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Post by Erasmas on Mar 30, 2015 18:55:19 GMT
Thank you!
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sotf
Advice Guru
Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Mar 30, 2015 19:44:38 GMT
If you're wanting a lot of bits for it, the Wargames Factory Ashigaru and Samurai boxes might help with a LOT of conversions as well as extra bits and pieces for other things
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Post by Erasmas on Mar 30, 2015 19:50:10 GMT
Those are very nice, SOTF!
Thank you, once again.
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sotf
Advice Guru
Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Mar 30, 2015 23:40:51 GMT
Those are very nice, SOTF! Thank you, once again. The best advice with them is to limit use of them as full minis. The end poses take a LOT of work to get to look right and less wooden, but the pieces are wonderfully detailed and easy enough to utilize for conversions of other minis or terrain. If you're good with a hobby drill, you can easily hollow out the armor and helmets and mount them on toothpicks or similar things as armor racks. I keep planning on using a few of the pieces with some of the, I believe, Wolsung minis that are half-orcs originally, but it's just the head that makes them non-human looking, so rather easy conversion for peasants in other things.
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Post by Erasmas on Apr 2, 2015 17:28:27 GMT
So, the minis have been trickling in (as I think I said earlier). I have spent the last two nights cleaning them up, putting them together, and basing them. But, there isn't much to brag about on them thus far... so instead I'm just gonna mainly stick to the bases. However, here's a line-up of four of them (there another three that were still in flux at this point). The two pre-painted ones are Clix figures and will certainly be repainted... the Silver Samurai figure in the top right corner of the pic doing a face plant is the same. The two in the middle are from the Hell Dorado line (as are the other two pewter ones in the back). These miniatures are gorgeous and are fairly dynamic, but they are a pain in the ass to put together. They have incredibly thin parts and are very malleable to just about any pressure, and the parts do not fit together securely at all. Many of the very tiny little "nubs" did not go into the pre-drilled "dents" without some tedious filing and super-glued fingertips. But however easily the glue worked on my skin, it didn't seem to want to set on this metal for some reason. The chick in the back almost ended up having to be a one-armed NPC because of how stubborn her second arm was in regards to staying on her damn body. Regardless... it got done. The one other thing that I noticed is that the dude on the left here (standing next to the Mandarin) was exceptionally small and frail, even when compared to his "brothers and sisters" from the same line. Not sure what that's about, but he got a tall base to help offset that. So, enough whining! On to the bases. I guess I will start with the four shown above! The Mandarin is standing on wooden coffee stirrers cut, filed, and laid into a round lipped base. It's all the rage right now in Imperial China! And here, you can see Little Dude standing a top several matchsticks, made to look like timber. I kept him on his pewter "bar" to give him both extra height and added stability. And since the bar was roughly the same dimensions as the matchsticks... hopefully it'll all blend in when it's painted up. I filed off the lettering and roughed it up a little to add some "woodgrain". Next up is Bad-Assian Guard Guy. This was going to be Mandarin's base at first, but I was so pleased with how it turned out that I really didn't want his skirt covering up all of my handy work. So, this guy got it instead. These are just cardstock (the cards that the Hell Dorado figures came with). I traced a nickel (slightly smaller diameter than the inside of the base, that way there are some gaps built in) and then gridded it and cut them out. I rounded the corners and glued them all down. The green goopy stuff is just superglue... which apparently does some interesting stuff when it hits printer ink. Then we have Ed the Ninja. This idea was actually my wife's and I loved it! It is going to end up either being those vertical poles that monks are always standing on top of while meditating, or pylons in the water. This one may end up with some more added to it, depending on what I decide to do with it. It's just receipt paper glued down to cover the slot and then two quarter inch sections of bamboo skewer. Drilled and pinned on both ends. Only two more to show you at this point. Next up is Crouching Mini, Hidden Pins. If you've seen the movie, then I think you'll get what this is supposed to be. Not sure what else to add to it to further illustrate the point, but I might add some "leaves" to to pole. For some reason, she did not want to go down flatfooted on that skewer! And this one is pretty simple and straightforward. It's an Invisible Stalker... I'm just kidding. I hadn't finished sealing in the 'grass' yet, so the Silver Samurai is noticeably absent from his base in this picture. Just more of the same cardstock from the Hell Dorado guys, cut into cobble stones and placed in a path. And last but not least... these guys. These are Mage Knight Warbirds. The Asian culture in my homebrew world doesn't have very many horses; if you have one, you are incredibly wealthy. Instead, people that would normally ride/use horses do so with an Umaji... a ostrich-sized bird with a sharp beak. If you have any more of these figures and would like to get rid of them, please let me know! I will gladly take them off your hands (for a reasonable price)! I plan to add long tail features sticking off of the backs and possibly feather-y manes as well, to bring them more inline with my design for the creatures. The long black slotted bases on the left... those are for the birds.
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Post by SpielMeisterKev! on Apr 2, 2015 19:50:27 GMT
Howdy,
Cool beans dude.
Don't run out of gysahl greens or you might experience Chocobo Meteo!
Wark!, Kev!
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Post by Erasmas on Apr 2, 2015 20:10:56 GMT
Yeah, it wasn't really my intention to create a direct rip-off of the Chocobo (mainly because I was not very aware of how much of a presence they had in Final Fantasy, since I have never played a single one of the games). However, I like the concept and it'll stay... even though it's been done before. LOL
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Post by tauster on Apr 2, 2015 20:15:32 GMT
Some seriously cool stuff here! Love how you did the basings.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Apr 2, 2015 20:32:50 GMT
they had presence enough to have their own spin off games ! the one that comes to mind is chocobo racing !
in all cases, i didn't think chocobo when i saw those birds... COCKATRICES !!!!! i'd love to play a game where those ninjas and samurai actually rode cockatrices !
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Post by Erasmas on Apr 2, 2015 20:37:57 GMT
TY, Tauster!
LOL While cockatrices would be interesting... I think that it would quickly become a problem when every "horse" can potentially kill people or turn them to stone (or whatever their gaze attack actually does now). They will get a sick beak attack in place of hooves, however.
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Post by tauster on Apr 2, 2015 20:45:59 GMT
Hooves are already bad enough (they can kill people), but those beaks... *shudder*
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Post by DnDPaladin on Apr 2, 2015 20:49:46 GMT
bah, chop their head, they still run around !
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Post by voodoo on Apr 3, 2015 4:00:19 GMT
Holy $%!& dude, amazing work!! Don't ever stop crafting and posting pics! Total inspiration! EXALT!
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sotf
Advice Guru
Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Apr 6, 2015 6:09:14 GMT
If you're looking for sources of minis, Valiant has the Legend of the 5 Rings license for their old Clan War range that's slowly being brought back into production, there's also Bushido and Kensei for lines.
North Star has a few boxes sets for Ronin and Fist Full of Kung Fu that probably work extrordinarily well for it.
If you want foo dogs/lions, look for the small statues on eBay, there are a lot of them and you can probably get them to scale right if you pay attention to the measurements and compare straight sizes.
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Post by curufin on Apr 6, 2015 11:59:25 GMT
Great looking stuff. I was try thinking of other sources for Asian themed minis. I remembered that Mattel had a very short lived toy line called GUTS! in the mid 80's, and one of the series was Ninja warriors. Here they are: After looking up some statistics, it says they were between 2.5" and 3" tall. That is probably a bit tall for the 28-30mm scale (unless you have giant types in your game). Of course they could always be used for statues. Anyway, just thinking out loud. There are some on ebay right now Ninja Guts!
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Post by Erasmas on Apr 6, 2015 23:58:15 GMT
Thank you, guys. I will definitely be checking out those sources for minis... though I'm not sure if the scale on the GUTS guys will work out (but thank you for the flood of nostalgia). While giants aren't entirely out of the question for this campaign, I can't really see giant ninjas being a part of it. LOL Alright... I still haven't taken the next step with the rooftops yet, as I am both still crafting more of them and am terrified that they are going to warp like a Rocky Horror Picture Show fan (sorry for the lame joke). However, I'm still getting stuff accomplished... so all is well, fellow Crafters. I decided to play around a bit with what I had already made and see what kind of layouts I could whip up. One of the ones pictured here (the second largest piece), was actually crafted by my wife. Here is another possible layout. And with some of the minis in action atop of them. A little bonus POV shot. Apologies for the loss of retina function because of the overzealousness of my flash.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2015 0:49:09 GMT
Great stuff as always man. This thing is screaming tenchu to me. You for sure have to make some stealth infiltration missions. Might have to bust out the old PlayStation games.
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Post by Erasmas on Apr 7, 2015 3:09:00 GMT
I have never heard of Tenchu before, but there could be some elements of the game in the campaign. These rooftops are mainly for the chase "scene" for the beginning. But I am certain that they will be used elsewhere as well. Especially if any of my players play sneaky types.
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Post by Erasmas on Apr 7, 2015 18:05:50 GMT
Double post... please forgive me. But my wife brought me back about 6-8 flattened boxes made of double-thickness cardboard from her morning walk. I think... she may love me. I am now set for a really long time. Ironically, I have found my crafting zen in making these rooftops. They are easy to do, fun to make, but there are still a lot of steps to it and it takes time to do it. But usually, crafting/painting can start to hurt my back after a long while (hunching over tiny details) or sometimes gives me a headache (if something is being particularly frustrating). These, however, actually seem to help to make me calmer than I was when I sat down to crank them out!
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Post by DnDPaladin on Apr 7, 2015 20:21:45 GMT
Tenchu was an asian ninja stealth game from PSX era. there are still new games coming even today on the newest consoles. the story lost much of its appeal though.
love the rooftops, love the scene. wish i could actually use that much room for a scene. where would the player put their sheets man ?
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