SW:ED - Captain Rex

Yep, I'm still here. Just being busy with things that are not hobby-related lately.

I've had my Captain Rex figure primed and ready to paint for a month or more now. I finally painted it a couple of days ago and put a clear coat on today. So, yay!

Captain Rex with his Epic Duels partner, Ahsoka Tano.

Not much to say except that I decided to go for the next gen clone helmet this time.

More pics:

Apologies for the horrible dark background that completely swallows up his darker features. I'll do better next time! Can't even show you which Heroclix figure Rex started out as; can't remember the name, can't find an empty clix base that I can't account for.

Hogwarts Battle (Game 4)

We've been on vacation for a few days and I brought a couple of games. So far we've played Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle twice. Both times was Game 4, which we hadn't tried yet.

The first game was me and Jenni playing with our two oldest kids. We put up quite a desperate-feeling fight. We lost the first location quite quickly. Then with the requirement to pick two Dark Arts cards per turn, the harder villains coming up early in the game, and all the characters getting stunned at least once each, those skull tokens just kept piling up! We ended the game defeated with five villains still in play or in the queue.

The second game was a complete opposite. It was kind of funny actually. With three of us playing Ron, Hermione, and Neville, we fell into much better luck!

We turned up Crab and Goyle right off the bat and the strategy became one of keeping them alive and keep defeating the stronger villains only, thus avoiding some of the tougher villain combos that can come up. The strategy worked as we only lost the first area about three rounds from the end. We finished the game with the defeat of the death eater, which boosted everyone's health back up to 10! So we were very happy to win and feeling like we can take on Game 5.

Maybe.

Snippets

Hi all!

Lately I'm only getting snippets of time to hobby here and there, and I'm not always taking them each time either. So, I've just a few random pics to show. Maybe interesting to you, maybe not...

Imperial Settlers

A friend left this game with me to learn for the next time we get together for games. It has a solo variant, which is what I tried. Did I play it right? I dunno. I did well enough with a score just over 50, which is a middling score, based on the ranking system found in the rule book. With a middling score, I'm reasonably convinced that I didn't cheat!

The game is a resource management card game with 4 factions: Barbarians, Romans, Egyptians, and Japanese. I played Romans. I like the solo scoring system to try and better your score when competing with yourself, but I really get the feeling that playing with human opponents will give a better gaming experience.

This game reminds me of a computer game my brothers used to play (I couldn't get into it for some reason). There are a number of similarities between the two. For one, the titles: Imperial Settlers vs. The Settlers. Second, the factions available to play in both games included Romans and Egyptians. Third, the guy on the box cover (see above), but the people depicted on the cards even more so, just look like the little guys who run around building and fighting in the computer game.

My final layout. The attacker deck just couldn't get the combinations needed to raze any of my buildings until the very end.

Oh! Not Zombies!

The next day, I tried out playing the zombie game with my son. His attention span couldn't hold out against the zombie onslaught and he quit during turn 2, which was shortly after I took this picture.

Early on, Mr. Eager Beaver there in the lead has already acquired 2 out of the three hits I assigned to player troops.

I changed a few things from the last time we did this, and my changes might make the game a little harder. The changes reflected how I remember the game Zombies! going when I played it that one time 12 years ago: adding tiles drawn from a stack as players move into those areas and adding zombies x d8 to the new tile laid. I also decreed that immobilized undead remained in the square they died in and the living can't pass through or land on them without risking infection. Maybe I'll try this again solo to see how well it works. I might make up new rules for zombie movement as well.

For anyone feeling down about their workspace:

I just wanted to take a random picture of my miniatures building/painting area. Yes, this is my entire workspace. It's portable (around the house anyway), has walls so it catches shavings and I don't lose bits from it. It's not bad. And yes, that's pretty much all the tools I use too.

My box of fun.

The knife I cut down from a dull, old paring knife. I found the dental pick on the road. The metal thing to the right of the dental pick is the remainder of a sawzall blade that I cut a chunk out of for a knife I built a while ago. Some green stuff and a bottle of super glue (happens to be Gorilla brand). I've got an Xacto set that I'll use as well and my brushes aren't pictured either.

For motivation purposes, I just thought people might be interested to know how little one actually needs to get started with modding Heroclix.

Oh, and the work in progress, the red figure laying on the Jenga block? Hopefully I will be revealing his altered state soonish!

SW:ED Project - Asajj Ventress and more clones

I first saw Asajj Ventress in some Clone Wars episodes. I wanted to get a Sith figure in and I thought she'd make a good addition, especially since she is often fighting against Ahsoka Tano, whom I have already modded a figure for.

Looking through my box of candidates, I came across a sculpt of Elektra.

Image from hcrealms.com

I find this sculpt to be rather ugly. So many things just look so wrong with it. One thing that's good about it is that it is a good pose for someone holding a lightsaber or two!

Looking for images of the character, there are a number of different interpretations of what Ventress looks like. Of all the ones I scrolled through, I liked this one the best: Link to Asajj. I based the look and much of the colour scheme on this image. And the result:

Still debating how much I want to her face in the way of coloured lines.

One might notice that the base is black. That's because I broke down and bought a primer. How glad I am that I did. Paint goes on so much smoother and stays on better. I primed the bases with the models.

The Epic Duels deck I downloaded combines Ventress with a couple of battle droids. However, I'm not yet sure how I want to model battle droids with their skinny legs and arms, thus the posting of just the main character.

Bring in the clones

I also got the three other Punisher sculpts turned into clones. I'm not as happy with how the minigun-wielding one turned out, mainly because he was a little larger scale than the others, but it'll work for the table top and that's all I need!

Here they are:

Athos, Porthos, and Aramis

She's all like, "Seriously?"

Basing Experiment

A number of miniatures enthusiasts advocate keeping one's eyes open for everyday items that can be incorporated in miniatures building. One reason is to exercise creative muscle. A second reason might be to instill uniqueness into a piece. The third reason, less fancy and artistic-sounding in nature, is to save money.

As I have recently been customizing Hreoclix for other games, I have been removing them from their dials. Some have an adequate little plastic base already for standing, others do not. But I'd like something better looking. This summer, before I really had things like my Epic Duels project in mind, I came across a number of discarded solar LED garden lights. Obviously thrown out because they didn't work any more and I just started collecting them for different ideas I started having. I'll probably get to some of those in the future, but I'll talk about one I'm in the midst of trying out right now.

One of those discarded lights contained an acrylic rod with bubbles trapped in the middle of it, like this one:

Image from buyeparts.com

The rod, 1-1/8" (29 mm) in diameter, seemed just right for basing miniatures in the Heroclix scale.

I was thinking about how to cut the thing such that I would come out with reasonably straight and level faces on the discs. By had was maybe out of the question. My father-in-law suggested his lathe and I jumped at it. I just eyeballed a thickness I liked, which turned out to be around 3/8" (4 mm). At the thickness I chose, we got 22 discs, and one that was thicker (the piece that was in the lathe chuck).

The cutting did generate heat, enough of it that the discs ended up with rough faces. But, hey, I'm just going to be covering that with paint and maybe some green stuff, so no big deal there. I filed off the roughest parts, but the surface will just look like ground, I think. The only hitch is that I think the best way to attach the minis to the bases I made will be to keep them on the small, almost adequate bases they are on. 

So my first experiment is to dig the smaller base shape into the top surface using my Dremel and a couple of different wood bits. After fitting them in, I have realized that I will want to fill in gaps and such using green stuff (or some other filler) then painting them. But I'm thinking I'd rather do this in batches, so it will happen after I have a few more figures ready to finish in this way. 

Here's the four Star Wars characters mounted and ready for ground work:

Not too bad even as they are, but adding ground effects will look better.

A belated Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all!

Falling girl: a Heroclix conversion

When I prepped some green stuff for the clone trooper helmet, there was still a little left over. It was still quite a lump and I couldn't stand to toss it so I quickly  sorted through that Heroclix box to see if there was a hero I could convert with a bit of green stuff. What came to me was an idea for a DC hero called fire. The sculpt, as you can see in the pics, is a semi-transparent green. I assume she's supposed to be hovering or something, definitely not standing or running. But the pose and the way the hair sticks mostly straight up from the head, she could also be falling. Not like an accidental fall, mind you, but like she's jumping off a cliff or something. What kind of girl might be jumping from a cliff? Perhaps a girl like Lara Croft. So I decided to make Fire into a rugged adventure girl.

So with no specific game in mind or any plans for future use of what I was about to create, I got under way.

First thing's first, of course, gotta trim all those tendril things that are probably supposed to be flames or something. Quickly shaved them off, because I gotta have time to shape the green stuff before it sets. Well, then she looks all naked, so a pair of adventurey shorts are in order, I can just paint a shirt over her as she is. Well, maybe not...

her breasts just seem too...

unrestrained-looking...

to be under a shirt...

Okay, so one breast reduction surgery later, I figured all adventurers need a backpack, so I made her a backpack. Made sure to make the backpack strain away from her body a bit to keep the impression of her falling through the air. Put on a belt and a sidearm, because adventure girls have those, right? Finally, because I still had some epoxy left, I gave her some nice heavy hiking boots.

Some painting and a layer of Pledge acrylic floor finish to seal it up and hey, presto!

I think the conversion went rather well for having to make up a plan after mixing the epoxy!

Still thinking on how to base her.

The pics:

This girl is tough! See, she has a bandage around her left hand!

"I'm falling into the unknown, but on purpose!"

Kind of looks like she's going for the Crane Kick a la Karate Kid.

I really like how the backpack turned out. I even put a little canteen on the left side.

SW:ED Project - Ahsoka Tano

Now to introduce my second completed Epic Duels team made from Heroclix: Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex.

Ahsoka and Captain Rex ready for battle!

Ahsoka Tano
I used this sculpt of the X-Woman Quake. The biggest reason I chose it was that her pose seemed to be exactly the kind of stance Ahsoka might take in a fight, specifically with the positioning of her light sabers.

Quake (photo from HC Realms)

While this is my second completed team, this was actually the first conversion I had attempted to add sculpted material to. In fact, I hadn't even acquired any green stuff yet. I tried using JB Weld instead. I'll tell you now that I don't recommend using JB Weld after having used green stuff, it's much harder to work with. Despite the troubles I had with the JB Weld, I think I got lucky and the sculpt actually came out looking pretty good for what it was, good enough to try painting it instead of doing it all over again with green stuff.

 

 

 

 

So yes, I used JB Weld for Ahsoka's head-piece and her skirt, for which I am especially amazed that it worked. Her belt, pouch on her back, and neck-tie shaped thingy on the front were done with green stuff. For her light sabers, I clipped some bits off of a paperclip. Then for each I heated one end and pressed it into one of the fists so that the plastic melted around the paperclip. After cooling, I added some Krazy Glue to further strengthen her hold on her sabers.

Painting her face was a struggle, I think it came out too busy-looking with the white markings at this small scale, but I don't know how else I would do it. As for the rest, I went for her dress from later in the Clone Wars series.

Captain Rex
...sort of. In my researching of Captain Rex and from watching the Clone Wars series, I took note that the dual blaster pistols (DC-17 hand blasters, apparently) are the signature weapon for Rex. Thus, I want to do a sculpt with 2 pistols, I just haven't decided on one from the figures I have yet. However, I do have 4 Punisher sculpts that would make a good squad of clone troops: one sniper, two with rifles, and one with a mini-gun. So I did up one of the rifle-wielders to stand in for Rex until I get a sculpt I like for the role. Maybe there's an Epic Duels team featuring Commander Cody and some other troopers.

Punisher (photo from HC Realms)

The Clone Trooper came out pretty well. It started with a decapitation. Yes, after trying to model a clone helmet onto the Punisher's head, I took it off and stuck it on a spike to ease the molding process. After the helmet dried, I used it to make a mold so that I have an easier time with future clone conversions. Thus finished with the head, I glued it back on.

Actually, while waiting for green stuff to set, I did some body work. You can see the original sculpt is quite filled out with muscles, something clone armour wouldn't actually fit, so I shaved them down to approximate clone armour. I also cut the rifle down to more closely resemble a clone blaster rifle. While I intend him to be a regular clone, he can stand in for Captain Rex for now.

Painting was pretty straight-forward. Three coats of white to cover up the Punisher's original black clothing. Then the black areas at the armour joints and for the visor. I managed to paint around the gun, so no changes (besides the cutting) to that. Then some really watered-down black to to give a tarnished or battle-worn look. and that is that!

So I now have two teams (with cards too), meaning I could actually play the game using minis! Exciting, is it not?