Miniature 13

Here's something a little different for you!  It's been a while, but I have some more images of Miniature 13 figures on the way.

A link to the website:

http://www.miniature13.com/

These are very highly detailed resin figures, which are done in both 28mm and 54mm scale.

Here's a peek at an earlier version:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2015/07/concept-to-mini-to-painting.html

I also had a lot of fun painting this Overseer:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-overseer.html

In Command

Next up for the Isorians is a command team.

It wasn't until I started painting these guys that I noticed some differences in their armor.

Of course, I could not resist putting some glowy conduit style objects on the base of the overall commander!

You can see a few other effects of that glow in these views of the base.

The rest of the team had the same kind of heavier armor pattern.

I also tried to create some similar effects of the bases, and sculpted them of the same materials.  The majority of the base is sculpey pressed into a Happy Seppuku mould, while the extra details are actually bits of stowage cages from Secret Weapon Miniatures.

Still, I wanted the bases to fit into the overall whole of the army.

One last base!  There is much more to come from the Isorians, so stay tuned!!

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.

On Your Mark

While I continue to reboot my work areas on return from Reapercon, I was able to work on a few nearly completed vehicles.  All of these are for the early war France '40 campaign.

As I work on these, I am testing out all kind of materials, in just about every combination.  At the forefront of these tests are the oil based products from Mig AMMO.

While each of them is designed to take care of specific color and texture needs, such as the engine oil on the fuel tank, I am discovering many interesting combinations!

For the moment, I am doing the paint chips by hand, in a familiar way.  Subsequent vehicles will be the test subjects for the Mig chipping medium.  I believe those will be most effective on desert vehicles and later war camo schemes.

The most difficult challenge thus far has been researching the various insignia and markings of these early vehicles.  I suppose that I could have done a more common set of markings, such as the typical 3 numeral set on the turret.

Here's an example of what I discovered.  As you can see, I thought I might use this as a model for my early PZ IV.  There are many more tanks to come, so I will go with more traditional iconography there.

The view from above shows more markings, the tonal variations (mixing seafoam green in with the Dunkelgrau for example) and the weathering.  I tried to add a few leaves onto these horizontal surfaces so that they would look like they belonged with the infantry figures you saw earlier this week.

I have more PZ 35, 38 and III's on the way, so I will be able to explore the gamut of early war markings!!

These ground level views give you a peek at the treads and drive wheels.  I tried to get a nice set of shaded colors here, so that it would be as distinct as possible from those upper surfaces that are catching the light.

When you have weathering, it can be useful to enhance that shading, and push those contrasts a bit.  The various effects have the overall effect of darkening your colors.  However, it is possible to turn that on its head when working in these lower sections of the hull.

By making the colors darker, it is now easier to have rust, dust and even mud splashes show up more readily.

I will leave you with the tank commander, which was a fun finishing touch.  Stay tuned for much more!!!!

The Great Horde

As the great Winter Horde project enters the final chapters, I thought I might review a few aspects, such as the basing and some "environment" or terrain pieces, which I made along with it.

Here's the first article showing the terrain stands under construction:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-standing-stone.html

Another article showing the painting:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2015/09/winters-coming.html

Some snow effects:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2015/09/let-it-snow.html

A review of some other miniatures which have all been part of this same massive project!

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2015/09/upon-this-rock.html

More from Red Box Games:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2015/10/out-in-cold.html

As you can see, these not only make nice backdrop pieces for photos, they are also nice pieces of terrain!  They are similar to a few stands that I made for our Wild West Exodus games.

In any case, these didn't take a lot of time and expense to create, but the decorative element they will add to any game is far greater.  The more believable the setting, the more enjoyable the gaming experience.

What is old... can be New

Among the numerous Skinks that were made for my Skrox units, several were old plastic archer figures which I converted into javelin skinks with better shields.

I was able to dig out the old bow with a wood carving knife, and cut off the other hand to hold that javelin.  Not only did this utilize the vast amount of old plastic Skinks that I already had!  

Also, the combined Skink and Kroxigor units created some real difficulties for ranking up the two types of figures on the same movement tray.  There were very strict rules about how many Skinks per Kroxigor, and which rows they had to be in... how wide the formation was, and so on.

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222295064321?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Mind the Gap!

It's time to show off the first of the regular German Heer infantry minis for the France '40 campaign!  As you already saw in the WIP post with the AMMO mud products, I tried to make these guys look like they had been slogging around in the Ardennes, crossing rivers, etc.

The basing is identical to the French and early war British infantry that I have been working on.

It is very simple, utilizing tree bark, the grass and foliage tufts, as well as some added leaf texture from the Green Stuff World leaf punches.

There are many more on the way, so stay tuned!