Flotsam and Jetsam

[tauster]

I tested the matte (?!) varnish on the underside of the egg. The goal was to get an obsidian-like look.



The shine is well and good, but I realized that there is not nearly enough contrast. So I drybrushed it with dark grey to get the details back:



Then a varnish over the complete egg. And then -- finished!

[tauster]

I had some floating monoliths cluttering up my desk, waiting to be finished ever since last August...

  


Washed with Nuln Oil. I had hoped for a less even effect, especially more black in the recesses... 




Rusted with orange --> finished.

[tauster]

I've got that pile of sand finished. I think...

I simply went from dark to bright whith whatever earthen colors I had at hand:

 

 

Nothing to write home about or be proud of, but that wasn't the goal. I just wanted to play around with earth colors and see what I can come up with. If I'd really dig into that (pun, pun...), I'd have to make at least a half-dozen different heaps and try different combinations, orders and techniques...

[tauster]

Those glowing pillars I started two weeks ago: Finished, more or less.









I don't really like the green color scheme, but I can always make cast more of these and try different color schemes. Purple comes to mind...

[SpielMeisterKev!]

Howdy,

Looks great...


Kev!

[pocketina]

I love these! I really want to try making some, but I don't know if I can come close to this level of craft.
The green looks great, and purple would be really cool too.

[tauster]

May 2, 2015 0:20:59 GMT pocketina said:

I love these! I really want to try making some, but I don't know if I can come close to this level of craft.
The green looks great, and purple would be really cool too.

This is just a hotglue-cast from a selfmade mold. Supersimple, even a 5-year old could do it (with a little help and supervision - after all it's HOTglue...).
And the original piece was made by glueing pencil together that I had cut at different heights, plus a little rubble for decorating the base.

In short: That's beginner level of crafting almost everybody should be able to make that stuff.

See here, here, here and here.
Plus here and here for pencil crystals.

[pocketina]

Ha ha - I am weirdly intimidated by molds and molding, and always prefer to build rather than pour, but I might just have to try this out.

[tauster]

May 2, 2015 12:01:22 GMT pocketina said:

Ha ha - I am weirdly intimidated by molds and molding, and always prefer to build rather than pour, but I might just have to try this out.

Building basalt pillars with pencils really is a cakewalk.

If you saw 'em by hand it might take a while, so that would be a bit of a scut work if nothing else, but it's definitely not complicated. If you use a motorized saw, watch your fingers (I cut in my thumb because I looked away from my hands for a second...)


And neither is moldmaking with silicone, corn starch and acrylic color complicated. It's just messy and might take some experimenting with how much of each to mix in, but basically you can't do it wrong (at least I didn't find a way to do it wrong *g*)

And the advantages of being able to make molds are just overwhelming. Having transparent (i.e. LED-compatible) casts made of hotglue is only a minor perk for me - the main advantage really is to make many pieces of something that would take long to build in a very short time, or copy stuff that you hae absolutely no clue how to build them in the first place.

[tauster]

I'm not really sure where to post the following: The inspiration came  in a fungoid context, but these thingies aren't really mushrooms. It reminds me a bit of tentacles but really isn't one. I don't want to open another thread for just one project, so it goes here, where I post all my oddball stuff.

A big Thank-you goes to SpielMeisterKev! for the inspiration of loofahs! I had seen these natural sponges before but never thought about crafting. I looked on ebay, found the cheapest and ordered several sizes (a.k.a. 'you're going to see more of this stuff in the future!') and started with the smallest.

The initial inspiration were Tyranid capillary towers. I have no idea what these do game-wise (and frankly I don't care at the moment), I just fell in love with the weird organic, grown look:




Hi res version

I won't be able to duplicate it 1:1, but that's not the goal anyway. Although it would be quite cool, as the set above repeatedly sold for almost 100€ on ebay, painted as well as unpainted!

Long story short, here's what I did so far. The whole thing took about 30 minutes from start to the last pic, (time for making the clay horns not counted in).





Cut lengthwise and create an 'inner curve'



You simply have to love that inner structure!



Glue it to a base. I used a strong cardboard disc and two poker chips for weight, but large washers would work just as well. One clay hook/horn gluet to the top, seamlessly following the outer and inner curves.



More horns on the inner curve, plus blending it all in. Loofahs are sponges - you'll realize that when your hotglue starts to simply dissapear inside the structure. Thus it's better to work with a low temperature so that the glue is less runny.



Basepaint the horglue sections with a very dark purple. The horns will be painted over later on with a bone white.

[tauster]

I got ebay-lucky recently and grabbed almost 3 dozen new, unused pots of citadel mini paints for roundabout 1€ each.
The downside was that I didn't have enough space in my paint pot shelf, at least no available space. Sure, there were several empty rows, but I had so many unfinished projects piled up in front of the shelf that they were simply buried behind that stuff. I took a day (i.e. evening) off crafting and shuffled everything out of the way. Now I have again a paint shelf that's actually useful to me:



That whole thing also meant that I have all these unfinished projects now siting straight in front of me... I'm no somebody who makes New Year's resolutions, but that was a good moment for something similar: I'll try to get most of them finished before starting any new project. I know that it will probably not hold 100%, but I can try at least.

To make work with my recently initiated Index easier, I'll include only one project per posting.

Last year in May I had all these air-filled plastic thingies, which might work as some kind of balloon:



I wrapped them up in packing tape, then draped them with whiteglue-soaked kitchen paper.

Then I lost interest in them and laid them aside. I've been looking at them for almost a year now, and finally touched the one that survived again.



The plan is to paint it with a light brown tone, then wash it with dark brown. I have no idea what to with the rigging and what kind of gondola to hang from it, let alont how to construct the whole shebang in a way that I can use a fly base, but you have to start somewhere...


[update]
Primed with watered-down light brown/beige. Next step: drybrushing with Skrag Brown.

[tauster]

This is something I wanted to try for months but never came to: A spellmarker for Animate Rope.

Animate Rope
Transmutation
Level: Brd 1, Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target: One ropelike object, length up to 50 ft. + 5 ft./level; see text
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

You can animate a nonliving ropelike object. The maximum length assumes a rope with a 1-inch diameter.
Reduce the maximum length by 50% for every additional inch of thickness, and increase it by 50% for each reduction of the rope’s diameter by half.
The possible commands are “coil” (form a neat, coiled stack), “coil and knot,” “loop,” “loop and knot,” “tie and knot,” and the opposites of all of the above (“uncoil,” and so forth). You can give one command each round as a move action, as if directing an active spell.

The rope can enwrap only a creature or an object within 1 foot of it—it does not snake outward—so it must be thrown near the intended target. Doing so requires a successful ranged touch attack roll (range increment 10 feet). A typical 1-inch-diameter hempen rope has 2 hit points, AC 10, and requires a DC 23 Strength check to burst it. The rope does not deal damage, but it can be used as a trip line or to cause a single opponent that fails a Reflex saving throw to become entangled. A creature capable of spellcasting that is bound by this spell must make a DC 15 Concentration check to cast a spell. An entangled creature can slip free with a DC 20 Escape Artist check.

The rope itself and any knots tied in it are not magical.
This spell grants a +2 bonus on any Use Rope checks you make when using the transmuted rope.
The spell cannot animate objects carried or worn by a creature.

I glued a neodym magnet on the bottom, so I can use it on whatever magnetized terrain piece I have at hand (or simply put it on it's own magnetic base). The rope should look twisting and snaking, so I used a third hand and another clamp, secured in place with magnets, to get the ropes in the shapes I wanted. Then I soaked them with watered-down whiteglue.I have no idea if this is enough to harden it, but I can always apply more glue later on.




I guess I'll paint it up, but haven't decided how. Maybe some dark brown or thinned black washing is enough to bring out the details, but it might look good to add some effect that indicates that there's magic in the ropes... Some light blue highlights maybe?

[update]
The watered-down whiteglue wasn't strong enough, so I had to apply an additional layer of undiluted glue. After drying the night, it's still a bit flexible but strong enough to make life difficult for Lady Forscale:

 

[tauster]

Discovered a new kind of pasta today. These look like giant flower pods, but I can totally see them as some kind of organic technology (metallic painting, with flames sprouting out of the opening...)

[tauster]

In june 2013 I bought a box full Alpina Color Sticks: 33 sticks for about 50 €cent per stick, shipping already included. A new one would cost about 3,50 €, which is seven times more but still cheap compared to typical miniature colors. However I haven't really tested them and compared color sticks with miniature paint pot colors, so I don't know if that comparison is a fair one...

  

They were all partially used and a few have dried solid, it it was still a good bargain. The cool thing about them is that they come in all kinds of nuances.

The problem: The took up much storage space, and I had crammed them in an out-of-sight place in the shelf. One of the most important lessons I have learned since I started crafting is that you have to keep the material in sight when you want to use it. If it's somewhere in a box, you'll simply forget about it unless you take it out regularly (which is not very probable). So after almost two years I have finally decanted most of the colors in my small painting pots.



Now I have one problem left, which is - again - shelf space. The little shelf where I keep all my small pots is full, as is every other vertical shelf space. So I will ahve to place these somewhere else, and probably in a flat box about the height of the pots. Which leaves me with a box where I can see only blue caps... Unless I'll put a dab of each color on top of the cap:

[SpielMeisterKev!]

Howdy,

May 15, 2015 13:35:11 GMT tauster said:

I can totally see them as some kind of organic technology

As well as another mushroom variant of course?

Kev!

[tauster]

May 15, 2015 18:49:36 GMT SpielMeisterKev! said:

Howdy,

May 15, 2015 13:35:11 GMT tauster said:

I can totally see them as some kind of organic technology

As well as another mushroom variant of course?

Kev!

...now that you mention it...

---

I played around some more with the animated rope:


Basepainted black


Heavy drybrush with a mustard-like color


Then a washing with a watered-down beige (no shot taken)

Drybrushed ...


...and washed with Nuln Oil



It's not my favourite piece by a long shot, but I'll declare this thingie finished. The main goal was to see what I can do with glue-soaked rope, and I learned that what I wanted to have (i.e. stiff rope) works. The next rope project will be painted differently.

[tauster]

Got some of the giant plants for my Feydark encounters done yesterday - just in time for another combatroom session.

Past WIP reports/tutorials
Here, here, here, and here


A trio of blue-glowing pants



I wanted very vibrant colors so that they out-shine the already colorful funghi.

[SpielMeisterKev!]

Howdy,

Just wondering if you were aware of this...

Fightin' Fungi

Kev!

[tauster]

Oh no. A Funghi Miniature kickstarter - and I missed it!

[tauster]

Found something on ebay that might be of great use for terrain-making: Structured rolling pins.

www.ebay.de/itm/271783593965



I got only the brick and the cobblestone variant, as I don't really need the rest of the bunch. Also, with 12.50 €  they're not exactly cheap (although as a permanent tool that isn't used up, that's OK)
The hexagonal textures might be of great use for you scifi guys.