I played the second mission of Frostgrave's Dark Alchemy today.

Here is the initial setup, my wizard was able to successfully summon an animal companion between boards (I think this is allowed, I gave her a single chance to cast it). Except for the demon, all the members of the party not in the first mission are taking part in this one. The wizard's apprentice the well dressed pig, a treasure hunter, and the new bear.


The burning skeletons spawned, one ran right toward the party to fight. The rest could not see the group and patrolled according to the special rules.


I really like using the assist action to give a +2 two the other team member's attack. So this double team gave the demon a +5 to attack against the burning skeleton. The apprentice and treasure hunter continued to move forward toward the exit.


Each turn an additional burning skeleton would spawn, and they were mostly all spawning in the same location making a swarm near the exit.


The treasure hunter grabbed a treasure and ran along the back edge of the board while the rest engaged the enemies.


The apprentice and bear won the fight but not enough to hurt the skeleton, so they knocked it back and ran for it after the treasure hunter.


The demon began to be surrounded and took major damage (especially from the skeleton's +2 damage rule) but fought on.


The skeletons won the initiative for the first time this game and attacked the bear and continued their attack on the demon. On my turn, both the bear and demon defeated the skeletons they were fighting. My treasure hunter made it off the board with treasure.


I was very lucky that the bear has a +2 attack to the skeleton's +1. They both rolled 20s for their attacks. That would have been major damage if I lost.


The demon defeated the last burning skeleton that reached it and moved to catch up with the bear. They continued to be chased by skeletons, but many of the new spawns couldn't see them yet.


The apprentice makes it off the board with another treasure. As the demon and bear swing around to grab one more treasure before leaving.


They defeat two more burning skeletons and escape with the treasure before the rest catch up to them.


I was playing greedy, but still trying to escape with reasonable speed as that's what the game says they are trying to do. In meta hindsight, I could have left the bear and demon there to keep thrashing the burning skeletons and get me more XP. The wizard earned 80 XP just from defeating skeletons. However, I don't actually know what XP is useful for yet in Frostgrave. The treasures were a scroll of "Time Store", a potion of Invisibility, a potion of strength, and 55 gold.

Just a quick update of progress on the chimera. I think the change from the giraffe head into a black dragon head is really starting to look good now.

My Ent is finally done!
After weeks of working on the flocking, I painted it today. I am very happy with how it turned out.








If you would like a review of the process it took to get here, I have all the other pictures of making it in this spoiler tag.

Beautiful work on the Ent, mate. Must be such a proud feeling to know you built it from scratch! Nice sculpting on the face (and dragon's head!) too.

I have never played Frostgrave but enjoyed reading the action. Good to see the thrown together table too - a few cardboard buildings make everything better!

Good luck with whatever's next on the painting table!

Amazing work on the Ent, so great to see the finished piece! He really looks like he doesn't like things that are hasty.

 Syro_ wrote:
My Ent is finally done!
After weeks of working on the flocking, I painted it today. I am very happy with how it turned out.

Beautiful... I really want to see this exact shot with something else instead of white as a background! To my eyes You've got the balance of anthropomorphism and alien-ness just right. And the amount of flocking is good too. Congratulations!

I'll add my congratulations on a job well done!

To carry Wirecat's observation one step further, not only is the piece in balance in the areas he describes, but it is clearly not derivative of another concept seen elsewhere- it is wholly unique.

Very successfull and believable ent indeed, well done !
But yeah, now you need a forest to put around it.

@tzurk: Thank you tzurk, I'm glad you like my Ent. Yes, it is a very good and proud feeling knowing I made him from scratch. I'm glad you are enjoying the other things too, thank you for stopping by.

@Viterbi: Thanks Viterbi, and that's a good point about not liking things to be hasty. Maybe he's the reason it took weeks to flock him

@Wirecat: Thank you Wirecat, I was trying hard to have a good balance between humanoid traits without having an actual need to be too humanoid. What do you have in mind for a new shot? Out in nature, or when I get home to craft some forest terrain for him?

@Meer_Cat: Thanks Meer That makes me happy to hear, I like having truly unique pieces.

@KernelTerror: Thanks! That's a good point about him needing his own forest. None of my forest terrain really matches him. Most are evergreen trees, and the broadleaf trees terrain I ahve made was early in my crafting career, so they probably don't look good enough anymore. I'll probably need to update when i get home and have time.

What a lovely ent. He really looks like a tree that came to life. I'm amazed that you built it from scratch.

Thanks so much Josh

Magnificent work on the ent!
He (she? It?) looks kinda friendly yet still very scary, especially from a puny human's perspective (love that picture!).
Not sure if it was the intention, but I think you captured both traits at the same time, depending on how you look at it.

The paint job is well done and there is just enough of flock.

Glad you got to play some Frostgrave. Cool reports!
Never tried it, but I think I should.

Thanks Ezki I didn't make the Ent androgynous on purpose, but I'm happy to hear that it looks that way to you. It would make sense, with most tress being both.

It would be good for you to try out Frostgrave, I hear nothing but good things about it from others (although I haven't played it enough to be able to recommend it from personal experience).

The Treant came out great! And I second Frostgrave, for the fun!

--Brian

@Briancj: Hi Brian! It's great to hear from you. It's been fun reading about your Tarus battles with kestral and Insurgency Walker. Also thank you, I'm glad you like the Ent.

I'm close to finishing painting a surprise sculpt that I don't think I have shone yet, and I continue to plug away on various sculpting projects. But, this update is because I just finished painting the gibbering mouther I made last mouth (and last page).





Thanks for stopping by.

Here is the surprise I was talking about. I finished him two days ago.





The process started with these humble beginnings of putty wrapper around a trapezoid of styrofoam.


added the feet


And I forgot to take any more pictures until I finished the body.


Painting the tattoos took a long time.



My original plan of using actual miniature leaves weren't holding up very well after pressing and putting PVA on top wasn't working well, so I decided to sculpt some leaves instead.


I made the leaf skirt and glued on thread to show how it's held up. I then bought, cut, and frayed button thread for the hair.

That's an amazing sculpt and great work on the tattoos. May now have to throw the soundtrack on while working

This fella is lots of fun. Made me smile. Really liked your big tall freeman too. Great work.

I forgot to mention that the Maui pictures brought my gallery to over 1000 pictures

@Viterbi: Thank you, I'm glad you like him. I'm fully in support of you listening to the soundtrack while working, that is a very good soundtrack.

@theCrowe: Thank you so much, I'm glad you like them.

And thank you both for stopping by and commenting.

I realized that October was almost over and I hadn't done anything for "Orctober" yet. This would be the first time that I hadn't done anything for Orctober since getting into the hobby. I didn't want that, but don't have any ork bits with me or room for my usual vehicle scratch builds. Having only a few days left, I chopped the face off of a toy elephant and the arms off of a toy chimp to speed things up, and got started on making an ork. That turned into this ork shaman:






These are the WIP pics if you would like to follow the process


Thanks for stopping by.

Hilarious! My favorite monster hunter with a hook and attitude! You've made me more that a day of happy giggling, Syro! Thank You!

Drat. Now I am going to sleep to the tune of "You're welcome"...

Lots of lovely characterful sculpts there - especially the Dog Knight, IMO. That Ent is a really nice piece as well. I like the way the face is peering out of the bark.

@Wirecat: I'm very glad to hear that seeing my Maui sculpt made your day. What can I say except "you're welcome"

@kestral: Thank you kestral, I'm glad you like them. They are too of my favorite sculpts this year.

Not too much of an update right now, but here is a WIP picture of three multi-headed monsters I am sculpting right now. A cerberus, a two headed demon goat, and a chimera.

It's been a while since I posted on this blog, but many of you have seen me on yours. For over a month I just wasn't feeling any enthusiasm or energy when trying to do my hobby. Luckily Pneumo gave me some good advice to not worry about trying to finished any of my unfinished sculpts, and just try to find something that would excite me. For me this turned out to be a Tech-Priest Dominus for 40k. I really like the look of the model, even though I haven't gotten to play 40k in a few years and I don't have a Mechanicus army. Thank you Pneumo

After looking at the kit for several days and letting my imagination wander, I decided to make him some friends. I decided to make three Tech-Priest Domini, the one on the picture of the kit, one using the spare parts from the kit, and a third mostly sculpted with a few pieces kitbashed. Here is the progress so far.


earlier pics


The enthusiasm and momentum I gained from this project got me back to finishing my old sculpts also.
I finished my female adventurer in a wheel chair from September



I also finished the Cerberus I made from an animal toy. I really like how the howling head turned out.




I am also working on a satyr bard adventurer


Thanks for stopping by. I'll be doing a year review in a few days.

Great stuff with the wheelchair and mermaid combo. Great idea.

Thank you

Nice to see you back at it again! I always love the stuff you come up with, great source of inspiration .

Dude, you come up with the most interesting ideas. I especially like the modular wheelchair adventurer.

Good to see you back and a nice update. Love the wheelchair adventurer, although that pose combined with the pitchfork made me immediately hear him yell "Get off my lawn!"
Interested to see how the bard will develop!

@CommissarKhaine: Thank you Commissar, it's good to be back. And thank you, that's flattering to hear.

@JoshInJapan: Thanks Josh!

@Viterbi: Thanks Viterbi. That's some funny imagery, but there's no reason why the adventurer wouldn't be yelling at others to get of her lawn. That home and lawn were hard earned with treasure with dungeons. She wouldn't appreciate loafers on it Also, I'm happy to say, the bard is now done.

Here is the finished Satyr Bard. I like how the head turned out, I wasn't planning on him being bald, but I liked the look. I also decided to give him a scraggly chin beard like a goat. (Sorry the pictures aren't more clear).

I sculpted this rothe for Dungeons & Dragons. In D&D rothe are a domestic cattle similar to a musk ox.


I'm planning to make a mold of this guy and cast an entire herd, so he is in pieces for the mold making process.


There is one more miniature that I'm hoping to finish sculpting before New Years, wish me luck

He's Rother wonderful!

Bad puns aside I really do love that critter. Excellent work. Hope the molding goes well. Looking forward to seeing the herd.

@theCrowe: Thank you theCrowe. And no worries, puns are always welcome here. I'm glad you like the rothe.

I managed to finish one last miniature sculpt today, but first the group shot of (nearly) every sculpture that I made in 2020. It's always fun doing these year reviews, and it helps me focus on finishing a few more when the end of December approaches

My 2020 sculptures:


And a low angle shot to see heights:

I broke my Dark mantle sculpt as I tried to get it out of its storage box, so its not pictured. Also the ice toad that I carved out of styrofoam was too like to have in the picture. The only other finished sculpture that I know isn't in the photo is below because it wasn't dry yet for the group photo,

My last sculpture of 2020, I believe I started in February of this year, It is the giant two-headed demon goat from the D&D adventure "Harried in Hillsfar"

Nice overview, and that rothe looks good! Will the feet be cast properly like that?

Thanks CommissarKhaine, and good point about the casting. I'm not sure if it will cast properly, but my plan is to have the base and feet as a single cast piece to attach to the body. I was hoping it would keep the molds more simple, but I'm guessing you're worried about air bubbles forming in each ankle area. That culd be possible.

Very cool year sculpt wise !

Thanks!

Edit, because Dakka posted my original post some more and I seemingly can't edit the posts that are shown to me the forum had a major hiccup when I tried to post. One of my four posts should at least be the original one

Double Post

Thanks for stopping by Viterbi, unfortunately at least on my end your original post didn't survive the forums getting screwy. If you still remember what you said, I'd be happy to hear it.

If anyone is interested in what I have been doing since the new year crafting wise, I have been sculpting miniatures and trying to make molds of them, for a children's miniature game that I made up. I also push myself to get more done in time for the year review, but I also wanted enough space to work on this game.












Ready for the silicone

This is my first attempt at making a two part mold with flow channels from pourable silicone. Unfortunately I am having a lot of trouble with the only silicone I can get my hands on here and the catalyst ratio.

looks like you've done your research on building the moulds.
Here's a rant about DIY vibration tables that you prob already know about too. If not enjoy.

It's a messy and frustrating business but I wish you lots of luck.

Cool update, excited how this project will work out. And is that one mini a baby Godzilla?

Re my lost post, luckily I have an extended clipboard and it was still on it:

Nice recap post, the halflings are still my favorites of the bunch, so characterful. And great way to cap off the year with the demon goat, love the texture on the fur.

@theCrowe: Thank you Crowe, I agree, it is a messy and frustrating business. And thank you. I know about vibration platforms to get rid of bubbles, but didn't know about that DIY one, so thank you. Unfortunately, my dremmel tool is back home on another continent, and there's no room for anything like that in this tiny Hong Kong apartment. Something to remember for the future though.

@Viterbi: I'm glad you still had your original comment, I'm happy from getting to read it. I'm glad you still like the halflings, they are still some of my favorites too. As for the one mini, it does look like a baby godzilla doesn't it? That is meant to be fire on its back, hopefully when I paint the copies it will look good.

Unfortunately, it looks like I don't have enough silicone to finish, so there won't be much of an update until my order arrives.

Maybe arange it at a time you have some laundry on and set the molds on top of the washing machine.

That is a really good idea! Thank you

Love the little dino monsters - a super cool idea and executed really well - and good luck with the casting process! Always keeping an eye out for ways to get the kids involved with the hobby - keep us posted!

Very impressive year!

So many cool sculpts that it's hard to pick a favorite. I still think it's the ent, or the spectator with the "cat ears"
Just with a small margin though, as they are all really super cool sculpts!

I'm hoping you succeed with the molding in the end!

@tzurk: Thanks tzurk My students are anxious to try out the game, so it's a shame there have been so many setbacks. Also said students keep me so tired, that I don't have much energy for hobbying after school. If only they could understand that they are hurting themselves by tiring me out

@Ezki: Thanks Ezki I'm glad the cat eared spectator is getting some love. I'm still ahving some difficulty with this silicone that I'm not used to (see below) but I am making some progress. The new stuff arrived a few hours ago finally, so I'll get back to making the rest of the molds when I have time.

After 2-3 weeks of waiting for the mold that I didn't add enough catalyst to, to set I finally thought it was good enough. Unfortunately There was so much stuck to the model. I don't know if this new kind is reacting to the epoxy putty in some way. But I will try to put even more prep into making the molds come out well. I also keep trying to find the sweet spot of catalyst.


The jelly blob, the tiniest model came out pretty well in the mold. I cast a few of both the jelly blog and the very messy trilobite (I might make this a chiton depending on how it turned out). it will be easier to assess when I have time to paint them.


Thanks

Yeah, I had some similar issues with poorly mixed silicone. You do have to be quite exacting with the ratios. But maybe adding a little more catalyst is better than risking too little. The other question is mold release. I've heard of oil, or talc or Vaseline to help the piece not get stuck to the silicone. No doubt you know this already.

I'm in trouble if you have to be pretty exact with the ratios, since I have no way to measure the weight of catalyst accurately enough, I've been trying to find a number of drops that works well to a number of grams of the uncured silicone. Thank you for trouble shooting with me Crowe, even though I do know of those mold release methods, I'm embarrassed to say, that I didn't use any on the initial molds. I got so spoiled by the silicone mold making stuff I'm used to using never needing mold release that I wasn't being careful enough. I'm in the slow process of taking apart the cardboard frame of the most recent mold I made, which uses mold release. I don't have much hobby time, and I keep hitting uncured sections of the outside edge of the mold, so I keep stopping to add a drop of catalyst and then waiting.

Been there sy. I had to paint catalyst on the "Sniffy and Cheesey" mold. It was a bit hit and miss and the results in the end were only really useful as dollies to sculpt onto.

My best results have been with one part pour-in molds. As some of the two part molds created some bad bad results.

Kitchen scales for measuring weight?

Electric shaver for vibration?

This is Awesome .

It is a fun little piece, well done, it gave me a smile.

@TheCrowe: Ah yeah, I remember all the sculpting you had to do on top of sniffy and cheesy. Luckily they looked great in the end. I agree about trying to keep the molds as simple one piece molds. I made all but two of my sculpts simple enough to make one part molds. Hopefully the two others will work. Thank you for all the good ideas, luckily I have been using a kitchen scale from the very beginning, but even after emptying about 1/5 of the catalyst into a zeroed cup the first day, it wasn't heavy enough to register. That's why I have been trying to figure out a drop of catalyst to grams of silicone ratio that works well. You will see below better success thanks to your advice

@Theophony: Thanks Theo I'm partial to that one too. I hope I can make a good enough mold to get decent casts of that one.

Luckily following TheCrowe's advice and very carefully pulling away the frame for the mold and adding catalyst to leaking parts over the course of around 4 days, I have had my most successful mold since moving to Hong Kong. But first the painted up casts of the first models:


Here is the newest mold mentioned above. it is working well.


And the newly cast pterosaurs. I finished casting and clipping the flash a few minutes before this post.


Thanks for stopping by.

Very cool. Nice work on your casting success so far. So how is this game played then?

So for this guy.

How's the mold turning out? Have you got two well cured sides yet?

When it comes time to cast you might need a syringe for a little bit of pressure to get the resin through the whole thing.

Hey Syro I had similar problems with my resin molds at first. It turns out that the catalyst I was using was slightly less dense than the liquid resin. The instructions said 1:1 mix but that was by mass rather than volume. So I just added10% more each time and that worked pretty well to give me a proper fast setting and hard resin.

Though I also had some funny reactions with epoxy putties particularly if I didn't add enough catalyst. I guess it depends what resin you are using, I dunno if there is a downside other than increased cost to adding a little extra catalyst to each mix.

Thanks for the comments

@TheCrowe: Thanks Crowe unfortunately I don't even have one nicely cured side yet for the most complicated mold. It was such a big and important mold I was very liberal with the catalyst, and it was curing so fast that it's lumpy and didn't fully flow around the planned injection port:

It's nice and solid at least. I kind of forgot to work on it since, but after seeing your post, I just added a little silicone to that area before responding. As for the game, it's kind of a combination of a table top war game, the Pokemon TCG, and scrabble. My goal is to make a game that is fun enough that children will want to play with it even though it helps them learn spelling. And thanks for the tips.

@Da Boss: Thanks Da Boss, that's good to know that I'm not the only one who has had struggles, and things to avoid. Luckily I'm not working with resin, so I'm currently avoiding those difficulties. I have been a long time user of hot glue for cheap casts in silicone molds.

Not much of an update, but I have removed the cardboard bottom and managed to get out the hardened playdough like clay out to prepare for the second half of the mold to be made. They playdough hardened into a hard rubbery consistency, almost like a mold itself. I was surprised how stained my models were by the clay. I hope to pour the other half soon once I finish cleaning it up and have the time.

Sounds like a fun little game. Homeschooling like a pro.

Looks like you got a couple of big bubbles in the divits but as long as the minis got covered I'm sure it'll be ok.

I've seen it done where a small amount of mixed silicone is painted on top of the minis so as to ensure all detail is covered and no bubbles before the mould is properly filled.

Don't forget some mold release on the whole lot here before you mix and pour the second side or the whole lot will be locked solid. I know you know this but it's worth repeating.

I’d like to see a demo of your game when you get it finalized Syro.
Good luck with the mold making!

Mold making looks very interesting, very cool to see the progress.

@TheCrowe: Thanks Crowe That is definitely worth mentioning. I wouldn't want to have to cut my minis out of there. This stuff is so thick, I don't think I would be able to paint it on. But I have been trying some of your suggestions.

@Thumpingbear: Thank you, I jsut did a pour this morning, we'll see how it turned out soon. Sadly, it's still further until I can try the game than I would like. Real life seriously slowing things down.

@Viterbi: Thanks

At TheCrowe's suggestion I started a load of laundry this morning to let my newest silicone mold pour ride on to shake out bubbles. This is the complicated two part mold with my first attempt adding flow channels. The mold is mostly cured, but there are a few gooey spots still tonight that I added a bit more catalyst to. Hopefully it will be ready for unveiling soon.

I finished fixing up the mold. Unfortunately, my sculpts did not survive the de-molding process (but they are fine now, all glued back together. (However they do look like they are trying to be extras in the movie "Brave Heart" still). The silicone went down so thick as usual it never settles out to be a flat surface, but the mold is still working pretty well. If I ever plan to make more than six casts, I will probably make something to help hold the mold more rigidly.


The glue never seems to get all the way through the leaf dinosaur, but the raptor was what was the most complicated and most important to me to work. It mostly seems to be working pretty well. Even with only one side working, I am still happy that my first attempt at making channels for the casting seems to work. I can make a new mold for the other.

(The top right cast was done in the old style of squirt into both halves of the mold and squish them together.)

Glad to see you're having some success. Albeit a bit messy just now.

The little leaf lizzard guy. I'd be tempted to make a single piece mold of his body so you just pour that in. And the the leaf part, it would be a much simpler piece for a two part mold on its own but you could also just press each side into some playdough and make a pour-in mold of each side and then stick them together on top of the body. There'd be more assembly that way but less to go wrong with the silicone and resin.

Although, looking at the mold you've made id say you could use it for the leaf part if you just plug up the areas you don't need filled with playdough and try to make some leaves that way.

If you do go for a two part mold again there's a trick with two part molds to deliberately leave a strip along one side without any mold release so it gets stuck in place and becomes like a book opening kind of shape. it helps because it always lines up right.

Heh heh, that's true they are looking a little messy in that picture, luckily I think they are looking a little better than they were with a little paint on them now. Thank you for all the advice, I have made those hinged molds before, that good advice on this one, if I can get the silicone to behave well enough. I'm tempted to make a one piece mold of the leaf guy filled from the bottom with a vent coming off the top of the leaf, but those are good points about the leaf still being usable. Thanks.

Very interesting progress pictures and nice results! Thanks for taking the time to record the steps.

Thanks Ezki!

I realized I was running out of time to finish the game before a big school vacation was coming up. So I spent the whole evening finishing the writing of the rules and enough game cards to play. Then yesterday in class my students helped paint up a game board to play on and make the letter cards needed to make a game possible. It's certainly rough right now, but we were able to play the first ever game of it to test it out. My student who played it, loves it so far. And the others are anxious to try.

MOOSE! A Møøse once bit my sister... No realli!

Looks like a great little game. If you ever have time to do a dakka write up I'd be interested to give it a go.

Cool to see your game "in the wild". Good to know the test went well and excited to see how it will develop!

So cool to see a completely from scratch board game. Nice job!

Thank you all for the kind and supportive comments. It is fun to have made my own game, and it is still very popular with my students. Even though we have never had enough time to finish a full game.

I bought a little storage case today for the game pieces. I still have two more sets of 6 to add, so hopefully they will all fit.


Luckily, I have also been able to use the original mold for the previously failed plant dinosaur following advice from my brother and TheCrowe. It takes a little cleaning up, but they are turning out fine now.


Do you have suggestions for the eyes, I'm currently planning to paint the entire eyeball a featureless dark blue like the original sculpture. There's jsut something I like about it, but at the same time I want these guys to be cute, so I'm open to suggestions.

Congrats on having a functioning mold! I would be partial to Kermit's eyes But blue sounds good.

@Viterbi: Kermit's eyes would be interesting, but I worry they would be too difficult to paint. I considered just white with a black dot but worried it would be too cartoony.

I have finished the last sculpt for my base set of creatures for my game. The rock turtle for the element of earth. I think it turned out looked exceptionally cute.




I am also more or less done painting these guys unless any of you have advice for making them look better with my limited supplies.


Thanks for stopping by. My game is still very popular with my students. They spent half an hour today organizing the homemade cards and creating new letter cards to use in the game.

The rock turtle looks awesome.
Students are great guinea pigs, glad to hear they like the game.

Thanks DJJazzyJeff

Great to see the kids are having fun with it (and helping with production! )

The blue fits the plant dino eyes. i think a little white dot for a light reflection on them might look pretty good, as long as it doesn’t look like a pupil. Or hitting it with a gloss varnish if you have any.

The rock turtle is adorable, it looks like it would spend most of its time sleeping and be grumpy if woken up.

Keep it up man!

Thank you Thumpingbear I love what you think of the rock turtle, that's great to visualize. Unfortunately I don't have any gloss varnish, but you're right that that would really add to its look.

It still needs to cure, but I poured the last two molds today using the last of my silicone. I hope they cure correctly. I'm hoping to use the next few days to testout my game and work on balance and flow.

Luckily, a friend who is much harder working has been testing out my game and telling me places that might need improvement. But last night, I finally played a full game all the way to completion on my own to test out over-all game play. For starters, the game took 1 hour & 45 minutes to finish. I had a feeling from the games with my students that the game took a little too long, and this also lines up with the suggestions from my friend. He has already devised ways to get the game down to 1 hour, which is great. I'm going to experiment to see if I can find any other ways to help it too.

Below is a simple battle report of the test game.

Please excuse the spelling error in this pic, there was a handful of "p", "d", and "b" and I accidentally placed the wrong one. This pic is when the "player" on the left lost his first creature getting surprisingly overpower by the jelly blobs (two little blue guys). Even after the loss, having the Pterosaur (flier) in his opponents start zone gave an advantage.


Both "players" continued to build up forces, and the "player" on the left continued the assault with his second Pyro Raptor running across the board to engage.
Since it's hard to read, the spelled words are "monk", "picks", "my", "poll", "gone", and "time".


The player on the right seemed to get getting a serious advantage. The left player had lost two Pyro Raptors, and now the right player was attacking with a Pterosaur, two Pyro Raptors, and a jelly blob, against the defenders Pterosaur and three jelly blobs.


There was a major turn around where the defending jelly blobs of the left player defeated the attacking force (I was using spare minis as damage counters). The jelly blobs and Pyro Raptor of the left player were badly injured but managed to take out one more jelly blob of the right player's winning the game.

Rock turtle looks so great, I want one for my garden now
Game looks fun and I hope finetuning goes well!

The conga line of jelly blobs in that last pic looks pretty funny. Like. French column advancing.

@Viterbi: Thanks Viterbi, after what you said I want a rock turtle for my garden now too And thank you about the well wishes for fine tuning. I'm looking forward to it, but it will still be a lot of work.

@theCrowe: Heh heh, those jelly blobs do look funny like that. They kept detouring and leap frogging each other as they fought off pyro raptors and pterosaurs and ended up advancing like that in the end.

Something I have been working on for a while, but haven't posted WIP of is this Fomorian giant for D&D that I have been sculpting. It's done now except for painting. Sculpting this guy was really easy and stress free. In the lore, these guys are very deformed from a curse. So, instead of making sure I'mmaking all the proportions right like I normally have to, I am purposely making them off.



The rest of the pics including all WIP are in here

Wow, he's such a tall and gnarly dude. What a great character. I like how his feet turn in. Does he have a name?

Thanks theCrowe! I'm glad you like him. I hadn't thought to name him, but it would make sense for when I use him in a game.

The second trilobite mold turned out well, and you can actually tell the casts are trilobites this time. I've just painted up the Metal Trilobite for my game.

Awesome Fomorian! Really like it, looks properly twisted.

Also, really like the little poke-saurs. Really cute and kid friendly.

That's Da Boss I was trying to make it more twisted like the art, rather than the official mini. I feel like the real mini just has a hump and one big eye, and that's it. Also thanks about the sauruses, "poke-saur" is a pretty accurate nickname for them

I hope you guys don't mind another BatRep of my game, that's what I have been working on. I'm also happy to say, that all figures have been successfully molded and cast. This was the first game I have played of it with all figures available. This is also the first time trying out all the rewritten creature cards. I had fun, even playing by myself, and I think it's working a lot better already.

I tested out what it is like to start with the start zone full of creatures to see how that affects gameplay and speed. Since it's a test, I started both sides with identical creatures.


By the end of the first turn, there was already a lot happening. The right side went first and had very good luck on rolling for extra cards, taking an aggressive stance from the start. The left side got a second Phytosaur out on the first turn that gave a card drawing advantage that showed for the rest of the game.


The right side's early attack focused on trying to remove the weaker card drawing creatures from the left side, but the left side's creatures powered up quickly and surrounded the attacking creatures resulting in the first losses of the game.



The left side marched 4 creatures across the board in a counter attack while trying to stop the right side from transporting a Rust Chiton to their start zone.


The casualties began to pile up as the left lost its interfering Pterosaur, the right was able to deposite their Rust Chiton in the enemy start zone for a drawing bonus, and the left's Pyro Raptor was able to pull off its special attack one-shoting the the enemy rock turtle. The Pyro Raptor was then cherry picked afterward. The last thing that I did was a clever plan turned into foolish move from being tired, and the right's Phytosaur managed to escape the surrounding attack of the enemy Metal Trilobite and two Phytosaurs, but I forgot to power it back up, so it was overcome by its wounds.


The game ended with a 5-3 victory for the left side with the defeat of a Jelly Blob in the bottom right corner. As I said above,I had fun. I am actually looking forward to doing more testing.


The look more like ghost turtles than rock turtles, but like I said, I have finished casting the rest of my game pieces. I just have to paint the turtles. Any suggestions on the paint scheme, especially detail colors? I'm thinking a light brown like Raw Sienna with a heavy brown wash for the main body. Maybe some green in there too?

Very interesting game description- with so much starting action almost like a 'speed play'.

Like also the description of the color scheme for the turtles- possibly brown base colors and green wash, to get that color in? Or brown base, darker brown wash, green drybrush highlights?

Excellent game development.

Creating your own game AND pieces AND an enthusiastic audience? Really well done, man, congratualtions on all your hard work and results! That Fomorian looks fun, look forward to the end result!

For rock turtles maybe lean into a rock themed grey with some brown and green notes, maybe even yellow lichens. Just to keep the main green for the Phytosaurs. He's a sweet little creation. Looking forward to seeing one (or all of em) painted up whatever you feel like doing with it.

@Meer_Cat: Thanks Meer When I was worried about how long the games were taking to finish, my friend who has been helping me test the game suggested that I try to do something about the slow build up at the beginning, which hurt the momentum of the game. I decided to follow how one of my students wanted to set up the game, and I think it helps make it action packed from the start. It definitely is like a speed play. Even though finishing still takes about an hour, I think it feels more frantic in the beginning and has more momentum.

@Ragsta: Thank you Ragsta, I am very happy how the game is turning out and even more happy with how it is being received. I'd consider it a functioning prototype now. Thanks about the Fomorian too.

@theCrowe: Thank you, that's good advice (as usual) about keeping the color pallet distinct for each creature to make identifying them quick and easy.

School is back in session, and here is the picture to save our progress of the first game after coming back. I am on the 3rd version of the creature cards while working on balance and making sure it is as fun as I can manage. One of my other students set up some of the other figures as an audience in the top left corner

Really nice to see that the rewriting is helping and congrats on finishing all the sculpts!

Thanks Viterbi!

Liking how the Fomorian is turning out! Looks really fitting for the part.

Cool to see the battle reports from the game. It's also good to hear that you have enjoyed the testing process so far!
Designing a game is not easy, less so when one creates all the assets for it as well. Really, really cool!

Thank you Ezki!

I like your student's style, every game deserves an audience

heh heh, thanks Ragsta

Hi everyone, it's been a while. For quite some time, work has left me far too tired for any hobby time. Luckily, I had last week off from work. I sculpted this minotaur during that time.



Below is the process of sculpting it and more finished pictures including scale shots

Fantastic work! He's a wonderful mini. Love that little key round his neck. Super playable fun detail.

Thank you theCrowe I like your eye for detail. I didn't mention it in my post, but I sculpted the minotaur for the D&D adventure "Blue Alley". In that adventure, there is a minotaur with a silver key around his neck. I'll be sculpting or crafting all 27 monsters that can be fought in that adventure.

Also in that adventure is a mimic that is covering the entire ceiling of a two by four square room. It then drops down on the players and attacks. I started making this yesterday, and finished this morning. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I love sculpting with hot glue

That mimic is delightfully weird.

great stuff. Love the roughly squared edges still holding on from the ceiling shape.

Reminds me of that popular Lionel Richie song. Oh what a feeling, when you're dropping from the ceiling. Bards get bonuses if they use that line!

That is going to be a creepy ceiling ! Kudos on the hot glue gun mastery !

@JoshInJapan: Thank you Josh! I had a lot of fun making it.
@theCrowe: Thank you In honor of you, I will be sure to give a lot of bonuses to any bard who thinks to sing that during that encounter
@KernelTerror: Thank you! I'm happy with how it's turning out.

Speaking of which, it's still WIP and not finished yet, but I started painting the mimic and like how it is looking.

Welp that's a little terrifying

Heh heh, thanks Gwyn.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but I have done some more painting of the mimic. I think it's done until I can get my hands on a gloss varnish. I have been checking stores for clear nail polish for the last two days without luck.


I also very quickly slapped together a shadow and a will o wisp for the adventure.

I love the shadow, that's creative!

Ahh the mimic, one of the greater fears of D&D players...not as scary as rot grubs...and sometimes easier to spot.

CB

Great looking Minotaur! Mimic is pretty snazzy too!

Thank you Gwyn, CB, and Aku-chan. And I agree CB, rot grubs are much more terrifying. And thank you for all the comments

I finished painting eight smoke mephits that I made for Dungeons and Dragons. I like the way they turned out.


After sculpting a master I used green stuff to make a mold to make the eight I needed. I really missed having my silicone mold making supplies. I wasted so much green stuff, and the mold didn't work that well. I brushed on Vasaline between every casting, but it still stuck frequently and damaged the mold. I wanted to cast them in hot glue so that I could make them look translucent, and only use a black wash to hopefully make them look like they are made of smoke.


I have now finished 12 of the 27 monster miniatures that I would need to run the D&D adventure "Blue Alley". Almost halfway done.


Unfortunately, I won't be doing crafting for a little while again. I cut my finger pretty badly with my hobby knife, so I won't be able to do as much until it heals. Thanks for stopping by!

OMG, that mimic is simply terrifying! Amazing job sculpting and painting.

Nice models, those smoke mephitis are a great idea!

@Viterbi: Thanks so much Viterbi I'm glad you like it.
@Guardling: Thanks Guardling, I'm happy with how they turned out.

Does anyone remember how I chopped the arms off this little chimp figurine back in October to make an orc?


I didn't want to be wasteful, so I have sculpted him new arms and changed the face and body into a converted barlgura for D&D



It looks like I forgot to take pictures early on, but the rest of the photos of this sculpt are in the spoiler tag:

It feels good to be back to crafting I made 6 miniatures from hot glue from start to finish today. These two specters for D&D and also four "skulks" down below.


Skulks are an invisible humanoid with weirdly long clawed fingers. These are made 100% from hot glue.

This is official art for a skulk if you are curious:
https://images.app.goo.gl/M2JoAkyo1HTcZK5U6

I didn't take any WIP pictures of the skulks as I did them as in one go. But here are a few more pics of the specters:





The last bit of news is that I build a small storage box for my minotaur



Thanks for stopping by.

Your skill with hot glue never ceases to amaze, these are great looking skulks !

Thank you KernelTerror, that means a lot to me

The skulks are excellent but I find the spectres truly impressive. The rippling folds elongating out into the clawed hands- very nice work! I'm sure I haven't seen anyone even attempt the complexity of the work you do with hot glue- you're a pioneer!

Fantastic, didn't know what one can do with hot glue. Really cool minis you did there!

@Meer_Cat: Thank you Meer_Cat I'm glad you like what I'm making. And I haven't seen anyone make this kind of stuff with only hot glue either. I like the idea of being a pioneer

@Viterbi: Thanks so much Viterbi I really enjoy working with hot glue and seeing what I can create with it.

Speaking of which, I made these two cheap not very impressive mind flayers for D&D a few weeks ago and forgot to post them. I followed a Youtube tutorial for the one on the left. It is made mostly of aluminum foil with tissue paper and other paper glued on top (Cabiro's Forge). After that I wanted to try to make one out of hot glue exept for the stick for the staff, the mind flayer on the right is completely made from hot glue.


I have also started sculpting an ankheg for D&D today


And the beginnings of some other things including a giant snake.


The giant snake is size huge. here is a scale shot.


Thanks for stopping by.

Your sculpting is getting better and better!

--Brian

Thank you Brian, hearing that really means a lot to me.

The ankheg for D&D that I have been sculpting is just about finished. I just need to glue it together, and then make the ground that it is bursting out of.


Here is an earlier WIP of the ankheg


here is the latest progress of the wild boar and giant boar I am sculpting. I am trying for very dynamic poses.


Thanks for stopping by

Very nice texture on that Ankheg !

Thanks!

Now that it's the weekend, I'm back to plugging away at the D&D monster sculpts. The giant constrictor snake is nearly complete, and both the boar and the giant boar are progressing. I decided to chop the head off of a toy polar bear and throw an owlbear into the mix. It's a little small, so I will be building up the front half.

The Ankheg is coming along nicely!

Thanks Aku-chan

I finished a lot of the monster sculpts I have been working on. I might add little balls of clay for the eyes still, but other than that the giant constrictor snake for D&D is finished and ready for paint.


I have also finished the boar boar and the wild boar (I have be working on making dramatic poses for the sculpts):



I also started sculpting on bulk and feathers to my owlbear conversion, and I am extremely happy with how it is looking.

Nicely done Syro, those sculpts are coming along well.

I really like the pose of the snake, and the detail on the owl bear looks great so far.

@adamsouza: Wow, Adam, it's great to see you. I don't think I've seen you on the forums for a few years. it's good to see you again. And thank you about the sculpts.

@DJJazzyJeff: Thanks DJ Check out the snake below.

I painted the snake I sculpted today, and I am really happy with how it turned out.


In the spoiler tag is more pics for those interested.

why´d you disabled the voting? it´s a really nice paintjob!!! love that snake!!!

Oooh, yes, very nice pattern on the skin !

I have to agree with the above: That paint job on the snake is amazing!

Nice to catch up on all of the great things you sculpted. I especially love the feathers on the owlbear and the Ankheg model, although to be fair everything is amazing

@Viktor von Domm: Hi Vik, it's great to hear from you again. Thank you for your kind words about the snake I have always disabled voting on everything I post. I feel like the voting is quite harsh and faceless. Hearing from someone like you on my blog about my word has so much more meaning to me than voting

@KernelTerror: Thanks! I really like how how the paint job came together.

@Pneumo: Hey Pneumo, it's great to see you. It's bee a long time. And thank you.

You have probably noticed that I tend to sculpt many things at once, so there will be long periods of time where I am working and then everything gets finished and posted one after another. I am in painting mode right now, so it will be a little while before I finish the owlbear and a surprise monster. But I have finished painting the boar and giant boar, and am almost done with the ankheg.

I wanted to try something new and flocked the backs of the boar to give them longer hair there like a razorback. I'm not sure if I like how it turned out, but it's not too bad. I don't know if I should have tried covering more of the bodies, and left it off completely. I think it turned out better on the little one since I could actually dip that boar right into the container of flock, where the big one was too big and I had to sprinkle flock by hand.

Those boars are really neat. The flock-as-bristles works surprisingly well.

thanks syro_ , and to make the praise even thicker... I comment rarely...due to a mix of awe and envy... you´re really chucking out artful stuff in such a regular and productive pace that my own feeble attempts often twindle down to nothingness...
but rest assured you deliver each time lots of inspiration...!!!

If I could get my act together i might be able to show off a fully playable tavern my son and I made recently...

@JoshInJapan: Thanks Josh, I'm glad you approve of the bristles.

@Viktor von Domm: Thank you Vik, I do enjoy praise . I always enjoy hearing from you, so don't hesitate to comment. I hope you do post what you have been up to with crafting. Many years ago when I was still just a lurker here on Dakka, your bog was one of the ones I bookmarked and frequented. I also enjoyed everything you made for LoER. Just like I'm the guy who is always pushing the boundaries of what can be crafting with hot glue, I think of you as the guy who pushes the boundaries how much can be crafted from wood.

One more finished model before I probably go quiet for a while. I finished painting the Ankheg for D&D that I sculpted.





WIP pics

Your capture of motion has improved by an order of magnitude and the paint jobs are excellent. I agree with several earlier posters that you might consider re-enable voting, as these are excellent sculpts and paints in their own right. When added to the fact that they are your intellectual property from conception through design to creation and finishing, it makes them truly excellent examples of our art.

Rock on!

this is plain awesome... i totally agree the pose is a story teller for sure.... for D&D totally something is would love to see on a table...or in a computer game... If not for the WIP pics I´d say it is made by reaper^^

also... yep I will get my act together asap^^

Been a while.
You have been busy sculpting more and more awesome creatures!
Like you said, you definitely push the boundaries of hot glue

The mimic was one of my favorites, but the Ankheg is just brilliant!
Somehow your sculpts always put me in a good mood.

Lots of great updates! My favorite is the WIP owlbear, the texture of the fur and feathers is great. Finished Ankheg is also a winner!

@Viktor_von_Domm: Thanks Vik, you really know what I like to hear For the sculpts I put the most work into,it makes me so happy if they look as good (or better) as commercially available minis. I hope I get to use it in a game soon, I have been trying to craft two adventures to play if I can get a group together. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have been making.

@Ezki: Hi Ezki, it has been a while. I'm really happy to hear that my sculptures put you in a good mood. And thank you for what you said about them.

@Viterbi: Thanks Viterbi, I'm a little scared to work on the owlbear until I'm really feeling "in the zone". I'm worried I'll mess it up after the start is so good

Those are some really well sculpted feathers on the Owlbear.

Thanks Aku-chan

Hello everyone. I have finished sculpting another D&D mini, and have a few more very close to complete. So you can expect a few more updates from me in the coming days.

This guy is a barbarian turned bandit leader:




He started as those two sticks glued to a base in the top center








The goblin girl will be the next mini I show. She is closest to completion.


Thanks for stopping by

Here's the girl goblin finished:

there is never enough NPC minis out there lovey!

Thanks Vik, I agree about there never being enough NPC minis.

Here is another finished sculpt. This one is a halfling rogue (I feel like the pictures aren't the best).


The corner of her cloak collar makes her look like she has a giant nose here

I should be posting the finished pictures of that fourth mini I was sculpting. Instead, I got distracted and made a fire elemental. In a tabletop crafting group, someone asked if anyone had made any elementals out of junk. It sounded like a fun challenge, so I made a fire elemental out of only hot glue and a plastic blister.
This is how it turned out:




The plastic is from this packaging


If anyone wants to see the steps of how I made it, look in here:

wicked! looks amazing!

That's a fantastic looking fire elemental! Great job on it! It honestly looks like a being made of fire.

Very very cool. In a hot hot way.

Thanks so much, Vik,Gwyn, and theCrowe

These are all great sculpts. Thanks for inspiring me to pick up the greenstuff more often!

Love that fire elemental! I'm always amazed what you can achieve with hot glue. All I can do, is burn my fingers and sometimes even glue stuff to other stuff
Thanks for taking the step by step pictures.

@Flapjack: Thanks Flapjack , and I'm happy to hear you feel inspired to sculpt more. (Pneumo, theCrowe, and Wirecat are my favorite blogs for sculpting inspiration).

@Ezki: Thanks Ezki. I've burned myself plenty of times too

A silly little update. I made a snowman ready to sock someone in the face and a hiking backpack. The snowman is one of the easiest minis I have ever made.




He's made from a paper mache' ball, a bead, and a foam ball. Toothpick for a nose, and epoxy putty arms.


This backpack will be worn by a mini I have been sculpting

(Committee confers amongst themselves) Spokesman: Wow!

Looks of modeling goodness here, so much to comment on:

The Fire Elemental is terrific! I read through your step-by-step and the technique is intriguing and yielded a very organic, believable piece. The sense of movement and animation is very strong- it literally flickers as you look at it.

The Disagreeable Snowman (Abominable, by any other name) is very funny. Important for us to take time out to have some pure fun once in awhile.

The rucksack has a surprisingly high level of detail (straps, flaps and all dats) for such a small piece. Really well done.

Rock on!

Thanks so much Meer_Cat, I really appreciate your comment and enjoyed reading it.

With the rucksack done, I was able to attach it to my unfinished mini. I sculpted some straps and think the mini is finally done (though I am tempted to add on a pan for gold panning). He is grumpy drunken gnome prospector.

nice menacing/yelling pose! is a grumpy one for sure!!!

Thanks Vik I'm happy to see you visiting so often.

Lots of great sculpting going on here! Love the little goblin girl, instantly reminded me of Tears of the Mushroom from the Discworld. And that fire elemental is ace, great mini!

Thanks Viterbi I'm a huge fan of Terry Pratchett and his books, so it makes me happy to have my sculptures remind you of Discworld. I unfortunately haven't read the novel that Tears of the Mushroom is in, yet. I'm looking forward to it.

be wary.... she is named aptly named... the book is partly one of the saddest ...

Your sculpting is coming along nicely, love the snowman

Uh-oh, thnks for the warning Vik

Thanks Theo

I have been forgetting to upload, so some of these are actually from weeks ago. I finally have everything finished enough to run the Dungeons & Dragons adventure "The Pudding Faire" I will have to take pics of that soon. I have also been in painting more lately, so I have been painting some of the minis that I sculpted last year.

I've found ripping apart EPS styrofoam with your hands and making sure there are no flat edges left works surprisingly well to quickly make some easy trees. It only took me an hour or two to make these trees. The trunks are disposable chopsticks slotted into cardboard drinking straws with hot glue for texture. I have started flocking them now, but just painting them green will do in a pinch IMO.


Here is the cerberus I sculpted, all painted up. I'm not that happy with the paint job, but it's a big improvement over my first attempt.


I painted up the cat I sculpted to look like the family cat back home.


And the simplest paint job is the bat.

the styropor trees is a genius idea! lovley! I´d add just a tiny amount of wash to enhance the definition...

cerberus and bat looking stunning too!!!

Thanks Vik, and good advice. I've actually flocked one of the trees so far, and plan to experiment more with the others. I only have black and burnt umber inks with me. Would you suggest using one of those for the wash, or try to make a dark green wash from paint?

dark green... tho the umber wash could work too... as those underline the "natural" feel...

reread your post and the chopstick idea sounds....er sound to me too...hmm... i need to experiment in this field too...hmmm

Tree experiments look cool, excited to see the finished ones.

Critters are very well done- nice work!

I was thinking "chopsticks for trunks, even with cardboard straws? No way!" But then you said hot glue for texture and I was down with the struggle- they really are very good, especially for the time and materials invested. And lots of room to maneuver figures around the lower trunks, very good.

My wife is afraid that I'll hot glue my fingers to my elbow, but I may have to get more into this hot glue sculpting you're pioneering. I mean, really, I can use a chainsaw, how hard can it be? (to use, not to sculpt- the sculpting takes real talent. I mean not to stick my fingers to my opposite elbow....)

Thanks everyone. I'm finally going to be moving back home soon, so all that preparation isn't leaving me any crafting time at the moment. Though I have been using my crafting skills to build custom shopping boxes from cardboard I grab from the garbage room.

@Viktor_von_Domm: I have been meaning to take some pics to show you, so I will do that right now before finishing this post... And done. I hope you do get a chance to experiment on this kind of stuff. I haven't gotten to experiment on the washes yet.

@Viterbi: Thanks Viterbi I hope I have time to get back to them soon.

@Meer_Cat: Thanks Meer I am happy with how they turned out, but there is of course very much I could do to improve them further. I hope you do try out some hot glue stuff, it is a lot of fun. If you're good with a chainsaw and have kept yourself safe I think there is nothing to worry about. Unlike a chainsaw, the worst you can hurt yourself with a hot glue gun gets better after two very uncomfortable weeks (personal experience)

The Lorax would be sad, but here is a pic with all the trees removed showing the cardboard straw slots.






For storage purposes,I only have tress on two of the four tiles. All the terrain for this adventure can be crammed into an 8"X6.5"X6" box (20cm X 17cm X 14.5cm)


Thanks for the comments guys

yes! that´s intelligent building! tho one minor suggestion? paint the insides of the treetrunks... later on you can use them for chopped down trees

Ah, that's a clever way to make the trees detachable!

After years and years of pondering, I'm finally running my first ever game of D&D for our group.
I've been playing quite a lot, but never been a DM. Which is funny in a sense, as I'm the only one in our group who has studied game design (albeit video games).

Anyway, when I get some more storage space sorted out I'll be sure to revisit many of your different projects for inspiration.
Sadly, this might have to wait until we move to a bigger crib

@Viktor_von_Domm: That's good avice about painting them to look like stumps, thanks Vik. I'll do that.

@Ezki: Hi Ezki, that's really exciting to hear that you are running D&D now. You can use your game design experience to good use, I expect. What you said reminds me a lot of a series that a Youtuber called RuneHammer (formally Drunkens and Dragons) used to make called "Room Design". Are you playing official adventures, one shots, home brew, something else? Let me know how it goes. And that's cool that you are considering making some projects similar to mine in the future, make sure you post them if you do

A while ago I sculpted a Fomorian giant for D&D. I just painted it today. I tried to go for the skin being patchy, dirty, and full of sores and raw skin.

 Syro_ wrote:
The Lorax would be sad, but here is a pic with all the trees removed showing the cardboard straw slots.

He did speak for the trees.

I do my trees the same way, except I just us the plastic plug in trunks from Woodland Scenics. If you ever decide to use that product, make certain the stump is really well secured, as the plugs are quite tight.

Cheers,

CB

now that´s a shifty fella... the face is priceless... kind of reminds me of myself in the morning looking in the mirror....hmmm...XD

Your sculpting has improved so much over the past while! Those hot glue sculptures, the ceiling mimics and those boars are all amazing! You can really see the increase in skill in every post. Great stuff.

@Captain Brown: Thanks for the advice about Woodland Scenics CB.

@Viktor_von_Domm: Heh heh, thanks Vik. Sounds like your family would be wise to have your caffeine ready and waiting for you in the morning

@Da Boss: Thanks so much Da Boss And it's nice to see you back now that the school year is over.

Loving that giant result, mate, just great creativity here as ever

Thanks so much Ragsta

I have been sculpting a bunch of small animals that can be used as familiars in Dungeons and Dragons the last few weeks. I think the turtle that I just made last night is the most photogenic, so I will start with it. It's really a challenge to sculpt at this small size, they are one half inch bases (about 1.3 cm).





A small snake


A frog/toad


A lizard


And the smallest sculpted mini I think I have ever made: a seahorse


Here's a group shot


Thanks for stopping by.

Very nice little sculpts Syro_

Cheers,

CB

what an overdose of cuteness....

Thanks CB, Thanks Vik I hope to get them painted some time soon.

I love the turtle and the lizard especially. But they're all super cute.

Wow, great stuff!
The giant looks really menacing. I think the paint job completes it well.

Sculpting those small animals could not have been easy. They'll make great familiars!

Syro_ wrote:
@Ezki: Hi Ezki, that's really exciting to hear that you are running D&D now. You can use your game design experience to good use, I expect. What you said reminds me a lot of a series that a Youtuber called RuneHammer (formally Drunkens and Dragons) used to make called "Room Design". Are you playing official adventures, one shots, home brew, something else? Let me know how it goes. And that's cool that you are considering making some projects similar to mine in the future, make sure you post them if you do

First two sessions (or one long session with a good nights sleep in between) done. I have to say, it was quite exciting to sit on the other side of the screen for once.
It's a single adventure (3+ sessions, but not an actual campaign), which takes place in Forgotten Realms. It's heavily inspired by the "S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" module released in the 80's, which means I'm mixing scifi elements into the game. The original adventure had some great ideas, but the map was quite a mess (in my opinion). So I did my own maps and added some home brew items and monsters. For better or for worse.

@Da Boss: Thanks Da Boss

@Ezki: Thanks Ezki Scupting the familiars wasn't easy, I agree. I find it much easier to sculpt larger figures.
I'm happy to hear about your DM experience so far, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is a classic. I've never played it, but I think it's a good choice that you are updating and streamlining it. I hope you keep having fun with it.

Nice job on all the little critters!

That tiny seahorse just made my day, I love all these little critters! I like painting up random beasties and dinos for the games I never get around to playing teehee!

Thanks Aku-chan, thanks Ragsta

Some of you may remember this goblin tank I build back in January of 2019 to play "Dib's Wagon of Doom"



I'm really in the mood to play that adventure again before I move back home. I have a token I made of the original tank, but that's just not my style. I built a new goblin tank over the last few days.


I made of mold of one of my Blood Bowl snotlings to try and make 6 quick goblins to go with the game. I'll post them when they are done, but they won't look like much.

We have to rethink history now... why the hell weren´t there more tanks back then? pushing some wheeled hood around shoudln´t be that much of a hustle?
looking fierce!

If I remember my history right, the first practical 'war wagons' (after Da Vinci's wonderful design) were Jan Zizka's armored wagons. I think we was a Hungarian(?) leading a Protestant sect during the wars of the Reformation. They clad ordinary wagons in thick timbers or boards and barded the horses to try to protect them. There was even one account where they were able to roll the wagons down a long slope into (and through) the opposing force; stopping afterwards might have been a bit of a problem though...

Norba Miniatures makes a couple version of 'war wagons' in 28mm intended for their Reconquista range, but suitable for WHFB, or anything else that uses that sort of vehicles. Two- or four-horse teams to pull, too.

Thanks Vik, that is a good question about armored vehicles in ancient warfare. Maybe like with this D&D opponent, on the real battlefield the availability of fire and difficult terrain was its undoing?

Thanks for the historical background about war wagons Meer_Cat. I've never heard of him, but am reading about him as I type this? I think Prussia was known for using war wagons at some point in its history too, right?

Wow, that goblin tank looks amazing. Nice job!

on the real battlefield the availability of fire and difficult terrain was its undoing?

probably that... tho iron clad could have been a solution...tho not accessible for everyone...

and thanks meercat... nice hint on that manufacturer.... didn´t knew them yet...
and the history lessen is always welcome!!!

Thanks Flapjack

Tiny, cute, sculpted creatures and a lesson about armored wagons.
Your blog does not disappoint, Syro.

Heh heh, thanks DJ. Luckily my visitors have eclectic taste just like me

I have finished my little goblin force. Considering they are all made from a not fully successful mold of the same Blood Bowl snotling, I think they turned out reasonably well and diverse.

is the turtoise shield a stock item? if not...this is a cool idea... gives me a new thing to hunt for^^


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btw... I´d add anything to the wheel that hints towards an axle...

Missed a lot of stuff, the big eye on the giant is glorious, but my favorite has got to be the little turtle. Soooooooo cute!

@Viktor_von_Domm: Thank you Vik, you are so right about adding something to the wheels. I'm glad you pointed it out. After reading your post, I worked on it a bit. Let me know what you think. As for the turtoise shell shield, I'm glad you like the look and the idea. When I was making all those little animals, I had plans to give the turtle away. I quite liked how it turned out, so I made a push mold of it. The shield is just a quick squirt of hot glue into just the carapace part of the mold.

@Viterbi: Thanks so much Viterbi. I am very happy with how the giant turned out after painting. I haven't put him into storage with all my other figures yet, so he is still standing in my work area glowering at all my more recent and unfinished sculpts and creations. I'm glad you like the turtle too, I have quite a soft spot for it.

yeah... now this looks way more convincing... before it looked like a turned round table... now it says wheel^^

and actually the truth about the turtle shield i like more... even if it means i can´t get it easily by hunting on ebay... ^^ eventually i make my own^^

Thanks Vik, I was thinking the exact same thing about looking like round tables. (sorry, I read this when you posted and forgot to respond).
I'm looking forward to when you make a turtle shell shield too.

I have make another round park area with a statue for playing "Dib's Wagon of Doom". The ground is carboard with a circle of foamcore bricks. The base of the statue is EPS styrofoam, with a camel toy on top.


I'm going to be introducing a 7 and 9 year old, of a family I'm friends with, to D&D. They helped me make these dungeon tiles using a stamp I carved from foamcore. The seven year old ended up as the best at stamping them, so I let her do most of them.


I also taught them how to make some basic wodden crates from foamcore. The one on the let is my example. We ran out of time, so I painted them both.

its the DM Scotty way of terrain tiles painting !!! cool!

and i wonder who would make a statue of a camel... LOL...

The Zero Milestone Statue, Lexington, Kentucky, USA

"The barefoot Bedouin astride his camel was created in this small sculpture by William Ingram in 1926. They stand atop a granite pillar marking the official center of Lexington."

@Viktor_von_Domm: Thanks Vik, it is DM Sotty style , I'm a big fan of his. I watch lots of table top crafting including Black Magic Craft and Wylock, but DM Scotty is my favorite and I follow his style the most. As the for the camel statue, I needed a statue quickly and I thought the camel was the least useful of my remaining animal toys. But I started thinking of a background afterward, about this small village that focuses on trading was founded my a group of nomadic traders crossing the desert on camel back. So the statue is to honor those camels.

@Meer_Cat: I love how much you know. You never disappoint with having some interesting tid-bit that I don't know If I'm ever in that area of Kentucky, I hope to see that statue. As a teacher, I like that you make my blog more educational.


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It looks like there are a decent number of camel statue monuments in Asia in remembrance of the importance of the Silk Road. Statues in China, Mongolia, Uzbekistan...

Scotty is still the best followed by wyloch!

thanks meercat!!! i´m beginning to think we could never catch you on the wrong foot with one question... respect!

and of cours syro camels can always get some love and honor as they´ve been a literal workhorse for millennia^^

I'm always on the wrong foot- we were talking about amphibious assault ships, right?

 Meer_Cat wrote:
we were talking about amphibious assault ships, right?

If you prefer amphibious support ship, I could make a donkey statue.

There is a statue to the mules of the US Army and Marine Corps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Until the 1980's, there was a battery of 75mm Mountain Howitzers as part of the Marine garrison. It was transported by pack mules (not towed with a caisson) until the 1950's.

Cuba was a training/staging ground for expeditionary troops headed to the Philippines from the early 1900's until the Second World War. One of its purposes was to acclimate soldiers and critters to a warmer, more humid environment.

Thanks Meer_Cat Along with the history, I'm mentioned before that I enjoy the vocabulary in your posts and often learn new words from you. This time it was "caisson". Was Hawaii used to train soldiers too because its diverse climates?

It is now. The 25th Infantry Division is based there and they have responsibility for responding to military requirements in the Pacific AOR, as one would expect. They do a lot of jungle warfare training plus mountaineering and rappelling. Oddly, Schofield Barracks doesn't ever seem to have been a major training area for servicemembers on their way to Vietnam. That training was conducted at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri (nicknamed 'Lost in the Woods') with exercises held in a specially built training area called Tigerland. Pearl Harbor did serve as a transfer link in the flight journey to and from Vietnam.

If I remember correctly, the Hawaiian Islands and Pearl Harbor/Schofield Barracks/Hickam Airfield specifically were not more than a defensive garrison and fleet refueling center until the 1920's. Alfred Mahon had proposed his 'great nations have ocean-capable navies' theory in 1899, but the Islands were considered important for their early warning capability: surface and later air patrols could be mounted from the islands, acting as a sort of tripwire. It wasn't until the Pacific Fleet Center was moved there from San Diego- I think in the 20's- that it became a major base.

As a bit of trivia (although most of what I know is trivia): The 25th ID was sister to the (now decommissioned) 24th ID, which I served in during the early 80's. Both were created from the older 40th Hawaiian Infantry Regiment when the US Army reorganized from the regimental to the divisional model just before World War I. The unit patches featured the taro leaf to reflect their unique Hawaiian lineage: the 24th a green taro leaf in a red circle background and the 25th a green taro leaf in a red circle background with a lightning bolt on the leaf. The nicknames for the unit patches were the Squashed Slug and the Electric Strawberry.

Wow Meer_Cat, you know a lot. That's interesting and surprising about not getting much use in preparation for Vietnam. Those nicknames of squashed slug and electric strawberry are funny

Your family must refuse to play games like trivial pursuit with you

Too true. But I've taken the test to get on Jeopardy! twice and failed to qualify to get on, so there's that. For me, the more useless a fact, the better.

I am finally home! It's been close to two years since I was last home, but I have now moved back home. It feels great! I also thought I would shame a picture of the mail that was waiting for me. This was two years of purchasing miniatures (with less self control than I used to have).


@Meer_Cat: Sorry to hear that you weren't able to get on Jeopardy! You seem very specialized with huge amounts of knowledge about history. I wonder if the topics on the test were too all over the place? Either way, I agree that knowing trivia is the fun part all on its own.

Welcome home

2 years of buying and that's ALL you got …..I know I am compulsive, but that's a bad days haul for me from miniature market . I guess that you are probably better off financially than me in the long run though.

Thank Theo I know how you feel, it was painful how often Miniature Market was sending em emails to tempt me with sales. If it makes you feel any better, two Kickstarters haven't arrived yet. And I didn't include my Blood bowl starter set and Snotling team because I bought them abroad and brought them home with me,rather than them waiting for me in a mail pile.

Welcome home Syro! I'm afraid I'm with Theo, your lack of self-control for purchasing is better than my lack of self-control for purchasing.

No worries about Jeopardy, it's nice to have at least tried to get on, and whilst my knowledge does tend to be somewhat eclectic, I do show strengths in histories of various types- leaves me vulnerable to sports and current pop culture.

I see you also backed the Reaper Bones V campaign (unless my eyesight is worse than usual)- looking forward to see what you do with what you got. I've got a couple of the Yokai in the painting rotation for the near future, if I can stay on task finishing up the other things in the way/on the bench.

Get crackin', you!

Thanks Meer_Cat, it's good to be home. Sports was always my greatest weakness in trivia also. And your eyes are completely correct, that is Reaper Bones V. I got the core set and the townsfolk.

For those curious, counting up the contents it looks like it is 686 new miniatures in the picture above. I'm glad to hear that I seem to have more self control than I feel I have, but I also think I get less miniatures painted than my contemporaries. I don't know when I painted my orks and space marines (probably before starting this blog), but back in May I looked back through my blog to calculate how many miniatures I sculpt and how many I paint each year.
In 2018 I could identify 56 miniatures that I painted that year.
In 2019 I could identify 70 new miniatures painted.
In 2020 I only painted 6 miniatures since I didn't have any paint in Hong Kong at the time.
And so far this year I have painted 85 miniatures.
Ignoring 2020, it looks like I am averaging 70 painted miniatures per year, so that would take me close to 10 years to get through all my new minis at that rate kind of scary. So as Meer_Cat said, I need to get crackin'

Welcome back home, and have fun opening all that !
Is the MTG board game any good ? Might be a nice present for my brother actually...

Sweet pile, looking forward too seeing your work.

@KernelTerror: Thanks I will be fun opening them. I'm trying to pace myself, and not open things that I won't be working on for a long time, in case I choose to resell some. But I have been having fun looking at some of the models so far. I'm not the best person to ask about the MTG board game as I have only played it once. I just like the minis
My over all impression of it from just the one game was pretty good. Not great and and bad.

@Camkierhi: Thanks Cam It's hard to decide what to start with.

The roof is being replaced so for the last three days I have barely been able to get into my hobby room. I moved the contents of every storage closet that was affected by the work into my hobby room. What I have been working on is reviving and improving my paints. I was very worried that hundreds of dollars of Citadel paint would be dried out beyond repair from my unexpected 2 year absence. The paint stayed in better condition than I expected, though some are a little lumpy. I bought dropped bottles and thinner to transfer all my GW paint into droppers. That's my current project. But it's slower than I expected, I have only finished 6 so far.

It took longer than I expected, but I have finished transferring my Citadel out of the paint pots and into dropper bottles. (excluding the 8 unopened paint pots and the 5 pots of technical paints) I'm also wondering if I really don't have that much miniature paint, maybe I should be buying that instead of miniatures?


All the old paint pots

Hi Everyone, I have painted my first mini from the Reaper Bones V kickstarter and the first from that big pile of purchases I had waiting for me. I haven't actually opened up the main core set box yet, but I did look through the townsfolk add-on that I ordered. This old man really stood out to me, so I painted him first. (I don'tknow why the towsfolk are on half inch bases)


After transferring my paints, I actually went back to my old orks and started updating the paint jobs and making groups of 10 with a unified color scheme. After buying 686 new minis it's totally reasonable to decide to paint your old stuff, right?

The painting mood wafts where and when it will- old, new, it doesn't care.

Nice job transferring all the old paints- did you print new labels yourself, or can one find them pre-made somewhere? This may be a project I tackle one day, as I find it easier to work from the dropper bottles.

Nice job on the townsman, great 'medievelly' colors!

Thanks Meer_Cat, I find it easier to work from the dropper bottles too. I am glad that I made the change. Luckily the labels peel off of the Citadel paint pots quite easily, and can be reapplied to the dropper bottles.

I followed this YouTube video to do mine:


I'm trying to keep up my painting momentum, and I painted several more townsfolk. You can tell that these aren't the high detail Reaper Bones Black minis from the Kickstarter. The peasants are from the 1997 game LionHeart.


This was afailed recast of the Reaper barkeeper. His head was messed up, but looked kind of like horns, so I gave him and tail, touched up his head a bit, and painted him as a tiefling.

My latest painted mini is this old woman from Reaper Bones V Townsfolk.

Bubba Yaga?!

Heh heh, she really did turn out sinister looking, didn't she? That's a good idea to use her as, Cam

Here's two more Reaper Bones V Townsfolk painted up. The camera zoom can be pretty unforgiving on a paint job.

Welcome home!

Nice mini pile to dive into. Enjoy!

Hope you are enjoying being home again, dude! That pile of loot will keep you busy for sure - I am really trying to control my own pile but that is impressive haha!

Well done repotting your paints - I’ve moved towards Vallejo and some Army Painter stuff these days as the GW paint fun got too much for me.

Lovely recent figures

Thank you both

@Ragsta: How are you finding your Vallejo and Army Painter paints to be working for you? I have been thinking of buying myself some more miniature paint, probably Vallejo, Reaper, or Army Painter.

I've stopped painting my miniatures for a while. I planned to continue, but I am back to sculpting instead. This is because with the help of a friend I was finally able to get my hands on the Sculptember 2021 prompts. I'm excited to do Sculptember again this year even if I started 6 days late this time.

Sculptember 2021 prompts:


Day 2 Backpack


Day 1 Eye (I thought about making another eyeball monster, but instead this is the beginning of a cyclops)


Day 7 Nose (added to the same head as "eye")


I am working on a tree for Day 3 Plant


Thanks for stopping by.

That's going to be an interesting batch of sculpts. Good luck!

Off to a great start! I've always liked the idea of braiding the trunk and branches of a tree out of wire and then forming material around that to make the trunk and texture- yours is looking very good.

Rock on!

Thanks youwashock

Thanks Meer_Cat I'm glad you like this style. I've never actually sculpted a tree this way before, so it should be a good learning experience. I've planned to do this for a long time though, the wire armature has been sitting in my hobby room for years.

What's your opinion on your Bones series experience? The ones I've had fell short of my hopes / expectations. The plastic was too soft and I had an issue with paint cracking on larger models. Also had one model that is now forever sticky thanks to how it reacted to the spray primer I used.

Hi Skalk, it's good to hear from you. I've head a good experience painting the miniatures from the Reaper Bones V kickstarter so far. I have been scrubbing them with soap and water, and then painting directly onto the plastic without priming. The first layer of some of my paints beads up a little, but to my eye the second coat seems to go on smoothly. Most of my paint goes on smoothly the first coat. These are "Bones Black" figures, so there may be a difference to regular bones. Even though I have bought regualr bones minis on multiple occasions, I'm not sure I ever got around to painting any of them. When I do, I'll make a comment on this blog to let you know.

Hello, and thank you. I never know how long I'll be around but just got back into gaming for the first time since late '18 so I'm hoping for a while this time. Its cool to see how many of my Dakka buds are still going. Dakka forever.

The Bones I picked up were for a D&D campaign and to Reaper's credit they had a very nice selection of the monsters I was tasked w/ painting (I was just a PC but my DM had no hobby skills so I stepped up for the entire group). The material the Bones miniatures were made from was a huge disappointment. I think the entire range should have been named "Cartilage" because it's so soft and bendy.

Hi Skalk,

My experience with Reaper Bones V has been similar to Syro's. I think these must be a different material than those you had- the plastic is fairly rigid and takes primer (I use everything from Citadel Corax White to Krylon to Rust-o-leum, whatever's to hand when I need it) and paints without problem. Sorry to hear you had troubles.

Hello Meer_Cat, thank you for the reply and the information. Perhaps I just ran into an early batch? I did not buy direct from Reaper, I bought from eBat sellers. 100% respect to Reaper, the miniature sculpts are excellent and the metal models I have from them are welcomed additions to my collection. I'm going to revisit the Bones range based on both of your IRL experience feedback. I appreciate it.

Thanks Mer_Cat. Hi Skalk, after hearing what happened to you I've been doing some research to avoid it happening to me, or to you again. It looks like it is basically impossible to get a spray primer that won't mess up Bones, so you were right to blame the primer for that sticky model.
My main take aways from the research were:
1. Reaper says priming isn't needed, but it's a good idea to scrub with dish detergent and water using an old tooth brush the day you play to paint the figure to get off oils and dust.
2. Bones makes watered down paint beads up for the first coat only, so they suggest a base coat of thick undiluted paint before painting normally.
3. They say using only acrylic including the base coat works best, but but brush on primers should work (just no sprays), but Reaper says base coat of acrylic rather than primer is sturdier.

I plan to try this stuff out to see, I'll let you know how it goes.And you are right, Bones Black is a pretty recent creation of Reaper's. All their older Bones is the more rubbery white models. After you mentioned it, I checked and noticed that some of my bones minis like the kobolds are extremely rubbery, where other feel more like slightly flexible hard plastic. I have no idea why. Maybe they have been tinkering with the formula over the years?

I bought into the first Bones Kickstarter, and my experience matches what you wrote. Acrylic paint straight from the container sticks just fine to washed and dried bones. The earliest Bones models were pure, bright white, so I found that black gesso or white gesso followed by sepia/brown wash made the details much more visible. Human sized models lose a lot of detail in curing, but larger monsters work just fine, in my experience.

Thanks Josh, that's good to hear. it's awesome that you got the first Reaper Bones kickstarter.

Welcome back home from me too, from the other side of the globe and a little late. Anyway...
Quite a haul of minis you got there! I'm sure there are many interesting pieces there.

Moving the paints to dropper bottles was a good move.
At least I've been enjoying them for the last few months, even though moving all 96 paints was a pain.

Good work on the townsfolk!

And the first Sculptember sculpts are looking so great. Especially the backpack!

Thanks Ezki

Unfortunately, once the school year started I was so busy and exhausted that I haven't done any more sculpting. I have only done this one little project of making stirges for D&D.



Here they are before paint:

Ooh, those stirges are nifty. The aquarium plant wings are an inspired choice. The probosci(sp?) seem to be made from plastic claws of some sort, but I can't figure out how you made the bodies.

looks like hot glue? i just googled stirges ... now this is a really nice idea that goes directly on my to do list... i think i´m now on volume 3 or higher tho...

Thanks Josh, thanks Vik

@JoshInJapan: The aquarium plants are such a good idea, right? All credit goes to DM Scotty, on youtube, I almost completely copied his stirge tutorial. The little claws that I used for the proboscis of each stirge is a cut down piece of one of those dental floss picks. I originally bought the flossers to use in crafting lightning claws for Warhammer 40k. The bodies are like Vik guessed, mostly hotglue. I glued a little styrofoam ball on the dental pick, then added hot glue to round it out.

@Viktor_von_Domm: Nice guess And I'm glad you like them. Hopefully you'll have more time to work on crafting.

DM Scotty is in my opinion a modern day bob ross. his videos are always so heartwarming!

and the minute i read about the beaks i thought dental floss

I’ve got some sticky boneses too. primed them with a grey army painter rattle-can. They’re ok, I didn’t need a spanky paint job on them, just tabletop, they’re nice sculpts and have loads of character. But the material is a bit bendy and sticky. Maybe if I’d hit them with a blast of hard coat it’d help but there’s hardly any point.

The stirges are great! Awesome bit of crafting.

@Viktor_von_Domm: Good eye Vik I agree about how amazing DM Scotty is, but he's such a goofball that I have trouble thinking of him as being like Bob Ross
@theCrowe: Sounds like the sticky bones are a pretty common problem.
@youwashock: Thanks!

This post will be a little different than usual. I was looking through my Dungeons and Dragons miniatures, and found white fluffy mold growing on the goblins that I made back in early 2018. It was strange, because the majority of the goblins had mold on them and no other miniature did. This has never happened to me before, and I found it quite confusing. I'm not even sure what the mold was eating to grow, only one or two had small wooden pieces as part of them. Any ideas? Has this happened to any of you?

The goblins are a combination of GW plastic parts, cast parts made from Aves Apoxie Sculpt, and a few wooden pieces. I think they were primed with "Easy Living" decorative white rattle can primer, and mostly painted with "Craft Smart" craft acrylic paint, with citadel paints used in some places. I decided to strip them figuring that would definitely get rid of the mold. Many of the goblins fell apart while soaking, but I will build them again and paint them. Here's how they are looking right now:

Fantastic work here as always. Love that you are keeping the craft alive. DM Scotty is a bit of a hero to me, so many people could learn so much from him. Many folk on Youtube have popped up and little do they know they are showing his methods. I don't have any prob with that, but I do recognise and respect the master.

The fuzz, could it be from superglue? I have had joints go funny that were superglue and bicarbed. Not sure why some have and others not. seems to be some other factor in there. Always made me worry a little, you know superglue being "cyanoacrylate" made me think of cyanide and maybe I was unwittingly crystalizing poison?!!!! (right now DrH is spinning in his chair like crazy...)

we can all feel quite safe with superglue... the original ifo cam back then from Red Harvest, who mentioned that the original formula of super glue was developed for the vietnam (?) conflict as a means to close smaller wounds quick... in fact in medicine they still use it to day, my son got some nasty lacerations "mended" via superglue... also baking powder plus superglue ...i doubt that this could be poisonous...

 Camkierhi wrote:
Fantastic work here as always. Love that you are keeping the craft alive. DM Scotty is a bit of a hero to me, so many people could learn so much from him.

Thanks so much Cam, and I agree 100%. DM Scotty is amazing, truly the "Craft father" that people have been calling him.

@Viktor_von_Domm: I thought the super glue used in medicine was a different formula than normal super glue, no? The stuff we use in the hobby feels and smells pretty harsh to me (though I have used it on cuts before too)

Yeah I know the superglue trick, been stitching myself back together with that for years. Just funny what goes through your head sometimes.

i guess as long as it was able to stitch you back for a given value of good, the fumes were not considered... I need to ask my son... he had his chin glued together twice... and i have no sense of smell but he has...so he might be able to tell...

Happy Orktober everyone. Unfortunately I was so busy with work that I didn't get anywhere with Sculptember. Now, because it's Orktober I have gone back to painting my ork boyz. Here is a new squad of 10, made to have the color scheme of the original 4 of that color.

I had read somewhere that the first formula for superglue (cyano-acrylite) was developed int he 1950's to attach temporary gauges to aircraft dashboards/panels for test flights; they wanted something that was impossibly strong and set quickly.

By the 1960's someone had discovered that it sealed surface wounds very quickly as well, but casualties could still suffer cyanide toxicity poisoning if too much was used (probably by gluing his hand to a tank, or something).

'Superglue' trademarked product came in the mid-1970's (the guy would glue a work helmet to a lifting shackle and a helicopter would lift him away) and was supposedly less toxic.

We were using it in Afghanistan in the early 2000's for wound treatment still, and the practice only died out when newer, better products like Quik Klot and related started showing up.

Having said more than I meant to, nice Orks, Syro!

Even if it was more than you meant, I'm glad you said it all. It was interesting. Thanks Meer_Cat, I always enjoy when you post.

With work I'm moving much slower, but I am continuing to paint or repaint my orks into matching squads of 10. The are "da shiny boyz"




Thanks for stopping by

Keep up the fight against the unpainted Syro_

Cheers,

CB

Thanks CB

Ah, happy Orktober!
Good work on the boyz.

Orcs look very cool! I would lose interest very fast, needing so many bodies to have a viable army How big is your Waaagh at the moment?

@Ezki: Thanks Ezki I hope to keep up this momentum.

@Viterbi: Thanks Viterbi , I'm having a little trouble staying on task at times, but the spectacle of building up a large army is also a lot of the fun for me. As for the size of the Waaagh, depends if you only count fully painted or everything that is mostly built
I am up to 108 fully painted models (sadly many are repaints, so after painting 40 orks these last few months the number of painted orks has increased from 97 to 108 )


I have 2 warbosses, 2 big meks, 5 meganobs, 6 lootas, 5 burna boys, 4 boyz with rokkits, 3 nobs, 10 storm boyz + nob, 29 boyz, 3 deff koptas, and 2 bikes waiting for paint.


Except for 1 dakka jet, every single vehicle in my ork army is scratch built: 3 stompas, 5 big squiggoths, a gorkanaught, 3trukks, 9 war buggies, 2dakka jets, a deff dread, and 6 killa kans. The are currently all stored on top of a dresser in the bedroom, and my wife is hoping I will move them to my hobby room.


And currently on the table being worked on are these boyz with the theme of being the old spanner boys so they all have wrenches, backpacks, and various tools, etc.

Sheesh! You’re not messing around Syro_. That’s more than a rabble of loose Orks in a box. Looking forward to following the progress.

Nice project ! Waaaagh to you good sir.

Lovely WAAAGH you got there!
You certainly have your work cut out for you.

 Syro_ wrote:
The are currently all stored on top of a dresser in the bedroom, and my wife is hoping I will move them to my hobby room.

Haha, I feel you. Same story here, except a rental garage instead of a hobby room.
"That game mat will definitely not be stored under our bed, right?"
- "Yeah, ahem, definitely not"

 Syro_ wrote:
"That game mat will definitely not be stored under our bed, right?" - "Yeah, ahem, definitely not"

That was awesome.

Amazingly I had the exact same conversation with the opposite result this weekend. I had to move my mats out of her hobby space (she does wreathes and other boring stuff but I'm working on her inner nerd) and I simply had no good safe place for them. She said "put them under the bed". I was shocked. Stunned even. I had to ask her to repeat the statement. So now my mats live happily under the bed. In fact, there's SO much room there I can order more.

@theCrowe: Heh heh, thanks, I do have perhaps too much fondness for expanding my Waaagh.
@KernelTerror: Thank you
@Ezki: Thanks Ezki I don't know how far I will get before I switch back to a different project (I'm already feeling the temptation), but for "Orktober" I thought it would be good to get back to working on my orks. It would be nice to try to get all the basic infantry done, though I have a time intensive conversion planned for some of them. I feel you too, and beautifully narrated. It's tough that we are pushed to contain our overflowing hobby enthusiasm into small storage spaces.
@Skalk Bloodaxe: That's amazing, I wouldn't have expected that. It's great that she's a crafter too. I'm glad that your mats will be safe, and may be getting some new friends

I'm close to finishing another squad of ork boyz, but I admit that I am starting to lose steam with painting all of them. I took a break from orks and painted my goblins back up for tabletop use.


How they used to look


I may move on away from orks soon, even though it is still Orktober. I have felt excited by the idea of preparing some under-se encounters for Dungeons & Dragons. I started making some sand covered ruins on an old CD, and can finally base my "marine nose" sculpture from last year. While was I gluing sand, I decided that I should put sand on a terrain piece that I started in 2017, while I was at it.

Multitasking pluraliscopy!

Thanks Meer!

Here's that other group of orks I mentioned

Hi Everyone,
With Orktober coming to an end, here is a shot of all of the painted orks in my collection. I'm not going to get anymore done for a while, I expect. I don't know if I will do any special crafting for Tanksgiving as I'm exciting about making some stuff for D&D.

I think there is somewhere between 80-90 orks in this picture. 48 of which were painted or repainted in the last two months or so.

That's a right proper Waaaaagh! you have in the photo- excellent work to get so much done!

You and Warboss Wazaagh are psyching me up to get back to work myself with all the productivity you've got displayed- now if I could only get Life to cooperate just a smidge....

I'll get there. In the meantime, very well done!

Always nice to have a painted horde to crush your enemy.

Cheers,

CB

That's a proper horde right there!
When the inspiration to do something else hits, all you can do is to follow it
Happens to me all the time.

@Meer_Cat: Sadly life has a tendency to do that. In your case, life seems to channel its rage through your apartment. I'm looking forward to when you have more hobby time.
@Captain Brown: Thanks CB
@Ezki: Thanks Ezki, I do enjoy looking at the finished models. I'm excited to make underwater encounters for D&D. I'm trying to craft everything in the undersea encounters table in the Dungeon Master's Guide.

I do love me some Orks. I shudder to think how long your Move phase would take, though.

Underwater encounters eh? I imagine there’s a pretty wide variety of monsters in there to get into? Lots of tentacles and teeth. Excited to see what you and your glue gun come up with.

@JoshInJapan: Thanks Josh, and yes the move phase can take a while. I play pretty low key, so it's measure the farthest forward ork, then eyeball the rest of the movement, or even shove forward the rest in a pile if I'm impatient
@theCrowe: Thanks theCrowe. There's a decent number, but I'm surprised that there actually isn't too many monsters. Just two types of sharks, two types of evil merfolk, good merfolk, a sea hag, a giant octopus, and a storm giant. So coupled with all the terrain, those are the things I'll be working on.

Because of how much undersea terrain and minis I will be making, I decided to throw together a little display area (still WIP) for when I photograph them. It's hard to ever have any of my hobby area clean enough for photos. I also started sculpting some sharks, a fish, and a lot of kelp/seaweed style scatter today, so I put them in the display area.

That looks fantastic and it isn't even painted yet!

A phrase I grew up hearing as a boy was 'fear the man with one rifle, for he knows how to use it;. Every time I see you push the envelope of what can be done with a hot glue gun it reminds me of this. You look for ways to accomplish what you want beginning with the use of the hot glue gun- not using hot glue as an adjunct to getting to the goal.

Rock on!

What! No giant octopus, no electric eels or poison dart snails? No vampire squid or kungfu-shrimp? The D&D folks need to watch a few episodes of Octonauts!

Happy Halloween!

The pumpkin is a new sculpt, the rest is old, but I wanted to show a little Halloween scene (and I didn't have time to finish painting a new mini)

@Meer_Cat: Thanks so much Meer, I've very happy with how well the undersea terrain is looking so far. I will strive to not disappoint with my hot glue gun
@theCrowe: There actually is a giant octopus at least, I had forgotten about it. I was considering an electric eel, but that kungfu-shrimp you mentioned is tempting

That's a nice Halloween display! And really excited about the underwater stuff, it's always better under the sea

Thanks Viterbi I'm almost done with what I originally planned for Halloween, but didn't have enough time. I'm looking forward to continuing the undersea stuff as well. I hope to play a game using them.

I had originally planned to have this finished a few weeks before Halloween to use as a decoration. Then I pushed to have it done to post on the day of Halloween. Neither happened. But I have finally finished painting the Reaper Bones V Overgourd: