Adventures in Plaster

So the other day I had the tremendous urge to create something. Painting just didn't seem to feed the urge and I didn't have anything papercrafty printed and ready. So I turned to the other other hobby I have. I cast some plaster blocks.  Now my experience with Hirst Arts molds has been on going since I picked up my first one at GenCon in 2006. I've posted pictures of the octagon tower I built with that one here on the blog. Well the bug had bit me and I ordered a few more molds and cast some blocks and then promptly got distracted by something shiny. I had built myself a work table and had some modeling plaster I had picked up at the gaming store but I couldn't figure out another project to work towards. Sure the website had all sorts of projects, but I would just end up looking through the catalog and not getting any ideas to stick.  Now this latest bug has bit and getting the supplies out has shown me why I had stopped last time.  The plaster I've been using, lightweight hydrocal, has a different mixing ratio than the previous plaster I had been using. So my last couple of casts had come out mostly half-assed. I thought it was something I was doing wrong and it turned out to be true. I had been mixing it wrong. Well I still had my sample package of Merlin's Magic. The one that they use and talk up quite a bit on the Hirst Arts website. So tonight I cast using the Merlins, and wow was it a different experience. The blocks filled so neatly and scraped so easily. Now I'm looking up where to order some more to get back into a regular casting habit. So now we can add plaster terrain building to my current obsessions. I'll post pictures as soon as I finish drying the blocks I cast.

Missed One

So in posting my paper craft cubee figures the other day, I forgot I had one more to show.  He isn't a cubee but he is paper craft and pretty awesome. I give you Claptrap, or his proper name CL4P-TP.

Cubees

So here are the cubee's that I've been working on.  I got the patterns from Cubeecraft.  I'm a fan of these, they are incredibly easy to cut out and fit together.  You definitely learn how to cut them out better and fit the tabs easier as you do more of them.  I also made Spiderman and dark suit Spiderman, but my girlfriend took them to live at her work. 

Oh and for those wondering, from left to right we have: Spencer the Bionic Commando from Rearmed, Earthworm Jim and Snot, Iron Man and finally Hellboy.

Keeping Track

So it has been a few (what has it been, weeks, months?) lengths of time since I last updated.  Specifically I said I was going to try to use the momentum of working on my miniatures painting to keep posting.  So that didn't happen.  Mostly because I had stopped painting miniatures since I last updated.  I kept looking at my paints and miniatures and deciding that I would get to that later.  Then everything stayed packed into the carrying case.  Then things needed the space the carrying case was sitting on so it got moved out of the way. Then it became a case of out of sight, out of mind. I had cleaned up my gaming room desk to make room for projects that I wanted to work on.  So I put together a few papercraft cubee figures and then put the papercraft tools away. So really I haven't worked on anything much in the last month or so.

Speaking of papercraft, I found that my original printings and my recent printings of the World Works Games tiles were at different sizes. So my walls and such that I had printed back on my old printer, wouldn't fit with my new printings of tiles and walls.  It left me at an impasse as to what to do going forward.  Do I move on and make all new things with my new printings and just leave the old things in their box?

One thing I have been occupying my time with lately is learning some new programming languages.  I started back up going through the Python books I have. And I'm working though the Javascript and jQuery lessons I have on hand.  My project that I am using as a test bed for my new skills is a character sheet for Savage Worlds.  So far its mostly for testing my knowledge and programming skills.  I hope to someday be able to make one for all the games I currently play so I have a running website of character sheets that I can access from any device I have with me.

I will get some pictures up of the cubee figures I made recently.  Might even type up a rundown of the rpg's that I've been reading through lately.

Circle Battle Box

More work done on the Circle box set. I put most of my work into Kaya. I need to go over the mettalics again and then green wash them again but I like the color scheme so far.

I also worked on the face of the first Argus. Not sure I'm happy with them yet but paint to miniature is a step in the right direction.
Next will be finishing up Kaya and then starting the other Argus and the Feral Warpwolf.

Also have to work on my camera skills.

Two days in a row

Continuing from yesterday I threw another coat of red on the Juggernaut. I definitely think that looks better.

Next I started on his battle box mate, the Destroyer. Definitely need a couple coats of red over that black primer.

Next, I also finally started on painting my Circle Orboros warlock Kaya the Wildborne. She was part of the first set of Hordes miniatures I bought so its about time I finally started painting her.

I hope to keep this momentum going this weekend. I'd love to have a whole battle box force painted by this time next week.

Painting Khador

So I'm on the late shift at work and that allows me to get some of my project work done. Last couple nights has been working on papercraft terrain for my Iron Kingdoms game I just started running. Tonight I turned to painting the starter box sets I have for Warmachine/Hordes. I started on my Khador Juggernaut since big red things jumped out as a good place to get back into the swing of painting. So far its just some Khador red base over black primer. I hope to get this and the Destroyer covered in a majority of the red base. I'm not convinced to finish the entire Khador set before moving on. We'll see how my motivation keeps up when I'm back to my regular shift.