Marienburg vs. the Undeadish (update: undead & spooky stuff)

[Shaved Dwarf]

Your Fomorians are a joy to look at!

[maxxev]

love those Fomorians, great paint work too!

Would be interested in some parts if you ever have time.

[ZeroTwentythree]

Thank you!

As far as making bits available, I'm still debating a few aspects of doing that...



Slow but steady progress...




Also I think I've decided that smaller & simpler tails are the way to go. I like these two better than some of the others I've posted and/or used. They may be candidates for casting, once they're cleaned up a bit more.




Still working on commission/trade stuff, too...

[Elbows]

The Fimir may be some of my favourite fantasy miniatures I've seen on this page - wonderful stuff.  Keep em coming.

[ZeroTwentythree]

Thanks! I plan on it. 





Getting my smooth on.



New silicone arrived. I'm going to try my first two part mold in the next few days, maybe a small one for those two tails I posted.

I like how the packaging urgently implores you, "MAKE IT NOW!"

I've also been thinking I should just go ahead and do something to finish this really old & incomplete sculpt. It started off as a one-off, but then I cut it up and reworked it to make it castable. (The arms are separate and just held on with poster-tack in the photo.) But I sort of lost track of what I waned to do with this, and don't have quite the enthusiasm for it anymore. So maybe just a couple of open hands gesturing, except... I'm not sure how well that will work when the plane of the arms/sleeves and plane of the hands are fixed 90 degrees from each other. But, on the other hand, that will make this a good learning experience for mold making, I suppose. But on the other, other hand, I'm not certain what I would do with more than one of him, so maybe I shouldn't waste the silicone on a figure I don't have a use for at the moment. Especially when there are other (unsculpted, as of yet) things I do have a use for. (Like the above mentioned warriors.)

[Admiral Benbow]

Great conversions with the Reaper Bones stuff. What are your experiences with that material? What glue will hold on Bones plastic, and what about green stuff? I havn't heard much good about Bones plastic, but on the other hand your painted miniatures show that it can be used obviously ...

[ZeroTwentythree]

Great conversions with the Reaper Bones stuff. What are your experiences with that material? What glue will hold on Bones plastic, and what about green stuff? I havn't heard much good about Bones plastic, but on the other hand your painted miniatures show that it can be used obviously ...

I've got mixed feelings on it.

The two greatest things it has going for it are the price and the ease with which it can be cut up.

The detail isn't as nice as the metal figures. Some figures have some rough spots, and other have soft detail. The soft weapons can be a big problem, that's why I've replaced several. You can heat the material and re-pose it while it cools down, but it seems like it sometimes still bends back out of place. The flash & mold lines aren't difficult to remove, but they are somewhat difficult to remove in a way that looks good. You have to cut it -- not file or sand. But sometimes little bits of plastic want to hang on, and it can sometimes be tricky getting a nice straight or flat surface when trimming/cutting. For example, I've had some difficulty removing just the mold line without shaving off some thin slices of the "meat" of the figure that I would rather leave on.

I've been using CA/super glue and it seems to work well. So does the putty (I use ProCreate, similar to greenstuff.) I wash the figures with dish soap, and paint seems to stick well without primer. (It is advised not to use spray primer.)

I've painted up the orcs, one toad demon, and one giant and been pretty happy with how they've turned out for my purposes. One orc had a bit of a blobby shape around the ankle & bottom of the greave. But since I'm chopping & rescuplting the feet anyway, I managed to get this to look passable (though not terribly crisp.) Only minor flaws other than that.

Below is the giant. You can see a mold line in the hair. I didn't have the patience to try to clean it. (I know, blasphemy!) There is still a slight bend in the spear haft. It was worse when I bought it, but I warmed up the figure on my space heater til it was soft, then braced the spear in place while it cooled down. After a day or two, it regained a slight bend.



For painting a detailed show-piece, definitely get metal. For armies on a budget, bones might be a good buy. But I'm not sure about human sized & smaller yet, especially where thin details & weapons are concerned. I can't imagine using it for troops with spears or halberds, for example. But for larger, thicker figures, it seems to be a pretty good buy.

For my part, I will definitely keep buying the orcs for my conversions, and for the most part, use Bones for larger figures. I did pick up the Jabberwock in metal, though, as I wanted all of the nice, clean detail (and no bending!) on that one.

[DeafNala]

Your conversion work & sculpting are WONDERFUL...LOVE the Vulture Guy.  OUTSTANDING STUFF!

[ZeroTwentythree]

My basic building block is groups of four 40x40 bases for most infantry. So this is my first little milestone, four Fomorians/Fimir.





That's one prototype, three with cast heads but individually sculpted tails.

I had some ups & downs with my first two-part mold, trying to cast a couple of basic tail designs that I could use for future figures.



 



First, I mixed up far too much silicone. So the first half of the mold (top) is way too thick, and I still had enough left to pour a single "cup" mold of one of the preferred heads. (Which is an OK thing, I guess because those molds deteriorated quickly -- though I've probably got more than enough heads at this point.)

Next, my first casting (left) didn't work so well. I knew I should have created some vents, but for whatever reason, I decided I preferred the trial & error method of learning. So, I removed the failed castings and then cut some vents (right.) Below is the second cast -- success! (Though not without an air bubble or two.)



So after this whole process -- a few one-piece block molds, and my first two-piece, plus building an initial unit of four figures, where do things stand?

1. A Fomorian/Fimir army is GO. I still need to work out things like what to do for everything besides the armored warriors/Fianna Fimm. But I can see that it's within reach. I will start with roughly a "division" -- about four units of four figures, plus a general, and one or two critters. So with the figures above plus the bog demon, I'm about 25% into that first goal.

2. Casting is GO. I'm still working on refining technique, checking out further materials and tools, and getting better castings. But I've got over the big hump of starting out and achieving a degree of success. I have the equipment for a pressure pot, but nowhere to use the air compressor. I've seen a manual bike pump used before, so I think I will try that. I hope that the pressure pot will produce better molds & castings. I think my next step will be to try molding & casting a full figure or two. That will give me some further practice in all aspects -- sculpting, molding, and casting.



Oooh, and just a week away from (hopefully) getting to play a few games! It has been years since I've played anything, and just as longs since I've seen a lot of my old friends, so I'm really looking forward to this!

[Vermis]

1. A Fomorian/Fimir army is GO.

2. Casting is GO.

Oooh, and just a week away from (hopefully) getting to play a few games! It has been years since I've played anything, and just as longs since I've seen a lot of my old friends, so I'm really looking forward to this!

Woot!

Particularly on the playing games bit. I can sympathise.

[Braxandur]

Have fun!

I have had my share of dry spells  (gaming wise) and know how much fun it can be getting back into it, even if only for one game.

Great work on the casting btw.

[ZeroTwentythree]

I think I've come to the conclusion that there's no real point in casting this guy anymore, so I'm going to finish him as a one-off for myself and just it done. So I ended up wasting time with cutting the arms off and reposing them. I also wasted some more time today taking another shot at sculpting some hands on him, so I tried out some modified hands from elsewhere. I was working on sculpting over-sized hands on him, but now that I see these, I'm wondering if this is too large. The concept was long arms & large hands to relate to the huge wings of vultures. I may leave this on the desk for a bit so I can keep looking at it and overthink it some more. It's been half finished for years, no point in hurrying now.





I've been wanting to work on the unpainted 'shrooms from DeafNala (look back a few pages) but hadn't made up my mind about colors scheme. I just knew I didn't want to try to replicate the one he used on the painted 'shrooms he also sent. I ended up going with this test subject for two reasons. One is that it's a big contrast with his colors, and is also similar to the tiny purple 'shrooms I put on a few of the recent Fomorian/Fimir bases. This turned out a bit darker, but I'm OK with that. Maybe that happens as they age/grow.



I'm thinking about basing them up on some small group bases, with a bunch of plain, tiny 'shrooms around them. Then I can put small patches around other terrain features (next to the barn, in woods or marsh, etc.) or custer them together in a larger 'shroom field or fairy ring.




In the interest of upping my casting game, I've been looking into further info.

I spotted this last year and hunted it down again, and I'm still looking for more information on it. Looks like someone took a couple of heavy duty floor fans, bolted a plate to it, then poured their molds in cake pans. Brilliant DIY spincaster. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153536908324568.1073741869.6524129567&type=3


And some good examples of mold layout & venting. This is the first I've seen of the forum, I may have to dive into it for more useful info. http://www.resinaddict.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=721

Another: http://www.resinaddict.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=80

[LordOdo]

Oooh love love the vulture guy!!
Such a shame it won't be cast, as I'd definitely be interested (in a few)

Great sculpting!

[DeafNala]

There is something cool about having a one-off-never-to-be-seen-again miniature; it's an instant collectible.
I really like the way you did the Mushroom...EXCELLENT color choices & brushwork. I've got to start expanding my range of colors & mushroom types.

[Metternich]

Wonderful, subtle shading on the Fomorians.