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Post by sgtslag on May 6, 2022 19:46:37 GMT
I really enjoy seeing tropical animals' bright colors! I live in a temperate climate zone, and most animals in my zone wear some sort of camouflage colors
For the brightly colored, tropical animals, their color usually indicates they are poisonous to eat, to the majority of predators. It is kind of like Mother Nature saying, "I dare ya'! I Double-Dog Dare Ya'!!! Eat them... And die! [LOL!]"
Fun stuff. Glad I do NOT live in the tropics, though. Fun place to visit, but not my idea of a fun place to live. Cheers!
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Post by DM Gully Dwarf aka RPG Grandma on May 7, 2022 1:41:56 GMT
Yep that is the down side of the pretty colours in real life.
Fantasy setting well it could mean the same or a wizard decided to take up living modern art on frogs.
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Post by DM Gully Dwarf aka RPG Grandma on May 9, 2022 3:23:23 GMT
A future arch of doom… The spider crawls, it is heck of funny to let it loose at miniatures
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Post by sgtslag on May 9, 2022 15:59:21 GMT
As one who suffers mild arachnophobia, that might be a problem for me... Cheers!
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Post by DM Gully Dwarf aka RPG Grandma on May 14, 2022 17:15:33 GMT
Funny as heck when it scuttles over the miniatures. (Insert evil laugh) Well I am working on tweaking 2E psionics to 5E… really not happy with anything presented so far. So I am converting old to new d20 roll style. Just did the math… this is one option my other option is to use the Monk Class and use Ki as Psi energy… 4E basically does that. Kicking both around.
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Post by sgtslag on May 16, 2022 18:52:03 GMT
I played Psionics, in 1e, back in the early 1980's. Did not work well under those rules, nor did we understand that they were a Sci-Fi bit Gary added into the FRPG. I've never played psionics since those early days. I did not like how they mimicked magic spells, and the system was clunky, IME.
Also, we mixed Sci-Fi into our FRPG with the crashed space ship module, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks? My Paladin threw his +5 Holy Avenger Long Sword into the dirt, because he had found a Needle Gun: 1d100 needles, per trigger pull, 1d100 Damage per attack! It ruined our AD&D game for a couple of months. We all mutually agreed to never play Sci-Fantasy mix again. We did, however, play and enjoy our Gamma World games, along with our Traveller 1.0 games. Go figure. Cheers!
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Post by DM Gully Dwarf aka RPG Grandma on May 17, 2022 5:08:50 GMT
Gamma World, Star Frontiers and D&D where the games we played mostly. A few one offs of other systems.
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Post by DM Gully Dwarf aka RPG Grandma on May 28, 2022 23:05:45 GMT
As usual working on various projects. Naturally I have more figurines on the way… old ones, ‘cause the projects demand it… lol. I will be eventually posting them as they come in. Like I don’t have enough to mount and paint already…. I’m hopeless. I also have some book finds to post, been working on rebuilding the D&D library. Been plugging away at Role Aids and the Complete Book of series…. I already had a few that survived our trials and tribulations but just now getting some replaced or even adding ones we didn’t have in the day…. Reading through these two today… I love the cover art. This is the sort of art I remember from my youth… and yes I love the old black and white art of the old TSR stuff… Resting a bit, I really torqued the back up this work week. So mandatory day of rest… tomorrow I will be building stuff in the back yard.
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Post by sgtslag on May 29, 2022 11:18:16 GMT
I really enjoyed Role Aids. I thought they were one of the best non-T$R product lines available. Then T$R sent them one of their cease and desist letters... Cheers!
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Post by DM Gully Dwarf aka RPG Grandma on May 29, 2022 14:43:34 GMT
Yes they did some cool stuff. So I figured replace and expand…
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Post by DM Gully Dwarf aka RPG Grandma on May 29, 2022 21:17:52 GMT
Been experimenting on these 3D minis… This is the before picture… working on the guys on the left side of the plate. I am obviously not done… having issues with getting them the way I want. I think lightning and brightening the clothing is helping… I am going for a reddish complexion, so experimenting… I do think it is improving… My eyesight though, wow… I had to figure out a way to secure a magnifying glass as the Goggles were not working for me. I definitely need new glasses. So now I got that sorted I can keep improving them. These showed up from EBay… Old Grenadier Skelton men for my undead army… will be working on fixing them up. Ordered Hubby a couple old metal pieces… one is the old Death Dragon. I think he will love getting to build the old metal classic. I also got him a cool funny Skelton dude. This is what is suppose to be on it’s way… And He is a Beatles and Grateful Dead fan… so I had to get the funny Skelton dude. I also ordered for me this little piece to fix up… I think it is from one of the smaller less known companies This cool old Ral Partha… … I might have to get more little toy horses to glue bat wings onto… need a wild herd of these…. I should also do up some fairy horses too…. Projects And a pack of toy mummies… how does mummified lichelords giants sound for fun. Started figuring out what I can do with my Arch of Doom… basic idea is this… off to find Dremel, clay and foam pieces… thinking of adding little foam bricks in the grooves.
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Post by sgtslag on May 30, 2022 15:55:42 GMT
Old lead in good condition! Score!
Those Mummies appear to be soft, Army Men type of plastic. I have extensive experience painting such figures. I hope you won't mind some suggestions on painting techniques.
Take full advantage of the plastics color -- only paint the bits which differ from the plastics color. Then apply a dark wash. Minwax Polyurethane Stain, Tudor (black) or Royal Walnut (dark, dirty brown -- my personal favorite). AKA, The Dip Technique, use a brush to apply, rather than dipping the figure in the can. Let them air dry for 3+ days, before touching. They will look quite good at arm's length. Cheers!
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Post by margaret on May 30, 2022 17:21:21 GMT
Great use of the skulls from rings and the beads! Looking forward to seeing the arch after you get all the bricks / stone blocks attached. I remember that skeleton horse, although I don't have it. Still have all the Ral Partha figures that I did get, though.
I see you got at lot of sitting figures - do you have something special planned that needs those, or are they primarily for background?
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Post by DM Gully Dwarf aka RPG Grandma on May 30, 2022 19:05:44 GMT
Old lead in good condition! Score! Those Mummies appear to be soft, Army Men type of plastic. I have extensive experience painting such figures. I hope you won't mind some suggestions on painting techniques. Take full advantage of the plastics color -- only paint the bits which differ from the plastics color. Then apply a dark wash. Minwax Polyurethane Stain, Tudor (black) or Royal Walnut (dark, dirty brown -- my personal favorite). AKA, The Dip Technique, use a brush to apply, rather than dipping the figure in the can. Let them air dry for 3+ days, before touching. They will look quite good at arm's length. Cheers! Yeah, jazzed about the dragon… I even asked for a lower price and got it! Maybe only us oldsters like lead figurines.lol I do not fear the lead. Thanks for the tips on the softer plastic. I have a toy dragon I am fiddling with, soft plastic, I used a red primer on, what I may do is finish painting him up and try the Minwax on him too. I really like the red primer I used, I am definitely going to upgrade all my new painting of minis to using the primer now… in the past my primer is usually not specifically primer but craft acrylic I have handy… trying to move away from craft acrylic except for use on terrain. This is one soft plastic pieces I did already, you guys have seen it before… I plan to experiment on the toys some more this summer. I used craft paints and miniature paints on it.
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Post by DM Gully Dwarf aka RPG Grandma on May 30, 2022 19:11:52 GMT
Great use of the skulls from rings and the beads! Looking forward to seeing the arch after you get all the bricks / stone blocks attached. I remember that skeleton horse, although I don't have it. Still have all the Ral Partha figures that I did get, though. I see you got at lot of sitting figures - do you have something special planned that needs those, or are they primarily for background? I am working on creating all the sorts of background things one needs for a Village. I thought sitting peasants would be good for Tavern or bleacher seats at an arena or wherever needed... two are musicians. These are very course minis so wondering how to improve the next lot which I think are dead Dwarves… definitely different primer colour next time. Might sand them too… this lot I just went for it as they are more background pieces.
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Post by sgtslag on May 31, 2022 1:39:04 GMT
Soft plastic toy figures are made out of polyethylene plastic. Almost nothing sticks to it! Sanding can help, maybe... The polyurethane stain will break away, with careful handling, after around 10 years. Flexing limbs will cause separation very quickly.
The one technique I've never tried is to paint the figures with PVA Glue, then acrylic paint. People swear by it, but what a painfully tedious process. I paint armies, so I can't invest that much time into painting my figures. Cheers!
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Post by DM Gully Dwarf aka RPG Grandma on Jun 1, 2022 2:33:07 GMT
Thanks for that idea with PVA. These showed up today in the post… all the way from New Zealand And from Pennsylvania I love the seashell armour of the Sea Elves. Some of the chickens in the flock…
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Post by margaret on Jun 1, 2022 15:37:18 GMT
Wow, you are bringing back memories! I got that mage's workroom set for my son back in the day... He still has it =). Although I think the smoke broke off the cauldron at some point.
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Post by erho on Jun 1, 2022 19:08:13 GMT
Love the chickens! We have 6 currently, no eggs yet...
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Post by DM Gully Dwarf aka RPG Grandma on Jun 2, 2022 12:18:06 GMT
Wow, you are bringing back memories! I got that mage's workroom set for my son back in the day... He still has it =). Although I think the smoke broke off the cauldron at some point. We are going to do some paint stripping experiments on the ring… I think this set might be missing a few pieces but that’s ok. I decided to collect old stuff along with new. Memories and some of it is still darn cool. Also I like fixing up old pieces.
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