Recently, I've been shown a lot of Japanese stationery in promoted ads. The Japanese do take pride in all their work, which makes it alluring. Miniature Pop-up Book caught my eye, especially. I'm not that interested in the pop-up feature, but they do make some nice templates and some really small letter stamps that could be fun. I'm very lucky to be visiting Japan in the new year, so if anyone has any Japanese ブラッドボウル recommendations that I should be checking out while I'm over there, please let me know.
Not the easiest to see, but I had a go at making a miniature Spike! I've been meaning to make some random debris for Dugouts, Stands, and such. So this is a start.
It all started when I saw this art in Gutter Bowl, confirming that the Spike Journals we are reading are also in the Blood Bowl universe. It was quite easy to identify Spike! Journal issue 13 (Khorne), with Max Spleenripper prominently on the cover.
I started by trying to figure out the scaling. I had established a scale for the pitch in a previous blog post. However when applying this scale to the models it didn't quite look right. So I needed to devise a more human-centric scale based on the models.
I found some characters that we have canonical heights for, that also have models. All three have a decent straight, standing pose, so I got some measurements from them, all in millimeters:
| Starplayer | Type | Model height | Canonical height | Scale: Model/Canonical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Griff Oberwald | Plastic | 34.5 | 1930 | 0.01788 |
| Crumbleberry | Forge World | 21 | 1295 | 0.01622 |
| Ivar Eriksson | Forge World | 41 | 1905 | 0.02152 |
The next step was to create mockups using these scales. I tried Griff's scale first; it came out very small. In the image above it is the first mockup to the left. I tried Ivar next; still small. I realised it was most likely due to the fact that these models have heroic proportions. So, I got out a human lineman, measured his hand/fist and then mine, and came to something a bit more appropriate.
| What | Type | Model | My hand | Scale: Model/My hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lineman Hand | Plastic | 3.5 | 100 | 0.035 |
Using these proportions I came up with the following:
| Spike | Height | Width |
|---|---|---|
| Real | 275 | 201 |
| Miniature | 9.63 | 7.04 |
My troubles were not over yet, though. I did a test print of the front and rear covers, then flipped the paper over and printed their revers sides. I had spent a long time making sure they would align perfectly, so I was a bit stumped when they were off by a couple of millimeters. I thought it was just because I only had one sheet of paper in the printer, so it had moved. I tried again with more paper, but alas, not. I did some Googling and found out that home printers have a randomised misalignment between prints to help prevent counterfeiting. I feel like if anyone would mistake things printed on my crappy printer for actual money, the alignment would not be the thing to be worrying about here.
This made me question if this was the end of the road for this project. Printing the front and back on separate sheets and gluing them together is not an option as the pages are already way too thick. The offset seemed to be quite consistent, though, so even though the alignment might be randomised between different units, mine seemed to be quite consistent—2mm off. So I adjusted the second page, printed it, and it came out passable. There is a tiny amount of vertical misalignment, but it will do for now.
I cut it out with a ruler.
Then I cut out the individual folios that I then folded and placed in the cover.
I never thought I would be able to fit all the pages in but thought I would be able to fit more than 3 before it started to look too thick.
It's hard to get it just right with heroic proportions. It's all compromising, with the different models having individual scale inconsistencies.
You can see the vertical misalignment at the cover, but it is quite pleasing to see and recognise the inside cover and the introduction page.
These available for download here, but you need to figure out your own printer's offset and adjust the second side accordingly, or you could only print the cover and glue it shut over a couple of pieces of paper. Front Inside
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