Princess Ruby- When Priming goes Wrong

Happy August! Just a small blog post here to feature my latest project Princess Ruby! If you are like me than you probably are getting excited about Soda Pop's upcoming Caverns of Roxor expansion. Lately I've been trying to go with alternate paint schemes to give my miniatures a more personal look. For Princess Ruby, I took some inspiration from the not so popular Nintendo character Daisy. I always liked Daisy better than Princess Peach. I guess it's because Peach always has to be rescued from the same villain over and over, whereas Daisy just seems like she has it all together and doesn't need rescuing. Also I broke a few of the speed records in Mario Kart Wii using Daisy. But enough chatter, here she is

Well unfortunately she was not without flaws. The biggest one being that the finish looked grainy. Doesn't matter how great the blending or highlights look, the grainy surface just ruins it completely for me. I posted it on the sodapop miniatures forum and the comments I got about it where on par with what I thought. Her eyes supposedly look crazy as well. I wasn't offended by any means but after considering the comments and the finished look, I just couldn't convince myself that it was to the best of my ability. So as of right now Princess Ruby got a dip in some Simple green and got stripped down to bare metal so I can give it another go with paint. Hopefully this time the weather will be in prime(no pun intended) condition to, well...prime :).

Still plugging away with the painting tutorial. It's hard having to stop my groove and photograph my progress as I go, but I am hoping to have it posted late next month. So keep an eye out for it. Until next time, keep on painting and keep on gaming muchachoes.

Super Dungeon Explore Rex

Finally got some painting done for my Super Dungeon Explore set. After my wife bought me a SDE Battlefoam tray, I felt it necessary to start painting these guys up. How do you like it?

I went with a Trollblood base color scheme. I am currently working on a painting tutorial to paint the Mini Art way. Yes I know I don't have any golden demons or crystal brushes so your question is why would anyone want to learn to paint the Mini Art way? Well I like minis that look great on the table, and painting SDE has showed me I can paint decent looking minis fast. Will they win any awards? Probably not but painted minis will add a new dimension to your games. So keep looking here for a tutorial. But for now, Keep on gaming! :)

New Greens for bases

Happy Memorial Day!!

I don't know who reads my blog, but if anyone is a serviceman or servicelady in the armed forces I just want to thank you for giving your lives so people like me can enjoy freedom and enjoy fun hobby stuff like this in peace. THANK YOU!

  

Well the Super Dungeon Explore bases were not as successful as I thought they would have been. I sold 2 sets at a decent price but after months of not selling any more sets I sold the remainder of my inventory for a bulk price to someone who originally purchased one of the sets off the Etsy store. The molds have now been destroyed and the originals have been stored away till I can at least get a better mold made and there is interest in them again. Here's my sad face----------> :(.

 In the meantime I began to work on some bases for a Bretonnian Army for Warhammer. Honestly I never thought I would get into Warhammer Fantasy but I liked the Bretonnians and all the models they have for them so I ended up trading some gaming stuff  I had lying around for a battle battalion box, a box of the knights errant/ knights of the realm, 2 pegasus knights, 2 lords of Bretonnia and a King Leouen Leoncouer miniature. So lots of miniatures to base. So I busted out the sculpting tools again and began work on some bases with a cobblestone and dirt theme.

What do you think? I thought the greens turned out great at least. As you can see I only sculpted the ones I needed for the Bretonnian miniatures. I know I have a few base sizes missing including the 50mm base. I figured since I only have one miniature on a 50mm base, there was no point in molding it since I only need one copy. So it's off to the molding station to mold these bad boys.

And here is my finished mold with a few casts from it. I was worried about the basing sand and how it would react with the silicone. But since I added a few extra coats of Future shine to seal my bases, it actually turned out fine. I spent the extra dollars and got some Mold Star 30 silicone to mold them. This stuff is the best and way better than Oomoo 30. The casts are pretty detailed and will probably look great once they are painted up. So will I sell them? Nope probably not in the short future unless I get some significant requests for them. Casting resin is too expensive and there is no guarantee you'll even break even with selling them. But it is not a definitive no.

In other news, you've probably noticed I changed my blog logo a bit. It's been a work in progress for awhile. I was never 100 percent satisfied with my original mascot/character. I wanted it to have a more anime feel. I think I must have drawn about 30 different sketches before ending up with this one. In addition, I also added a little tribute to my favorite video game that I have probably invested more time in than my miniatures hobby ...Skyrim. So who knows, maybe the logo might actually be attached to an awesome game or product someday but until then....
Keep on gaming ;)

Burn In Designs Paint Rack Review

 For the longest time I have been shopping for a good paint rack to store my huge collection of hobby paints. I went with one of the Rubbermaid plastic storage bins that have multiple compartments to store your things. While this was a good solution to storage, I still ran into problems with easily accessing my paints. I just happen to run into a small laser cutting company named Burn In Designs. If you know me well, you'll know I like to support small companies that do hobby stuff. So after seeing their Facebook page full of laser cut awesomeness, I went ahead and ordered their paint rack that holds 50 paints in the standard wood. Here is the finished product on my desk.

Now for a review. Ordering from Burn In Designs is a bit more complicated in the sense that you have to email the company to request an order. Sure it's different but after using Etsy.com to sell  and then using Paypal for transactions myself, your profit margin takes a hit. So their method doesn't bother me at all. So you'll just have to have faith and trust them that you'll get your item(you know, the old fashion approach to business). Shipping is fast and I got my paint rack within 3 days.

Before I ended up with the photo above, I had a pile of wood that looked like puzzle pieces that needed to be assembled without the help of any instructions or diagrams. Not to worry it is easy to figure out, even by the novice, but I am sure some people may have a more difficult time figuring out how the pieces fit and need that extra bit of help. I mean even Ikea stuff comes with some form of diagram right? I used super glue for construction against my better judgement only because I didn't want to wait the 24 hours for wood glue to dry.

The paint rack is constructed in 3 parts. 2 rectangle shaped paint racks that hold 25 paint pots each and the rack stand.  I started by building one of the paint racks. Now I have quite a bit of experience building architectural models but even with all my experience I managed to screw up building the first rack. I glued the sides to the top rack with the hole cut-outs but then I couldn't glue the bottom of the rack and it fell apart. 

After a few attempts to glue it together, I found that the best way was to glue the 2 smaller sides(the side that says Burn In Designs) together with the top and bottom of the rack and then that makes it easier to glue the longer sides after(which is why I reiterate the need for a diagram or instructions). The second rack was a lot easier and it was glued together with less stress.

Now the rack stand was another story. My wife saw the difficulty I was having with keeping it glued together that she thought I was duped out of my money for something that will never work. I was almost convinced of that too until I finally got it to stay together through some feat of hobby skill. I was almost afraid to put the paint racks on it since I thought for sure it would collapse. I nervously put the racks on the stand and then carefully moved it to my desk, making sure to hold my breath so it wouldn't move and started to fill the rack with the paints that I use most often. Then my wife and I stood by my desk and stared at the fragile but oddly sturdy awesome paint rack that now adorns my work space. My wife thought for sure that the whole paint rack would collapse during the night but here it is 3 days later still standing. 

The cool thing was that included in my package was some little trinkets of laser cut skulls and advertising discs. I didn't have another use for them so I glued them to the rack for aesthetics. For my paint rack I glued the wood piece with the company name on the outside so when any gamer friends come over they can see who makes it and also I like the font on the company name, but you can also glue it with the name facing the inside of the paint rack to give it a more clean look.

Final thoughts: I give this paint rack an overall score of 8.5 out of 10

Here's how I grade it:

-.5- for slight difficulty of  overall construction

-.5- for not including a diagram or instructions on how to build

-.5- one of my racks had a circle that was not fully cut so I had to cut it with an xacto knife. It was a very obvious QC issue that could have been easily noticed when packing it up for shipping.(even I have gotten knocked for QC when I was selling my bases)

Other than the QC issue it would have been a 9 overall, and I highly recommend buying from them. It is pretty sturdy even if it doesn't look it at first. They also have many options to choose from. If you don't like wood(or the smell of it because it will smell like burnt wood for awhile, just the nature of laser cut products) they also come in a variety of colored acrylic which costs a bit more, and they have another variety of paint rack that replaces one of the paint racks with 2 drawers for your hobby tools. I am sold on these and would most likely purchase from them again in the future.

Keep on gaming! 

It's been a long time-Lifeguard tower W.I.P.

Well I haven't posted at all this new year but I finally have something worthwhile to post. After purchasing the surfer dude miniature from Reaper, I didn't know exactly what to do with it so I decided to build a beach and lifeguard tower diorama. Don't know what it's use would be? Maybe if space marines were storming a beach?  It's still a work in progress but I hope to get it painted up soon. Enjoy!

and remember Keep on gaming!

Bases are on Sale!!

I went ahead and signed up for an account on Etsy to sell my bases. I only have 5 sets right now but we'll see how it goes.
here is the link; http://www.etsy.com/listing/89303177/dungeon-bases-compatible-with-the-super

How to make a mold

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving! This year I gave thanks for Super Dungeon Explore! Of course I also gave thanks for my family, friends, and health etc., etc. :). But I was thankful for the extra vacation time that allowed me to dig into my miniatures hobby again. Since I've posted my how-to on making bases, I felt like I should complete the tutorial and post a how-to on making a mold of the bases I sculpted. The perfect opportunity came up with the full release of the Super Dungeon Explore game from Soda Pop Miniatures. The game uses 50mm bases for some of the bigger miniatures and it required me to sculpt a 50mm base to carry on the theme of the stone bases to all my SDE miniatures.

So I took to my sculpting tools and sculpted a 50mm base using the one provided with the game as a base for my base (yes you read that correctly). Nothing different or special. Used the same pattern as my current theme

Next I made a mold box from Legos. This is the best thing to use for mold boxes since you can make molds any size you need. Want to fit more pieces in the mold, just add more Legos!

The only problem I found with using Legos is that the silicone rubber would get into the cracks of the Lego blocks and would be rather cumbersome to clean after. so  to remedy the problem I started lining the inside of the boxes with blue painting tape and since then clean-up has been easier.

So next I take a piece Styrofoam(or plexiglass) and first glue my sculpting master to the Styrofoam using wood glue like Titebond II. The wood glue is strong enough to hold the master down in place and still makes it easy to remove the master afterwards without damaging it. Make sure the Syrofoam lays flat on a surface and has no indents in it. The master needs to lay as flat as possible so no RTV can get underneath it and can mold properly. Be sure to glue only the edges of the master so it can seal it as well. Next take your mold box and also glue it down to the Styrofoam. Be sure to glue the edges only since your aim is to seal it from allowing any silicone rubber to leak(as well as holding it down).  

Since my sculpted base is made from dental plaster, I then took some Future shine and brushed it on the master to seal it so it can release easier and not tear the silicone rubber in the process.

Looks nice and shiny huh? :). So I let the Future shine dry for about an hour before I do anything else. I am sure it does not take that long for Future floor shine to dry but I am a bit over-cautious. Next I take some Smooth-on Ease Release 200 and spray it on the mold box and wait 5 minutes for it to dry. Be sure to spray this in a well ventilated area or maybe even outdoors. The odor from this pretty strong and I am sure it's not safe to breathe the vapors from it.

Alright so here is a bit of info that I know on silicone rubber products. You have typically 2 types of rubber that are made from silicone. Tin-cure and Platinum-cure. Tin-cure is very versatile, cheaper, but as a side effect can tear easier and usually needs some type of release agent with casting resins since the heat from the chemical reaction can slowly damage the mold over time. Platinum-Cure is more fickle and will not cure if the master you are molding is made from latex or has sulfur in it which typically is most things made out of clay.  But it's strong point is that it can not tear easily, can even withstand being cast with low melt metals, and you can cast resin with it and not even use any release agent if you choose. Molds that are made from this rubber have a shelf life of at least 3 years. Platinum-Cure rubber is a lot more expensive but well worth the price you pay. I have made over 100 casts with resin and no release agent with  a platinum-cure mold I made and it still looks brand new.

For most of my hobby molding needs I use Oomoo 30 also from Smooth-on. It is a simple to use 1 to 1 ratio Tin-cure silicone rubber. Not my first choice but I will get the occasional 40% off coupon from Blick Art in the mail which makes it the perfect choice for making hobby molds for the price. The product I recommend for a long shelf life and over 100 casts is Mold Star 30 from Smooth-on. For the extra money you get a high quality platinum cure product that is easy to use.

So you have to do a little experimenting with how much silicone rubber you're going to need for your mold. The best thing to use for estimating the amount is rice. I tried using water before but some water droplets get left behind in the mold box and then reacts with the silicone rubber while it cures and can ruin your mold. Rice is dry and can get cleaned up easier and it gives you an almost exact measurement of what you'll need. So then I poured out the 2 rubbers into 2 separate cups making sure they line up pretty evenly. if you go a bit over it's OK, Tin-cure rubber is more forgiving than platinum cure. I then pour the blue rubber into the cup with the pink one. The blue rubber is less stiff and flows easier out of the cup. Be sure to wear gloves when using silicone rubbers. Rubber is hard to clean off your hands and will require the use of paint thinner to remove it completely(or a good 30 minute shower works too).

Next take an acrylic rod and mix the rubber together for 2 minutes. The rod helps by minimizing bubbles in your rubber and that is definitely what you want to avoid when making molds. Bubbles in your silicone rubber can prevent your master from molding properly and capturing every detail of the surface. Oomoo 30 has a light purple color when it is mixed together so take care to make sure it is well mixed or else you'll pour unmixed rubber into your mold and it won't cure. Let me tell you there has been many times when I ended up with uncured rubber in my molds and it always happens to be right on the master so basically the mold becomes unusable.  Sometimes I pour it into the other cup I used just to be sure it mixed all the way through.

Next take an old but clean brush and brush some mixed rubber onto the top of the master. This insures that the little details on the top surface will mold properly after you pour the rest of the rubber into the box.

To minimize the bubbles that can form while you pour the rubber into the mold box, I usually hold the cup about 18 inches from the mold box and slowly start to pour a small stream of rubber into one of the edges of the mold box. Try not to pour any on the master and just let the rubber flow over it till it's covered up completely. It will get messy, very messy, but once the rubber cures you can just peel the cured rubber from any surface it fell on. Now just let it stand untouched and uncovered for a minimum of 6 hours.

So this is what you it should look like in after 6 hours if you mixed and poured the rubber properly. You might need to trim some of the edges of the mold if some rubber got underneath your master during molding, but otherwise it is ready to use. Casting it in resin is a similar process. You also pour equal amounts of resin and then mix together and pour it into the mold.

Here is a comparison of the sculpted piece and it's duplicate cast in Smooth-cast 300 from Smooth-on. I was impressed since the rubber actually molded the surface detail properly without any visible defects. This ended up being one of the better molds I have made as far as quality in the detail that got molded.

Already getting mass produced for all the miniatures in the game.

And as you can see the SDE Angry Bear is excited about his new base he gets to stand on. His hands are up in excitement over it :P. The new base is more sturdy then the stock base and will survive all the handling from gaming with it. So now you should have all the tips you need to start sculpting and molding your own bases. If you have any questions always feel free to ask and as always... Keep on gaming! 

P.S. as promised here is the templates for the bases. It should print to a 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper if you save the full image size by right clicking the picture and opening it in a new tab.