A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Dungeons & Dragons – I've been working on a big resin terrain project in between my regular commissions. While I'm making quite a bit of progress it's not super exciting look at the highlights on a book shelf so I'm saving those shots until I get it completed.
Read MoreMalifaux – Recently I had to repelnish my supply of Ice Pillars for the online store. It's been a little while since I've been active on the Wyrd forum, but every now and then I get people directed over here looking for the LED Flame counter or Clear Resin Ice Pillar.
Read MoreMalifaux – In an effort to speed up my building process I decided to build some window frames. Initially I planned on buying some plastic rod and an miter box to cut and assemble each window. Unable to find a miter box I liked at the few hobby stores I visited I decided to wing it and make the cuts freehand. After ruining several attempts when the plastic wiggled, I decided this was a terrible idea.
Luckily while I was at the craft store picking up more Shrinky-Dink paper, I wandered into the jewelry aisle. Every now and then you can find some interesting charms that work well for terrain project. I happened to find some mini photo frames that were exactly the size I wanted for my window. After getting over the ridiculous price they wanted I remembered the pocket full of 40% off coupons I had and made my way to the register.
Getting the parts home I realized I would need to cut and grind the hoops off the top of the frames. I also would need to cut some rod to make the window panes. (no 45° cuts here) I realized that purchasing a bunch of these and hand crafting each one would be cost and time prohibitive, so I made four versions of windows and prepared them for casting.
I considered casting these out of clear resin but decided against it for this project as the buildings are not going to be functional. Cutting holes into gatorboard is tricky and I dont' want to risk destroying what I've already built to reverse engineering a lighting plan.
These turned out pretty good and I think I'll offer them up in the Online Store once I have a sufficient stock cast up.
Malifaux – The Rising Powers book introduced a new type of token used to represent a growing fire in some of the interior locations. The nice thing about the size of the token is it matches up with the size Crid's flame wall spell. Over the course of the game you could potentially need 10-12 of these counters, rather than use generic blank bases I've been working on creating some 3D tokens that will better represent the event.
For the event I'm running Feb 5th, one of the tables will be the Star Theater and will use the growing fire special event. With the event drawing close I needed to come up with a way to quickly create multiple flame counters.
To begin I first sculpted the flames on a 50mm base. I used green foam to bulk out the shape. From there I than sculpted the flames using a 2 part epoxy (I've found the construction grade stuff you can buy at a hardware store works great for terrain). To sculpt the flames I rolled the epoxy into small sausage shapes. By layering the sausage shapes you can create a texture that looks flame-like. Once that base dries use green stuff to add additional detail.
The next step is to create a mold of the sculpt. To do this I use a 2-part silicon and create a simple mold. I mount the base into a plastic cup and pour the silicon into the mold. Once it's cured pop of the master and cast using dental plaster.
Painting is pretty quick. I like to spray the yellow base and than do the blends of orange and red. To tie them together I do a final wash of yellow ink.
Following these steps you can make multiple flame tokens or if you want to save even more time check out the online store.
