Old Children's Sculpts

I’m working on two terrain pieces assembled from old sculpts my children made more than 5 years ago. I feel a bit like an archaeologist.

Pikachu? 

Terror Bird

I’m currently painting a Kinder Surprise Egg bird from the Natoons series. 

I’m a bit stuck with the project. The miniature doesn’t have sculpted feathers, so I decided to paint feathers which takes much more time than I originally thought.

While I’m confident that I can finish painting this bird soon, my original plan was to paint six terror birds to use them as a unit of lesser war beasts in Dragon Rampant or for other games.

By the speed I’m going this might take all year …

Bit Box

Two years ago my son took apart all of his toys and put the pieces in ziplock bags, separating screws, motors, batteries, plastic parts etc.

He made some fantastic looking machines. Then he lost interest. 

It has become a tradition in my family to take out boxes filled with old toys at the beginning of the year, take a look at them and sort out as much as we can. This year we were able to give away a lot of plush toys, a doll, two light sabers and a wooden puzzle.

Inspired by the work of Ana Polanšćak I kept this bit box. I hope to make something out of it eventually, a terrain piece, a steampunk robot, a vehicle, I don’t know yet …

Happy New Year!

I wish you all the best for 2024!

Gorgon Hoplite Shield

I made a shield out of polymer clay, green stuff and Milliput. It has a diameter of 40 mm. I might use it as a shield for some scratch built hoplites later.

2 Hoplite Shields

I'm working on two hoplite shields.

Have a nice weekend!

The Shadow in the Sun / One Page Dungeon Contest

Lina (15), Hendrik (13) and Joaquín (11) wrote a dungeon for the One Page Dungeon Contest.

You suddenly wake up in a huge, pretentious hall filled with diamonds and furniture that was all colored in bright yellowy gold. A being, which you can't recognize because it's shining so bright, sitting on a throne starts talking:

“You have been chosen to save the sun from the shadow trying to take us over! The shadow beings have been waiting a long time to defeat the light beings, which make the sunshine, so the sun is forever dark. They are in the center of the sun, waiting until tonight, so they can eliminate us, leading to the sun never rising again. Will you help us?”

You agree to help them.

The sun ruler explains to you what awaits you in the dungeon:

The first step is to go to the weapon dealer to get weapons for the mission. The difficulty is that the dealer is very sketchy, and because you don’t come from the sun, he’ll try to scam you to get more money or give you weapons that don’t work. If you try to defend yourself, he might end up killing you, so what you need to do is be as careful as possible. From him, you'll need to buy Darkvision and the weapons or enchantments of your choice but be careful; shadow beings are immune to weapons using fire. The most effective weapons are metal, wood, or light-related weapons.

The second step is finding the secret passageway inside the weapon shop to the inside of the sun. There, you’ll find a room (1) full of traps designed to kill you. You’ll need to find the traps and then find a way to get around them. The traps are not only on the floor tiles but on the walls too. The traps include the floor disappearing, the walls crumbling, or highly venomous lizards being thrown at you. All the traps could instantly kill you, but luckily the room isn’t that big.

Once you’ve escaped, the next room (2) awaits you. There, you’ll have to fight your first group of three shadow beings, which will protect the next rooms at all costs, even at the cost of death. The downside for you is that the room is incredibly dark, so you’ll need to have Darkvision to even have a chance of making it out. The shadow beings have very powerful weapons, which can each kill you with three hits. Their problem is that the sun beings have gifted you very powerful shields, so not every attack reaches you, but you’ll still need to be careful and kill them as fast as you can.

In the next room (3), there’s venomous fog, which can kill you fast, but the door to the next room is closed, so you have to find a key for the door. The difficulty is that the room is filled with a lot of things, ranging from antique teacups to fluffy pillows, making it hard to find the right key. The time until the rise of the shadow beings to the surface of the planet is getting shorter every minute, and once they’ve gotten to the surface, nothing can stop them.

In the penultimate room (4), a huge shadow beast is waiting to kill you. It could devour you instantly, but it has one weakness: it is deadly allergic to bread and salt. You can buy bread in the weapon shop, but salt can only be found in the fourth room, so you should not only look for a key but also salt to defeat the monster.

The last room (5) is filled with shadow beings, which you’ll have to kill as fast as possible because there’s only half an hour remaining until their rise. With the right weapons, it’s easier to kill them, so choose wisely.

If all goes well, the sun shall rise; if not, we're doomed, because with the sun, all of our solar system goes down.

Are you up for the challenge?