D&D character

Here's what I finally settled on for my D&D character mini. It's a Reaper. I got onto a bit of a Conan the Cimmerian track, so I chose something Conan-ish, not the movie, but more the literary character.

D&D

Yep, I'm what some of you would call "a nerd." I'm getting back into D&D with friends with Fourth Edition, BUT I will still be updating this blog- I just figured I'd offer an explanation as to why I haven't updated in a few days.

Next up may be a painted figure I'll be using as my D&D character.

And I'm working on floorplans for my (40mm old west) newspaper building. It will be a nice cozy affair with a separate room (looks like a garage, actually) for the press. I'm just trying to figure out the layout for the desk and type case. I've also made 50 or so copies of miniature newspapers to stack, fold and have laying about the office.

I reckon' I'll need to pick up some more material, too. I picked up about $100 worth of basswood, dowel, card, styrene and brass rod 6 months ago, and I've done gone used it all up!

Lots of things on my project table; I just gotta get to doin'em! In the meantime, take a gander at some of my older stuff to keep yourselves entertained until I can get my lazy butt back to blogging.

Completed newspaper furniture collection

Except for some rough edges (I need a new/sharper saw), I'm pretty happy with this effort. Now, I just need to make a nice little building to house it all. I also want to add an oil lamp to the desk; I have a couple ideas I'm going to try out.

Type case progress

Just a couple in-progress shots of my California job case (or just Type case). The little piece of styrene held by the tweezers is 1/16" wide and about 1/4" long. I had to measure and cut each divider piece one at a time. Ugh. But it turned out ok. I hope I never lose this piece; I don't want have to build it again.

Editor's Desk under construction

A piece I'm proud of, this desk measures 1" wide by 2" long by 1 1/2" tall at the back. I'm especially happy with how my inkwell turned out. It was made using a needle file to file down the sides of a wooden dowel into the deires shape, then cutting it off, drilling a hole for the opening and adding a brass rod as a pen.
My next piece will be a type case- I'm not sure how it will go, there are a lot of dividers for the lead type- I may have to make dividers from paper. I'm glad I own tweezers.

Printing press

This is a model based off the old drum presses from the 1880s. It's done in 40mm scale. I didn't draw plans for it, but I tried to take a few stage photograps to give you an idea of how it went together. The main drum (the red cylinder) was made by sawing a section out of a pen lid (you can see the pen in one of the photos.) The rest of the press was bass wood, brass rods, a few plastic I-beam parts, and a few gears from a differential gear set made for RC cars. The base is a couple Games Workshop 40mm bases placed together.

40mm Old West Town

Here are most of my 40mm, scratchbuilt, old west town buildings (missing only the small homestead and my new sawmill.) Also is a picture of the floorplans of all those buildings to show how simple they really are to construct. Just took a lot of matboard and wood :)

Figured Id give y'all something to look at for the next week until I can get something new posted.

Update of things

Howdy, all! Visitor activity has picked up big-time! So I reckon' I'll need to update more often. The next update, however, won't be for a week or so, since I'll be going on vacation.
I should, soon after, have something new to post; Currently, I am working on some more 40mm old west figures from HLBS ( http://www.hlbs.co.uk/ ). I'm doing headswaps with them and will post them (before and after pictures) when they are done.

If anyone wants to see something or ask about something specific, either leave a comment here, at one of the forums I frequent (Steve Dean, TMP, Lead Adventure), or pm me through one of those forums.

40mm scale sawmill

This was free-form built; I worked at a sawmill, so I had an idea of the basic layout. The steam engine was built almost a year ago for this piece. The hardest bit to build was the carriage for hauling the cants pat the sawblade. I wanted a dremel cutting blade to be my saw blade, but I couldn;t find one and wanted to get the sawmill finished, so I used a metal washer instead. I'll replace it with a proper cutting blade once I get a hold of one.

Some 28mm kids for 40mm scale

These kids (next to a 40mm scale "mother") are all in 28mm scale. The first two, from the left, are made by Reaper, while the last one (as yet un-re-finished) is by Wargames Foundry. The last one I will repaint and have him carrying a pail of whitewash.

As you can see, the figures work great as children for 40mm scale. Th girl could be age 8-10; the first boy, 4-6; and the last boy could be 8 or 9 years old.

They all will be included in my Gutshot Old West games.

Not of the Lollipop Guild

My first dwarf. He originally was holding a hammer aloft; I had the extra axe blade and preferred it, so the conversion was made; a bearded blade for a bearded warrior!

Basic template for the crew quarters of the river steamer