Tauster's Miniatures

[jennifer]

Jun 23, 2017 20:44:27 GMT tauster said:

Awww. I'd have to say this is the best work you've done so far

[tauster]

Thanks for all your good wishes and congratulations, guys!

Seems like we've hit the jackpot with Max, sleeping-wise. He is a great sleeper, totally different from his big brother. Which means that I might have more free time than anticipated. I was quite productive today, working on several projects in parallel.

No. 1: The Oculants got basepainted, sort of. I want them to be relatively bright colored, so I used a cheap Naples Yellow.




No. 2: Pasta time! I simply mashed together the new types of pasta I found recently and now there's three more poker chips with fungoid goodnes waiting to be painted up.




No 3: Undead pasta time! I hotglued orc skulls on those undulating noodles and made another variant of my swooping ghosts^*. Not much to see at this stage, it will get clearer during painting. 



^{* see here, here, here, here, and here for details on that swooping ghost thingie.}

[deafnala]

CONGRATULATIONS! Max is, indeed, a WONDROUS CREATION. I hope you & your Lady enjoy his growing up years...he is off to a good start!

[sotf]

Well, you've got about a year until you need to start locking everything up and toddlerproofing everything

[tauster]

Jun 27, 2017 0:03:23 GMT sotf said:

Well, you've got about a year until you need to start locking everything up and toddlerproofing everything

Been there, done that. Wasn't as bad as we feared, at least with our first kid.  We'll see... each child is different.

[sotf]

Jun 27, 2017 8:00:29 GMT tauster said:

Jun 27, 2017 0:03:23 GMT sotf said:

Well, you've got about a year until you need to start locking everything up and toddlerproofing everything

Been there, done that. Wasn't as bad as we feared, at least with our first kid.  We'll see... each child is different.

You got very lucky, I've been dealing with my nephews and niece where the oldest is 5, and a few of them have figured out how to pull the plug stoppers out of the wall and one has gotten past the protection for drawers and under the sink.

Still far better than a friends nieces who removed the bolts that anchored his deck to his house...I'm still not sure how they pulled that one off.

[margaret]

Eternal vigilance is the price of the companionship of little ones. My husband had to learn the hard way that you don't shut yourself into the garage to work on a carpentering project when your wife isn't home!

I, too, am having trouble imagining how they could get the deck unbolted, though.

[sotf]

Jun 28, 2017 15:51:34 GMT margaret said:

Eternal vigilance is the price of the companionship of little ones. My husband had to learn the hard way that you don't shut yourself into the garage to work on a carpentering project when your wife isn't home!

I, too, am having trouble imagining how they could get the deck unbolted, though.

Those two were a little bit older, I think they were 4 or 5. They were going to "camp" outside on the deck in new sleeping bags, when he went to check on them, they weren't on the deck and when he stepped out the thing rocked so he went inside and walked around and found them using the long bolts as swords in the yard.

It happened last summer, and in the middle of when that friend was playing SWTOR in a raid I was in when it happened. Heard his whole description due to the wireless headset he had on still being connected to Mumble at the time.

[skunkape]

Remember, if you have children who are not yet teenagers and it gets quiet, be afraid, be very afraid, oh and find out where you children are and what they are doing, very quickly!

[tauster]

I found some dirt-cheap styrofoam balls in different sizes on ebay (here, here, here). I immediately thought of an army of snowmen, so I broke out poker chips, metal scraps and hotglue and made a few test pieces.



I want to use them with magnetized arms so they don't have to be armed when they come into play as objects of innocent child's play.

  

I have made snowmen in the past, but have misplaced them during house moving. They should be in one of the moving boxes but as long as I can't find them, I have a perfect excuse for making some more.

I won't give them legs, because snowmen usually don't have legs. They will move Weeping Angle style. Present the party with a blizzard Once they realize how the snowmen move, ...let them roll for willpower for not blinking!

[tauster]

Magnetic weapon arms:




One got funny eyes that I 'made' (read: 'accidentally created and rescued from the bin') from two hotglue globs.




Because they would stand out too much from the head, I carefully cut away part of the face, then glued 'em in.




Here's how The Frosty Four look so far. Seems like Lady Forscale is in trouble, again.

[Sam]

Are these abominable snow men? Polymorphed ice demons? Fiends? Constructs? All of the above? Inquiring minds want to know!

[tauster]

Some nice ideas there, Sam!

When I made the first (noe lost) batch in Dec 2015, I wasn't able to get enough players together and come up with a plot for a game night. So this time, starting in summer should give me enough prep time. Evil plot ideas are totally welcome!

[jennifer]

White Walkers! Sorry, just saw the first episode of the new season of Game of Thrones last night! Excited!


Daaa Daaa Daaaaaaa Da da daaaaa.  (humming Game of Thrones theme song)

[tauster]

Jul 17, 2017 23:49:23 GMT jennifer said:

White Walkers! Sorry, just saw the first episode of the new season of Game of Thrones last night! Excited!


Daaa Daaa Daaaaaaa Da da daaaaa.  (humming Game of Thrones theme song)

Ach, my sore point. I love the series but for some reasons I'm still stuck in season 4.
So please, no GOT spoilers.

[tauster]

The acrylic white I used was very shiny, so much that I couldn't get the shine away even with Army Painter's Anti Shine, so I gave up and washed the Frosty Four plus their armaments, and hope that the shine wil go away with the washing or maybe the pearlescent drybrush that comes after that.

[tauster]

The Frosty Four are finished!



And they're up to no good, as was to be expected. Here they are seen menacing Fors and Cale, an unlikely pair of humanoid adventurers. They are being watched by The Little Doctor, an unaffilliated snowman who has a tendency to pop up in all kinds of situations, appearing throughout the ages since time immemorial.

[deafnala]

All snow is evil. When it's armed & moves around, it is REALLY EVIL...at least, to this Old Winter Hater.
The Snowmen are BEAUTIFUL & UBERCOOL creations however.

[tauster]

Glad you like it. I only hope I find the first batch before its time to do a cold-themed one-shot game night...

[tauster]

With the snowmen, I'm ready for a winter game session, but Halloween is much nearer and I need some more spooky critters to throw at my unsuspecting players. matakishi's awesome flying pumpkins (see the last pic in this post) practically forced me to do a blatant rip-off inspired me to create my own version, so here it is.





The fly stands have been made some years ago out of ketchup bottle caps, washers (for weight) and lots of hotglue. The green wire is florist wire which I rolled up into spirals. The intention is to be able to stretch them out when needed and roll them up when the flying creature is near it's base. Haven't tested them in a game (...yes, even several years after making them. So sad!), but I will soon.

The pumpkins are originally made by deafnala. He generously send me a package with some of his wonderful creations, and with his permission I made molds from some of them. No I could churn out a pumpkin army made of hotglue. So far I have only two finished and several others waiting to be painted.