 March 10, 2013 - 7:55am | NO OVER PRICED MINIATURES ALLOWED! I was just on the WotC web site and looking at the collectors edition miniature sets that are being put out by Gale Force 9 under license and what was funny was that they were not showing you the price up front. Some of the offerings are very nice for resin figures. (Resin figures hold detail a little better then the older hard plastic but not as nice as metal figures but then the pirce of metal has been on the rise so hence the relatively recent popularity of resin). At any rate I finally clicked on the pre order link to see the price and, "Oh my!" Sad fact is that your money goes further buying Reaper miniatures and you get incredibly highly detailed metal miniatures. I'm sorry I wont be buying these resin sets anytime soom- especially the Under Caverns terrain set that I could teach my kids to sculpt for me and get just as good a result. Infact I've been thinking about sculpting my own figures- bought a ping pong ball a while back to use as a form for a Beholder. and was considering ways to do a purple worm myself. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 10, 2013 - 7:58am | Green Slime Victim: In fact as I was sitting here thinking about it: I have a nice box of bitz and in there are left overs from one or two zombie regiments I assembled and painted for a guy (part of the deal I keep the bitz) and I was thinking I could cobbler togehter a adventurer from zombie parts and drizzle melted green crayon over him for a green slime victim. COST: nil due to the fact that the kids have a ton of crayons and wont miss one or two and I have all those zombie parts already. EDIT Although crayon wax is not that durable so perhaps its not the best material to use. I did see an interesting effect where the individual styrofoam balls were separated from a piece of styrafoam and mixed with glue and plaster mixture and used as a set dressing in a model to be a weird alien growth of some sort but I'm unsure of the exact formula so perhaps an acrylic medium that from liquitex might be a good stand in. acrylic dries clear and if I mix in some transparent green paint I might get an interesting effect. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 10, 2013 - 10:51am | Miniatures can be found in odd locales. A couple years ago we picked up a three headed plastic dragon figure from Chuck E Cheese that looks pretty good. I wish I could find it, I started painting it and it got neglected from other tasks at hand and eventually buried somewhere in the house. |
 March 10, 2013 - 2:12pm | You could use clay, glue, or possibly a harder wax to get the desired effect. Unfortunately any medium that apply to an already formed figure is going to be brittle and will require careful handling. If you want a more durable and lasting form you may have to have someone with a 3d modeling program make you a model and order a set of custom minis from a 3d printing company. That route is definitely more expensive than candle wax but is pretty reasonable costing you anywhere from 3 to 5 bucks per figure. In my pervious thread on the topic my point has always been that cost that gets you is the shipping not the actual custom mini themselves. You also could consult with Spyder and see if he would do a commission for you but you may have to order more than a few to make worth your while. |
March 10, 2013 - 3:02pm | There is a host of 3d printers and I was recently checking out starships that people had modeled in 3d and were available to print but most of those were Star trek, star wars or BSG with a rare Firefly thrown in. I should go back and check for a beholder, although I think I have a Reaper Minis "Conjunctivits" figure and I was going to sculpt one just for the fun it. So if I bought another one it would have to be a piss all hot of a figure to warrent adding it to the collection. After all, how many Beholders do you really need? Although, a clear resin ghostly beholder would be fun. Chances of mean really mastering 3D software to print my own minis is pretty low- I'm a hands on kind of guy- hence the scratch built modeling and miniatures and drawing with charcoal, pencils, conte crayon, and dry pastels. I actually derive great joy from working with my hands so I stick to that even though I know I would love to be able to do what AZ_Gamer does I just dont see myself putting in the time to master the medium to his level so i stick to classic/non computer mediums. RE: green slime- the old stand by "green stuff" a 2 part expoxy for sculpting and modifying miniatures is an obvious candidate for this but it does have some draw backs: 1. it could be tough to get a realistic slimy flow look and 2. it has some shape memory so once you smooth it out and think its all good and walk away the fingerprint ridges from your fingers can turn back up before its completely hardened. If they made green colored hot blue I would use that to drizzle a slimy flow over a zombie to make that greenb slime victim counter as well as some other bases of green slime. EDIT: they do make green hot glue sticks so I think this is the method how I'll make some green slime miniatures and a victim miniature (just fully paint the mini and the base before adding the green slime). I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
