Flotsam and Jetsam

[tauster]

Aug 21, 2014 6:50:08 GMT tauster said:

I have another nice idea for fly stands, but first I'll have to hunt down the materials, so I can't tell anything yet.

I was able to hunt down what I needed. And on top of that I grabbed a few AVSKILD at IKEA... *rubs hands*

Yesterday I was at a party where they had these cheap plastic champaign glasses. You know, the ones where the stand can be taken off the 'glass'? Even before I had one on my hands, I knew that would be a perfect solution for my fly stands.




I had already sawed the 8 cm clear plastic rods to size, so I just have to stick them, right?




OK, turns out the rods are a bit too slim, but that's easy to fix. Either hotglue them in, or wrap them in a little tape. I chose the latter way because I want to take them apart for better storage.




I superglued a middle-sized neodym magnet on (which, by sheer chance of luck, has exactly the same diameter as the plastic rod) and that's it.



The downside of this method is that cost: The plastic glasses were not exactly cheap (6 pcs for 3 €), but I got them in the supermarket. I bet with a bit of online research there's a cheaper source somewhere. Or you grab some leftovers at the next party (just be sure nobody watches you ).

To be honest, I grabbed them only because I like them as an elegant solution to the problem. Heck, I even could start the next gaming session with a bottle of champaign, use the feet of the glasses later as stands - just for watching my player's faces.

I probably won't need more than six because I already started crafting some. And should I ever have a battle with more than a dozen flying participants, I'll improvise.

[tauster]

Got some drybrushing done. Nothing exciting, just one of those steps you'll have to do if you don't want do have yet another project cluttering on your craft table.

I have still no clue how to paint the gnocci and babybel fungi...

---

I just stumbled over a wargaming tool on ebay:

www.ebay.de/itm/231308646724




I don't play warhammer and have no use for this, but I love the steampunk feeling. And of course the blue lightnings! I don't have an idea how to craft the metal parts (and I don't need it right now in my games), but lightling is always useful, whether in a terrain piece or as spellmarker. It should be easy to replicate this with hotglue smeared on paking (non-sticky) parchment and then painted. Hmmm.... *rubs hands*

[tauster]

I just had another idea how to make flystands...
The main problem for flystands holding large (=heavy) or unbalanced creatures is that you need either a large mass at the bottom or a large footprint, so that it doesn't topple over. A large footprint is easy to make but bad for gameplay, so a heavy base is what I'm aiming for.

Yesterday I made some heavy bases using sand and whiteglue. The stuff is still drying and will probably take another few days until I can continue with it, so in the meantime I tried an alternative way: Fill twist-off caps (or whatever caps you have around) with small stones and douse them with whiteglue. Take care to fill in not too many stones: When you later turn the cap around, it should sit flush on the table without tilting. The glue will slowly seep through the cracks and should bind everything together.

I'll glue my plastic rods on when the glue is dry, but that might take a while. I still haven't decided which side will be up, so I'll probably try both ways.

[tauster]

I've done a few air elementals / mini-tornados / dust devils, but this is several categories larger:



From the size of it, this would almost be a terrain piece. But since it should be highly mobile, I'd rather use a smaller and heavy base instead of a large area base. The flying pieces could be fastened with thin thread. Hmmm.... *wanders off, thinking*

[tauster]

ever heard of the codex seraphinianus? there's probably more inspiration in that book than we could possibly turn into stuff for our games, more than 300 pages full of beings straight from the mind of brilliant genius.

the-dimka.livejournal.com/6645.html?nojs=1

codex seraphinianus
in the late 70s italian architect, illustrator and industrial designer luigi serafini made a book, an encyclopedia of unknown, parallel world. it’s about 360-380 pages. it is written in an unknown language, using an unknown alphabet. it took him 30 month to complete that masterpiece that many might call “the strangest book on earth”. codex seraphinianus is divided to 11 chapters and two parts - first one is about nature and the second one is about people.
btw five hundred years ago there was another book somewhat like that - voynich manuscript.

[tauster]

Last update for today, I promise.

I wanted to try making boulder spheres. You know, like the famous trap in Indiana Jones. Only a bit more spikey...

I used compressed cotton balls (you'll get them in craft stores ...or on ebay), covered them with whiteglue, rolled them in my box of rock chips and left them to dry. Then I repeated the whole thing, and after that was dry, adden a final protective whiteglue layer. The pic below shows them hanging to dry.

Word of caution: Put something under the balls - they drip!




Here's one of the smallest that's already dry:




Since I don't need that many boulder traps, I'll probably use them as body parts for some earth elemental creature. Or something altogether different. If you have any ideas, please fire away!

[beetlewing]

Aug 22, 2014 19:57:38 GMT tauster said:

ever heard of the codex seraphinianus? there's probably more inspiration in that book than we could possibly turn into stuff for our games, more than 300 pages full of beings straight from the mind of brilliant genius.

This looks very interesting. I've actually thought of doing something similar before.

Reminds me of Barlowe's stuff. He put out a book that was later made into a really good Discovery Channel mockumentary called Alien Planet. It's on Netflix and is worth the watch. It's amazing how much biological detail he put into the creatures.

waynebarlowe.wordpress.com/artwork/expedition/

[tauster]

wow, those critters... just wow.

When I'm making new creatures, I often instinctively try to keep close to creatures I know, or at least with a known creature concept plus a twist or two. But this guy goes all out and creates totally new designs. So many great ideas! But the most important lesseon for me was to simply ignore what's already there in the various Monstrous Manuals and make whatever my gut feeling tells my hands. I fear for my player's characters.

[beetlewing]

Aug 23, 2014 20:05:32 GMT tauster said:

wow, those critters... just wow.

But this guy goes all out and creates totally new designs. So many great ideas!

Seriously... watch the show. They don't just show the critters... it's done in a nature show format, and they explain how the creatures' senses work, their hunting tactics, etc. it's crazy detailed and beautifully thought out.

[tauster]

Update on the rock balls:

The left one is a basic rock ball: balck basepaint, grey and white drybrushing. Pretty boring, if you ask me.
The second to the left has been basepainted yellow, then stippled orange-yellow, some orange and two different red shades of drybrushing.
The one beside it gbot lightblue basepainting. The plan is to add black drybrushing, making it look 'electrically glowing' in the rock fissures.
The larger balls will be painted only after I decide which color scheme looks best.




Hmmm,...
The firey one looks pretty decent, but the lightning ball didn't turn out as I intended. No idea if this could be 'saved' by some clever trick or if I will have to repaint it...

[voduchyld]

Aug 24, 2014 10:14:49 GMT tauster said:

Update on the rock balls:

The left one is a basic rock ball: balck basepaint, grey and white drybrushing. Pretty boring, if you ask me.
The second to the left has been basepainted yellow, then stippled orange-yellow, some orange and two different red shades of drybrushing.
The one beside it gbot lightblue basepainting. The plan is to add black drybrushing, making it look 'electrically glowing' in the rock fissures.
The larger balls will be painted only after I decide which color scheme looks best.




Hmmm,...
The firey one looks pretty decent, but the lightning ball didn't turn out as I intended. No idea if this could be 'saved' by some clever trick or if I will have to repaint it...

you should start with a white base coat, and build up to light blue, then a darker blue and finish with the black. But if you don't want to paint it all over again, you could try doing little spots of white paint in the center of those blue areas

[beetlewing]

Aug 25, 2014 12:22:15 GMT voduchyld said:

you should start with a white base coat, and build up to light blue, then a darker blue and finish with the black.

If you go this route, maybe try a coat of high gloss clear after the blue, but before the final matte black, so the blue would glisten...? Might add to the effect.

[voduchyld]

Aug 25, 2014 12:31:47 GMT beetlewing said:

Aug 25, 2014 12:22:15 GMT voduchyld said:

you should start with a white base coat, and build up to light blue, then a darker blue and finish with the black.

If you go this route, maybe try a coat of high gloss clear after the blue, but before the final matte black, so the blue would glisten...? Might add to the effect.

good idea!

[tauster]

This will be my entry for the August 2014 Mini War. Since it'll be a rather long tutorial, I'm starting now and write a bit whenever I'll have time instead of doing all in one go.

The critter has no name so far, but it will be a relative of Torog's Flying Children I finished earlier this month. It looks like a hive mother or queen, so I guess placing it in a brood nest type of cavern would be a good idea. I have a few tyranid minis that would be good soldiers for a huge swarm attack on the party... anyway, on with the tutorial!

It all started with a broken lightbulb I wanted to throw away. I always had a heart for lightbulbs because the shape has so much potential (I once made a steampunk ballon out of a lighbulb, but that's another story). Suffice to say that I have saved half a dozen burnt out bulbs without ever making something with them. I just needed the right idea. And I found it, or it found me (you never know...).



Another thing I always wanted to integrate in a craft was this type of plastic cable. I used it to protect the cables in my car against biting martens, but the ridges look so organic...




Glue those two together, add some hotglue for texture and an old Tyranid brood nest mini for the face (the same I used for Torogs Flying Children) and you have a creature concept.




Of course this concept misses something...
Tentacles! What else?

Lucky me, for I still have a box full of tentacles from my tentacle-making spree experiments of last year.



I had to remove the neodyms, but that's easily done. I glued them to the critter in a way that gives it a tilted posture, aiming for a heaving gait.



Some Tyranid Spore Mines begged to be included...



...as immature monsters, dangling from the back of the queen's sack:




Shots from different angles:


 


I basepainted the whole thing with a flesh-shade and black in the spaces between the ridges of the 'neck'.

 


The ridges got painted in bone white (not the commercial wargaming color, but something I mixed myself).



Then a red-purple washing (that I probably watered down too much and might have to repeat tomorrow) over everything. I took care not to get over the bone ridges too much, but I couldn't completely avoid some spills...

Picture with flash, which distorts the colors but is still better than my crappy neon working light... The wash is still wet, so it might look a bit different in the morning.



Next steps:
- probably a second purple washing
- painting the tyranid spores (different color scheme, but I am clueless as usual which one)
- clear acrylic gloss (once or twice) to give it a shining, wet look


I hope to complete it tomorrow, but I can't guarantee...

[wildagreenbough]

My word that's horrible, - in a good way I hasten to add

[tauster]

Thanks for the praise, wildagreenbough.

This morning I discovered that one tentacle was sagging under the weight of the cirtter's body, so I had to strenghen it. I wrapped a strong wire around, used hotglue to hide the wire, textured the 'leg' and basepainted it.




And while the color is drying, I tried videador's tutorial of making cavern floors. If you haven't already, check out his awesome sculpting tutorials thread!


What can I say - I LOVE IT!
(sorry for screaming, got carried away a little...)






I never thought sculpting this kind of terrain would be so easy, producing results that almost look like commercial products. Sure, my prototype is still quite a bit behind commercial or professional sculpts (you can see around the edges that it's not really clean), but I'm thrilled that I picked up a new skill, and one that brings immediate results to boot!

I broke out my wooden modelling / sculpting tools that I bought months ago without ever using them much and found that they're too large. My first gut reaction was looking online for a set of metal sculpting tools like in the tutorial, but then I just whittled something out of a popsicle stick, and it was fine.

 

Should I begint to sculpt more often, I'll probably shell out some bucks and buy a metal set, but for tinkering I can make my own spatula.

Thanks again videador - your tutorials opened a new door for me!

[tauster]

Here's a quick alternative to sculpting the cavern terrain: Instead of sculpting stones from clay, use real stones.


Strong cardstock and pebbles with rounded edges



First, make a 'dam' with hotglue to prevent the whiteglue from running. Flood the inside with whiteglue and lay pebbles out as you wish. You might get decent results just by throwing them in, however I decided to take some more time and carefully laid them out pebble by pebble.




Add some more whiteglue between the stones, leave it somewhere to cure and put some weight on it to prevent warping.




I have no idea how the painted end results will look in comparison - the clay is still drying which will take a few days, and the whiteglue will also take a while to cure. I'll paint both the same way to be able to compare both methods.

While the sculpting took about 1 hour, the pebble method took only about 10 minutes. Can't wait to see both end results...

[beetlewing]

The sculpted stone looks awesome! I haven't made it through all his videos yet, but I'll move it up on my list.

I've done the real pebble method before using hot glue only, and it worked great. It's on the base in my versatile temple system video. I'm too impatient to let things dry overnight lol

[tauster]

Intermediate update: The cardboard shows warping, even though I placed something heavy on top - it simply warps in the other direction (i.e. up) around the weight I put in the center of the tile. *sigh*

Lesson learned: I should have covered the complete interior with hotglue, to prevent the moisture seeping into the cardstock. Next time...

[tauster]

...ok, everything painted up, including the three Tyranid Spore Mines I used for the critter's 'young'. I tried several (simple) color schemes but wasn't satisfied with any of them, so I painted them in the same 'flesh color' scheme the mother/queen/boss has.

Next step: giving it a glossy, wet sheen


Front shot:




From behind


Detail shot of the Spore Mines




Sideways:




From the other side

As you can see, there are some very fine, wirey structures that look like veins. That's hotglue whisps. I never remove all of them, leaving some behind for exactly that purpose.

---

Thrift store haul!

...well, not exactly haul, as I got only two things. I could have taken more, but... I have myself under control. At least that's what I always tell me.


A kitchen sink mat that whose texture will make a great dungeon piece, similar to the round one I made some time ago.
(see here, here and here)





Plus:
A miniature koi (down from 3€  to 1.40€). I was tempted to grab more than one, but my players just conquered a Kuo Toa town* and are now headed down deeper in the underdark to go against a whole city of aboleth. I don't think throwing a battle against a handful of giant karp at them will really impress them, so this will become a wandering monster encounter during their time on/below the Sunless Sea.

I am a bit tempted though to behead the thing, give it a bended neck and add legs and arms, to make a Kuo Toa leviathan (I'm not sure they could walk, but it would be a nice touch).

* we're playing ADnD's Night Below boxed campaign setting.



Not sure how I'll color it; probably a dark greenish-blue with a glossy varnish. I hope the silvery sheen will shine through!