A little more Blood Bowl

This is the Berserk Boris figure from Heresy, heavily converted for use in Blood Bowl. I'm enjoying sculpting wih greenstuff, even if it can be frustrating; It's like trying to sculpt with chewing gum.

I'm finding that a sewing needle with a tiny amount of cooking oil on it (and I mean a TINY amount) is a great sculpting tool. Greenstuff is still difficult to use, in my opinion.

Oh well, at least I can rely somewhat on my painting to hide any crappy sculpting.

Step by step of how I painted my flag

I couldn't seem to get this pic to link in the previsous post on making flags, so here's another go, so that you can see how I layered everything.

Making a flag for your army

The key here, I think, in making a good flag for your army is to find the right material. It has to be a paper good enough to take paint and glue and still be supple enough to bend and furl into a nice wind-blown shape.

The material I use, and have plenty of, comes from the inserts Wargames Foundry usually sends out with their orders. I have also found, most thick, glossy papers will work. Really, just about any paper will work; If you paint the entire square/retangle of paper with acrylic paint, the paint will essentially provide the paper with a plastic layer giving your base material a layer of strength.

I prefer to measure and cut out a shape twice as long as the flag, so that I can fold it around a pole. In this case, I cut out flags at 2 inches by 4 inches (to make flags roughly 2-inches square). Don't forget to account for the part of the flag you'll wrap around the pole. For glue, I use superglue ( I like my stuff to get done fast), but white glue works just fine.

A note on flag wrinkles (see image): Flag folds/wrinkles/waves are the conjunction of where the wind is blowing the flag from one direction and gravity is pulling in another direction. But you need a point of tension from the which the wrinkle pulls, and that is the top of the flagpole where the corner of the flag holds.

Except where there are high, irregular or crosswinds, you should keep your wrinkles in a diagonal direction pointing roughly toward the tension point. You should also keep the wrinkles roughly parallel to one another though some wrinkles may slighlty branch away from larger wrinkles.

However, wrinkles are not always required- you may add a very subtle wave or none at all if you want folks to admire your handywork. I want folks to see the patterns on my flags, so I've added only a minimal of waves into them.

A note on my flags' design choice: For my Warhammer Empire army, I chose to base my flag designs off the Bedford Flag (see bottom image) from the American Revolution. The Bedford flag is considered the oldest flag of the Revolution and was even old than the Rebvolution, itself. The flag originally was a cavalry flag for the Massachusett's Bay militia during the French and Indian War.

The image is a photo of an actual-size reproduction Bedford Flag I made. The original flag was only 27 inches by 29 inches. The flags in my Empire army, however are about 6-foot square (inscale that is); I wanted them to have a decent impact on the game board.

Oldies but goodies: Empire ship

I finished building this ship last year (after starting then stopping sometime in 2006.) Like my Nile steamer, I built it as a display base for some of my figures, in this case, a small Warhammer Empire contingent.

Like the steamer, this ship started as a piece of blue foam over which planks were glued.

I'm confident I could build another with relative ease, and I would if only I had space in my small apartment.

Oldies but goodies: Pulp film crew

I think I'll start periodically reposting (new) photos of old minis. Since this blog seems to be pulling in new viewers each week, they may not take the time to look through the archives (though you're missing a lot.) So I'll put up the random photo of miniatures finished long ago.

As my photography skills improve, I'll repost better images as well.

I'll title reposted pics, "Oldies but Goodies" to indicate they're not new minis (though the pics may be new.)

This "oldy but goody" is a film crew I converted from some Copplestone Casting miniatures. The camera and microphone are scratch-built; the director's megaphone is the end of a pen (not the cap, but the part from where the ballpoint protrudes); and the clipboard and pencil (tiny) is a piece of plasticard and brass rod.

I use the film crew in playing Tusk.

Head swapping

One of the easiest conversions to make (provided you have the tools) is the head swap. Head swaps ae great for when you have a figure in a favorite pose, but you want him bare-headed or with different headgear.

All you need is a razor saw, pin vise, brass rod (or paperclippage) and maybe some greenstuff. You'll also need two figures, one of which you may be sacrificing if you are simply doing a head trasnplant (and not a "swap.")

When sawing off the head to be transplanted, try to save as much of the neck as possible, It's easier to work with more than less, and you can file off whatever you don't need later. When sawing off the head of your posing figure, try not to saw off any clothing such as necklaces or shirt/coat collars.

Test fit the head onto its new body. This is also a good chance to see how the head looks facing different directions. Once you're happy with a fit, drill holes in the head and the neck; drop a pin in the neck hole, do one more test fit, then glue it together. After the glue has dried, use your green stuff to fill any gaps or fix details.

Do you have Photoshop and a digital camera? Then you can do some basic visual headswaps to see what you're getting yourself into before you put saw to metal.

Everybody has a lead mountain of unpainted miniatures. Grab a couple and get a little practice.

Bad Bay Hackers

I've finished the core members of my Blood Bowl team. They are all Heresy figures which can be found at http://www.heresyminiatures.com/

I still have a few linemen and a couple catchers to paint, as well as a coach and some cheerleaders, all different manufacturers. All the while, I'm trying to NOT start any new projects.

These figures aren't painted as well as they could have been; this was a deliberate choice. Since they will be used on the field and probably will get knocked around, the inevitable chip will occur, using a simple color palette and basic 3-color technique will make repairs easy.

More Blood bowl team photos

Here's a photo of the core members of my team with the yellow applied (Foundry Ochre A, B, C) and the green (Foundry Forest Green A, B, C) finished up. Now I just have to do boots, belts, straps and armor. The unprimed figures are the remaining figures making up my Bad Bay Hackers team.

Heresy figures for Blood Bowl

Here's the core group of figures for my Blood Bowl team. If anyone is into the comics or novels, I'm basing my team off the Bad Bay Hackers. These figures are all the Heresy figures for my team. I also have a few 2nd edition Games Workshop figures, one from Impact Miniatures and one from Superfigs. I'll try to take photos as I paint'em all up. I hope you enjoy!

Some random figures among my many small projects

These include some figures from a Blood Bowl team I'm putting together using GW and Heresy figures. I'm basing my team off the novel and comic famous Bad Bay Hackers.

The highlanders are all Reaper figures.

Reaper Warlord reptus figure to be used as a dragonborn for D&D

Tried my hand at epoxy putty again. Results are ok.