as part of the example, though for playing it's more complicated than I wanted them to try.

I'm making the cottage to have the out walls be removable as a single section leaving just a row of bricks on the ground to show where the walls are along with the doorways staying intact.









I was successful so far, but this was kind of a pain and will probably break easily. Maybe I should have the doorways stay attached to the main part of the building instead of staying like that.
Thoughts, suggestions?

Yay for the little thingy in the top of the milk (or in my case, the chicken stock)! Surprisingly useful.

Those sedition wars figures conversions are really skillful - nice job!

I like the pull out idea for the wall outline too. Functional terrain for fantasy RPGs takes some thought for sure.

Those guard conversions look really good. Subtle enough and not overdone, but visible at tabletop distance.

Loving the cottage idea. I need to get into some of that myself, but I am so lazy with starting terrain projects. It is a miracle I ever get any of them done!

Thanks kestral, I agree that functional terrain for fantasy RPGs takes thought. I'll keep trying to devise an easier way with these brick houses.

Thanks Da Boss. I have the same trouble with terrain projects, most of mine are still unfinished from 3-4 years ago. Only two things get me to finish a piece of terrain: I need it for an up coming D&D session and when I'm participating in the League of Extraordinary Riveters terrain contests.

I forgot my brick cottage at school from bringing it in to show my students, so I started on the next piece, the tower connected to the cottage.

I didn't realize how much harder it is to make the square grid on a piece after you round all the side to a circle. My speed square was useless and I didn't think to get my small carpenter's square.


Project move slow when using PVA glue

Yep, PVA does take its time to polymerize. But these foam blocks look like they are speeding things up considerably, compared to other things like modelling clay or wood. Good progress, Syro!

Looking good! Wirecat mentioned clay and that could be another quick way to produce bricks. All you would need to do is buy one of those big cases of air dry stuff and chop the whole thing into rectangles. You would also be able to use superglue or epoxy to speed the drying time up.

@Wirecat: Thanks Wirecat, the bricks do speed things up. If I could clean up enough of my work area to do a bunch of buildings at once the cure time of the PVA wouldn't be a big deal but I don't see that happening.

@Commander Cain: Thanks! Those are good ideas, but you know how cheap I am . Plus I haven't gotten to show anyone yet, but I'm trying to use up my XPS foam collection that I have been collecting too much of for too many years. I've thrown out all the light crumbly junk, but all this is is the denser stuff that heavy electronics come in.

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone. With the Christmas season upon us, I'm using my crafting time to make presents for people rather than stuff for games. The only stuff I am still working on for games, I posted on the LoER contest thread.

Sounds like you have your priorities straight!

Thanks Meer_Cat

I haven't posted much of my work for the current LoER contest recently. That is why I am making the cistern with the Hawk head fountain for D&D, and why it should be a slightly higher quality (I hope) than some of my other D&D stuff.

I painted the pool area in darkening shades of blue to hopefully give the illusion of depth. I also coated the hawk head in bronze


I then gave the hawk head a healthy amount of verdigris. This was my first time giving something verdigris.


I then painted the cistern to look like marble. I cut off a tiny corner of kitchen sponge, and tried to add on top of that, a technique for painting marble based of Cam's description of how he does it. This was also my first time ever trying to paint something to look like marble. A lot of firsts in this project, which is what LoER is all about



I attached the hawkhead


I filled in the pool with hot glue, it looked so beautiful while it was still hot, hopefully it won't get too opaque. I am almost done

Nicely done- especially with so many 'firsts' as part of the build! Maybe a touch more verdigris on the hawk's head? The marble came out aces- I want to try that now!

Excellent bud, really excellent. This is the comp to a tee, trying new things and improving your game, and this is a pretty great example. You nailed the marble. the blue shading works, and the completely home done sculpt of the hawks head is brilliant. Well done all round bud.

Thanks so much Cam! The blue shading is a relief, since I was just making it up trying to show some depth, I didn't know if it would turn out at all. With how busy I am right now, I was planning on keeping my contest entry pretty simple. But with the way LoER usually goes, I got more and more into it, and more proud of how it looked leading to trying even harder. I am really happy with how it turned out. I may need to have more fountains and cisterns appearing in games of D&D or I may barely use it for fear it it being damaged.

@Meer_Cat: Thanks for the advice. I added a bit more verdigris like you suggested. Hopefully it's good because I just sent in my finished pictures for the contest. Here they are:

Front view. I think the pool of water turned out well. I think it obscures enough detail to make the painting and shading of the pool more believable. The hot glue clung to the sides and was a bit viscous, but over all I think it turned out well. I used the hot tip of the glue gun to make the ripples in the water, and the stream of water coming out of the mouth is the bottom half of a wizard staff cast in hot glue.


side views. I think this first one may be my favorite angle to look at the piece.



From above:


Proof of the candy wrapper origin on the bottom:


And lastly a fun little scale shot with some minis


Thanks!

That fountain is a really delightful piece. Your depth painting really works too.

Ah that is a lovely fountain! The hawk head has some excellent verdigris and the stream from his mouth is great. The ripples of the water is just a brilliant touch, I see a lot of people buy all sorts of product to get ripples on their water but that looks just as good!

Looking good! I like the impression. of depth you have achieved with the pool.

Reminds me that I had better get a move on with my LoER piece as it has been ignored on a shelf for the last month...

Thanks so much for the kind words guys. I'm glad you like how the pool turned out, the experimenting paid off.
Also Commander Cain, I wouldn't worry to much. monkeytroll said there's 18 days left. With your legendary speed, that's plenty of time.

Having just finished my first experiment with water effects, I have something to compare with yours, and the fountain rocks! The hawk's head is perfect- looks exactly like aged bronze. I like the side view that you pointed out in your notes, it's my favorite of the shots as well, but the overhead view looking down into the water really shows how well your shading paid off to indicate depth- really top notch! The ripples are a really nice touch and the marbling is spot on. Great piece!

Your terrain is inspiring .

@Meer_Cat: Thanks so much Meer_Cat! And thanks for the suggestion to add more verdigris, it does look better now.

@neil101: Thanks neil, your kind words mean especially much considering the terrain you've created.

I haven't had much hobby time because of work, but I did finally get around to busting out my proxxon hot wire cutter and finished ripping down my random xps foam collection into more usable stuff. Unfortunately, it was time for bed when I finished so I didn't get to start using it to make stuff yet.

Before (I continued to find more xps after this picture was taken).


After:


Thanks for stopping by

Time well spent.

The fountain is really quite brilliant sir.

Thanks Cam! I have it admit I'm liking the fountain more and more, when I look at it, I'm starting to say "How did I do that?"

Today I had fun spending pretty much the entire evening after work on hobby time.
I finally got started on a HeroQuest door that I plan to make a mold of


Sorry for the messy picture. I've added to more layers of blocks to the tower in the background and started building interchangeable roofs for my D&D cottages.




I'm trying to keep the roofs pretty simple since I'll be bringing them in as examples to show my students for an art project we've been doing in class. Also it saves time.

I've made a thatched roof now too, which is interchangeable with the other. I think I learned about making thatched roofs like this from reading Viktor von Domm's blog.

most of the first layer done

Can I just come and play in your game?

--B.

Sounds good to me

One hell of a road trip.

Can't wait for teleporters then will just pop over and good times. Nice thatching.

@Briancj: Sadly true Brian, and my group hasn't managed the logistics to get together since May/June.

@Camkierhi: Thanks Cam, and teleporters would be nice. I would love to be able to play with so many people on Dakka, but we're all spread out and many of us have no one to play with

Does anyone watch "Miniature Mashup" on Youtube? I have what he calls Derpy the Dragon from my mystic warriors set and I'm tired of it taking up space. I've decided to follow his lead and make a chimera out of it (But mine will be correct scale from the Monster Manual).
So I'm starting with Derpy the Dragon from the Toys R Us Mystic Warriors bucket, A lion from my Terra wild animal tube, and a goat from a dollar store pack of farm animals.


Dismembered animals. Also it almsot feels unfair just how well dipping a plastic figure in boiling water to change the pose works. After hearing about it so often I tried it on the dragon's neck.


I've starting piecing together the parts, gap filling, and sculpting on details. I'm also working to make the dragon's head look better.


I've also been building some jail cell fronts for D&D




Thanks for stopping by

That pool looks very good. You managed to do the water effect with hot glue? Or did I miss something?
Anyway, well done.

Also that thatched roof works really well. It's always good to have interchangeable parts to fit different themes

That chimera conversion is a great idea. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

@Ezki: Thanks Ezki, yes the pool of water is just hot glue with gloss varnish. I've been slacking on the buildings a bit, except for the tower which is still slowly growing.

@JoshInJapan: Thanks Josh! I hope it turns out well, the lion is a little shrimpy. I've done a bit more work on it.

Heh, as always I am shamed by what you consider a less productive period! Your fountain came out really nice - the depth painting achieves exactly what you were aiming for, but my favourite part is the hot glue ripples. Really well done, I have worked with that stuff and know how tricky that is. The cottages are also coming along really nicely, really good shingles on the one roof and your thatch looks lovely.
Very curious to see how your chimera comes out!

The thatch is a really neat idea and it reminds me of the thatch cottage in my village!

Looking forward to seeing this chimera shape up, I like the concept of it already

Thanks Da Boss, I am starting to feel that whenever I say I'm having a not productive period I start working harder right after . I unfortunately forgot the cottage at school so it may be a while before I get back to working on it. I'm glad you like my fountain.

@Tyranid Horde: Thanks! That's very flattering that my cottage reminds me of a real one in your village. For a long time I've wondered how difficult it is to maintain a thatched roof. Progress on the chimera ha sbeen slow but it is still progressing

Speaking of which, I've been working on armatures for the wings

First thing first - great fountain! I like the contrast between old metal and marble You've got there. Adding depth effect is nice too, although usually even hard corners of the basin aren't as deep/dark as the actual boitom, but from the usual distance (photo with adventurers standing around) that doesn't look like a problem. Scale issues.

Archways and cells look good for start and that chimera... now that can become hilarious! Good luck and steady hands!

Loving the work bud, really inspiring stuff, certainly makes me want to go put together some beasties.

Merry Christmas bud, hope you have a great day.

Thanks WireCat, thanks Cam. Been very busy here and not any real time for crafting. One of these days I'll have to show off my holiday haul, but don't have photos yet.

I took some pics tonight to show what I have been up to. Not too exciting, but I've been having some serious issues with space, so I started building storage trays based off a "Wylock's Armory" video I saw. I want all my 30k storage being fit nicely in identical bankers boxes.

My first storage tray with all the chaos infantry I have.


Two trays done.


trays in the box


vehicles cap it off. I should probably make a more secure tray for my vehicles, but I think it's ok for now.

And as promised, here is my holiday haul of loot. I was really surprised that my brother got me an air brush, I've never had one before. This will be a learning experience.

Nice swag shot there, some great gifts!

I'm very much with you on the 'uniform packaging and transporting of miniatures' and like your bankers' box approach- methodical and orderly. It's always a balance between having things where you can find 'em when you need 'em and they not broken- and being able to get packed and unpacked quickly. This seems a nice balance of factors.

I also received an airbrush from an unexpected source as a gift, and have also never used one before (unless you count painting outbuildings on our farm with a Weber). I look forward to lots of notes from you as you discover how to get the results you want.

Two videos I have found so far that are very informative (for me, at least, literally knowing nothing) are here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_3084976943&feature=iv&src_vid=lbgSM84-3cM&v=Uk0oA0PctIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_3060876477&feature=iv&src_vid=Uk0oA0PctIA&v=lbgSM84-3cM

If I stumble across any more, I'll post them here. Good luck!

Seems like I won't be the only one delving into some airbrushing in 2019!

It's funny that you're showing off your storage for your models, I've literally just watched the video and I've been thinking that it'll be a good way to store my models. Too many of mine are stored in old battleforce boxes in bubblewrap!

It's cool that we'll all be trying out airbrushes around the same time and learning together
@Meer_Cat: And thanks Meer_Cat both for the airbrush resources and the kind words, I've built one more tray since my last post (not worth posting a pic, but I was impressed that I can fit the entirety of my Imperial guard infantry (more than 100 models) in a single try with enough room for 4-6 more models. Good luck with learning/using your airbrush.
@Tyranid Horde: It's funny how in synch what we are doing right now, is. The trays take longer to make than I would like, but are working well so far. Like Meer_Cat mentioned it's good to find a balance where your modles aren't broken. I had been keeping all my non-marine CSM infantry just tossed loose in a box, and I had to put back together at least 10 of my cheap homemade mutants. Good luck with your airbrush, and storage boxes if you go for them.

I'm working on the year's retrospective, and realized that the vast majority of this blog and my all of my posting here on Dakka was in the year 2018. Near the end of page 2 was the beginning of 2018.

Things I completed in 2018:

I competed in my second LoER terrain contest and won with remade furniture for Hero Quest










I created a modular trench system for another LoER terrain contest (26th)




Made a scratch built dreadnought tutorial


I finally completed painting some very old scratch built chaos vindicator tanks:


This year I also got back into Dungeons & Dragons for the first time in around 20 years.
Here is all the terrain I made for games:


And here are all the finished minis for D&D:


And finished the year but completing this cistern fountain for Dungeons & Dragons for the 27th LoER terrain contest

That is a great year! I particularly like your caverns from a utility standpoint, the heroquest stuff from a nostalgia standpoint, and the fountain for art! Great job all around.

All fantastic work. Lots of Inspiration and good solid ingenuity,. Really have enjoyed watching you this year. Looking forward to this one.

Really impressive stuff in your blog here Syro.

Remaking the Heroquest stuff is a brilliant idea and really looks great. I'd love to do that with all the old Warhammer Quest tiles etc (its on the do to list ).

Your latest entry is very well done, I really like the subtle ripple effect you and managed with the water.

I had not seen or had forgotten about your HQ stuff, really cool!

You've really made a lot of terrain and so on this year along with some impressive scratch builds. I am really hoping to do the same.

One of the most impressive things I think you did was your awesome Purple Worm, but I did not see it in the retrospective! I think you did a great job on it.

@kestral: Thanks so much kestral. I love the nostalgia of Hero Quest too. Speaking of which, if you're in the mood for more, Da Boss will be doing some Hero Quest stuff on his blog later this year. About the caves, I'm realizing how little actual dungeon tiles I have complete, this is just a single cave complex from the starter campaign, I don't have anything else for my players to explore yet, I need to get moving.

@Camkierhi: Thanks so much Cam, I'll try not to disappoint in 2019

@Midget Gems: Thanks Midget Gems. And if you do get to remaking the Warhammer Quest stuff make sure to let me know.

@Da Boss: No worries Da Boss, it was from the very beginning of 2018. i think that was before we discovered each other's blogs. And thank you, the purple worm is one of my favorites too and I'm very proud of it. I only showed pictures of things I fully completed (except the nothic) in the retrospective, so since I haven't quite finished the purple worm yet, I didn't show it here. I hope you do get to do more terrain and scratch builds, I've really enjoyed the stuff you've made in that manner.

I decided to post the irresponsible side of my starting D&D. These are all board games and minis I bought to use as D&D minis, starting with 40 Lord of the Rings Heroclix back in January (center). I also have 38 grey plastic dwarves in the baggie, the 5 Magic the Gathering board games, and the board game Lion Heart

(Spotting a full airbrush set) Now that should be something to watch for!

Happy New Year, and may it bring even more fabulous, insane and tantalizing stuff to Your table! Yep, I too miss that worm in the review.

(Paint-and glue-marked) thumbs up!

That's quite a collection!

@Wirecat: Thanks, and happy new year! I actually might be getting back to work on the worm soon to try to finish it.

@Commander Cain: Thanks! A lot of it I was able to get at nice cheap prices. The extra of the first Magic the Gathering board game I grabbed for $12 for about 34 cents per mini

I should really be working on dungeons tiles and terrain for D&D as that's what I really need, so I picked up some moss from the dollar store and starting making twig blights instead





I didn't get as far as I would have liked, but it's a little progress. The goblin is just there to help me with scale, as they are both size "small" creatures.

 Syro_ wrote:

It looks a bit illegal

Not where I live!

What dungeon tile scheme do you use again?

And yes very dodgy bag of "moss".

@myszopek & Camkierhi: Heh heh heh, I didn't notice before but totally see it once you mentioned it. Do you think when these twig blights take fire damage in game that they should release a cloud of smoke that players have to save vs. confusion against?

@Briancj: Thanks for stopping by. I hope to compete against you in the next LoER contest too.

@Cam: Calling it a scheme might make it sound like I have things figured and planned out more than I actually do. I don't make actual dungeon tiles, I'm just not sure what to call them. I make modular pieces using a double layer of cardboard based on DM Scotty. I mostly cute the grid into the cardboard fill in edges with hot glue, and paint grey.

I'm been very busy and craving craft time, but I squeezed in a little bit of work on the twig blights

Cool little twig blights! I didn't know you could buy bags of moss, might be slightly easier than drying some out in the shed!

I liked looking through your year review, your D&D pieces are really neat and I bet it must be fun to play a game with them on the table!

Thanks Tyranid Horde! I have been enjoying playing with the pieces. My players really enjoy them too, and apparently hassle other DMs that they play with, for playing theater of the mind because of how much they like my minis and terrain

It was a very busy day, but I wanted to work on the hobby at least of little to relax. Here is the progress of the twig blights

I'm getting very close to finishing the twig blights


The guy at the far left reminds me of an Imperitor Titan from 40k

I've been pretty busy, and adding layers of glue to my twig blights hasn't been that interesting to share. Here is a group shot of some of the mess of projects I have running in parallel for D&D crafting.


My twig blights have 3 or 4 layers of 50/50 PVA glue and water to toughen them up. I've started to use spackle (filler) on the sides of my sarcophagi to hide the expanded polystyrene, I'm filling in the base of the statue of the spear wielding female warrior I made to give it more weight, and I've started constructing orcs for the Wyvern Tor mission.

Thanks for stopping by

Are the twig blights keeping their shape well when you apply the PVA mix?

The sarcophagi are looking good too, will the filler stop the polystyrene melting when you prime it?

Liking the twig blights, interested to see how they turn out.

@Tyranid Horde: Thanks. The twig blights are holding their sharp pretty well. The longer horizontal pieces drooped a bit, but over all pretty good I think. The filler should protect the polystyrene from melting if sprayed, I was mostly doing it to cover up the texture.

@monkeytroll: Thanks monkeytroll, after 4-5 coats of watered down PVA glue I've moved them to my painting station.

I had a nice day full of hobby time. I feel like I should have more to show for it, but things always take longer than I expect.
A Dungeons and Dragons group that I'm DMing for starting up last week with character creation. Most of the players are from last year's group but some are new. Since we didn't get very far last year it was decided to restart the campaign for the new members but move through it more quickly because the returning players will be more experienced. To surprise them, I've decided to start with a short one-short adventure as the adventure hook rather than the normal "Lost Mines of Phandelver" hook. This gives me a lot of work to try to finish by Thursday, but I think it will be really fun if I succeed. We'll be playing "Dibb's Wagon of Doom" an adventure where a band of goblins led by Dibb attack a town using a wagon that they have converted into a mobile fortress/war machine.

I'm planning to try to make the area of the town the battle takes place in, some merchant stalls, a green park area. This will also be a good reason to paint up my villagers that I got for Christmas.
These are other minis I am preparing for the adventure:


Over the holidays I was also given two bookcase kits (I believe I've already mentioned them). I built them a few days after Christmas, but I still had the big boxes they came in cluttering the area. A big chunk of hobby time today was spent cutting these boxes up and saving the cardboard for projects. Below is one of the boxes still whole, with the other cut up. The tape measure is at 24 inches for scale.


Thanks for stopping by, I hope this post wasn't too wordy.

Can I play!? I'll roll up a character!

--B.

PS: My 4 Ikea DETOLF cabinets came with a LOT of really nice cardboard. So much, I don't want to bother cutting up the boxes.

I wish you could play with us Brian

I've remembered that I never finished making the mini for one of my players last year, so I started working on it again this weekend. The Tabaxi rogue is close to complete



I've also continued plugging along with stuff for the one shot/adventure hook. Here are some carts and market stalls I have been making

One time, I was > < that close to setting up a bluetooth speaker and microphone in a 40K Dreadnaught, and playing that character via remote, with a webcam pointed at the table.

Carts! carts and little village things are always nifty.

I wish I was closer as well, gods I would be a near permanent fixture. Love the work you are doing, I am mucking about with some "vintage" wheels as well myself. That Tabaxi is brilliant bud, great pose and feel of movement to it.

@ Briancj: That sounds pretty amazing

@amazingturtles: Thanks! I've been wanting to do some village stuff for some time, so this has been a nice excuse.

@Thanks Cam! I've said before that I wish all us Dakka members lived closer together. You would always be more than welcome at my gaming table. I am happy with how well the tabaxi is turning out, I tried to make a dynamic pose, and even though the cape is molded from another figure I think it really adds to it.

A big thank you to Martin Luther King Jr. for everything he did for my country, but also for getting me a day off that I spent crafting. I spent the majority of today on projects as i'm trying to get an entire one-shot adventure built in a week. It's been fun.

Here is Dib's wagon of Doom so far. I really liek how it is turning out. It was a lot of fun to build.



And a scale shot

This is made almost completely from craft sticks

Dib's wagon needs stuff to destroy other than the carts, so I put together these stacks of crates from balsa wood

There is a circular green space park that Dib's war wagon drives around during the encounter, this is it so far.


That's all, thanks for the kind comments and I hope to hear from you again soon.

Nice carts and wago, not to mention that cat... rogue? Bolters aren't the best for assassin, You know.

Sticks and stones (glue, Sir!) for the win!

Thanks Wirecat! I have to agree with you on the Cat rogue, but I made the mini exactly as the player wanted including equipment.

I caught a cold on Friday so I haven't done any crafting, but I'll at least get around to updating on what I finished last week and didn't post yet.

Last week was a rush trying to get a whole one-shot for D&D built to a playable standard. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but we were able to play, and that's the important part.
I finished the "tank"



I finished the carts (but didn't finish painting the boxes that go on them)


I finally got back and finished the warrior statue


This culminated with us being able to play "Dib's Wagon of Doom" from "Prepared 2!: a dozen 5th edition on shot adventures". Where a goblin "tank" assaults a market square.



I had all the players just briefly describe what brought their characters to the market square that day. Then they heard screaming and a stream of towns folk came running through, followed by the goblin tank. The players acted exactly as I hoped, all leaping into action to stop the goblin attack. The NPC who asked/will ask them to guard the wagon of supplies for the start of Lost Mines of Phandelver is also in the market square. His wagon is damaged in the attack, which I decided is a good explanation of his decision to ask the heroes to guard the wagon during the trip while he goes on ahead (now the wagon needs to wait on repairs before leaving). Seeing the PCs' heroism against the goblin tank is also why he asks this group of people who don't know each other to guard it. In the original "Dib's Wagon of Doom" a suggested reward for the PCs is a few days free food and lodging, which works perfectly with them waiting on the wagon's repairs. I really like how well these two adventure match up, and my players are really enjoying the first adventure and especially the goblin tank model I made.

Brilliant looking tank, and fun marketplace battle. That brings back memories !

Very well done, and good use of a one-shot as an intro!

--B.

Thanks KernelTerror! Thanks Brian!

Ah those little carts are great and the tank is just brilliant! Stuff like this really inspires me to play more DnD, I even dug out some character sheets from the last session I DM'd (not successful, but great fun) and I need to find a group!

Those carts are really nice and the twig blights are inspired.... Can you apply the 50/50 by just dipping them in it I wonder? Nice job with the Tabaxi too.

Thanks Tyranid Horde! I'm really happy to hear that my stuff inspired you. I hope you find a group and get to play more D&D. (Also if it was great fun, it sounds like it was successful to me). The difficulty in finding a group is the current discussion on the Dakka D&D thread "Dungeons and Dakkas" It seems we mostly agree that it's easier to introduce your friends to D&D and get them into, than trying to find and join existing groups.
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/300/750956.page

@kestral: Thanks so much kestral I am very happy with how well the twig blights turned out. Also great minds think alike, dipping them is exactly what I started doing because painting on the PVA was such a pain. I cut down one of my many empty tubes of mold putty sealed the bottom and filled it with 50:50 PVA to water. That's what I used as a PVA glue dunk tank, so to speak. Also thank you for bringing up the twig blights, I worked on them 1.5-2 weeks ago and forgot to take a photo and post. I took the below photo thanks to your reminder (PVA dunk tank included on the left).

The twig blights now have painted heads, just a simple light brown with dark brown wash. I think it looks pretty good. I just need to base them now.

Absolutely love them! Did they actually make an appearance in an adventure yet?

Wow, these look terrifying!
Great work and use of materials.

We rarely have any models when we play D&D and we have to put our inagination to use. It would be cool to have even a fraction of the stuff you've made. I can only imagine how cool your games must be!

These twig critters are great- studio-made grade quality! I haven't D&D'd for many years now, and concur with Ezki that when I did, we never had terrain, actual monsters, etc. Salt and pepper shakers and the like got quite a workout, standing in for everything. As did our imaginations. Great stuff.

Those blights look amazing! Wow. I was thinking about getting some GW Dryads to make into Blights but those really look the part!

Wow, it makes me really happy seeing all these responses.

@Pneumo: Thanks! They haven't appeared in the adventure yet, and with the speed my group used to get through content it might not even happen this school year. We just finished the one-shot I was using as an adventure hook for "Lost Mines of Phandelver" today, so next session we'll be starting the starter campaign next time. These guys don't show up until part three of the campaign, so definitely two dungeons before it, with a possibility of 4 other short encounters before it depending on what they choose to do. I am looking forward to using them.

@Ezki: Thanks! I was surprised how well the dried moss worked for these. It might be because I started as a wargamer, and I also really like making stuff for the games, so I try to have visual representations for as much as I can in the games. I hope my games are cool, I'm not a very good DM but my players love all the stuff I make and are having a lot of fun, so that's what's important. I try to show a lot of progress shots, but I'm always willing to help any of you who wnat to know more of how I made something.

@Meer_Cat: Thank you for the great compliment about studio quality Imagination is good, and most D&D is played like that. The way I try to create everything is filling up my storage ability quickly so this may be crazy of me to do

@Da Boss: Thanks! If you have suitable heads even just from a press-mold these guys were pretty easy to make. You may want to give making these guys a try if you need some blights too.

Love the twiglets, looking awesome, great job on them.

these twiglets are amazing.... i am literally floored by them...it´s something i need to try...more so as the materials you used i have lying around for millennia

Thanks Cam!

@Viktor von Domm: Thanks so much Vik That would be great if you try making them too, especially since you already have the materials

well... currently i am in a very special styrodur heaven,,,which means i often am not able to use any other material :sighs:^^

Latest stuff is great Syro! I love that pokey goblin tank

Yep, players - they are like that, often putting on their characters unlikely items. Still, a good tabaxi You've got! And twiglets are great. Very, very "proper", too bad I can't vote for them already. Well, You have my vote here. Unique and creative!

I actually showed this thread to our DM while we were playing some D&D first time in a pretty long time.
He was really amazed by your creativity and promised to take a deeper look.

I have suggested on making some basic stuff for his games in the past, but never got around actually doing so. Hopefully he will get inspired as well, as it would be cool to do some stuff as a group effort.

I'm back from visiting Asia, and it makes me very happy seeing the responses that happened here while I was gone. I've really been missing the hobby for the last two weeks, and I'm hoping to get back into it soon.

@Viktor von Domm: I hope when you move onto a different material you try these guys out, then. I'm also looking forward to seeing what you create in your current focus of materials.

@boundless08: Thanks boundless! It's great to see you back on, I know real life has been keeping you very busy. I had a lot of fun creating the goblin tank and am very happy with it.

@Wirecat: Thanks Wirecate, I'm glad you like the tabaxi and the twiglets, I'm hoping to get the tabaxi and other PCs painted within the next month. And thank you, comments and discussions on here mean much more to me than any vote in the galleries.

@Ezki: Wow, that you. That is truly an honor. I hope your DM does get inspired and tries some of this stuff out. If he doesn't have an account, you can also let me know if I should go over how to make anything in greater detail. Thanks again.

I've finally gotten started on my piece for the League of Extraordinary Riveters terrain competiion piece for contest #28. The theme is having actual pieces from real games and sports modeled into your piece or modeling miniature versions of games/sports. My piece a small round table (for D&D) that people have been playing cards on, the playing cards will be made from real playing cards.

Starting materials:


The table top as I connect the craft sticks:


The table top after shaping, and with a wash to act as stain.


There's still over a month left of the contest if anyone is interested in checking it out and possibly joining. These are a lot of fun, and a really good way to improve your skills. Advice from other contestants and members are freely shared to help everyone improve. The friendly atmosphere of competition has helped me push myself to make much better stuff that I expect when crafting. It also helps with finishing terrain for games which I have trouble with otherwise. So if interested, check it out, they are usually an enjoyable read even if you don't wan to to join.
Find it here: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/769886.page
(I haven't updated my sig yet for this contest so use the link instead)

this new project for the competition sounds almost like an elaborate version of : "as above so below.."

cool stain...! by the way!
.

Heh heh, thanks Vik.

I've done some more work, and the table itself is complete. I just need to add the cards now. Here it is with figures to show scale (and look more interesting)


I made some bracing, I split the width in half of craft sticks.

And added legs made from bamboo skewers


I have also been working on a writing desk made from foam core and thin cardboard

Lovely little table and desk! I dig the staining too. Looking forward to seeing the playing cards.

table looks very lifelike...how about some drinks...a bit of spillage of said drink too?...will you make some fitting chairs too?..also...i am eager to see where that table will be located, wether it is in a tavern or a guard post...?^^

@Tyranid Horde: Thanks! I hope to get back to it soon. I jump between projects a lot.

@Viktor von Domm: Vik, the drinks are a great idea, thank you! I wasn't planning on making chairs even though they are on the map of the dungeons since D&D figures can't sit in chairs, but maybe I should. The table is being made for a guard post run by bandits, but I would be happy to reuse it in a tavern too. Thanks for the interest and ideas.

This arrived yesterday:


I bought this for the minis just like "Wrath of Ashardalon". I had always planned on getting "Castle Ravenloft" next, but I realized I have gotten nearly every figure I want from that set through other sources, so it would be silly to buy it. The only monster left that I would really want would be a dracolich, so I've decided to try and sculpt one for my collection. I only have one vertibrae done so far along with some of the head, so the photo isn't much. I want to model it more off of the picture from this old D&D novel rather than the current D&D monster manual picture.

@Viktor von Domm: Vik, thanksfor the great idea of adding drinks to my little table with the card game. Here they are so far.

They are made from styrene tubes capped with green stuff to represent the ale/drink inside. I bend very small styrene cylinders around a craft stick and heated them with the tip of my glue gun to make them hold the shape. I then trimmed them to size (hopefully small enough) and super glued them on. The wizkids apprentice wizard and reaper barmaid are for scale.


I don't remember if I have mentioned this before, but like many DMs I have been tempted to create my own world for adventures to take place in. A lot of advice I've read and heard say to keep it simple and stick to only working on what you need for the story. In my usual fashion that made me decide to build a planet from the ground up starting with plate tectonics. I made a basic sphere out of a plastic container that holds apples, Styrofoam, and hot glue. I then wrapped it in paper mache'. I finally coated the whole thin in a layer of apoxie putty with a few landmarks picked out with bits of wire.


scale shot


Once fully cured and I had time to work on it again, I took it to the basement where there is a concrete floor. I threw it at the floor. After several tries of this not really accomplishing much, I took it to the work bench and hit it with a hammer until it began to break apart into pieces.
I then went back to my work area. I pulled apart the cracked and broken pieces and labeled them, before putting them back together. This gave me my separate plates


I continued pulling apart and reassembling the plates until I was able to completely remove The original inside styrofoam and plastic sphere.


I then finished rebuilding the globe, which is now hollow except for an internal plastic cup to hold the dowel in its new stand. My globe has 8 major plates and 9 minor plates. If I remember correctly Earth has 7 major plates and 10 minor plates, so that works out pretty well. Next I will begin mapping out all the plate movements with little arrows deciding if each is pushing apart, coming together, or sliding past each other.


Thanks for visiting

Genius craftsmanship on those pints, makes me thirsty ! And insane dedication on that planet, it will be interesting to see the next steps !

Wow, those cups look very well done. Especially when taken into account that they are so very small.

Also very interested to see what comes out of that planet, great dedication!

Never, ever, let people get in the way of your mirth. If building a world from literally THE GROUND UP sparks your joy, then do it.

--Brian

PS: I disagree with the 'focus on only the story', but I'm also f'ed in the head. So, you know, caveat emptor.

Neat application of science into the world of gaming. From the looks of things, in addition to plate tectonics and subduction zones, you've also covered the principle of isostacy as well.

it is clear you have a special kind of link to something like tectonics etc...otherwise you wouldn´t even dream about going into that detail...or you´re complete bonkers! but i totally appreciate your dedication to detail...as will your players do too...cause this makes a good DM!

also...the tankards looks really cool...you really get the idea of foamy pleasure in them^^...speaking of...metal ones or leather ones?...just some food for thought... (for coolness i would suggest leather ones! )
and as a too late note...i made mugs for a whole indoor seeting of a watch house some years ago too... took small length of tubes of styrene for the mug body...like you did... but instead of beding thing rods for the handles i cut thin tubes in rings and then cut these in half and had too handles each time...



also...regarding my interest in your works... i am constructing like mad D&D related stuff atm...mainly to sell it but also because i would like to be a crafting DM...but alas...i have no players to play with...so i use my creativity currently to not explode from too much energy^^

Entertaining and inspirational, what not to like here? Full 3D too... and I cannot pass by another planet-builder! Good luck with ALL of it!

Wow, I wasn't expecting so many great comments, thank you all.

@KernelTerror: Thanks Unfortunately both things from my last post have not bee worked on, heh heh. The pints are waiting for me to switch my crafting area from building to painting. And unfortunately, I keep forgetting my planet model at school. I brought it in to show my students and inspire them to have more interest in plate tectonics. Which worked great, luckily, but I keep for getting it at school and haven't been able to work on it because of that.

@Ezki: Thanks Ezki! The cups were very difficult because of the size, you're right. The cards in today's post were difficult for the same reason.

@Briancj: Thanks for the words of wisdom and encouragement, Brian. I enjoy thinking to far before and after things, and am bothered when authors say things like "I don't know any more than you about what happened before or after a story". I'm glad you got my joke about "from the ground up"

@Meer_Cat: Thanks, I actually hadn't thought about isostacy, but you're right since I was greatly exaggerating stuff on the globe (and couldn't get it back together perfectly), it does show that nicely. I'm looking forward to getting back to it so I can plan out the plate movements, then add water plus currents.

@Viktor von Domm: Heh heh, thanks Vik, I think it's probably both Science has been a big part of my life and I've always found it more interesting than other subject areas, but there is also no denying how bonkers some of the ideas i run with are. I wish I had thought of cutting tube styrene for the handles, that would have been much simpler. Your set looks great by the way, I especially love the pitcher.

@Wirecat: Thanks Wirecat! I hope you enjoy my blog as much as I enjoy yours.

I got back to work on the card table for the LoER terrain contest. I still need to draw on the three face up cards


I also made a master 3 inch base to make a mold of for huge D&D monsters like the dracolich I'm making

Only a small update tonight. I haven't worked much on the dracolich except for casting a few more vertibrae. I have made the faces of the three face up cards on my card table. I like how they turned out.


I also decided to make an ochre jelly for D&D plus all its parts it can be cut into. It's not much to look at yet without paint, but it was fun and easy to make. 100% cheap hot glue.

have you thought about getting yourself some coloured hot glue sticks? for that easy to make blobs? not that they need that much improvement, cause they´re already very convincing! especially the grabbing "arms" are very good!
table looks exactly like i pictured it myself! fine deatil on the cards is a super!

Wow. Just wow!
Really good work on those cards!

Those playing cards are insane!

Building a world from the ground up is great - I've never seen in done physically before. Kudos on that.

And a planet is a model that comes in handy sometimes.

@Viktor von Domm: Thanks Vik. I had thought about using colored glue sticks, in the past I even saw a video on using them to make ochre jelly. I don't know where to get the colored glue sticks, and I had an itch to make something new quickly which led to the ochre jellies.

@Ezki: Thanks! I'm very happy how they turned out.

@kestral: Thanks kestral. I'm having trouble deciding how much to add to this physical model. I'm worried I'll cover up information the more I add, but it would be fun to place the mountain ranges and bodies of water on it (maybe air current too).

It took a lot longer than I expected, but I have written in all the movements of the tectonic plates on my model world:



I had my first productive day hobby wise in a while. I spent several hours working on these orcs for D&D.


And tried out four different techniques for these dollar store spiders to use as dollar store spiders for D&D. On the left is my attempt at attaching the legs to the base, the way Cam explained to me. Second from the left has a wire drilled into it to simulate jumping. The third, the legs are not attached, and I have the spider attached to the base with a small pillar of hot glue in the center of its body. Fourth spider, I cut of the legs and replaced them with wire, as the legs aren't very dynamic on this toy. Please let me know what you think about the spiders, which you think work better and any advice you'd like to share also. Thanks.



On an unrelated note, I was surprised to notice that I hit my 1000th post tonight. I had no idea I had gotten anywhere that high.

No wonder you reached a literal milestone....18 pages of cool stuff...that captures people's attention! Congratz and keep on crafting!!!

Also... I've quite often stumbled over coloured got glue...but...never bought any as i only recently i got me half a decent glue gun...so now it might come in handy...
Where i found them? In nonfood aisles of your basic super market...mostly around the time before or after summer holidays...when parents are supposed to resupply for their kids...thats the industry for you
Also Amazon and ebay are too eager to sell you these in abundance these days as Chinese products are flooding the crafting market all over the planet...

As for your planet (nice change of subject...right?) did you even include now currents (water movements?) whoa!

When i look at all my GW stuff i might use for D&D...sadly the orks are the least usable items on the list.... Somehow the GW aesthetics arr not matching my own inner idea of D&D orks...the old skeletons are perfect in my opinion...and heavily converted humans too...elves...not thought about these yet... Goblins work...provided one wouldn't use the hooded oned too much...

As for yon spiders... Love them all...more poses is always nice, as you'll never know how many monsters you might need for an encounter...so uniformity would kill the mood...
I especially like the wire one... You might try some pva and superglue or baking soda to create some textures on the legs...?

I am currently watching and following quite a bunch of crafting DMs on YouTube...i will see about posting links here...cause some make really awesome selfmade monsters or ice prusons etc...

Dollar store spiders are looking good! I say use them all. I use the legs to base technique myself for dollar store critters, but I like your variations.

I love that you're going for tectonic plates and their movements for your world. The geologist in me is very pleased! (Triple junctions are a pain to document!)

Love the playing cards and the table, excellent work!

@Viktor von Domm: Thanks so much Vik. It is hard for me to believe how fast this blog has grown. The first page and a half was about 3-4 months, it feels like it's from long ago. The next 14 pages are all from last year, and feels so recent. I feel like I've been slowing down a bit, but still have 3 pages already this year. I think it's because of how many great people are stopping by and commenting now. Keeps me motivated, and keeps the blog moving.

I'll keep the colored hot glue in kind, glitter hot glue is super easy to find where I am. That was a very good segue into talking about the planet I'm building, I haven't made the water movements yet unfortunately, but I am planning to.
I agree about GW orks not really fitting D&D orcs, but I love 40k orks so much that I like to use the models and play orcs in D&D like they are from 40k. Thanks for the advice on the spiders, I'm also surprised and glad that you and the others seem to like all of them. I'll try out some stuff on the wire legs.
crafting Dm stuff from youtube is a lot of fun for me too. I mostly watch the DMscraft with DM scotty, Runehammer/Drunkens and Dragons, Black Magic Craft, and Miniature Mashup. Plus Terrain Tutor purely for terrain stuff.
Thanks for such a large comment on so many of the different things I;m doing.

@kestral: Thanks kestral! I didn't expect you guys to like all the spiders. Do you have any trouble basing the dollar store critters? I usually don't, but these spiders were really hard. I failed to get them to stick many times before making these four. I especially had trouble with the super glue, until I change the material the base was made of and seriously roughed up the spiders legs with sand paper to get it to stick.

@Tyranid Horde: Thanks! I was hoping you would enjoy the planet for that reason. I hope it doesn't seem frustratingly amateur-ish or wrong to someone like you. My only background is elementary school science, being a teacher, and my own research on it for fun.

Syro, I suggest bookmarking this site:

https://www.thistothat.com/



--Brian

Thanks Brian, it's been bookmarked. It looks like it will come in handy, thanks.

I've been working on my orcs for D&D some more. It's funny for the large swarm units in 40k like ork boys, imperial guard, gaunts, etc, I didn't care about making the models noticably different since they move as a group and get wiped out in large numbers. But for D&D each model has it's own hit points, and you need to know which one a player is attacking. So it's important to be able to tell each apart (at least in my mind). This has been a little hard to get used to at first, but now I'm really enjoying it, even though it adds a lot of work.
I'm close to done with all of the orcs now, and have been adding trophies and little touches to most of them. (The leader of the orcs in the starter campaign is named "Brughor Axe-Biter", can you find him?)


A few days ago, I decided to calculate how many miniatures I will need to play the entire "Lost Mines of Phandelver" starter campaign, I'm probably off somewhere in my count, but including stuff like the smaller pieces the ochre jelly can split into and both genders for each of the premade heroes it looks like the adventure needs about 120 miniatutes. A little intimidating. I'll have to get around to see how many I've made so far to get a better idea of where I'm at.

120 miniatures for a campaign???!...
Ouch...that and with the needed amount of details and character differences...
Quite the big bite of work...but inevitable...i even have that need horde armies ...

And i spotted yon axebiter...

Yeah Vik, I feel the number a minis is excessive too. I'm talking the upper limit, having the maximum possible amount of each monster in random encounter tables, a different mini for each of the three evil wizards you fight, the three villagers you save in a single room and never see again, etc. I wonder if they want a lot of different stuff because it's a starter campaign and Wizards of the Coast wants to introduce new players to lots of different stuff.

It also doesn't help that as I've been making stuff for this campaign, I keep making more than is required for the campaign in case I need them in the future The game needs 8 twig blights so I made 10, needs 4 bandits, so I made 8, needs one grick so I made 5. Despite at that, I either counted wrong for needing 120 minis or I'm getting further than I had thought. I still have a lot of painting to do, and the dragon is just standing in for the one I'm planning to make, but here is a picture of basically every mini I will need for parts 1 - 3 of the 4 part campaign.

The 3 paper cut outs are the three villagers you rescue in the game, it doesn't seem worth having minis for them, even to me

P.S. I'm glad you found Axe biter and wow about wanting to individualize hoard armies. Most be a huge amount of work, but look great.

Or, you could just use paper stand-ups for everything.

--B.

Short answer for now' i think it is a personal challenge to have these villagers in 3D...minis of that look are hard to find...but when done good raise the motivation to rescue them... Also get some kids minis...just remember lassie movies...a perfect example of seek and rescue operations...

@Briancj: Heh, That would make me sad. I like minis too much.

@Vicktor von Domm: I have a set of villager minis including little kids, and I agree villagers are hard to find. It's hard to know what to use for these three villagers because they are described and teenagers with their mother. All of my villager minis look really young like age 8 or younger or middle aged and above. Tough to say if I should change their age in the adventure, try to find more villager minis, or try to make some, if I don't stick with the paper stand-ups.

 Syro_ wrote:
@Briancj: Heh, That would make me sad. I like minis too much.

@Vicktor von Domm: I have a set of villager minis including little kids, and I agree villagers are hard to find. It's hard to know what to use for these three villagers because they are described and teenagers with their mother. All of my villager minis look really young like age 8 or younger or middle aged and above. Tough to say if I should change their age in the adventure, try to find more villager minis, or try to make some, if I don't stick with the paper stand-ups.

You have villagers? Where did you get them? I have a few from the first Reaper Bones Kickstarter, but they are essentially human-shaped blobs of plastic and I can't bring myself to paint them.

My villagers are mostly from the Reaper "Village of Kullhaven" set. They are metal, but I know some of them are the same as in that first Reaper Bones kickstarter. 13 models total, most with pretty unattractive sculpts: 4 children, farmer with a staff, maid with a broom, mother holding two children, Ale Wench, serving girl, Barkeep cleaning a glass, beggar with staff and bowl, Strumpet flashing a leg, and blacksmitth posing with anvil on stump. Other than that I have peasants with pitchforks for the 1997 miniature boardgame "Lion Heart, and the occasional random mini from stuff like a Man holding keys from "Lord of the Rings Heroclix"

i am wondering if some necromunda stuff would be usable as kids(teenagers... the juve ones? also...if all else fails...victoria miniatures and anvil industries make some nice heads that could work...male youngster heads on these not too openly female looking female torsos?


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also...what about using halflings?

Well that was a wonderful catch up. loads of really wonderful bits and pieces.

My I suggest also looking at the survivor packs from the zombie games, although they are based in more modern style the heads are separate and the quite a few could pass off as olde worlde.

^cool hint... i know i got the sprue from you and i know there is good stuff still on it for that purpose!

Orks look good! The individualization is great.

I usually have to pin dollar store creature's feet to their base as it happens. I bookmarked this to that as well. I personally think there are lots of good villagers out there, and if you go to a historical line, they should look kind of thin and teenaged.

I'm looking at running the starting module for Dark Heresy with figures and started going insane figuring out how to find,/make/paint all the figures needed, until I decided that A) I could change up some characters, and B) not all scenes were worth doing with figures. Now I think I can run it quite well with just a couple more priests and the player's figures.

Love the little details you have done down to Syro, the playing cards are a great touch on the table

The D&D Orks are looking good, I am partial to an Ork conversion and making each one look unique. Good luck with making 120 different characters for your adventure.

Thanks for all the great advice everyone, I've spent about two hours going through different miniature sites and offerings. I just spent $33 on 8 new miniatures for myself, but 1 or 2 are actually why I went searching in the first place

Along with brain storming from this group, I have a good plan of what to use for the miniatures for the three villager captives. I went back and read the description again, and the teenage boy is quite young, 13 years old, so I'm planning on using Vik's idea and use one of my hobbit miniatures for him. I just bought an elf cleric miniature with no weapons and no prominent ears that I can see in the photo, along with a Reaper milk maid villager, either of which I think will work well for the 18 year old daughter. I have a Mage Knight miniature that I'm planning to try to convert for the mother, but can also just use a villager mini.

@Viktor von Domm: Thanks for the advice Vik, I checked out the necromunda stuff but didn't see anything that really grabbed me, but as I said above I really like your halfling idea and think it will work well for the boy. Thanks!

@Camkierhi: Thanks for the advice Cam, and it's great to see you more active again. I know you've been busy with life and Cam Creations. I didn't realize how many zombie games their are now, I looked through and found a few I liked, almost got them until I found some reaper stuff that I liked even better. Thanks.

@kestral: Thanks for the advice kestral, I checked out a lot of historical lines on Miniature Market. Hail Caesar, Pike and Shot, Blood and Plunder, and Black Powder but had trouble finding villagers. I probably should have checked the company websites. You've found lots of cool civilians over the years, so make sure you post about it on your blog when you find new ones and 'll check them out . That's nice that you've figured out how to cut back for how much is needed for Dark Heresy, I'm a little jealous. But like Vik said, this is kind of a personal challenge for me now, so I want to get minis for it all. Thanks

@Midget Gems: Thanks! And yes, I would agree that you are partial to ork conversions My conversions are pretty minor compared to what you do, but thanks it is fun customizing them.

I ´ve had a quite large research amount done one that department...and quintessence is...reaper...they have the best fitting range... i will get me some of these non combatant minis soon...they have kids, teenagers and moms and barkeepers...milkmaids and so on...it literally leaves nothing to be desired of ...oh...and some hassle free minis...^^

Syro_

For your campaign...what happens if the adventuring party decides to skip a few rooms?

Cheers,

CB

@Viktor von Domm: I agree, my entire miniature order I mentioned last time is Reaper stuff. An adventure I thought up last year involves rescuing a lot of different villagers, so I've wanted a large collection of villagers for some time. it's certainly getting there.

@Captain Brown: It's a pre-made module so there is quite a bit of railroading in places, especially in the beginning. Even with all this preparation, I don't mind them skipping stuff, it's not worth forcing them in certain direction just to show off my minis. The central part of the module something like five different locations, and they can skip straight to the end after one of those if they make the right decisions and ask the right questions. I'm planning on playing the starter campaign to many different groups when they are starting out, so that's why I want to be so over prepared, I expect everything will get used eventually.

I've been exhausted from work, and having been doing much crafting lately but here is a little. I've also noticed that I am actually really close to being finished with my goal of having every mini for the starter campaign. I only have stirges, a spectator, and the final boss left to make (I think). Lots left to paint though

Here is a tiny beholder family made up of the gazer I made, a gauth for a D&D board game, the spectator that I am going to make for "Lost Mines of Phandelver", and a beholder that I'm going to slap together for giggles. I have been wanting to make a bunch of beholders since the start of the summer, but haven't made the time. this guy will be my ugliest proof of concept beholder.


I also found these in the dollar store today, they look they will be fun for crafting

I should be working on the spectator for the starter campaign, so instead I have pretty much finished the quick and easy beholder. It's turned out better than I expected, I'll have to see how it looks once painted too.



With my ping pong ball with a marble embedded in it, I cut some floral wire and attached those little foam balls from my last post, to each piece of wire for eye stalks. After making ten, I started attaching them and posing them.


After the eyestalks were atatched, I textured the whole body with cheap hold glue, DM Scotty style.

After that I cut a little bit of foam for a lower jar, and used little cut shards of bamboo skewer for teeth.

_Very_ nifty- nice job! Piece of black paper chad from a hole punch for the pupil?

That beholder family rocks!

DM Scotty is an awesome man...whoever uses his ideas is on the right track! which in essence you prove by showing your beholders... by the way... i really like this special monster creature...one of my top favourite iconic creatures!

120 figs? Well that’s a good goal . Zombicide Black Plague had some kid figs (stranger things characters) as stretch goals.

The beholder family is looking great. If your looking for bulk numbers of spheres to use, you can get different sized slingshot balls at Walmart and then the pellets for air soft are also good, I got a bunch from the dollar store in a container for dirt cheap.

Keep up the good work.

@Meer_Cat: Thanks Meer_Cat. My plan is to paint on the marble for the eye, but that is an interesting idea. What I really want to try is to paint everything but the pupil, and let the original marble show through there. It might give interesting depth.

@Kestral: Thanks kestral!

@Vikto von Domm: Thanks Vik, I agree, about Dm Scotty. He is amazing, I watch a lot of his videos. I'll be making stirges based on his ideas too. I love how iconic beholders are too, to me nothing screams Dungeons and Dragons more than them.

@Theophony: Thanks Theo. That's a great idea for the spheres, I'll look into that.

No progress on crafting tonight, Thursdays are when I play D&D, but I was pleasantly surprised to see my miniature order had already arrived when I got home. In the second pics, the female dwarf rogue Bailey Silverbell (on the right) is a mini I've wanted since last summer, I think I first learned about her on kestral's blog. The rest are Reaper villagers, plus a female cloud giant and sphinx that I just really liked the sculpts of.



Thanks for all the great comments and encouragement.

Very good thought, leaving the just the pupil/iris the green color for depth. Is it too late to mount an LED light in the back? _That_ would give you some depth!

Wow, that's quite a lot of miniatures you need for your campaign!
I bet it will be really cool and the players will surely appreciate all the hard work put into it.

Looking good so far and I'm keen to see more!

Gorgeous Beholder Syro ! Congrats.

i was planning to get me the townsfolk mom with her two kids, then the wench (?) and some other nice minis of reaper...man they are like a candy shop....really...

@Meer_Cat: What a great idea! It's too late for this beholder, but I plan to make a lot of them. I want to try your LED idea.

@Ezki: Thanks Ezki, My players do appreciate it. I get a lot of comments about how much they like my minis and set up. The one veteran player in the group also regularly reminds the others that it's uncommon for a DM to do all this, and not to expect it when they play with other groups.

@KernelTerror: Thanks! I hope it turns out well with the paint job.

Vikto von Domm said:
i was planning to get me the townsfolk mom with her two kids, then the wench (?) and some other nice minis of reaper...man they are like a candy shop....really...

Yeah, it really is like a candy shop, like I said above I always get more than I went looking for. The townsfolk mom holding the two kids defiantly has personality. Are you planning on the Ale Wench with the 6 mugs? The girl with the serving tray, or something else? It's hard to go wrong.

It was nice and sunny today, so I carried all my painting stuff out to the enclosed porch to paint in the sunshine. I didn't get as far as I would have liked (too tired), but still some progress. I probably should have busted out some spray primer rather than so much brush priming.

just had a look....the tavern idea i have is planned for future scenarios... what i meant was the "strumpet".....for ...reasons...

and yes... the mother with kids is a central figure to get my adventure going... i have this "lassie tv show" scenario in my head...so i need to have a railroading questgiver... my family needs to be taken by the hand to discover the fun in adventuring


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also the blacksmith and the undertaker...as it will maybe even be the main villain...

Sounds like a fun adventure Vik. Good luck getting your family into it. If you don't post about it on your blog, please let me know how it turns out. I think the strumpet is one of the best sculpts of the villagers along with the blacksmith, milkmaid, and cooper, so i think she's worth having in a collection regardless. Also thank you for mentioning the undertaker, that's a cool looking mini that I haven't seen before. I've bookmarked it for my next order

Not too much progress to report, but I have started sculpting the spectator for my adventure. Gazer and human for scale. I hope I'm getting the size and proportions good enough.

Loving these evil eyes!

Thanks Wirecat I'm tempted to make another kind to add to the "family" even though I will probably never use it.

A little more progress on the spectator as I now wait for it to cure once again. It's looking a littl goofy so far, but hopefully will look good in the end.

I love painting in the fresh air/sunlight when I can. Great minds think alike - I painted that cleric for a friend's D&D character. Had to convert her to a Teifling though. I didn't know there was a halfling cook in bones though! Nice find. Bailey is indeed a great figure.

I'm sure the Spectator will be good - though the eye position is a little"down". Maybe that member of the family is a bit gloomy!

It's all the crew that showed up to audition for the part of the Eye Demon in Big Trouble in Little China!

@kestral: Great minds think alike indeed Unfortunately the weather is cold again here. That's funny that you mentioned converting the elf cleric to a Teifling, because I just converted a barkeep to a teifling. I made a mold that had a mistake in it where the face turned out poorly and looks like it has a horn. Made me want to make one of them a teifling. I think this update the spectator is looking a lot better.

@Meer_Cat: I can definitely see the resemblance now especially in that last post's picture.

I've worked some more on the spectator, repositioning the wires for the eyestalks and beginning the detailing in green stuff. I think he's looking a lot better, and kind of scary (Which is kind of a shame, unlike the other beholder kin, there's something about spectators that look cute to me).




Thanks for stopping by

I had to look up the Spectator, as I'd never heard of it before. An interesting take on the beholder.

I continue to be impressed by your scratchbuilds. I look forward to seeing this model finished.

Thanks Josh

Impressive and inspiring work again bud, really great stuff. I think I am seeing quite a bit of improvement, though that is not to say anything was ever bad.

Latest is my fave, nice size and creepy enough.

Thanks Cam. I do feel like I'm improving with the putties, though I still have a long way to go. I feel like I'm much better at sculpting in unusual materials

that bugger is developing really nice...

by the way... looked through this blog finally...(because i am looking for scratch building a golem...man...your own version is super cute! speaking of the gingerbread man golem

also... you have had your hand into almost every kind of creature already... to all the other newcomers: go, take a look and see what has been done before by Syro_!!!

Nice job on the teeth - that must have been a serious pain.

@Viktor von Domm: Thanks Vik, both for the kind words and for checking out the whole blog. it's getting surprisingly large, and I should probably try to organize it more. I'm glad you like the golem that looks like a gingerbread man. I put him together very quickly in a pottery class as a clay golem. My thought was a wizard wouldn't waste time making a fancy complicated clay golem and would go for something thick and sturdy. I'm looking forward to seeing your golem, it's more fun when everyone builds off ideas we get from each other. I'll never have enough hobby time, but speaking of every kind of creature I thought it would be an interesting challenge to try to make every monster from the Monster Manual.

@kestral: Thanks, it luckily wasn't nearly as much of a pain as I expected. I tried out a crazy idea I had, which I used very narrow tweezers to squeeze and pull on the green stuff to make the teeth. I then used a hobby knife to make sure the teeth were separated and straighter. I think it worked very well.

I don't have any progress to show on the expected projects, but I figured I should share something that has been taking up a lot of my time for the past few weeks. I DM for a group of my students (plus one father to help me and help keep them focused). My students really like my minis. Because I saw some interest already, I'm trying to help them become DMs for their own groups of kids. We have a session every week, and each week I give them a little prize of a mini or some such to help them have their own collections.
I use minis I have many copies of, home made stuff, and minis I make from molds.

I have given each of my five students in the group each of the three dwarves in this picture. I also let each student choose one of three choices of elf. The session they spent the whole time in town, I gave them a crude copy of a townsperson I made. Last week, I have them three heads and three tails each, of my custom made wolves to see if they can make their own. I feel like I have given them more than that, but I don't remember what. I'll have to ask them.


I'm trying to give them a base of typical adventurers, along with those dwarves and elves, I'll be giving them other stuff too. One of which is, I made a mold so that they can each have a halfling.


They have spent the entire game fighting goblins, so I've started making goblins to give them.


When I was watching a Youtube video on cheap D&D minis, a lot of Magic the Gathering minis came up. The Youtuber talked about how he thought these tangleroot elementals could be painting differently to represent many different elementals. I have made enough for each of my students to get three and for me to have three to paint as examples. I'm planning on earth, fire, and plant based.

I'll be giving each of them 4 "rat swarm" minis. A very easy mold to make, and fighting rats seems like another staple of 1st level parties. I also plan to sculpt myself a giant rat, make a mold and mass produce those too.


I still plan to continue my own projects to finish the 120 minis for the starter campaign, but I wanted to show why my progress is slowing down.

first things first: i think this is very generous of you to support your students with these self made minis! it will help motivate them to grow...as players and DM alike. also...it is quite amazing how you managed to produce them in this comparable good standard...i only ever tried one silicone chocolate mold with hot glue...it worked...but i felt unsure yet and haven´t tried again for something usable in my own projects. but i guess it´s rather inevitable in the long run...especially since i have some quite interesting plans ahead that literally forces me into casting my own stuff soon.

also...i am currently more than just a bit interested in making my own monsters from scratch... so your golem was a very good example and a nice hint in the right direction for me...considering some of the rather low detail D&D and magic the gathering minis out there it is rather a shame to not try yourself and make some monstes by DIY...(something you are a shiny good example of to have already done in numerous occasions!)

so following this idea i will create a new thread here that will star this idea...for inspiration and show and tell reasons...

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/773264.page#10392309
link to this as i don´t want to highjack your thread for this

Thanks Vik, I hope it does motivate them. And thanks, I'm glad you think the standard of what I'm molding and casting is decent enough, certainly not anywhere new what people can buy, but for massive hoards, or giving to friends (the two things I do with my mold making), I think it's good enough. Huge mold lines that I have to trim off. I use Alumilite Amazing Mold Putty almost excusively, and have a ridiculous number of molds I've made.

I'm very interested in what you'll be casting. You are really good at terrain already, how are you at making figures? I'm not a master sculptor and there are many on Dakka better than me, but I'd be happy to help with examples, explanations, and suggestions on making minis. I'll try to help out on your new thread, and plan to enjoy it as well.

I didn't get much done worth showing, but in the nice weather I did spray prime the huge number of rat swarms I've made. It would be fun to unless them all on the heroes at once But I'm giving four of them to each of the students I'm encouraging to start their own D&D games and keeping eight for myself. You can see some actual details now that they are primed instead of being fuzzing white blogs.

Awesome work, I friggin love the hot glue beholder! Fantastic stuff.

Thanks Da Boss, I am surprised and happy how the beholder turned out.

I just sent in my LoER #28 contest entry. Here's two pics of it.


I think scale shots with coins look really good, and work well for showing just how small the work we do is.


I have been sculpting more detail on the spectator for D&D


And added the tongue


I also painted up the three dopplegangers that came in one of the D&D board games I bought. I like how simple their color scheme is in the official art. You can expect some more of my stuff painted as I have my painting station set up.


And lastly, I've begun working on making a flesh golem for D&D in support of vik's new thread about sharing techniques and ideas for crafting D&D minis.
I started with a zombie type figure from Sedition Wars and a second pair of legs. A cheap dollar store animal pack gorilla, and three cast parts from 40k, a grot arms holding a sword, a dead human's head, and a trench knife.


I want to really draw attention to how flesh golems have mismatched parts, so I'm having noticeably different length arms, and strange proportions.




Thanks for stopping by

The coins do indeed make the scale shot sing- marvelous work in miniaturization!

Thanks Meer_Cat

The spectator is coming together nicely.
I did not realize how small the table actually was. I mean I knew it was small, but that tiny? Anyway, astonishing work!

It's very, very cool that you share the hobby love by teaching younglins to play and DM. You are very generous to offer awesome looking self made minis. I bet it's rewarding to see the students enjoy their time and learn new skills from such a skilled craftsman and DM.

Edit: Woo! 20 pages, congrats

Congrats, 20 pages of awesome.

 Syro_ wrote:
Thanks Da Boss, I am surprised and happy how the beholder turned out.

I just sent in my LoER #28 contest entry. Here's two pics of it.

Situation is progressing rapidly! Very nice shot, good Syro, got me chuckling. You are getting adept at furniture and voice-bubble-less comics!

@Ezki: Thanks so much Ezki, your kind words mean a lot. Luckily, my students seem to really appreciate what I'm doing and have been inspired by it. Several have asked me advice on how to craft terrain. One student asked me advice on running a game of D&D. One has been striking deals with his parents to get D&D minis for certain amounts of chores and good behavior. And the youngest asked if I could come over to his house to spend a day teaching him how to craft I'm glad what I'm doing seems to be paying off.

@Camkierhi: Thanks Cam! It's hard to believe how fast it's happened. Back when I started, it felt like an eternity before getting to a second page.

@Wirecat: Heh heh, Thansk Wirecat. I'm glad you enjoyed the card game gone wrong pic I set up. it was mostly just to entertain myself, but I'm glad at least one other person enjoyed it.

I have finished the orche jellies. I don't know if it is the gloss varnish or something else, but no matter how I adjusted the lighting, I couldn't get any photos without the glare.


I am very close to finishing the spectator


I have continued work on the flesh golem (while breaking off a hand). Mostly filling missing sections and sculpting stiched on skin sections.


I have also begun painting the nothic I made, but not very far yet.

Aweosme jellies, I love having them so they can split in game the look on players faces the first time that happens is priceless!

Great progress on your scratch builds too. I really respect the way you keep so many projects on the boil with your builds, I am still plotting to use some of the stuff you have done myself, months later! Need to get out of my work rut and get back to having fun with minis. Your stuff is really motivating!

Thanks Da Boss, I'm looking forward to splitting the jellies in combat against them too. And thanks, I do keep a lot of stuff going at once. I assumed it just made me look disorganized and distracted, so I'm glad you put it that way. I'm looking forward to when you do recreate some of the stuff I've done, it will be cool to see what things you change and improve. No rush though, I haven't gotten around to doing the stuff I was going to base off of your stuff either.

Not much to show, but I'm planning the next gift for my students. I'm giving them each three elementals molded from the tangle root elemental from the MtG board games. I saw someone on Youtube mentioning they would be good to use in D&D as many different elemental. I cast three extras for myself that I am painting to show my students examples of using them as an earth elemental, a fire elemental, and the original design as a plant elemental.

Still WIP, but I'm also not planning to paint these to a high standard since I want my students to try the same.

The Whole hoard of cast copies led by one of the originals


Thanks for stopping by

I'm only catching up but that table is awesome. The cards and everything around it not only has precision but also character. Really well done man

Thanks boundless

Here's some more new stuff.

I finally finished my nothic for D&D




I also put together a camp fire for tomorrow's game. It was very quick to make.





Not much different from last time, but I finished painting the three example elementals to show my students


Thanks for stopping by

I like the charred wood effect. I wish I had seen that before I made a campfire last month.

Thanks Josh, that happens to me too.

Well done all around! The campfire _is_ very clever- I'm stealing that! Your horde of elementals reminds me of the homunculi in the old movie The Gate!

Thanks Meer_Cat, I hope you do make one too. I haven't heard of that movie, is it worth looking for? When I tried googling it, I got a bunch of Full Metal Alchemist stuff

The Gate is probably a B+ movie- good production values, decent attempt at a serious plot, the two stoners who act as the comic relief are okay. Mild Spoiler: I was surprised and disappointed at the mechanism the director used for the young hero to 'kill' the demon monster thing trying to come through the gate. The role of the young hero was played by the fellow who was the evil protagonist in Blade (the first one)- and even that reference is severely dated now.

For 1987, it wasn't bad. Amazon has copies of it for cheap, but better if you can borrow it from someone, I don't think many folks will want to watch it more than once.

https://www.amazon.com/Gate-Special-Christa-Denton/dp/B002I41KNC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3H7W5X69KU781&keywords=the+gate+dvd&qid=1554639823&s=movies-tv&sprefix=The+Gate%2Caps%2C168&sr=1-1

Keep up the good work!

Campfires looking very good, Syro, and finished nothic is just as old pictures show 'em! Wonderful!

@Meer_Cat: Thanks Meer_Cat, for the honest review of the movie. 'll see if I can watch it for free online or get it from the library when I have time.

@Wirecat: Thanks Wirecat, I'm glad it shows that I was trying to making the nothic as close to the art as I could

I've been very busy with work, but I did a little crafting tonight.

I've started sculpting a giant rat that will work well in a press-mold. Along with my swarm of rat swarms, I want to be able to give my students giant rats to add to their collection. All these rats seem like good low level adventurer fodder.


I've also done some more work on the flesh golem mini that I'm making to share on Vik's new thread.


Thanks for stopping by

was a bit occupied with work and my leagues entry...boy you are busy^^

the flesh golem is a cool creation ...your way of thinking behind the making is what really gives it life! no pun intended. i especially like the Z´s head ...these heads i also often used for imperial miniatures as that sad look in their faces is often something that can add a ton of character to the usual warmonger faces you get with the standard kits...

also...i need to remember the way you did the campfire...that look is so spot on!!!


as for the rat... have you had a look at LEGO animals? spiders and rats...you can get them often quite dirt cheap...i wonder (as in that is what i have planned for the furure...) to use these as then slightly modified miniatures to use in bulk...?

Thanks Vik, I'm quite a fan the that zombie/corpse head from Warhammer also, so I like to use it a lot. I'm glad you like the flesh golem

As for a description of how I make the fires, it's probably pretty face back now. here's an overview:
once the wood is set up, I paint the burned sections black, followed by little rectangles of grey for ash peeling away.
The flames are just small amount of hot glue squirted out on a flat piece of silicone, that I then repeatedly drag the hot tip of the glue gun through to make all the little flames
I then lift up the flames, attach a few to make them more 3D, and hot glue them on where it looks good.
I don't prime, to keep the flames somewhat seem through, and then start with a light base coat of yellow. I then build up with orange, followed by red with little wet streaks keeping the stuff pretty watered down
I hope that helps.

And wow, I didn't realize how good some of those little lego rats looked, I would have gotten those if I had realized (depending on scale). Luckily, I'm enjoying sculpting my giant rat, and I won't have to feel guilty mass producing them from a mold this way

Missed a few pages, but I really dig that beholder from a couple of pages back. Great job on it and the rest you've done so far!

Grats on 20 pages too!

Thanks Tyranid Horde

sadly I've been so busy with work, and so tired after, I haven't been doing much crafting. It would be good to get back and finish painting that beholder.

GET BACK ON THE HORSE...uh...BEHOLD! ERr.

Hi.

I should work with you on project motivation, I'm soooooooooo in the hole.

--B.

Heh heh, thanks for the encouragement Brian. You know me, I love crafting so much that I keep putting off the painting step. Plus I get side tracked easily.

I have finished sculpting the giant rat mini I wanted. It's certainly not the best sculpt I've done, but I wanted to make a giant rat that could be used as a master for a single piece mold. A big part of the pose is because of wanting it to be used for a push mold. This will be another thing I mass produce as gifts to grow the miniature collections of the kids who are players in my D&D group. I've trying to start having more of a theme, which is underground/sewers. The greenstuff at the end of the tail was because I crushed the tail with a clamp to hold it in place while it was drying. Before I make the mold, I'm open to C&C to improve it.


Here is the new giant rat, posing with the other rats in my collection: the rat familiar I sculpted on the left and an official D&D cranium rat swarm.


I've also been creating a 90s style pose goblin for the attempt to make a mold of a full goblin rather than the four pieces I'm used to working with. I'll be making a short bow in the goblin's empty hand.


I'm also planning to make a were-rat mini to continue the rat theme. I haven't gotten very far yet, cast an arm holding a sword, cut a tiny crossbow off of a dwarf, and sculpted the tail.


I've also finished the flesh golem, and just need to paint it now.