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? 

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!

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.

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.

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

Hope you are well!

Karl

Happy Halloween

My son made a skeleton man with a power sword out of Fimo.

I put it on a 40 mm base and painted it using mainly Foundry paints.

Fimo Monster

My youngest son made a monster out of polymer clay.

He tried to sculpt a crocodile, but I think his miniature looks more like an eastern newt.

I painted it using Foundry paints and varnished it with Polyurethane Gloss Varnish by Vallejo.

Now I want to use it as a Greater Warbeast in Dragon Rampant ...

Things on my Desk

Another mud hut.

An unfinished palm tree.

Sixteen hoplites and five mercenary commanders from Foundry’s World of the Greeks range, which is my favourite miniature range, and Gladius, an old Citadel miniature.

Nine Unfinished Projects

This is a picture of my desk.

I’m currently working on some terrain pieces, chess figures, palm trees and I’m painting a little skeleton man, my son made out of polymer clay. Some of these projects I started many years ago.

I remember my father always kept several piles of documents on his desk and next to it, and although he worked a lot (too much probably), when he died 20 years ago, he left his study in such a state, that only recently I dared to enter it to go through his things.

A hobby is a luxury, of course, especially if you have three young children and in the midst of a pandemic, so time might be a problem, although I consider painting miniatures or gaming with friends time well spent.

I have a list with nine items, old projects, I need to finish before I can start something new.

Now, that I wrote this last sentence, I already have a lot of doubts about it.

First of all: are there only nine items on my list?

Like many people playing games with miniatures, I enjoy starting new projects all the time. I have a friend who can open a cupboard filled with unpainted miniatures if you mention any wargaming related subject and another friend who buys a plastic bag full of dwarves each time he goes to a gaming convention and I’m not much different.

It’s probably healthy to limit the number of unfinished projects on your table. On the other hand, why should I not paint the dinosaur my daughter made out of Fimo or the giant crocodile my other son sculpted, thus expanding my list to ten or eleven items? Or why shouldn’t I paint some orcs or dark age archers for our fantasy campaign? Or conquistadores? They would be more useful now than three palm trees. And then, why should I do any of these things? Instead I could paint the wall of our garage or some chairs and tables to invite friends over for a barbecue in our garden. Or just spend more time working to gain money?

My father’s hobby or obsession was to visit archeological sites and collect books about it. He was also very much focussed on his work and had a complicated family situation since my brother was severely handicapped. I assume he would have liked to spend more time in museums or read more history books, but just couldn’t. So to release some pressure he bought more and more books.

My father read a lot and he could remember most of the things he read, but when I looked at his books for the first time after he died I noticed that many of them had never been touched. He bought books to put them in shelves or on piles next to shelves, so they would gather dust. I used to have the romantic idea that he wanted to tell me something through his collection of books, because he rarely spoke to me. I feel some kind of sorrow looking at his books. Maybe my father imagined to have more time to read them all.

Now, my second question is: Is it bad, an unhealthy waste of resources, to hoard things and not use them? Books you don’t read, miniatures you don’t paint or play with? Shoes you don’t wear?

Do I really need to finish old projects before I start something new?

I can spend a lot of time sculpting or painting a single miniature, but it’s so much fun imagining playing a game with fifty miniatures on each side or more. This creates a tension and to release it I often start buying new miniatures, before my mind wanders off and imagines playing with yet another army.

Is this bad? A vicious cycle? I don’t know. What do you think?

Orc Head for a Hand Puppet

I spent a rainy Sunday afternoon in October making hand puppets with the children and took the opportunity to make an orc head.

It looks a bit like my grandfather from my mother's side and still needs to be painted.

Anybody know if Humbrol enamel paint and gloss varnish work well on paper mache?

Happy Halloween!

Karl

Two Bamboo Men and a Palm Tree

2 bamboo men

and a palm tree

Deep Dream Dino 2

Another experiment with Google Deep Dream and a clay dino.

Experiment with a Clay Dino and Google Deep Dream

A post about Google Deep Dream on The Stronghold Rebuilt inspired me to do this.

Problems Making Papier Mâché Wargaming Hills

I enjoy making objects out of papier mâché. Masks, hexagons, walls, hills. I made these two hills about 6 years ago. I like the way they look but unfortunately they don’t work well as hills in a wargame. They are 3,50 cm high and have a smooth surface. Figures slide down or fall off.

Now I’m working on a hill that’s much flatter. It’s 1,50 cm high. I can’t make it flatter, I think. Then it wouldn’t look like a hill any more. It would look like a piece of area terrain.

Making a hill from papier mâché might not be the best idea, but as I said I like the material. It’s my favorite material. It’s my intention to make a hill that lies flat on the tabletop board. Unfortunately, each time I apply a layer of paper to a papier mâché object with wallpaper paste, the object changes its form while the paper dries. So it takes a long time to make a papier mâché hill that lies flat on the floor, possibly forever if you want a perfect hill.

I started to make this hill 2 or 3 years ago. In January I said to myself: Ok, two years are a long time to make a papier mâché hill. I have to finish this project now. I have to change my technique.

So I thought about ways to stabilize the object and applied a layer of Milliput, a self-hardening modeling clay which can be carved and sanded. This works a bit better but the hill still changes its form when it dries.

Maybe you think: Whatever. These are hobby problems. Not really important in a time when our environment is changing rapidly, reminding some of us of the big changes that happened 65 million years ago and lead to the extinction of dinosaurs.

Or you experienced problems making papier mâché hills yourself and can offer some advice on solving them?

I hope I can finish the hill soon. And start three more.