Major Update, reporting for duty!

So a few months ago I finished this little guy, but never got around to talking about him. Actually, I finished him, then didn't post any pictures in hopes of surprising my D&D group. This is a Mind Flayer, and they are meeeeeean.

The proces for making him was roughy the same as it was for all of the other minis I have made, so scroll down to the Evil Fred entry if you want to see the how-to.

As a part of my Archipelago project which you may be aware of, I am making a little house for some of my little guys. Here it is as it currently sits. I am putting a roof on it so I can add shingles later on. You can also see the spot that will eventually hold the door. I also intend to put some windows on the outside.

That's all for now, folks!

Please Hold

The school year is getting quickly back into full swing, so I have considerably less time to work on my hobby-type stuff. I am the Vice President of the Gamers Council, the newly founded gaming club on campus. That takes up a chunk of my time, as does all of my readings and projects for class. Quite honestly it's all a real pain.

Anyhoo, once I head home I plan to put the matte coat on my Thrulgül miniature and get a picture of that up. Apart from that all I have to report is that I got some shiny new Winsor & Newton Series 7 Miniature brushes, which are specially made for use with minis. I'm excited to give them a try!

Wax Casting

I've been messing with casting stuff out of wax so that I can later cast stuff in metal. This was the first attempt that even came close to working. As you may or may not be able to see, it lost lots and lots of detail. This is a problem that I'll have to figure out how to fix. I think that perhaps sloshing the wax around inside would help a bit. Perhaps if I use a stick of some kind to prod the wax around the mold...

Anyway, we'll see how it works out.

IT'S A NEW TRACK RECORD!

One day in the making, this mini is DONE.

I still have to paint her, of course, but that's not a big deal. If it's decent out tomorrow I may just spray paint her and the minis I got at that thing at Defiance. It'd be awesome if I finished her over the weekend.

D&D Minis

D&D uses a Battle Grid for combat, and on that grid an inch represents five feet. Because of this, keeping minis in scale makes them significantly smaller than any I've made before. The figure you see here is currently 3/4" tall, making it somewhat shorter than I was intending. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. In retrospect, I'm going to ajust the arms to make the end product taller. What we see here would end up being about 4 scale feet tall. That's just too short! My original goal was to get this mini to 5'5" scale feet. I'm gonna try to manage.

Welcome to Zoluto

I've recently started a Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 campaign for some of my friends. Here we see the world in which all of this take place. They started in the city of Tyrramere which is near the center of the map, and are now in the small village of Marna.

This is actually version 2.0 of this map. The original was drawn in 2007, and a few weeks ago I went through and changed a few names while adding a lot more.

This time I'm going to keep a detailed record of the world and its residents. By keeping this record, if the players return to a city, they can meet the same people that they met before. The places and events will also be recorded for future games.

Mini Island Prototype: In Progress

To those who DON'T know, part of my senior show will be a large multi-piece display of miniature islands suspended from the ceiling. I'm currently working on a prototype what is allowing my to determine potential problems and also work out the kinks in my techniques. I'm using a combination of foam, hardboard, chicken wire, and paper mache. I plan on finishing this one completely before I show it off. You've seen The New Yankee Workshop, right? Always complete the prototype before the show starts! Afterwards, I'll have various step by steps and work in progress images of the later models.

Just you wait and see. It's gonna be great.