A Couple New Sculpts

Here are a pair of new sculpts I've been working on. These are the first scratch-built minis that I've tried since my Blood Bowl Troll: http://mdarrow.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-second-string-sculpts-finished-troll.html. I was excited to try something at normal scale for 28mm (which is funny, because these came out more like 32mm) and I wanted to try out mixing Aves Apoxie Sculpt and Green Stuff, which ended up working quite well. It's less sticky and it blends very well, unlike straight G.S. which always seems to leave a seam.

Above is the first mini and its concept sketch, The Electric Wizard Comes to the Wastes: Link, loosely based on the wonderful stoner-metal album Electric Wizard. You can tell that the work is still very much in progress, what with the lack of hands, but I'm very pleased with the face, as it is very first human face I've ever sculpted. I made it roughly following this tutorial: http://www.ebobminiatures.com/sculpting/faces.htm. This is a good, simple way to start studying the art of the visage.

I'm also taking my first crack at weapon-making. (The wizard's sword, Slamdring the Foe-Slammer, and his Staff of Incandescence are mounted on wires out the sides of his cork.) That part's not going quite so well, but I'm learning a lot. It's a very fiddly business, and, as you can no doubt see by my attempt on the Evil Dead below, I have not quite figured out how to get an elegant result:

I tried to fashion this chopper out of plastic card, but that turned out to be even harder than using G.S. Furthermore, mounting it to the figure to achieve a strong bond proved to be impossible save by sculpting it into the hand itself, which came out looking...odd.

It was a good experiment, though, and I don't mind rough results on what will wind up being a rather mookish character. You have to start somewhere. I am, however, pretty pleased with the face on this one too, in spite of its being out of scale and anatomically out there. I'm discovering that I enjoy making my minis closer reflect my twisted visions than they do "reality."

What do you mean "reality?" This is fantasy, damn it.

That said, I will be trying to work on my sense of scale and the elegance of my putty work. Any and all comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Synntowne Abbey Mangles: Blitzer Conversions

Having (quite a while ago) completed my plastic Orc Bloodbowl team from the Bloodbowl box, I have since let my human team sit gathering dust. Well it's time to change that.

However, the models provided in the box make for a silly line-up. To get a working team, I need to make some changes. The first (and maybe only--I haven't really decided) step is to turn a couple of the many linemen into a more useful position--blitzers.

This kind of project can be tricky, but when I thoroughly mutilated and reconstructed a couple of Orc linemen, they actually became my favorite models on the team. So I had every confidence I could do the same for these measly humans. What I had in mind was to re-position both the legs and the right arm of a lineman to achieve a running pose similar, though not exactly alike, to the standard blitzer models. Here's some of the preliminary surgery:

I went on to cut the leg on the left into three pieces at the knee and ankle. After a bunch of pinning and careful, strenuous drilling, I was ready to roll!

...Until the newly glued foot fell off and skittered into oblivion. Then I was ready to cry.

So, after much tossing aside of possessions in the ensuing search, I carefully set the first model aside and decided on a more conservative conversion for the second blitzer. A simple arm re-positioning and a sculpted knuckle duster.

Fortunately for me, by the time I got to the sculpting stage on the second model, the missing foot dropped back from oblivion into plain sight where it patiently awaited me. NOW I was ready to roll.

The Finished Blitzers

There was, of course, much gap filling, but the really important putty work needed to sell these guys as blitzers. I needed more than just the pose. Looking at the original models, I noticed the distinctive leg padding. So I slapped some on. An easy step. I also gave them some plumes by sticking a tiny length of paper clip into the tops of their helmets to use as support for the sculpting. Finally, I slapped on some fun, ridiculous, custom visors. My favorite.

The finished blitzer's arses.

And that's that. Ready for basing, priming, and paint. I still need to decide whether I want to try and convert some of the team into more catchers, since the box only comes with two. However, the box also comes with two throwers, which I think might be one too many. Now what would be really cool is if I could figure out a way to convert the extra thrower convincingly into a catcher... we'll see. Oh, and I have to decide if I want to sculpt an ogre.

I also need to come up with some fluff for this team, for as we know, teams with a story always play better. So far I'm thinking they might be the sporting initiates of some violence-loving brotherhood of monks. We'll see what I can come up with.

On another note, I've begun stripping my second-hand citadels from my last post, as well as some plastic dwarf warriors which I really messed up on my first try. I'm trying a solution of dish soap and water to see how well it works. Stay tuned to see the results.

Oh, and if you have anything to say, too bad. It's not like you can comment or anything.

My Custom Blood Bowl Pitch Pt. I: The Concept

So I had the great fortune last Thursday night to finish my very first in person game of Blood Bowl! I have played online using FUMBBL before, but never have I played an entire game sitting in the same room as the people I was playing with. And man we had a blast!

It was actually four of us-- my roommate, two friends, and me-- with my roommate Rob playing humans against my friend Dan as orcs, while Eric gave recommendations for both sides and I provided guidance with the rules. It was a long game since I was teaching while we played and we didn't really enforce the four minutes per turn rule, but those 3.5 hours just flew by.

It really surprised me just how into it my friends got. I'm used to getting strange looks when I explain the game to people, and the rules are more complicated than most people have the patience for. But once the game got rolling, my friends could not get enough of the sheer personality of Blood Bowl. It just goes to show what a well-crafted and entertaining game it is.

This got me even more excited for designing and building my own pitch. Having friends to impress really helps with motivation. I first got the idea for a foamcore pitch here.

So as promised, here are the plans for my own custom pitch:

Rough sketch, not even close to scale. Sorry for the drawing.

I am making the pitch from two pieces of 22 x 28 x 3/4" foamcore. I am making each half of the board 16" long, which will give me an extra couple of inches to add to the end zones. As you can see, I'm incorporating the dugouts and the score and turn boards into the board itself, as I feel the separate ones which come with the game take up too much room. I am not, however, going to model them for realism. Instead I'm going to use what I like to call (to myself) 'selective texturing,' so that I can 'draw' whatever I need on the board with flock or sand. That way it will add somewhat to the verisimilitude of the game, but not to the extent that it becomes hard to use. Similarly, I don't like the idea of carving lines into the board--especially with such thin material--so I'm going to use the ground texture to mark out the squares. It's hard to describe, but you'll see what I mean when I start posting WIPs.


The logo in the middle (the version in the sketch is crappy) will be a version of the University of Chicago Phoenix. Got to honor the ole Alma Mater:

The Maroon. I mean Phoenix. Used without permission.

I still haven't decided on the color scheme yet, though I'm leaning towards blue for the home team, and orange for the away. For flocking, I'll be using my own home-made grass flock (tutorial coming soon!) and either sand or coffee grounds (probably coffee--less paint required). For the logo and the endzones, I will make masks/ stencils and spray diluted paint onto the grass with a spray bottle, or if that doesn't work, an old toothbrush. Again, you'll see.

So until then, Peace!