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Post by tauster on Apr 15, 2014 4:56:49 GMT
1) Coral fits perfectly for my underdark game, as it features the Sunless Sea, an underdark ocean - thanks!
2) Desert rock formations - bingo. I have an undead-hunting campaign that's currently located in the Anauroch, a large desert in the Forgotten Realms.
Two ideas, two strikes. I like that ratio! :-)
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Post by tauster on Apr 21, 2014 12:54:57 GMT
I've covered the phallic-looking ice pillar with hotglue after all - and I like the result better then the previous look:  
I know it's a bit too late to use steal this idea, but next year there's again easter... 1) clean two eggshells 2) paint them as in the pic 3) whiteglue them on a flocked cardstock base 4) put them on a present 
I tried a new way of making fly bases: 1) take small screw caps, put a hole in. 2) take some wire and stick it through (it will get hotglued later). I coiled the wire a bit so I can use longer wire without having the flying miniatures too high above the grundbound creatures but still have some flexibility in regard of the height.  2) Put several washers in the caps and fill the remaining space with hotglue. This gives the base the required weight.  3) Decorate the base as you like. I went for rock ships (the white stuf is the not-yet-dried whiteglue).  As you can see it's not yet finished: When the glue is dry, I'll basepaint the base and drybrush it. |
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Post by skunkape on Apr 21, 2014 16:53:31 GMT
I tried a new way of making fly bases: 1) take small screw caps, put a hole in. 2) take some wire and stick it through (it will get hotglued later). I coiled the wire a bit so I can use longer wire without having the flying miniatures too high above the grundbound creatures but still have some flexibility in regard of the height. 2) Put several washers in the caps and fill the remaining space with hotglue. This gives the base the required weight. 3) Decorate the base as you like. I went for rock ships (the white stuf is the not-yet-dried whiteglue). As you can see it's not yet finished: When the glue is dry, I'll basepaint the base and drybrush it. I really like your idea of using the caps and wire for flying bases! I'll have to integrate that same idea into some of my minis! |
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Post by tauster on Apr 21, 2014 17:49:35 GMT
I was finally able to continue with another project: the ice cavern walls I started in this post. I had the choice between using aluminum foil for texture/padding and paper maché. I chose the latter, mostly out of environmental concerns. But the paper maché I used so far was made with either toilet paper or kitchen rolls - both better (or less worse) than aluminum foil energy-wise but still far from being a 'green' solution... So I tried something new and substituted the TP with old newspaper. This kind of paper is far less absorptive, but it can still be used without problems - you just have to work a bit different: 1) I took a 1 litre bucket and filled it 1/4 with a 50:50 mix of water and whiteglue. 2) I ripped the newspaper in little pieces and balled it up, then... 3) ...stuffed it in the bucket and kneaded the whole mass ( mess, actually *g*) thoroughly. 4) Let it soak for a few hours and it's ready to use. That's how the result looks:  I let it soak for about 6 hrs, and the paper was still quite fibrous, i.e. it still hadn't dissolved and could be folded apart. Which is just as well because when applying it to the cardboard, you can make some nice wrinkled textures that later look great like rock or ice. The half-full bucket you see above is enough for all the wall elements below:   |
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Post by DMScotty on Apr 21, 2014 17:52:48 GMT
I like the green thinking tauster...bravo.
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Post by tauster on Apr 21, 2014 18:13:05 GMT
I like the green thinking tauster...bravo. Actually, for me crafting green is more important than crafting cheap. I could ramble on and on about environmental topics, but I prefer to look for, try and find green(er) solutions instead of 'preaching'. Fortunately, crafting green almost always equals crafting cheap, so I don't have any conflict here.  Next thing I'll try to substitute is white glue with wallpaper paste. No idea which of the two is 'greener', but I suspect that wallpaper paste is the better solution for paper maché. Another advantage is that it's cheaper and you can prepare a large bucket full of paper maché in advance, letting it soak over night (or even several days) and then use it up in one massive crafting spree.  |
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Post by spiralbound on Apr 21, 2014 21:31:34 GMT
I like the green thinking tauster...bravo. Actually, for me crafting green is more important than crafting cheap. I could ramble on and on about environmental topics, but I prefer to look for, try and find green(er) solutions instead of 'preaching'. Fortunately, crafting green almost always equals crafting cheap, so I don't have any conflict here. Next thing I'll try to substitute is white glue with wallpaper paste. No idea which of the two is 'greener', but I suspect that wallpaper paste is the better solution for paper maché. Another advantage is that it's cheaper and you can prepare a large bucket full of paper maché in advance, letting it soak over night (or even several days) and then use it up in one massive crafting spree. You may wish to experiment with the original wallpaper / paper mache paste: flour and water. It is very strong once dried. It will set up a lot faster than watered down white glue though, you won't be able to let it sit for a day... |
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Post by beetlewing on Apr 21, 2014 23:15:44 GMT
Actually, for me crafting green is more important than crafting cheap. I could ramble on and on about environmental topics, but I prefer to look for, try and find green(er) solutions instead of 'preaching'. Fortunately, crafting green almost always equals crafting cheap, so I don't have any conflict here. Next thing I'll try to substitute is white glue with wallpaper paste. No idea which of the two is 'greener', but I suspect that wallpaper paste is the better solution for paper maché. Another advantage is that it's cheaper and you can prepare a large bucket full of paper maché in advance, letting it soak over night (or even several days) and then use it up in one massive crafting spree. You may wish to experiment with the original wallpaper / paper mache paste: flour and water. It is very strong once dried. It will set up a lot faster than watered down white glue though, you won't be able to let it sit for a day... Add salt and use less water, and you have the recipe for hard tack, which when wet is like an air dry playdoh. Once it hardens (baked and cooled), it's nearly indestructible. I've made it, and even small bits are really hard to break with your hands. Large pieces stand up to a hammer pretty good. Fun fact: There's a piece of hard tack in a civil war museum in Minnesota that's still edible after 150 years. (You usually reconstitute it by boiling in water for a long time.) |
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Post by spiralbound on Apr 22, 2014 10:57:15 GMT
You may wish to experiment with the original wallpaper / paper mache paste: flour and water. It is very strong once dried. It will set up a lot faster than watered down white glue though, you won't be able to let it sit for a day... Add salt and use less water, and you have the recipe for hard tack, which when wet is like an air dry playdoh. Once it hardens (baked and cooled), it's nearly indestructible. I've made it, and even small bits are really hard to break with your hands. Large pieces stand up to a hammer pretty good. Fun fact: There's a piece of hard tack in a civil war museum in Minnesota that's still edible after 150 years. (You usually reconstitute it by boiling in water for a long time.) Mmmm... Hard tack.... Here in Newfoundland we still eat hard tack, (we're a maritime culture), although we make it in two varieties, "Hard Bread" (original hard tack) and "Sweet Bread" (hard tack with sugar added). |
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Post by tauster on Apr 22, 2014 18:49:46 GMT
Thanks for all the ideas guys! I'll definitely try that out, although I generally don't like 'playing/crafting with food' (that's the only aspect I really, really don't like about my pasta crafts...).
I recently found a DND miniature called 'flaming skull' I hadn't seen before (...and I thought I knew them all... *g*). The design is extremely easy, so I decided to give it a try. The original:  Last year I got some skull bracelets with dozen of tiny skulls (less than 1 cm) for a few cents per bracelet, and I still have a lot of them left. I won't babble about how I made them, I guess the picture is clear enough: (neodyms glued in the bottom)  Basepainted black (not yet completely dry)  The challenge is that the color obscures the skull's details which are very flat/shallow. So I wiped almost all color away and try again later with color that's less thick (and more white than black). The contours will probably pop out nicely once I drybrush and/or wash them.
...and here's a peak at the basepainted fly bases. Giving them a second - and generous - coat of whiteglue was the best I could do: not a single grain of sand fell off during the painting (one of my previous pet peeves when painting sanded areas).  |
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Post by kokigami on Apr 23, 2014 6:26:00 GMT
I see a potential for letting some serious bugs into your home. You need to figure a way to sterilize that stuff. Then, it could make some nice cavern walls..
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Post by spiralbound on Apr 23, 2014 15:48:00 GMT
I see a potential for letting some serious bugs into your home. You need to figure a way to sterilize that stuff. Then, it could make some nice cavern walls.. No offense intended, but what difference would sterilizing it do? If his craft is made from edibles, sterilization doesn't render them inedible. Humans sterilize food all the time and then turn around and eat it without ill effect. Now coating it in hot glue, white glue. and acrylic paint on the other hand will make it less appealing as a food source. However, no matter what you make your crafts from, improper storage can lead to bugs deciding to eat it. Some insects will eat cardboard and paper, some will even eat glue - it wouldn't surprise me if there are bugs which consider paint and plastic to be yummy! :-) |
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Post by bloodchoke on Apr 24, 2014 1:56:15 GMT
Tauster, this thread is really outstanding. I wander through here from time to time just to remember all the cool ideas you've shown. So much brilliance. And I too, applaud you for being ecologically conscious.
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Post by kokigami on Apr 24, 2014 3:25:33 GMT
I see a potential for letting some serious bugs into your home. You need to figure a way to sterilize that stuff. Then, it could make some nice cavern walls.. No offense intended, but what difference would sterilizing it do? If his craft is made from edibles, sterilization doesn't render them inedible. Humans sterilize food all the time and then turn around and eat it without ill effect. Now coating it in hot glue, white glue. and acrylic paint on the other hand will make it less appealing as a food source. However, no matter what you make your crafts from, improper storage can lead to bugs deciding to eat it. Some insects will eat cardboard and paper, some will even eat glue - it wouldn't surprise me if there are bugs which consider paint and plastic to be yummy! :-) I would be more concerned about insect eggs carried inside the material hatching. Sterilization - perhaps not the best word, but I can't think of a better - with intent to kill said eggs. Badly stored terrain can certainly get vermin, but they need to reach the piece. I suspect there may be critters still in that wood. |
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Post by tauster on Apr 24, 2014 17:40:46 GMT
Tauster, this thread is really outstanding. I wander through here from time to time just to remember all the cool ideas you've shown. So much brilliance. And I too, applaud you for being ecologically conscious. thanks for the praise, but it's really not neccessary - if I would do that everytime I find a new idea, my posting activity would probably more than double.  I'm happy to give something back, because I got (and get) so much great ideas from this community. ...and it's not really brilliance (although it sure feels good to read it! *ggg*), rather than making a habit of going with open eyes through the day. It came to me rather easily because I've always been a 'hunter and gatherer' who had a hard time of throwing stuff away.  Anyways, this thread has diverged quite a bit from my original intention: When I started it, I didn't want this to be a personal gallery where only I post my ideas: Oftentimes, I keep stuff without an immediate idea of what to do with it, so my intention was to create a place where we brainstorm about what to craft out of cool-looking stuff we find in our daily lives. Don't get me wrong, there have been a number of contributions from other members here, but I had hoped that my own ideas will be only a fraction of what we'd collecte in this thread. At least that was my original intention... Turned out that it grew in a different direction - which isn't bad! - and I'm still happy with this thread. People post their ideas in their own threads, and why not? I still get more ideas from this community, and I don't care whether people post them here or in other threads. No offense intended, but what difference would sterilizing it do? If his craft is made from edibles, sterilization doesn't render them inedible. Humans sterilize food all the time and then turn around and eat it without ill effect. Now coating it in hot glue, white glue. and acrylic paint on the other hand will make it less appealing as a food source. However, no matter what you make your crafts from, improper storage can lead to bugs deciding to eat it. Some insects will eat cardboard and paper, some will even eat glue - it wouldn't surprise me if there are bugs which consider paint and plastic to be yummy! :-) I would be more concerned about insect eggs carried inside the material hatching. Sterilization - perhaps not the best word, but I can't think of a better - with intent to kill said eggs. Badly stored terrain can certainly get vermin, but they need to reach the piece. I suspect there may be critters still in that wood. Thanks for the warning. So far I haven't heard of a single case of vermin infesting organic crafting material, but I'll keep it in the back of my mind. Still, I guess that if I keep my tiles in the house (rather than in the garage or similar places), I shouldn't have a problem with vermin. |
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Post by tauster on Apr 24, 2014 18:46:23 GMT
I always loved the Screamers of Tzeentch minis... but I never found them really cheap online (I prefer to buy already painted minis because it saves me time and my painting skills aren't (yet...) on a level I'm really satisfied with (I know, this could only be changed by actually painting them, but as I said, crafting time is at a premium). The screamer's shapes lend themselves to DIY, so I'd rathe spent my gaming budget on minis I really couldn't sculpt myself. Stuff like these Night Goblin Fanatics - in my mind some of the coolest miniatures ever sculpted!  I haven't painted them myself, just re-glued one of the chains. So I don't take credit for anything here. But since I've recently misplaced Lady Forscale, one of these three will take her job in future pics. But back to the screamers. Recently I found a model on ebay that seemd to be self-made,...  ... and I finally kicked myself in the butt and started to make my own screamer. I started with a cardstock core.  ...added some hotglue (one and a half long gluestick, approx. 30 cm in total, went in so far)  ...and began to texturize the upper side:  The 'eyes' are made simply by pressing the gluegun's nozzle into the hardened glue and quickly pulling it out straight up. You can use this technique also to make great suckers on tentakles, but I guess everybody knows this trick already. What's next? - texturizing the underside - adding thorns, spikes, ridges or maybe some tentacles (or maybe all of that) - deciding on a color scheme (aquatic blue, shadow black/gray, or raw flesh) - making a large fly stand |
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Post by vestrivan on Apr 25, 2014 6:38:23 GMT
Fantastic idea. Really looking cool. Can't wait too see it finished...
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Post by dragon722 on Apr 25, 2014 13:47:16 GMT
Fantastic idea. Really looking cool. Can't wait too see it finished... I second that.... |
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Post by tauster on Apr 25, 2014 20:31:02 GMT
I had a couple of ideas what I could use to give the beast some interesting texture apart from hotglue streaks, but nothing was really convincing me. So I just played around with what I had at hand (which is a lot due to my excessive 'hunter & gatherer' habit). Here's what I did to the poor critter: - woodchips hotglued to the tail, then coated with woodglue to strengthen them - tiny 'micro beads' (see below) woodglued on between the back and the tail, just to give it some texture - some pebbles placed in 'hotglue nests' in the center of the back,... - ...and later pried the pebbles out again, leaving some 'empty nests' where the eggs are already hatched - small neodym magnet glued to the belly (not shown)  A word about micro beads: This stuff is used for nail art, and they cost next to nothing on ebay. I recommend checking out this nail art stuff - you'll find lots of cool crafting materials there, and most of them are as cheap as it gets. So all in all I'm quite happy with the results. Not really blown away, but it could have looked far worse. Still haven't decided how to paint it... |
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Post by DMScotty on Apr 25, 2014 21:21:39 GMT
My wife was talking about the hard tack, I will have to try it.
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I'm happy to give something back, because I got (and get) so much great ideas from this community. ...and it's not really brilliance (although it sure feels good to read it! *ggg*), rather than making a habit of going with open eyes through the day. It came to me rather easily because I've always been a 'hunter and gatherer' who had a hard time of throwing stuff away. 
Cheers!