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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The very simple conversion for the statue

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

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


Line Breaker formation


side view


other side


backs


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


detail of Gore Plow's chain of skulls


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

They are looking brilliant bud, really good job done.

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

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

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



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


Thanks for stopping by

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

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

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

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

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

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

Original female trooper front:

Female trooper conversion front:


Original female trooper back:

Female trooper conversion back:


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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep up the great work!

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

That line breaker formation is just awesome

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

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

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

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









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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Project move slow when using PVA glue

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

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

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

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

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

Sounds like you have your priorities straight!

Thanks Meer_Cat

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

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


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


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



I attached the hawkhead


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

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