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It looks like I forgot to post about it? But a little over a month ago, I bought the old metal Dark Angels Grand Master (Chapter Master) Azrael model. I painted him over the past three days. He's done

Nice classic space marine. Plastic minis are much easier to work with, but they lose the character of the unique individual metal sculpts.

Thanks Tommygun I agree about the metal minis.

She still needs a little more paint, but some exciting news that the giant Tiamat "miniature" that three of my students and I started sculpting and converting from a large dragon toy is nearly done. We started last school year. For scale references, the bottle of blue paint is a 2 liter bottle, and in some of the pictures there are human size D&D minis sitting on her head.

I keep losing my will-o-wisp minis, so I slapped this together in a few minutes, along with 2 magmin made from strange failures from a broken gnome mold, and a flying sword. I need these for an upcoming D&D game.

Fantastic stuff. Love the floating sword!

Thanks so much, Cam It's funny how sometimes the simplest stuff turns out the best.

My friend had another casualty in her Nativity Scenes, which was nice for me at least since I was trying to think of a good Christmas present for her.

The heads of the shepherd boy and one of his sheep were both broken off and missing (I should have taken a "before" shot). So, I added new heads sculpted on details and painted him up. I think you can barely tell there are new heads.


Also, my friend loved that I sculpted her a new Joseph last year, but I didn't have time to paint it in time for Christmas last year, so I painted him and returned him, this year.

I have finished sculpting the robed body for the extra mind flayer head and forearms that I had left over from the D&D frameworks kit.


Also it's not much of a mini for the milestone, but this animated door is the 231st mini that I painted this year,meaning that I am one mini ahead of last year's total and have therefore painted more minis this year than any other year since I started in the hobby. (I also finally needed an animated door in game).


Even with finishing 3 mini sculpts today, I am still 8 sculpts behind last years record, and have basically no chance of beating my all time record for minis sculpted in one year. The armature for this tyranid that I am starting to sculpt may be one of the weirdest looking armatures I have made.

Progress on the two tyranids that I am sculpting.

The Tyranid Zoanthrope that I have been sculpting is done. I am incredibly happy and proud with how it came out





Two WIP that I didn't post yet:



I also recently finished a squirrel folk adventurer for D&D that I will be making a mold of

I am such a huge fan of using hotglue sticks as sculpting material. That zoanthrope looks great and I think it's super cool that you used your hobby talents to repair your friend's nativity figures. What a lovely and personalized holiday gift.

Superb sculpt mate !

Thanks so much Warboss_Waaazag and KernelTerror

I got the unexpected opportunity to play some D&D on Saturday. With only a few hours warning I banged out the miniatures I would need for a new one-shot adventure. I had already taken my end of the years retrospective pictures too
The little blue guy is called a Mamura, from Kobold Press'Tomb of Beasts.

The Zoanthrope is seriously amazing! So many lovely details.

With only few hours remaining I would be able to: procrastinate, take out my paints, procrastinate some more, apply a single color to a miniature and then notice that the hours have gone by.
You managed to bang together a few miniatures. Not possible. Do you have access to time travel?

Thank you, Ezki. You're too kind. I'm surprised how nicely the Zoanthrope came out. As for banging those D&D minis, they're nothing special, but they get the job done. I think the difference is when I'm painting minis, I'm making game pieces, when you're painting, you're making art. What you produce is jaw dropping amazing. It doesn't look real, it's so good. So, I think stick with your method, that procrastination is probably planning out amazing paint schemes in the back of your mind.

Even though I have less and less time to myself, I am making hobby time more of a priority. I realize how much I need it. Plus I am a little more lenient with myself about what to count as sculpting a miniature. This was a good hobby year for me. I accomplished 9/10 of the hobby goals that I set for myself. I sculpted 58 miniatures, and painted 241 miniatures this year. I got a variety of Tabletop games in (D&D, Wrath of Kings, Live Free or Die, and 40k), I started a new 40k amry and got it up to 500+ points, I participated in more than double the amount of the monthly Dakka painting challenges, and I got hobby bingo, filling up more than 10 boxes.

My sculptures this year (some are representations for groups that I felt only counted as one sculpture/conversion)


D&D minis that I painted this year:



Wrath of Kings minis that I painted this year:


40k minis that I painted this year (minus the four Tyranids that I finished tonight):


Trees from a scenery kit:


My new 500+ point Tyranid army, last year it was a hand full of ripper swarms that I was testing out paint schemes on.


My hobby bingo card:


It's been quite a year. I wouldn't even remember that the early stuff is from this year if I didn't keep records. Next year will be even tougher to find hobby time, but hopefully I will be able to. Thanks for stopping by.

Going back to what Vik suggested, I have been working on some terrain. I finished painting 3 Ork buildings tonight.

Hi Everyone. The biggest news that I have to share is that I have taken the plunge. This is my new 3D printer. I combined all the gift cards that I got for Christmas from the generous families that I teach for and bought the printer.


The first think I printed after the benchy was a alternate model for Tyranid Hive Tyrant. I like how it looks even though there are obvious layer lines. I having bought the smaller nozzle for miniatures yet, or changed any settings. But I am certainly having fun.


I've also started on my 59 termagants. It took me about an hour to scrub all of them. I jury-rigged a contraption for them to dry on.


And have begun painting them.

Very productive Syro. Have fun with that 3D printer, but don't give up on scratch building, we are a dying breed.

Thanks, Tommygun And don't worry, I have no plans to give up scratch building, sculpting, molding, and casting.

I had a fun, productive weekend. I cast enough hot glue marines on Thursday for a tactical squad, since I am lending those molds to a friend. This weekend, I cast up the five terminators, cleaned all the flash and built the tactical squad and terminator squad. Captain and dreadnought in the works. So far,I have been getting this group done fast than the White Scars group. I've built 18 termagants so far, as well.

I still can't get over the fact that you're making space marines out of hotglue. Absolutely brilliant.

Thank you,Warboss_Waaazag It's certainly a fun fast way to pump out troops.

Not too much energy lately, but here is my hobby area and the progress of the Warhammer minis I'm working on. (D&D stuff is drying out of frame)

It's funny how a deadline can change so much, even a self imposed one. I've been plugging away at some 40k miniatures all month, but haven't quite finished any of them yet. But in one weekend I created this silly monster for one of my students who is a big D&D fan and a DM. He was writing a D&D based story where one of the characters dreamed that he was attacked by a rabid tiger with pink socks and tentacles.



In half an hour I made and painted these 3 Black pudding monsters for an unexpected D&D game.


And during an art lesson to show how easy it can be to craft robots from junk, I made an R2D2 looking little guy out of two yogurt pouch caps, a craft stick, a little foam core and scrap plastic and hot glue. (I gave it to one of my students, so you won't be seeing it painted)

What's that emerging from the darkness?


The 9 hot glue Raven Guard tactical marines are done


I have also finished 5 termagants for the Dakka monthly painting competition. Only 54 more to go

Not much time, but lots of ideas
I'm still slowly building all the termagants.

I decided to try out a free stl file of a hormagauntlast month, but the print failed, and I noticed the figure is huge compared to the actual size of a hormagaunt. I've only had my 3D printer for about month, and I don't know how to do most things yet, like resizing. But I came up with the idea to use the hormagaunt pieces as a base to sculpt on top of to make two old style Tyranid broodlords.



I'm planning to keep working on my Raven Guard force. I will be making a captain, and painting up my 5 hot glue terminators.



Thanks for stopping by.

Keep up the good work on the Tyranids. All the little guys can definitely feel like a slog.

All good all around, Syron, well done!

Depending on your printer, you may not have to make resizing adjustments there (or be able to) but whatever program you're using to put the .stl files onto the printer should let you manipulate the % size you want in some way- the same place you go to set the layer height.

Unless you have a resin printer? In which case I don't know nuthin' 'bout no resin printers.

Rock on!

@blockage23: Thanks! And yeah, batch painting a huge group like his is definitely a slog. When I finally get through it, it is a great feeling though

@Meer_Cat: Thanks, Meer. That's good to hear that I should be able to resize. It is an FDM printer. A Bambu labs A1 mini. I don't want to take any chances with the possible health risks of a resin printer. I don't have room for a wash stations, curing area, etc anyway
I just use the Bambu labs app, they make it hard to use other programs with their products.

Interesting- but I guess to be expected: that printer manufacturers would start creating proprietary software that is only compatible with their printers, and no one else's will work. I use Cura on everything from the Ender 3 I had to the Creality 10 to my current Mingda Magician.

I haven't gone really hardcore yet and learned how to use meshmixer, or similar programs that allow you to create your own stereo-lithographic files.

Good luck with your set up: there must be something in the settings that will let you change the % scale. I'll do some looking around too.

Rock on!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Hey Syro- just took a quick look on Bing and saw an unboxing video for your model- at the 5:45 mark the screen he's looking at in setting up for a print seems to indicate bed temperature, hot end temp and % size- I bet you can reduce or increase (possibly not beyond 100% though) to get the size you want.

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=bambu+labs+a1+mini+setup&mid=A35FE9BDF4308B034765A35FE9BDF4308B034765&mcid=C141C09E065240A1B3B407A48716F1BE&FORM=VIRE

Good luck!

Thanks, Meer! Though I have sorry that you used some of your very limited time researching something for me. I feel a little silly, after printing benchy, I have't looked at the littel screen on the actual printer much, and have focused on the program on my computer. I will try that percent size out.

On the hobby front, I haven't worked on the Termagants or Raven guard as I should be, but instead sculpted a giant frog for D&D and printed most of a big Tyranid model (print failure before getting to the head).

This frog sculpture isn't amazing by any means, but I am quite fond of it for two reasons. First, is that I sculpted the entire thing from scratch in a single short session. Second, I designed it to be used to create a single part "push mold", which is working nicely (three new frogs).



There doesn't see to be any recent publications or rules for it, but I remember an older Tyranid model, a scythed hierodule. I wanted one in case I ever get to play the "Imperial Armour: Anphelion Project" scenarios. I decided to print a second barbed hierodule, but print double the scythes and skip the guns. Then I would just do some converting and sculpting. I have more converting and sculpting to do that anticipated with the head failing to print, but it will be a fun challenge.

No worries Syro- research is something I like to do and I'm a filament printer guy myself, so I learn things that may help me in future. And I think it took me less than 5 minutes to find that clip and skim through to look at the settings: when you mentioned that your machine used a proprietary .stl software, I guessed there might be a setting on the printer itself to adjust for scale or size.

Good move on making up the monster you want using the printer to make multiple sets of the parts you'll need. Some printer guys forget that just because they've printed something, doesn't mean you can't still go old school and customize it- rock on!

Thanks, Meer. I'm glad to hear that it didn't take you long. And thank you,I definitely don't want to give up old school converting, customizing, and sculpting.

I have been pushing to get my termagants built. Any free time today was spent clipping,shaving off styrene nubs, and building. I'm down to only 11 gaunts left on the sprue.