Chimera, The Unveiling

I bought this when it came out for storm of magic but I think many would argue it's more timely to post it now than back then..

Flash flare on the most good looking head why couldn't it have been on the one in middle. I've started to put this one together and the middle head isn't there yet... and it will probably continue to be that way.

I'm planning on using this as a stand in for a wyvern until my griffon gets done.

 Backside

I was a bit sloppy when I took all these pic forgot to take pics on both sides of the sprues and lots of flash flare but not much one can do at this time it's over a year ago and nothing is left on the sprues, but I hope it still is useful for somebody.

Reverse Engineering Sort Of

So here are some more in the box pics again. And no I'm not playing or planing on venture in to warhammer 40 000 ( 40k ) but I think that a large statue would look cool and I like the two headed eagle symbol.

Front of the box and of course the classy flash flare

Back of the box

Statue sprue, the backside isn't sculpted, so no you can't use the sword without greenstuffing a backside to it. There is an little electron thingy on the sword I'll scrape of otherwise I think it will look quite ok as it is.

Eagle sprue. The window haven't been filled properly because problem in casting, a bit sad but can't be bothered trying to get a replacement. Got rather poor experience with the games-workshop customer support. Had rather long email contact that promised base to my skarsnick, which came without one, but I never received anything. There are bullet holes in the rubbel that I'm going to put arrows in.

Size comparison. Old and trusty Bretonia archer from the 5th edition 1996 Bretonia Lizardmen starter set. And next to him is the statue from the Garden of Morr (in the box coming to a web browser near you soon...)

Fulcrums on Blue Tablecloth

Today we take a look inside the box again. Viz.: Eternity Stair & Dreadfire Portal. Not so timely but at the time being it was.

The box, front and back, with some professional flash flare.

Side and stairs of the Eternity Stair

With some skulls on the stairs of course.

Inside not much to see here.

Base, top stairs, platform and gargoyles.

 Bottom/inside again not much to see.

Dreadfire portal

Inside/back 

Seen some nice ideas how you can convert this set if you don’t want to use it right out of the box, I don't have any links but both The Storm of Magic and the Blood in the Badlands Books have some pics. I personally am planning on changing the pillars on the Dreadfire Portal to a archway from the old warhammer fantasy roleplay adventure game. In the Storm of Magic Book there is several eternity stairs put together which looks really cool but I'm not buying more sets just to make a taller stair. Both pieces are still tall enough to give a decent line of sight blockage. Anyway I can go on talking about conversion opportunities but this is what's in the box.

Gamers Valentines Gifts

So since it's common knowledge that it's the nerds that gets the chicks here are a valentine special on how to solve the gift without leaving the painting table.

If your good at free hand you might just paint something but that's no fun.

I gave it a try just to test. Never done free hand however. Layering seams to work alright even it's only two dimensions.












If you got some sculpting clay you could try to sculpt something pretty and then paint it.

Failed attempt tried to make the smaller hearths look like they where carved out of the large one but it looks more like an ashtray than anything else.











If you want to give away jewelry, miniature food is a thing of high value apparently.  When I saw the price tag of these in the gift shop at Louisiana in Denmark, I was rather shocked when I realized there might be money to be made in this hobby. So get your sculpting tools out and get busy.

Rings. If I remember correctly the price tag is in euro, this was 30th July 2011 so think the euro had a higher value back then.
The only info in the mounter was on a ring design by Hanan Emquies don't know if that means all thing in the mounter are of that designer or not.










If flowers are your thing but want a specimen with a bit more longevity with out need of extensive care:

This will be the flower pot. So put some clay or green stuff in the thimble and put some wire/bent paperclips in it to make the frame of the plant.

Half of my clay stuck in the thimble but no biggy. I took it out so I could prime it without spraying the thimble. I'll glue it back when it's finished.

And a link back to our birch stuff. Painted the leaves before gluing them in place since will be lots of leaves hard to reach otherwise.

When the leaves are painted, get your tweezers out, some glue and not to forget lots and lots of patience. 

Gave it a wash which also gave the leaves a bit less dry look, and gave the dirt a bit attention. Which by the way was some small pebbles and sand glued on top of the clay. Then washed down from brown to a more blacker tone. 

Really bad photo but just to show that I added a ribbon with a bow.


So there you have it hope you got some ideas.

Dice Tower

Ok now for somewhere to use this Ivy details. First of homemade then we have some bought terrain coming up, so some In The Box to look forward to.

Some material:
Packing styrofoam
Cardboard
Plastic card
Popsicles sticks
Lollipop stick
Paper clip

Tools:
Ballpoint pen
A highlighter with suitable cap
Ruler
You probably need some cutting device
for the plastic card and lollipop stick etc but you'll figure that out later on.



So the method I've used to texture the tower is rather simple. You take the cap that preferably is somewhat brick shaped and push it in to the styrofoam then you fill in the imprint so it becomes more defined and permanent, it's not the inc you want. You want to break the surface layer of the styrofoam and widen the imprint that the dull cap probably won't manage.

Then do this to the entire tower.





I got a bit carried away an forgot both to take pictures of the inside and before I painted it. I'll try to make an sketch how the inside looks.

So the inside of the two blocks is hollowed out in triangular chunks overlapping the other side making the dice fall back and forth. Then I glued them together with some white glue and some toothpicks added like pinning. Put it in between pressure for a good long drying. Then grabbed just any kind of acrylic paint. One black and one white mixed a dark grey and then just added a bit more white for each layer.



Result:

 The ugly hole was in the styrofoam from the begging  and so  deep I couldn't fix it but will cover it with a little shed.

 The output will ad a wooden door.

The input will add an wooden platform so it can have troops act as a watchtower.

 Shed. Cardboard roof, plastic card for ironworks and paperclip for hinges.
















The base for the platform will add a a removable wall/boarder that goes around the platform. and the door for the hole where the dice comes out. with working hinges.













Leans a bit forward but that gets corrected by the base.






















From above.

Failed attempt to stain the door. The superglue prevented the diluted paint to be absorbed. But you can see the added bolts/nails. I cut the blunt tip of some needles (not the kind with eyes). Then took my scalpel/ exacto knife put the point in and rotated so it carved out a little "dent" where the needle head fits perfectly.

















To be continued....

Hedera helix

Hedera helix also known as Common Ivy or English Ivy is today's topic.

It's a nice detail to your terrain piece. And not that hard to make. There is rather large selection of products to buy out there. But today we will be looking on how to make it your self.

The first you have too do is finding a birch tree. When you have found your tree you have to revisit it at the end of summer. The Catkins will bear seeds. You want to pick them before they start to drop but not to early, they need to develop their shape and start to separate and preferably dry up a bit.

Here are some Catkins encircled in blue. I dried up the Catkins a bit in the oven since I accidentally left the pot I've been collecting in out in the rain. In red the seeds, we do not want these. In green the bits that holds the seeds, we want these. Not to worry better pictures of these come a bit further down.








Unzoomed.

 I put the lot in a bin and took the scrap I could easy sort out in a separate bin.

Then with a paper napkin dragging over the unsorted bin the miniature Ivy leaves gets caught any eventual seeds are easily removed.

A the plastic lid also works with statics so the "leaves" and seeds lifts up out of the bin.













You can either glue these leaves directly to the terrain and then paint them in place or put a bunch in a bin with some paint and shake it. Unpainted they are perfect for autumn/fallen leaves for terrain or bases.  

So sorry

I'm so sorry. Hade a post that failed going up in the beginning of july explaining I was of to work and hade lotts of school work after that. Therefore not being able to post for some time. School work is still a massive pile but as the snow hanging heavy on the branches outside I feel a increasing urge to get my goblins going.

I'm running out of space on Picasa might try another service like flicker because don't want to go down in size on the pictures since I take quite poor pictures if the go any smaller it won't be any fun looking at. I want to start using light box and improving my pictures but I've got so much old pictures already so won't come in effect any time soon.

I quite like the pictures opening in new tab when clicked on but would you rather have them hover over when click on, like on The Magnificent Bastards? Never mind that apparently I have that feature enabled but you might rather like it displayed in a different way if thats the case feel free to leave a comment.

I was asked by Rafael for some fotos of the units in my armylist, but I'm sorry it has to wait since everything is tucked away in boxes. I'll get some fotos when they are out and working on to be honest it doesn't look that good at the moment anyways.

I'll try to post something more before christmas of the stuff I already done. And again sorry for the huge gap between post but I hope you understand that sometimes life comes in the way.

Ok for some pics looked through and it happens where we are in the pictures que, I'd taken some army pics just to get a feeling how much work had been done and where it was going and so. Not the pics Rafael asked for but still.
So 27 july 2011 the army was in this stage... there has been progress but not that much one might think..

Unpainted it looks quite messy with my no two models alike. Hopefully it's get a slightly more organized chaos when painted.

The empty bases represent owned models but to lazy to put up because they nog got much further than right out of the box. The trolls eg.