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Post by tauster on Jan 20, 2017 19:21:21 GMT
Glad you like it.
If I'm not completely misjudging my players, I think they will love the idea of having their personal arcane submarine. That it is an artifact of planar origin that the Netherese arcanists looted found on their planar research missions will make it stand out from the overly long list of magic items they amassed (the campaign started at level 1, now we're at level 12). And I hope the design will be an added bonus.
We'll see tomorrow. Much depends on me being able to present this as part of the city and planting the thought that this is just a cool-looking tavern. Which will be rather difficult because they visit this place explicitly for acquiring something like an arcane submarine, and this think looks, well... fishy. I really hope for a 'woah this is ours now!' moment.
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Post by tauster on Jan 20, 2017 15:18:02 GMT
...finished! 1) Several washes applied, which corrected the issue with the transition zones between rock and bone. Have to remember that washes are working THAT great when in some future project I shy away from block painting. 2) Eyes painted & varnished. I went with margaret's advice and like the result. I won't gloss varnish the inside of the mouth like I usually do with flesh tarrain. It's already a bit glossy, and that's enough for that project. What I didn't do was gluing some hidden metal scraps into tue surface, where I would be able to work with magnets to add some stuff later on. I can do that later on if I want to, and speed was essential since I need this thingie for tomorrow's game night. Hope my players like it!
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Post by tauster on Jan 20, 2017 5:47:17 GMT
Awesome bead golem! It stll looks a bit too 'shiny new'. Have you considered washing it with black and/or brown wash?
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Post by tauster on Jan 19, 2017 22:35:07 GMT
Magic wash is on my ' try this tool out!' list since virtually forever. I usually simply thin down a color until it behaves like washes, but I have no idea how much this legendary Pledge would improve their washy-ness. I never figured out what the German equivalent to Future Pledge is. Even though there is a large and well-researched article out there, I never actually pulled the trigger to buy it. ...well, I just did. I just hope this was the correct product.
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Post by tauster on Jan 18, 2017 21:54:36 GMT
Thanks margaret , I really wasn't sure many were reading my game thread. It doesn't get much feedback. Don't let yourself get discourage by lack of feedback. Feedack doesn't always come instantly - sometimes someone reads your stuff weeks, months or even years later. Remember that what we all share here is basically here forever (yes, I'd like to be an optimist, this time) and if I take a step back and look at what a humungous amount of ideas and creativity we have accumulated in this community in just a few years... Long story short: keep up posting!
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Post by tauster on Jan 18, 2017 21:48:06 GMT
Love those trees of yours. Did you add any weight to the bottom for extra stability? ...oh, and welcome on board!
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Post by tauster on Jan 18, 2017 19:21:38 GMT
Jen, be careful with mushrooms. They're another craft thingie that's highly addictive!
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Post by tauster on Jan 18, 2017 17:13:44 GMT
I'd make them a little dirtier - they look much too clean, like straight out of a book illustration. Of course this might be exactly what you wanted, it would be a good contrast to the much more realistic cave walls & grounds. So like using the Sin City style, that would work just as well if used consistently for scatter terrain.
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Post by tauster on Jan 18, 2017 17:08:53 GMT
I think I posted this in the past, but if, then it was already one or two years ago: If you want heavy bases for your standard miniatures, take a look at these round mosaic stones. www.ebay.de/itm/250807984887They're 2 cm in diameter (i.e. a bit smaller than a regular base) and due to the material much heavier (approx. 3 gr) than a regular plastic or wood disc. Sure, they're a bit higher (5 mm) , but that shouldn't be a problem. Just rediscovered that article in a bookmark and thought I'd re-share it...
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Post by tauster on Jan 17, 2017 20:40:26 GMT
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Post by tauster on Jan 17, 2017 20:25:24 GMT
The mouth is washed and only needs some gloss varnish. The bone parts have been drybrushed, and will be washed later with Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthshade or soemthing similar (basically a thinned down brown/black wash). And the rest of the beast/ship is based in thinned down black, mixed with a bit of PVA glue in to strengthen the outer layer of paper a bit more. Before the black dried, I went over it with some heavy 'drybrushing' strokes, blending some dark brown into the black, to break the monotony a bit (brown not included in the pic below). Not sure it will work out as intended, just another experiment... [edit] The black dried faster than expected so I did the first drybrushing layer(citadel dawnstone, if you're interested... but really any medium grey would do). The texture came out great, but the transition from the rock part to the bone part is... dissapointing. I had hoped that the drybrushing would alleviate the stark line between black and beige. It did, but not as much as I had hoped. Well, maybe the next drybrush layer (at least one lighter grey and then some white highlights) and the final washing (both over the bone and rock areas) will make it better. I need that thing on saturday and can't afford the time to completely repaint it... [/edit] As expected, and as so often before, I'm totally clueless how to paint the eyes. Any ideas?
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Post by tauster on Jan 16, 2017 21:35:56 GMT
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Post by tauster on Jan 16, 2017 21:10:27 GMT
Washed the upper side of the mouth cavity: There might be a game night coming saturday, and I have a neat idea how to use this, if I get it ready until then... Acquisitions Incorporated - PAX Prime 2015 D&D Game had an aaaaaesome underdark terrain set featuring a petrified giant purple worm. For the reveal, start at 45:30. My players are on a sidequest to find the arcane equivalent to a submarine, to attack an aboleth city in den Deepdark. So they made some contacts with allies, and one of them will lead them in a beholder city below the Anauroch, one of Faerun's largest black markets. There's supposed to be a dysfunctional Netherese artifact there, an ancient ... boat, in the shape of a giant anglerfish, that the Netherese arcanists captured on some planar raid, erm... adventure, well, lets say research mission. It is lacking the magic control crystal*, which is the reason nobody could use it. If it was working, it wouldn't be for sale at all. * an artifact in itself, which the players have, again with help of the same NPC, just a few days back looted from the hoard of a red dragon, being able to teleport away a split second before the enraged dragon's flame hit them.Nowadays, the giant anglerfish is used as a very small, and not very cosy tavern for visiting guests. They will arrive in the city, make some contacts (and try to avoid making trouble, haha...), get themselves a room (guess where the only free roms will be...), ask around for that arcane boat, try to win an auction where they buy it (giving me a long-looked for chance to melt their treasure by a hundred thousand GP) and then... buy the very tavern they're booked in. Can hardly wait to see their faces! Of course they won't know all that backstory beforehand. The NPC ally is quite powerful (an ancient green dragon, filling the classic Elminster role in my campaign) and will tell them only as much as they absolutely have to know for security reasons. The streets and slums of the beholder city is home to packs of cranium rats which try to extract secrets from the minds of unsuspecting visitors, which are then used as an edge against the clueless visitors in the deals they're here for. They will have to find a way of removing an artifact the size of a warehouse from an underdark cavern full of beholders, but I'm sure they'll think of something. They always do. Hope my ramblings made at least some sense...
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Post by tauster on Jan 16, 2017 20:50:04 GMT
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Post by tauster on Jan 16, 2017 20:45:51 GMT
Glad you like casting as much as I do! So after 3D printing, you start to master a second way of mass-producing stuff.
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Post by tauster on Jan 16, 2017 20:43:06 GMT
I like the repainted version much better. Youtube gives you many lava tutorials. I recommend Eons of Battle's channel. They have awesome tutorials but sadly stopped a year ago. From there, follow youtube's recommendations on the right side. Some quick findings (I didn't watch them in detail) I made some lava stuff as well (plus lots of flame-related monsters, terrain and scatter pieces). Some projects are linked in this post, though I'm sure I didn't have all. The flames and spherical flame elementals are on pages 32-34 of Flotsam and Jetsam. Lava effects: here and hereFoamboard lava terrain: Here and hereSharp-edged lava rock scatter terrain (think Crematoria from the movie Riddick): here, here, here, here and here
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Post by tauster on Jan 16, 2017 20:15:27 GMT
Looks ... cool, bad pun absolutely intended. Some winter-related stuff I made. Maybe you can find something useful there... Ice terrain effects: Here, here, here, hereRe-painting a ice/frost dragon/wyvern. That color scheme would work just as well on ice terrain And if you want to crank out icy ground by the sqm, consider investing in a textured rolling pin. You can use it also for dried-up mud as desert terrain, btw. Another way to make rock or ice walls.
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Post by tauster on Jan 15, 2017 20:26:37 GMT
I closed some of the crachs below the aluminum foil pockets with modelling paste and let it dry for a day. Today I based the whole inside with flesh color and the ridges with a mix (colos shown in the pic below, approx. 3/4 of the beige-brown and 1/4 of naples yellow. Painting the inside wasn't so bad as I had thought. There's an easy way when you have to paint tight places, but it works only when you don't have important texture details to lose: Thin your color down a bit, then just swamp the area with color. You can later wipe away most of it, but by applying a lot of color you make sure that it flows in all nooks and crannies, even the ones that you can't reach with the brush. Tomorrow I'll wash it with purple, then we'll see if I lost lots of details (I don't think so).
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Post by tauster on Jan 15, 2017 19:20:11 GMT
Wow...
That centerpiece is first candidate on my personal 'project of the year' community list, Jennifer.
Not only did you very creatively solve the problem of stability for such a slender piece, the end result also is a beautiful piece of art. It really conveys the sense of being in a cave with a small, single piece of cave. Now players and DM know the height of a cavern, which is important for things in battles like flight.
Awesome! I will definitely make one myself.
As an afterthought: I think I'll do a few more pieces and make then smaller - placed at the sides near the walls, they'll show that the ceiling of the cavern slopes down. At least I hope so.
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Post by tauster on Jan 14, 2017 12:31:08 GMT
Some progress on the first ship... It took several days for the little paper maché on the eyestalk/tentacle to dry, so I decided to continue with foil. I shaped the lower part with bone ridges and added a giant rope/tentacle snaking around the upper part for good measure, and because I want both ship designs to have some more common elements. A chestnut forms the upper eye, the lower one is an acorn. Some hotglue strings added to give it an even more organic look: I'm not sure how well aluminum foil and those welding rope would take the primer, so I'll give all parts of the ships a coat of PVA glue. Now they're drying, but I should be able to continue in a few hours. [edit] the ship description says: ...so while the glue is drying on the outside, I added some pockets inside the shell. This will be a royal pain to paint, so I start only with the prototype ship. If it's going to be really as hard to paint as I think, I'll probably paint the pockets separately on the other ship, i.e. before glueing them in, or don't make any at all. We'll see...
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