Honored Dead for the Kukulkani

Here are the rest of the minis from the Kukulkani starter set.

You can read all the fluff on them in the previous post on this starter box., which is now in the Coolminiornot shop

This faction has allowed me to do some interesting flesh tone colors. :-)

There is a wide variety in colors from one flesh color to the next.  All of the war priests seem to have the blueish coloration of the warrior in the right corner of this image.

That was fun to try out some new color schemes!

More than a snow fort: Part 1

On a day where 6-10 inches of the super heavy (and ideal fort building) snow is falling, it's time to show some pictures of a 40k fortification I have been working on.

The idea is that this would be modular, so that it could be placed on the table several different ways.

I began by cutting out some pieces of 1 inch pink foam, as this would be just about high enough to cover most of a typical space marine.

The multi level pillbox was relatively easy to create with a few key beveled edges to reflect the design of the walls.

I cut the longer pieces in half so that each piece could be placed around the pillbox and the gate (which you will see in the next post.

I carefully cut out the opening for the pillbox on the lower end, and made a platform on the top which would also be just tall enough to cover most of a space marine.

Here you can get and idea of how the various pieces will be fitting together.  Since the angled cuts almost always leave a rough edge, I had to use something to cover that.

So, I used some of those cereal boxes to make some nice flat pieces to cover the rough areas.  Note: once those are glued on, you will want to use some painter's tape to hold down the edges as the glue dries.  The paper will want to curl as the moisture evaporates.

I cut out a piece of deck plating for the platform on the pillbox.

A strip of foam core was placed on top to complete the height of the pillbox.

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode!!!

Kukulkani faction for Dark Age Games

Here are a few miniatures in the new set released by Dark Age.  This is the Kukulkani faction.

Millennia ago the ancient Mayans of Terra where chosen by their god and master, the winged serpent Kukulkan, to be elevated above the lowly tribes of the world. Their master, in reality a member of the powerful and technologically advanced Coatl race, lifted his willing servants up and has, over millenia, shaped them into a race of bio-enhanced warriors and zealous priests, eager to gain his blessing by slaying all those who would oppose his will.

Now Kukulkan has set his sights on Samaria, following mysterious energy reading mimicking the Coatl's own entropic power sources only to find their holy technologies bastardized by the lifeless machines of the CORE. This blasphemous act, coupled with an ancient grudge against the Alteghrans, the forebears of the Dragyri, have unleashed the full might of the Kukulkani upon all of Samaria.

Woe to the enemies of Kukulkan, may all tremble and despair!

These are the Warrior figures available in the starter set.

All Along the Watchtower: Part 3 of 3

OK!  Back to the watchtower.  We need to create a way to get in, so we turn to our trusted baked white sculpey.  I cut a piece to shape, and set down to carving in the texture!

I drew out my pattern of stones and wood planks...

And then starting carving out the texture with a variety of carving tools (you can see a few of these in the image).  I mostly use wood carving tools, but I will also use a scribe tool that works on plastic.

You can see the wood panels carved, and the surrounding stones as well.  To get the deeper textures, you need to really carve these pretty aggressively.  Don't be too bummed if the white sculpey cracks along the way.  You can always glue it back together!

The textures are fully carved.

The door is glued to the foam, using wood glue.  If you use super glue, you will melt your pink foam!

Once the door was set, I took a few pieces of the cereal box to make some metal bars to hold the wood planks together.  I also used some polystyrene tubing as hinges.

The door handle was created by gluing the rounded end of a paper clip to a piece of the cereal box.  We have thousands of those rounded paper clip ends all over the house, it seems, since that is what we use to pin out miniatures!  Cathy always finds them with her bare feet in the summer, which she enjoys very much!

Here's a slightly better view of that door handle.

I made a few windows in the same manner as the corner pieces on the walls, alternating the bigger and smaller pieces.

I used some oxide paste to cover some of the gaps in the corners where the pieces of cereal box don't quite line up.  That's why I was not so careful about that process.  I knew I wanted to use the flex paste, as it would not only close those gaps, but make a nice texture as well.

I covered a bunch of other gaps with the flex paste, and made some texture here and there where I thought it would be needed.

I brought out the sand and gravel to make the rock part of the base a little more realistic, and fill in the gaps between the base of the tower and the rocks.

With the rocks and gravel complete, we have a tower that is waiting for paint!!!

Stay tuned for that in a few days!

All Along the Watchtower: Part 2

Well, time for the next stage!

I wanted to create a stone texture along the edges of the tower.  I grabbed a bunch of cereal boxes to get some heavier stock paper.  That was cut into strips, and then small pieces.

They were not completely uniform, so that they would be a bit more random.

I glued them to the corners, alternating the longer and shorter pieces like this:

This was done on each of the corners...

For the platform, I cut larger pieces, and also cut some pieces of thinner paper to get some variation.

These were placed along the platform as randomly as possible.  Since they will be covered by flock, leaves, and miniatures, I didn't get too crazy with this process!

To cover the seam where the two pieces of foam were glued together, I used some leftover bits of paper.

Get ready for the final stage, which includes sculpting the door!  Stay tuned...

All Along the Watchtower: Part 1 of 3

This particular terrain building project will be featured in one of the Painting Pyramid videos.  I built this piece to get a better idea of the materials that would be needed, how much time each particular aspect of the tower took to make, etc.

I began by cutting a 2 inch thick section of foam into a few shapes.  The rock formation was done using a technique that you can find in several previous terrain building threads.  Onto this was added a few rectangular pieces that would form the 'body' of the tower.

This was kept relatively small, as I didn't want to create a massive tower!  You can see the 28mm figure which was used for scale.  It was important to have that around when it came time to make the platform on top.

I still had some very thin pink foam left, so that was cut into the correct sizes and shapes.  By measuring the height of the archer, I got a better idea of how the crenellations should be spaced.

I made some marks on the foam (after cutting a beveled edge along the top first), so that I knew where to make my cuts.

Once I had this first piece, I used it to measure the other 3 walls...

Then it was time to glue them on!

The basic platform has now taken shape.

I cut out some supports for the platform out of a few scraps of pink foam.  These were more for decoration than anything else, but they do add an element of realism...

I glued them in place...

Once that set up, I added some steps to one side of the tower.

Stay tuned for Part Two!!