Tag: work in progress

Terrain, Workbench

Scratch-Build Fantasy Village Peoject

We’re self-quarantining through the apocalypse, but I also work in social services. So, I really can’t stay home and completely avoid human contact. So, I’m building a little escape.

My spare time is wide open, so I’ll be building a village to play games in when the End Times are over. And I want to test myself in the process.

I have built a lot of terrain in my life. This time around, I’m going with peeled foam coat as a base, and using hot glue to bind everything. I already love this as an alternative to glue!

I used a pencil to carve in the details, and an emery board to smooth things out. I decided to use wood glue to seal the foam, which I mixed with black paint so I could see if I missed anything.

After getting the test piece done, I decided to paint up the front to see how it looked… and I’m really, really happy!

I airbrushed a light coat of white from an angle, then washed the whole front with a simple glaze made from cheap paint, airbrush thinner, and acrylic floor polish. I went over certain areas with a similar glaze made from green ink to age things up a bit!

Next up I’ll go ahead and finish up the base since the experiment has made me happy!

Miniatures, Workbench

Infinity Aleph Commission, part One

Anthony recently hired me to paint up some of his Aleph miniatures for Infinity! The first batch of the project was total paint work from start to finish:

Sadly, I failed to take good pics of most of the first batch, but I did get these two bots to hold still a minute:

Next up were some detail punch-ups on some figs Anthony already had. I’ve faced Ajax before, so it was nice doing something with this model that didn’t involve me wincing as it wiped out my troops! First up is the big man himself, followed by Achilles:

Miniatures, Workbench

Star Wars Legion Commission,part One.

Chris asked me to paint up the Rebels he had picked up for the Star Wars Legion game that Fantasy Flight Games just released. The figures themselves are 32mm scale, and are a lot of fun to put together and paint. For the first two squads of troops I drew some inspiration from the Art of Rogue One book:

I mirrored the colors on the second squad for the AT-RT:

And for Luke, Chris wanted something a little different, so I painted Luke up in black tones for his fatigues:

Chris wanted to do the basing himself, and the final figures really look great!

Workbench

Alien Terrain Project, part One.

My FLGS has a big Infinity event coming up in May, and I have been part of a team putting together a Yu-Jing based board for the tournament. It’s been a fun project, but I want to put a table together featuring alien terrain.

I picked up a big sheet of blue insulation foam, and started carving it up with a knife. Lots of shaping later I ended up with this:

That’s a pretty cool chunk of rock, and I sealed it in a couple of coats of Mod Podga and black paint.

Next up, I started layering in bright, alien colors, aiming for a classic Star Trek look. I also ordered a big bag of plastic aquarium plants, which really added to the overall cool factor:

Now I need to work up enough of this stuff to cover a 4′ by 4′ table by May 10th!

Miniatures

Hero Forge Project, part One

Hero Forge is a cool concept; you use the Hero Forge interface to design a custom miniature. You have a lot of control over pose, build, genre, and costume, and can select different races like cat people or lizard folk. I have always been curious about the miniatures, but never got around to ordering one.

Maren and Josh commissioned me to paint up the figures they designed for their D&D characters, and I have to say I am impressed with what Hero Forge can produce. The figures look really nice, and there is a lot of detail packed into the miniatures. Maren has an Elven Ranger character, and she wanted her to have some aquatic details. Josh has a Dragon Born gunslinger, with black scales and yellow eyes.

Impressions? Maren and Josh opted for the high detail plastics, which look great but are incredibly brittle. The figures have a little bit of artifacting from the printing process, but there is not a single instance of flash, since there aren’t any molds used to cast the figures. I decided to cut the bow on Maren’s Ranger and reinforce it with a metal rod, because I KNOW that figure is going to fall, and that plastic is far too brittle not to break. The miniatures take paint really well, and paint up just like any other miniature.

Downsides? Only a few. There are areas of the miniature that are next to impossible to reach, like the inside of the Dragonborn’s coat. Since the figure is printed from the base up, the coat hangs just like a real coat would, and getting a brush up behind a character’s legs is pretty tricky. Also, for $30, I would hope for a more durable plastic. There is a stronger miniature from Hero Forge that costs less, but the detail is chalky and looks pretty rough.

The gallery below highlights the first half of the painting process, I will post the finished figures tomorrow!

Hero Forge figure as they arrive from the company.
Great detail, lots of customization possible from Hero Forge interface.
Rough color blocks on Maren’s Ranger.
Rough color blocks on Josh’s Gunslinger.
Several shading and highlight passes, the figures are coming together! Oh, and Maren’s character has a liger companion. Great Reaper miniature!