Lest We Forget

In honor of my Uncles who served in the Army and Army Air Corps in WWII, my Father who served in the USMC and my friends that have served or are currently serving.

Combining the Art of Stephanie Law and Dark Sword Miniatures - A Kickstarter

The two miniatures displayed were painted by Jessica Rich. Jim believes in using top of the line talent to show off his wares!

Dark Sword Miniatures has come along way since I first was introduced to them many years ago. Initially Jim specialized in recreating the art work of Keith Parkinson and Larry Elmore in miniature, the Masterworks line. He then branched out and developed his own fantasy line even as he added Easley and Caldwell to his Masterworks line. A line of anthropomorphic animals was added and has been quite successful as well. He also managed to get the license to produce the George R.R. Martin line of miniatures and many of your favorite Game of Thrones characters are available in miniature now.

Jim runs one hell of a Kickstarter, evidenced by his current effort as he reproduces the artwork of Stephanie Law to his Masterworks line. He keeps the funding time short and the stretch goals coming. You will also have find that there aren't a whole lot of pledge levels either. You are either in for the core set or your not. If you elect to jump in on that core set though the value just keeps getting better and better. We have hit 14 stretch goals increasing the core set from the original 10 figures to 14 plus numerous animals that are part of some of the add on sets.

I highly recommend that you at least check this one out. While they miniatures aren't really gaming pieces as such they will certainly challenge you painting skills and help you stretch. Oh and don't worry about Jim hitting is delivering dates. All the miniatures have been sculpted and I wouldn't be surprised if the masters are done and he is working on the production molds as we speak.

Dark Sword Stephanie Law Masterworks KS

Magnets, Drillbits and Milestones

First the Milestone, the blog hit 200,000 page views today and I calculated that about 43,000 individuals have visited the blog since I started in way back in January of 2012. So there's the exciting news of the day, thank you everyone for sticking with me and my half completed projects!

On to the work. My magnets arrived yesterday and I picked up the drill bit (A Forstner Bit) to make the cut outs for the magnets. I purchased both 3/8" diameter and 1/2" diameter magnets, still haven't decided which ones I'm going to use. Tonight I opted to try out the 1/2" magnets.

The first thing I learned after trying this out is that the holes have to be cut more precisely than I did it. Otherwise the sides are actually held out of alignment, kind of ugly looking. I figured I may as well keep going tonight and I decided to build the background for the Trophy Hunter just to see how things might go together with some thing other than matte board.

Here are the pictures from tonight:

A Forstner bit is designed to cut into the wood and leave a flat bottom.

The drill press with the bench set at 45 degrees so that I was actually cutting into a flat surface

1/2" x 1/16" Rare Earth Magnets. The self adhesive on these isn't even close to be strong enough for my purposes, I'll have to go with epoxy to hold them in place.

Marking the back for the holes

Holes drilled, I think I missed getting everything lined up properly

Magnets in place

Gluing wood strips for the floor. These are coffee stirrers.

And the otherside

Planking going on for the display base portion

The floor is in, looks pretty good

Trimming it out. I may need to apply a second coat of  Danish oil to the bottom as well as the back (to seal it).

Baseboards in place

Putting the scene back together

Adding some color. I used a brush I should have used an airbrush to get a nice even coat. I do like that green though.

Competition Prototypes II

While I continue to mess around with the display bases I thought I would turn my attention towards one of the dioramas that I have planned. This is "Steady Lads" and again is an all Reaper piece. It is set circa 1880s (maybe during the Ripper murders) and utilizes the British Colonial Troops and a couple of Aliens. 

Right now I actually think this one is to small so I'm going to expand the stairway and street sides of the scene outwards to give me some more room to play with. I have all the minis now for this but I'm kind of reached a stumbling block as there are some construction issues I have to think about.  

1) The interior floor of the building needs to be higher than the sidewalk.
2) The street wall needs to be longer and needs a bigger window or maybe two windows.
3) The exterior, street side, needs brickwork and/or stone work to compliment the windows
4) A basement window near the corner would add interest
5) The street side needs to be longer so I can space the aliens out a bit more
6) The sidewalk needs to be wider
7) Add a grate for interest in the gutter
8) The alley stairs just need to be wider so there will be a bit more room for the soldiers
9) A streetlamp to help set the date
10) Period posters, again, to help set the date
11) A street sign to help set the location

Really the biggest thing is how to actually go about constructing this, especially with all the multiple levels going on, and what to make it out of. My usual go to material of styrene plastic is not going to be sufficient or efficient in trying to build some of these shapes. I spent a lot of time just staring at the thing the last couple of nights. Maybe a trip to Hobby Lobby or Michaels will lead to a new material discovery.

This is the configuration I'm thinking about right now. I replaced a couple of the Troopers with some other poses that I like better.

The original prototype, I have shown this before.

British in place, The officer with the sword is still in play but the other two are new. I think they provide better direction/action than the two I was planning on using orginally.

Shot down the Alley

Aliens in search of something

The interior walls definitely need to be taller. The bayonet should not extend above the top of the wall!

Competition Prototypes

With the prototype display bases completed I thought I would take a look at how some of my entries might go together. I had the miniatures hand for the Trophy Hunter and Terror From Outer Space. So with a little "blue" tack I wanted to see how these might look.

Trophy Hunter is an all Reaper display featuring the Female Andromedan and three trophies consisting of various Bathalians. For this display the high backdrop is perfect.

The heads tacked into place

And the Hunter pointing out some interesting point on her latest trophy.

Right now the whole background just screams old English trophy room, Green walls, dark wood wainscotting, hardwood floor and maybe a rug and a little table. Should be fun.

The second one The Terror From Outer Space is much simpler but the background is going to be a bit more complex. I'll have to work out how to do build the interior of a spaceship.

So imagine an airlock door on the left side where the tentacles are coming from. I might add a little robot to the scene on the right side to help balance it out.

Looking at the display bases and the minis sort of in place, I definitely happy with how things are coming along. I will just have to sit down and start painting now!