New Mini!

New mini!

This is Atropos, a half elf (?) bard, painted for Yoshikagequeens' character in an upcoming campaign! Atropos will be in the same party as Frix! I'm looking forward to it.

I'm weirdly chuffed with my choice of dark red for his pants, and I think the highlights along the creases look really good. I also got the opportunity to finally properly use some of the colour shift paint I got like half a year ago, to put some glitter in his hair, so that's neat. I put the colour shift just in the parts and underside of his hair, to kind of make it looks like some sort of underlayer shining through. I really like the effect in person, seeing the glitter shift as you move your viewpoint is quite cool! Photos don't really do it justice.

My least favourite bit of this mini is the base. I shoved a generic column into a generic base, rather than using the desk base that comes with the stl for this mini. I wanted to push the character more into bard territory, rather than the professor character it's originally meant to be. I think it works for that, and I like the column he's leaning on, but the ground of the base is just a bit too plain. I put some cracks in it with an Exacto blade and added some cut up grass tufts to give it a bit of texture, but it's still not quite right. In the end, I just had to stop fiddling with it before I made it worse.

It's a learning experience to remember next time I try and make a custom base though, gotta remember to have texture or something on there.

The mini used here is Professor Syiva, by Twin Goddess Miniatures.

The column used on the base is Socket Pillar, by Phillip Meys.

Finished painting this neat sculpt of Samus the other day!

I just did a fairly simple paint job on this one. Partly because I think it works well for the video game kinda look, and partly because I'd forgotten how poorly my orange and yellow paints cover, and I decided I wanted to deal with that as little as possible. I think it turned out pretty well though, the dark wash I put in the seams of the armour panels really helps make up for the lack of highlighting.

Theres a bit of an attempt at a glow effect in the barrel of her arm cannon, and on the bits of her armour mid-assembly. Its not amazing or anything, but I think you can kind of see what I was going for with it. Having lighting effects beyond just highlighting from above is something I've mostly avoided in my painting so far, but its somethign I want to start playing with. Its a bit daunting, but I think it will be rewarding if I can get it down.

I also realised as I was painting this that I've never actually played a metroid game. The most direct exposure I think I've ever had was watching one of my cousins play one of the games on his Gameboy at christmas. I feel like this is something I should rectify at some point.

This neat model is Samus Aran - Metroid - 25cm model by Printed Obsession. (The print pictured above is scaled down from 25cm to fit with my other prints).

BOO! Spooked yah, right? Don't worry, these ghosts aren't real, just miniatures. :P

I mentioned in a previous post that I found I could dye clear resin prints colours with alchohol inks, and these ghosts are actually what I figured that out on!

I did these quite a while back, but then I left them for a few weeks until I made some bases, and then I left them sitting in my light box for a couple more weeks before actually taking these photos, because for some reason I really just didn't want to. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

the transparent ghostly effect is cool, but I also really like the bases I did for them too. This was me trying out adding little extra bits to them, going for a bit of a haunted manor theme. I'm pretty happy with it on the whole, although I think the beer mug and the pot are just a bit too big and attention grabbing. I really want the focus to be on the mini, with the base elements blending in more. I am quite happy with how the kitchen tile bases came out too. I started out trying to freehand sculpt them out of greenstuff, then when I figured out that I am not by any means a compenent enough sculptor to make that work, I quickly designed and printed a little tile impression jig to make clean, straight tiles for me. I made and printed it fast enough that I didn't waste my greenstuff, so thats pretty cool I think.

On the whole, I'm happy to have these translucent spooky ghosts in my collection.

Miniatures in this post are made by:

Townfolks ghost male and Townfolks ghost female by Titan Forge Miniatures.

Ghost by Great Grimoire.

Base in this post are made by:

Gothic Tombstones by Medusa Miniatures.

Table Scatter, Extra Dining Items, Books, Piles & Rows by Darkest Desire.

Candle Holders by Pellinor.

New Character, wooo!

This is Frix, my Goblin Alchemist for a Wild beyond the Witchlight game I get to play in soon! (HYPE!)

This is one of those prints that I came across while browsing and just knew I had to print, so its quite lucky that I had a game coming up that I needed a character for!

Frix was really fun to paint, and I love how dynamic the pose is. I'm really proud of how the hair and ear-tips came out, I haven't had a lot of practice with gradients but these just look good!

I'm less happy with how her clothes turned out. I made the mistake of finishing off with a dark wash over them, and then assembling the mini without taking the mini out of my bright work light to check it, so I didn't realise how dark those coveralls were. In the photos, with the bright light from my lightbox they're pretty close to what I was seeing while painting, but in my normal room lights the colour just blends in with the boots.

The base for this mini was also quite fun to paint, having that tankard reacting to the motion of the mini is a really cool detail.

This mini is Knox the Goblin Alchemist by Twin Goddess Miniatures.

Yarrr!

I've been painting this awesome pirate figure over the past week. I've been trying to get myself back into the habit of painting consistently over the week, rather than waiting for 'the perfect time' (which never comes), because my pile of shame is growing at a concerning rate.

This was a really fun model to paint, with some great details. Though I did get slowed down a bit trying to figure out how to navigate the tip of my brush into some areas. Theres a lot of semi enclosed spaces with awkward positioning, and in the end I left a few spots unpainted. You can't see them without turning the model upside down and at odd angles anyway, so I've decided to just not care, and save myself the hand cramps.

Besides just being a fun model to paint, it was also a chance to play around with how I paint metalics a bit. Theres so much dark metal involved in the cannon that I didn't want to just paint it all with a solid metal colour. And while I do want to try my hand at painting non-metalic metal at some point, I don't quite have the confidence and patience for it just yet. So instead I tried out painting the bits I wanted in a dark-steel/iron colour with straight black paint, and then just drybrushing dark silver metalic paint over it, and it worked beautifully. It really helps the metal look a bit more beaten and dull, its only shining on the edges and ridges, where its maybe been polished a bit by rubbing against its environment. This is a technique I'm going to try and remember in the future.

For all the other metals on this piece I just did straight metalic paint, and I just love how the gold contrasts with the reds and browns its up against!

I'm also really happy with the skin. It wasn't that long ago that I dreaded painting skin and always hated how I made it look, but now its one of my favourite things to paint! Getting to play with skin tones and highlighting them is just fun! I've still got room for improvement with where I place my highlights, but I can see progress in every mini I paint, which is really rewarding!

This figure is Miss V. Gomez , by Cast n Play.

I got asked about how I did my resin sharks, and I've had an octopus sitting on my shelf for ages waiting for the same resin treatment, so I figured I'd kill to birds with one stone, and take some pictures explaining the process!

Here I've got the octopus I'll be casting in resin, and a thick cylinder with the same diamater to the base we're using.

I 3d print my bases, so getting this cylinder was simple for me. I just 3d printed a thicker version of the base and called it good. If you're using a store bought base, you can probably just stack a few of them on top of one another and tape them together to make a cylinder. You only need about 2-3cm of thickness.

I've also put just a teeny bit of blutack on the cyilnder, to keep the base from shifting around while I do the next step.

Step 1:

Put the cylinder on the base, and tape them together like so. Make sure that the tape forms a tight seal around the top of the base. This is to stop any leaking resin from getting between the base and the cylinder and sticking them together. If enough gets in there and sets, they won't be coming apart.

(Also, be sure that any basing material or bits of the mini don't extend out over the side of the base, that will also cause problems with making a tight seal).

Step 2:

Now we're going to need a laminating pouch. I use A3 sized pouches, but for something this size you could get away with A4 easily enough. You should be able to find packs these from any office supply store for fairly cheap.

Cut the pouch were it joins together, so you have two sheets of plastic.

There should be a glossy and matte side, take note of which is which. The glossy side needs to end up on the inside of the dam we're making, so that the resin turns out smooth and see through. Be careful while handling these sheets, as any creases or dents will show up in the final product.

Determine how deep you want your resin to be, and mark that depth on the sheet. Don't forget to factor in the depth of the cylinder attatched to the base of the mini for this.

Here, I want this octopus to be the same size as my sharks, so I'm using one as a reference.

Make a quick mark at the height you want (on the non-glossy side of the laminating pouch), then cut the sheet about 1-2 centimetres higher than that. It doesn't have to be particularly neat.

This is the sort of thing we're going for.

(Apologies for the background, its kinda hard to get a good picture of something transparent :p ).

Note that we've got a neat, straight edge along the bottom, unlike the top where it was cut. So long as you have one edge that is neat and straight, you're all good to continue.

Step 3:

Take a small strip of tape, and attatch it to the matte side of the sheet. Then take the base and cylinder, and line the bottom of the base up along the long, straight edge of the sheet.

Carefully roll the base onto the tape, so that the bottom of the cylinder and sheet are flush with one another.

Be careful where you do this on the base, as there will be a small seam in the resin along the edge of the sheet going up from here. I've put mine at the back of my octopus, so it doesn't get in the way of looking at it front-on.

Step 4:

The sheet is long enough to wrap around the base with quite a bit of overlap, which we don't want. So before continuing, quickly wrap the sheet around the base, and find where it will overlap. Cut the sheet so there is only about a centimetre of overlap when it is wrapped around the base.

Then carefully wrap the sheet around the base, keeping the edge of the sheet flush with the bottom of the base. Make sure the sheet is wrapped firmly around the base, and is forming a straight tube, not a funnel. Use a small strip of tape to fix it in place.

Double check now that the glossy side of the laminating sheet is on the interior of this tube. If it isn't, undo all this and start over.

Step 5:

Now take a long strip of tape, and wrap it all the way around the base. Line the top edge of the tape up with the top of the base (not the sand on the base, just the top of the actual base). Keep tension in the tape while you wrap, the goal here is to hold the sheet close to the base, to form a seal that will keep resin in the tube, rather than leaking down the base.

Step 6:

Now put another strip of tape along the outside seam of the sheet. Don't be too woried about getting a really good seal here, the weight of the resin should keep the inner flap of the sheet pressed against the outer one anyway. This is just to stop sheet from moving when resin is poured in, so it stays as a tube, rather than turning into a funnel.

Step 7:

Finally, take a rubber band and wrap it around the base of the mini. Try and line it up with the top of the base (like with the tape from step 5). This just adds a little extra pressure to try and stop resin leaking out.

And thats done! We've now got a cylindrical resin dam ready to pour resin into!

I hope this helps anyone curious about my process for doing this!

I've hit the 10 image limit on this post, so I'll make another one soon showing my resin pours and the finished mini.

Update: post showing the resin pouring process here.