Merry Christmas!

Some tin soldiers I home cast many years ago around this time of the year.

Merry Christmas!

Space Marine Lina

I found an old drawing book I did with my daughter when she was about four.

I think this is a space marine.

3 Bamboo Men

I just finished painting these three scratch built bamboo men. They still need a layer of matt varnish and some grass on the base.

10 Years

I started this blog ten years ago, in September 2012, shortly after my youngest son was born.

For about a year I wrote blog posts without getting any comment, not even from the friends I gamed with, and then, when I got my first comment, I read it over and over, but didn’t know how to respond, and when I finally did, after nine days, I didn’t know if Tim from Saskatoon who had been so kind to leave the first comment, also got my answer.

The truth is I didn’t know how to communicate well in the internet when I started this blog.

Now, after ten years, I feel more comfortable to be part of an online gaming community, which inspires my every day and even helped me get through the first years of the pandemic.

If I could give my younger self any advice about blogging, it would be this: don’t try so hard, be patient, friendly, be curious about other people’s work, about their thoughts, and learn as much as you can about how blogging works on a technical level, but never behave like a machine. And yes. I almost forgot. Enjoy yourself. It’s a hobby blog after all.

Ok. I sound like a pathetic old man now. Sorry.

What have you learned about blogging over the years? And what would you consider your biggest mistakes?

By the way the pictures are just some old pictures I found going through Herr Zinnlings Arbeitszimmer. This is one of the things I enjoy a lot about blogging: taking pictures of miniatures.

A T Rex out of a Kinder Surprise Egg

A dinosaur from the movie Ice Age that came out of a Kinder Surprise Egg.

I put him/her/it on a 40 mm base. The beast is ready for painting now. (Ok. I still need to remove some mold lines.)

Dingstown at Mel Bel Con

This summer I went to the gaming convention Mel Bel Con in Welver-Dinker with a friend and my kids. We played the Wild West skirmish game Dingstown by Axel Jansen.

I have already played Dingstown three times at different conventions and actually went to Welver-Dinker to play it again. I’m a Dingstown fan boy.

At one point my friend Krüger made such a complicated move that the author of the game had to consult his own rule book.

We had a very patient game master.

Mel Bel Con is the first gaming convention I have been to after two years. It was great fun. 🤠

Cat Sitting on Painting Desk

This is an AI-generated image I made with OpenAI’s DALL-E.

First I entered tis text:

“A photography of a cat sitting on a table. The table is used for painting 28mm miniatures, tin soldiers. There are a lot of little paint pots and brushes on the table.”

And then I added this:

“An unpainted 28mm miniature looking like a human with a helmet, a shield and a spear.”

Squirrel Planet / Entry for the One Page Dungeon Contest 2022

Once upon a time a group of friends came across a black squirrel. Since they had nothing else to do, they decided to follow it. After 20 minutes the squirrel disappeared. The group witnessed it going into a tree and because they were curious, they tried entering the tree, which surprisingly worked.

When they opened their eyes, they found themselves on a weird planet, ruled by squirrels. They were soon noticed and brought to the king of the planet. He explained to them that they had to go into a dungeon to either stay on the planet as squirrels or go back to earth with no memory of the planet, if they managed to get out. Otherwise they would all die.

Space Chicken Fighter (1) In this room the group encounters a space chicken fighter whose special weapon is his dangerous lightsaber which can easily be deadly.

Roboteeth Pony (2) In this room the friends encounter a pony whose roboteeth can do a lot of damage, but the pony can only use them every third round.

Turkey-Platypus (3) A turkey-platypus with dangerously long nails awaits the group in this room. One scratch robs you of half your health points, but the turkey-platypus cannot scratch that easily, because his nails are really slim.

Mutant Space Squirrel (4) This three headed space squirrel is the end boss. It has the ability to teleportate itself, read and control minds and control hair. It’s weakness is that it can’t breath without its helmet.

If you finish the dungeon every character who died will be resurrected and you have the choice between going back to earth without memories of this planet or live on the squirrel planet as a squirrel.

[Note] This is a dungeon written by Lina (14), Hendrik (12) and Joaquín (10) for the One Page Dungeon Contest 2022. After reading it, I told them that I thought it was too linear, not giving the players too many options. That it felt more like a film, not like a game.

I suggested a room, room 0, with a large machine looking like a retro arcade, that would show low resolution pictures of the four monsters and had four buttons and could teleport the adventure party to the four rooms. And maybe there could be some spray cans lying around.

My daughter got angry and screamed that they had put a lot of work into this and didn’t want to change anything. I repeated that the jury might find the dungeon too linear. She replied that she didn’t even care about the prizes. Well, I said, but maybe you want to play it with your D&D group and make the dungeon more interesting. Ok, then add a room, if you must, she said.

3D Scan of Joaquín's Fimo Troll

This is a 3D scan of Joaquín's Fimo troll.

The technician who scanned it called me to ask why I needed a scan of such an object.

I said:
I want to use it as a troll for Warhammer, but it is too big, so I would like to print a smaller version of it and then make a unit of stone trolls or swamp trolls.

He said:
Aha. Interesting.

(To be honest, I want to use the troll for Dragon Rampant, Hordes of the Things or The Portable Wargame, but I assumed the technician wouldn't know any of these games.)

Anyway. The scan is very good, very detailed, but there are holes in the 3D mesh, between the fingers of the troll, that I need to fix before I can print the model and it's far more difficult to do things like Cut & Paste in ZBrush than I thought ...

Joaquín's Fimo Troll

My son made a troll out of polymer clay.

I modified it slightly with green stuff. It can stand now. I also added fingernails and toenails. I would like to paint the troll, hopefully soon. I think it will be a great monster for an orc & goblin warband.

Hobby Desk

Some things I have been working on recently. Three bamboo men, six Surprise Egg terror birds and a Baryonyx.

Six Kinder Surprise Egg Terror Birds

A unit of Kinder Surprise Egg terror birds.

(While I found the first one in an old box of toys, I couldn't help it and had to look on Ebay for more.)

Palm Tree

I finally finished painting and varnishing this scratch built palm tree.

The materials I used to make it are wire, milliput and green stuff for the trunk and construction paper for the leaves. 

Things on my Desk

I have started to paint three scratch-built bamboo men and put two Kinder Surprise Egg toys on bases.

Have a nice weekend!

Karl

Question about Varnishing

I have a question about varnishing miniatures.

I use Humbrol gloss varnish for protection and then Daler Rowney to get a matt finish.

I always need several layers of matt varnish, which I apply thinned down, until all glossy parts disappear.

Although I’m careful not to let the matt varnish pool, there are always parts where this happens. I correct this with acrylic paint.

I’m happy with the result, but the process takes quite long.

Is this normal or do you think I could improve my technique?

Cheers,

Karl

Things on my Desk

I'm currently varnishing three palm trees and undercoating three bamboo men.

Hope you are well!

Karl

Picture and Hashtags

I’m currently reading one of the classic OSR texts, "Google+ for Dummies" by Jesse Stay.

It has an interesting chapter about trolls.

#osr #rpg #dnd #dsa1 #1pdc #dungeonsanddragons #oldhammer #googleplus #google #fordummies #familienfotos #madefordocumentary #dokumentarischefamilienfotografie #my_magical_moments #echtundungestellt #unseralltagistihrekindheit #fortheloveofthephotograph #documentyourdays #familyphotojournalism #thisdetailedlife #madefordocumentary #streetphotography #soulportraits #thebeautifulreal #reflectivemoments #tropicalsunset #people #powermorning #instapic #hereandnow #simplepleasures #goodbye2022 #welcomeapril #nice #moments #memories #wunderbar #sylt

...

If you like this sort of thing, hashtags and pictures, I mean, you can find me on Instagram, under the username zinnling.

Can you Identify this Miniature?

Can you identify this little dragon?

My cousin found it in a box of old Citadel miniatures he bought on Ebay. It has "M5" carved in the base. No idea what it is.

Maybe you know about it? Thanks for the help.