Making a case

Ok folks... as many of you know, this has been a rather unprecedented winter here.  We have set records for snowfall and temperatures.  These have combined with each other to create a real nightmare since December 29th.  

This has led to multiple delays in my deliveries.  In fact, the cases that I am showing you in these pictures were delayed almost 2 weeks in arriving at my door.  That has been typical.  Just getting a hod of disks for burning has been a challenge, as all of the delivery services have been grounded time and again.  Grrrr!

The cases are obviously quite important.  Even though nearly all of the disks have now been burned, there is not much I can do with them until I have cases!  This is particularly true for multiple disk purchasers.

We searched and searched for 20 disk hard cases, but the best I could do were cases that hold 14.

This is an example of a ten pack.  Many of the pledges were geared around 20 videos with 2-6 'extras' as the case may be, so I have also purchased a number of other cases which hold those counts.

I filled up one ten pack with disks, which was really cool to see!  Much heavier with that full load of knowledge :-)

This was the first of many boxes of single disk cases.  Once the first box finally came, I could work on the final package art. Don't worry, the real thing actually fits the case. ;-)

A view of the test graphics for the back of the case...

I also bought a number of two disk cases, since that will help with the add on stretch goal disks.  This was an experiment to see if I liked clear better.  To stay consistent with the big cases, I am going all black from now on.

This is what 1,100 disks looks like.  There are more being burned right now, but this lets me get a nice start on sending out packages.  Yes, that is right, I am starting to divvy these up into pledges.

It will probably be a few weeks before the big stuff goes out, since I will need more of the large cases.  Those have been delayed by the latest weather madness!

Speaking of which, the crew at CoolMiniorNot is doing their best on the downloadable versions.  For two weeks, ice storms mostly stranded them at home if they were lucky, on a highway for 14 hours if they were less fortunate.  MRE's and the National Guard were involved.

At any rate, I will give the high sign here once they have those available for download.

I do realize that people are very anxious about all this.  Believe me, my own anxiety is a thousand fold.  Over twenty nights of no sleep just this year alone.  My apologies for all the craziness.

Bases for the Sisters

I needed some more bases for those red Sisters, so it was time to get down to it.  The bases were the usual sheet of baked sculpey clay on cork.

A basic warm gray is applied to start the marble veins...

Once the pattern is established, it is more clearly defined by adding lighter seams of color.

Some freehand designs are added, similar to what I have done before.

After the basic reds are laid out, some tan is used to create some areas of trim and even a font.

Lighter shades are added to create more shape.

A dark blue/brown mix is used to create shading, as well as some definition and cracks.

That same color is used to make some shadows on the sides of the bases as well.

Finis!  Ready for minis!!

Yum yum!!!

Dinner time!!   Mmm... yummy lizards!

We have the first of three re-roll markers for the Slime Bay Packers.

These little guys are having a lot of fun... but someone is having less fun.

Elves next, since they stay crunchy in milk!

Toasty

Here are some converted Incinerator Grey Knights that I did a while back.  I took the regular space marine flamers and reworked things a little.

It was not all that difficult to make that change.  At the time, all you had was the solid pewter versions, so it was nice to have something different!

These also had more action to the poses.

I don't remember exactly what I did ( I could not find the WIP's for these two), but it was mostly green stuff and plastic rod.

Enjoy!

These snails are not tasty...

Time for some group shots.  Even now, the team is way too big to fit in one photo.  So here we have the Chaos Warriors.  And a buddy.

Once again, I didn't do the conversions... my job was painting :-)

These guys are pretty huge.  The bases are 30mm, so that gives you an idea.

Each one is quite unique.  I tried very hard to paint each one differently as well.

Also, I wanted to match the previous batches of rotters and pestigors.  There was less exposed skin on these guys... plus you have to factor in the shells.

Still, they do look neat all together like this!

Beware of Slime Bay!

Next up is a big batch of group shots of the rotters!

This thing is getting pretty heavy...

While I have been talking over and over again about the various colors I have been using on the sword blades for all the SE-NMM, let's not lose sight of all the fun on the skin colors.

There is only the faces and hands, but it has been important to make sure that it does not get too warm, or too pink.  I have had to mix in enough of the blueish grays to push it a bit towards the green.

This will keep the skin colors from getting 'lost' among all the nearby yellow.

In addition, the overhanging black hats determined this line of coloration.  Not only would the faces be in more shadow than usual, the skin would be reflecting those colors to some degree, much like your face reflects the color of the shirt you are wearing.

Think of that the next time you get dressed in the morning! :-)

The third time around...

OK, the last of the Marneus conversions, this time with some WIP images.

These give you a decent idea of where green stuff and brown stuff was used, etc.

The helmet was made by cutting away part of it so that I could create that Grey Knight shape.

Even more plastic bits were used on this version.

At last, some paint!

Each one of these had a very different personality.

As I looked at this one more closely, I can see that I had to replace the wax parts of the purity seals as well.  I had lots of Ultramarine symbols to get rid of!!!

Just like the other versions, this one weighed a ton.

Views from above...