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Too cute

Thanks Graven! I wanted to make them look a little like the soot sprites from the movie "Spirited Away". I was reading ahead in the adventure and later I will actually need a total of 8 animated pieces of coal, not 6 So, I have started making the next two.

Even without much time, I still managed to have a productive few hours, this weekend. I have finished making and painting Clapperclaw the scarecrow with his spare head, plus 8 Lornlings for the D&D adventure "The Wild Beyond the Witchlight". I also finished painting a halfling knight that I have been slowly adding paint to.

Very nice effect with the homebrew wash.

Also, soot sprites is what I though too. Are those pennies or washer bases?

Thank you, Mothsniper. And you are correct again. The animated coal are on washers for bases, half inch washers to be precise. I painted the washers brown because I figured my usual black for bases would make the coal hard to see.

I finished the other halfling knight. This one was slowed down because I found a huge air bubble hand taken out a huge section of his back. I added a cape.


The progress on the make guns is slow. My original plans weren't working, I threw them out and restarted. I think it's going better this time. Just like with my Plague Marines, this is my I take so long on kits

I got total soot sprite vibes! So, perfection

Thanks, Graven. I'm glad to hear that I'm also glad that Dakka has fellow Studio Ghibli fans.

Speaking of the soot sprite, the 2 extra animate coals are now complete, bringing my total up to 8.

Syro, your Lornlings and Soot sprites look both creepy and cute at the same time.
Very creative.

Thanks Tommygun

He can't be stopped!! Loving your productivity and that you are able to involve your classes too. The Animated Coal are of course Soot Sprites for me now Have you ever watched Laputa Castle in the Sky? Love that film.

You ingenuity with hot glue casting really impresses me, mate.

Thank you, Ragsta So often, I'm so tired that I try to do hobby time, but just sit and stare at everything and think, but not feel like I have the energy to actually start something. This year, I'm trying to force myself to never miss a day painting even if it's as simple as putting a single stroke of paint on a miniature, I try to force myself. So far I'm succeeding and just forcing myself to put brush to mini is enough to break the funk enough to get more than the minimum done. It's only the beginning of February, but for the amount of days so far, This is the most productive I have ever been. I hope I can keep it going.
I'm glad you enjoy Laputa Castle in the Sky. I like that one too. I feel like it's not as well known as many Studio Ghibli movies, so I'm glad it's getting some love. I've watched and enjoyed: "My Neighbor Totoro", "Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind", "The Wind Rises", "Castle in the Sky", "Porco Rosso", "Princess Mononoke", "Kiki's Delivery Service", and "Howl's Moving Castle". The only ones that I don't like are "Ponyo" and "Pon Poko".

I know what you mean about hobby paralysis, sometimes you just sit and stare.
Big ghibli fans in our house.
Last year got to see the rerelease of princess mononoke at the imax. Crazy good.

I'm glad to hear about the Ghibli fans in your family. That imax release must have been epic.

Hehe shoot sprites! brilliant. Loving the creativity, can't wait to see how the guns turn out from what you're starting with. Gibli's great fore sure, but I agree about Ponyo
Reckon Spirited Away will always be my favourite

Thanks PaddyMick, and I agree that Spirited Away is amazing. Thanks for your comment on the mek guns, there's so many things I want to work on, that I wasn't keeping up with them. Your comment encouraged me to put some more work in.

I still need to add a few more random armor plates and gubbins, but the 4 mek gun chassis are nearly complete:


One of several distractions is that I have gotten to play GorkaMorka for the first time in about 10 years. Some of my students are really loving it so far. We spent an indoor recess and a party day building and then playing two scenarios. I was too busy totake many photos.

I've been in the mood to paint fire the last few days.

Here are fire elementals and fire bats. The fire bats and the farthest to the left of the fire elementals are from Dungeons ad Dragons board games. The second from the left is meant to be a plant elemental called "pummelroot elemental" from the Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planewalkers boardgame. Third is Wizkids' Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures: Fire Elemental. Fourth is the fire elemental from Blacklist Games Fantasy Miniatures 1 Kickstarter.


9 phoenix from the Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planewalkers boardgame.

Minis looking....Hot.

:-)

looking good buddy

Thank you both I really enjoy painting fire, and find it can look good without much work, which is a plus. There will probably be more to come in the near future, unless I keep jumping to new things.

I finished painting the Gauth from one of the D&D board games.

I've been preparing to game the Battle of Lake Erie from the War of 1812. I've finally finished the ships. I'm still working on the game stat cards.

Part of my class played the Battle of Lake Erie. They seemed to really enjoy it, and wished we could play longer. As usual, we didn't get too far into the game before we ran out of day. So many players, most of which are new and easily distracted makes it tough to get through a full game. They had fun, and that's what matters.

I used the "Dawn of Iron: The American Civil War at Sea: 1861-1865" rulebook by Scary Biscuits Studios, and created my own game cards following the way the real cards' stats are made as best as I could.

From the size of the hands in the photos, I can see the "easily distracted" part- that they stay to play means you're putting on a really good presentation- rock on!

Gaming at this age, especially on historical topics, increases cognitive function and even the idea that the evidence of eyes is to be processed, not taken at face value (that there are things going on behind the face value).

My wife and I got to see the Sloop of War Queen Charlotte from the Ogdensburg side of the lake and river during a re-enactment one summer; apparently the British brought her overland in pieces and reassembled her on Lake Erie- her displacement was too much to get past the rifts that stopped a lot of ocean traffic until the locks went in at Messina, NY, if I remember correctly.

Great work all around!

Thanks so much Meer_Cat and sorry for the slow response. I've had no time or energy lately, and the few times I tried to get on Dakka, it wasn't working for me. I've glad you approve of my historic war games with my students. i really hope it's helping them learn. Their parents are excited and supportive as well.

That's amazing that you got to see the sloop of war Queen Charlotte. Even after all my research, I didn't know about the ship being brought overland like that. That's really fascinating. Thanks for sharing that with me.

Unless I get distracted on other things (which is already feeling likely), the grots are coming (and gnoblars):



I've also gotten a few of my students hooked on Wrath of Kings during recess on the days we have bad weather. I've have started sculpting a version of an expensive model for me to mold copies of for my group:

That's a massive group of grots. Any plans for scratch built tanks?

Scratch build grot tanks? Probably not. But for around six years I've planned to buy and convert these into grot tanks if I want some:
https://www.amazon.com/ArtCreativity-Pullback-Military-Vehicles-Mechanism/dp/B0883Z4M7D/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=chibi+tank+party+favors&qid=1612707640&sr=8-8

Syro_ wrote:Scratch build grot tanks? Probably not. But for around six years I've planned to buy and convert these into grot tanks if I want some:
https://www.amazon.com/ArtCreativity-Pullback-Military-Vehicles-Mechanism/dp/B0883Z4M7D/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=chibi+tank+party+favors&qid=1612707640&sr=8-8

Oh man, that's an impressive horde of grots! I'm falling down the oldhammer well just now and that excites me those wee tanks are grand!

That's fun to hear that you are getting excited about oldhammer. Any particular edition or more the models?

The tanks are of course tempting, but I have too much backlog to buy that many tanks for conversion
I've slapped a heavy wash on all by 5 grots so far (saving those 5 for monthly painting comp in April).


And I have been progressing on sculpting the Blood Engine miniature, but it'll still be a while.

I'm digging up old rt / early 90s metals. They're great for Space Gits, which is a sort of gorkamorka drinking game

Sounds cool, and Space Gits sounds entertaining.

I've gotten the green on the skin of my grots:

Fantastic amount of work done Syro- rock on!

I've got some store-bought grots floating around somewhere, to use as crew on a 1/48 scale BA-64 Soviet WWII armored car. It's 'way too small for 'regular' figures, but will be perfect for a horde of grots hanging on to every handle and projection, flying down the road.

Your mob is a raging mass of green!

Thanks Meer_Cat Sounds like you should be playing some GorkaMorka with those grots

I was interupted too many times to get any sculpting on the Blood Engine, today. However, Here is progress from the last few days: