Casting Call! Reapercon 2016

One of the very fun things we had a chance to do at Reapercon this year was a tour of the factory.  Much to my delight, the focus was on mould making and casting!  It was pure joy, and I could have stayed there all day just staring at moulds.

Once we entered the casting area, I was definitely drooling.  For many years, I had wanted to see spin casting in person.  Lo and behold, there was the smelter, the spinning unit, and lots of moulds!  

I was given the chance of trying out a cast myself, which certainly made me giddy.  So, I popped on the gloves, checked my shoes and glasses and got down to business.

Once the mould is secured in place, the metal is placed down into the spin casting machine.  A short count to 30-35 seconds is done, with a second or two after the mould is taken out.

After the initial discussion on the process of creating the moulds, I was eager to see how the strategic placements of gates and vents would play out.  I had to cut many gates and vents in my old resin casting days, and it was so interesting to see how those were used in such a different casting method.

The positioning of the vents were done in such a way to take advantage of the spinning effect, but also to prevent overflow.  I was really amazed at the toughness of the mould material, which is essentially tires.  Extremely tough and resilient.

In fact, I was told more than once to get rougher with the moulds in order to get the pewter pieces out of their places.  My hesitancy originated from the many times I have cracked or broken my own fragile resin molds doing the very same task!

We always have to bring a little of home along with us... even when that's 908 miles away.

Cathy had some fun using her photo app on her phone.  Since we drove down this year, I had a vast horde of figures in tow.  Hundreds, in fact, of all companies, genres, and systems.

The attack of the Apple Golem!!  Fear him, for he strikes late in the night at the fireplace.

On the return journey, we stumbled across an even scarier Construction Golem, who assaults road speeds and travel times.

The insert shows Cathy's award from the painting contest, where she entered the one miniature that she had available.

The Queen of Reapercon

I thought you might like to see the final result of the leaf punch experiment, so here's a few images.  The leaves were sealed with layers of glue, and also the oil washes used to tint the leaves and bring out more texture.

This is a BONES mini, and I will be using this in the class where the Reaper clear paints are profiled.

You have seen me use those clear paints on a number of different projects and effects, from glows, to blood, and cloth.  I first introduced this idea at Reapercon last year, and it was decided then that I should do a class in that for Reapercon 2016!

The clear paints do amazing things as a glaze of tint when thinned with simple water, while they also make very nice semi-opaque colors when lightened with an opaque lighter color.  I have done this several times with cloth, etc., just like this lady.

These views from above show the nice contrast that those oil glazes provided to the leaves.  They would have looked nice as they were, but now there is a lot more depth, and mesh with the rest of the sculpted base quite well.

I realize that BONES minis don't have the sort of detail that the pewter versions might have, but perhaps the reduced cost encourages experimentation and the trying of new techniques and color schemes.  You don't feel like you are going to ruin a $30 figure or bust... so why not go nuts?

These figures will be prepped in advance of the classes, so that 100% of the time can be devoted to the experimentation with the clear paints.  If there was more time, I would like to do the shaded basecoat part as well.

So, not much time left!  As a reminder, I will be bringing along plenty of USB drives for all the painting videos.  I first brought those down least year, and it made life much easier... I could load whatever video people wanted as we painted and talked.  That was really cool!!

See me in the main hall at Fort Wappel, where all kinds of fun will be had.  Here's a quick sample video, one of 12 YouTube samples.  Each of the actual videos is 100 minutes long, and there are 53 different topics to choose from!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXqIo-UMSr8

A clear future

Here's another practice figure for the painting with Reaper clear paints at Reapercon just a matter of weeks from now.

The concept here is to begin with a very muted value 'sketch', just to lay out where the general light and dark patterns should be. 

Using the clear blue, green and purple clear paints,  a series of glazes provides the actual colors that you see here.  The clear paints are very saturated,  so even when thinned with water, they maintain their structure and consistency. 

Once the generic color values have been achieved,  I can start mixing in lighter opaque colors with the clears and get more gradations.