Curt’s Basement

The music is Kidstreet – Song, which you’ve probably heard in Ford’s ads before.

via Neatorama

tokyoglow-low from Nathan Johnston on Vimeo.

The Sandpit from Sam O’Hare on Vimeo.

via Boing Boing

So, Amanda and I are thinking it might be fun to go to FanExpo this year. The convention is like a celebration of all our geeky interests in one big place. Comics, Sci-fi, Anime, Gaming, and Horror all rolled into one. The event is in downtown Toronto on the 28th of August to the 30th. Tickets are between $10 and $75, depending on which package you get. Bring your wives, your girlfriends, your friends, whoever you want! When we know who’s coming, we can sort out the details of meeting near the convention centre and going in together, or whatever works best for everyone. Let me know if you’re interested!

http://www.hobbystar.com/fanexpo/

via Monsters and Rockets

So, further adventures in my quest for WH40k modifications and scratchbuilds. After some deliberating I can’t yet re-alocate enough cash to buy any Green Stuff for myself to help me build my Autarch. But since I’ve been wanting more and more to get my army playable, I’m becoming more willing to experiment if it means getting things done.

So, I did some research, and found this little gem. From what he says on his blog, he used basic hardware store epoxy putty to completely mold from scratch jetbike chassis for a squad of six eldar jetbikes, and used leftover bits from wave serpent/falcon sprues to build the rest. So this inspired me. The main thing I needed my greenstuff for was to make one or two extra warp jump generator carapaces for my autarch and possibly a secondary one should I have the available limbs, torsos and desire to have more than one weapon layout. And as basic hardware store epoxy putty suffices for the thick jetbike chassis, it will no doubt suffice for the thick carapace I needed. So off to Canadian Tire I went and picked up some Mighty Putty. For a paltry $11 after tax, I was able to purchase more of Billy Mays’ favourite all-purpose putty than I could have got green stuff for several times the price.

Now, I’ve done a lot of research on the subject, and the main reason many modders advise against Mighty Putty is two reasons. One, it hardens in about five minutes and essentially needs to be carved after that. And two, it hardens much too hard to replace delicate plastic pieces, more into a chunk of rock or concrete than into a hardened plastic. But as I will be using it mainly to replace thick metal pieces by making molds and then pressing fresh putty into the cured molds, flexibility and working time is essentially a non-issue as thick metal pieces aren’t supposed to bend. I had been warned that it had a strong smell, but having foolishly worked in closed quarters with fiberglass dust and paint fumes, I felt I could deal with any chemical smell.

So, I arrived home and after spending some time with the family and Deb had gone to bed, it was time to try out my new miracle putty and make Billy proud. No sooner had I opened a tube and cut off a suitable chunk to cast a mold, was I hit with an odor not entirely unlike a clogged ceptic tank. Why Billy? Why didn’t you warn us of this terrible evil curse surrounding your beloved putty? The immediate reaction of dropping it on the floor and trying to kill it was a difficult foe to beat, but beat it I did. And so I proceeded to spend the next 3 minutes rubbing this foul-smelling clay between my weakening hands, each squeeze producing another noseful of decomposing sulfur. And it got really warm as the chemical reaction took place. But eventually, I placed the putty, fully kneaded, onto a small piece of paper and pressed the carapace down into the blob, and then carefully removed it. And lo and behold, a perfect impression! So I set the mold aside to cure and quickly went to wash off my now sticky hands and carapace. So I’m pleasantly optimistic that this will provide the results I’m looking for. I’ll see tonight how well the mold has cured.

Thank you Billy Mays, thank you, you crazy frenetic bastard.

Hey guys, decided I’d make a post out fo this rather than flooding the chat some more. Well, after some poking around, the best overall price for buying any of the epoxies commonly used for miniature modifying is either www.greenputty.com or www.thewarstore.com. The only place that beats them is, of course, eBay. Now, greenputty.com sells their green stuff for $20, but has much lower shipping ($7.59 for an order of one roll of Green Stuff and a brick of Brown Stuff, which I’ve read is better for sharp details). The war store sells Green Stuff for $12.99 but has twice the shipping price ($15.00 flat rate to Canada). This might make it seem like a no-brainer to go with The War Store, but greenputty.com offers bulk bundles, for an extra $18, you triple your order of Green Stuff (or add ), so now, you’re looking at $38 for 3 bricks as opposed to $39 at the War Store, which seems negligible until you remember the lower shipping at greenputty.com. This comes out to a final total of $45.59 from greenputty vs $53.97 from the war store. Both places offer both the tape and rod varieties of Green Stuff at the same prices.

So really it’s a matter of what you want to get a lot, or a little. By the same token, If you really wanted to go nuts, greenputty.com offers a bulk bundle of 24 units of green stuff by adding $200 to the base of $20. So, to compare if you really needed a lot of green stuff, to say, build a bookshelf out of or something you would be looking at $227.59 from greenputty, or $346.76 from the war store. The savings!

And just for the fun of it, what does Games Workshop charge you for the same amounts of green stuff? Well, assuming you go the cheapest route and buy it in-person at the GW store.  For one package of the stuff it comes out to only$13.80 after tax! But oh, wait, that’s for a third of the amount so it’s really $41.40 for the equivalent of one brick. Or, if we wanted 3 bricks worth, it would be $124.20. And lastly, how does GW compare to the massive bulk order of 24 bricks of green stuff? With a whopping $993.60 after tax, that’s how!

The moral of the story, don’t go with GW unless you really only need a little of the stuff and don’t ever intend to use it again.

Hey all, figured I’d post a progress update on how my army is coming along. Biggest bit of news, Deb’s birthday present to me was a trip to Le Valet on Saturday, whereupon she had me pick a bunch of stuff and bought it for me. Most notably a Seer Council boxed set for my Eldar army. This now means that I have 2 farseers and 3 warlocks at my disposal. She also got me several boxes of the new D&D miniatures, the pre-painted ones, we’re thinking of introducing Bry and his Cousin Jasmine to D&D and felt that using the minis, which are really inexpensive by miniatures standards, would be a good visual appeal to the whole process.

Anyway, that aside, and back to my eldar army. I also did a re-count of my figures and it turns out I had a fieldable squad of Warp Spiders all along! So, after updating my army list, my totals are:
Army Total w/o Wargear: 1576
Fieldable Army Total w/o Wargear: 1386
Current Battleforce, Wargear in: 1249

So that puts me at a current battleforce build of:

HQ
2 Farseers
3 Warlocks

Troops
4 Dire Avengers + 1 Exarch
10 Guardians
8 Ranger Pathfinders

Fast Attack
4 Warp Spiders + 1 Exarch

Heavy Support
1 War Walker
1 Heavy Weapon Platform
1 Wave Serpent Transport

So I’m quite pleased with my army list and now that I’ve got that taken care of, I’ve started on assembly the units for my battleforce that you guys go tme for my birthday, and even have some photos!

So, I spent a couple hours carefully picking through my battleforce box on Saturday night checking to see which units I had instructions for and which I didn’t and which would be the easiest to start with. So eventually I realized that I had no instructions for heavy weapons platform and its two accompanying guardians. The had pretty easily identifiable pices and since they had no instructions I figured if I could puzzle them out, there would be less guess-work later when I moved on to the guardians, which also had no instructions. So, first I put the weapons platform together and opted for the eldar missile launcher mount as it offers two missile choices and provides a blast weapon with a good range and strength. I got it together quite easily, and the turret portion turns nicely should I want it to move, and the hover base seats cleanly into the baseplate, so I was pleased. I then moved on to the two crew guardians for the platform, they had their legs, and chests as a single piece on the sprue, so I only need to glue on the back, arms, heads and any accesories, which I did. There was a loose Shuriken catapult for the guardian that couldn’t hold his, so I glued it fo his back, making it look kind of like an antenna, which sounds weird, but actually fit the styling of the eldar units surprisingly well. Please excuse my pictures, I took them with my cell phone.

Surveying the field

Assault at White Loaf

So, quite pleased with my assembled minis, but very tired, I went to bed. Then last night, Deb was tired and decided to turn in around 10:30, so I took the opportunity to assemble the rest of my guardians. Having done the other two succefully, I felt more confident to tackle the rest of the little buggers. Of course, the standard guardians, unlike the weapon crew ones, come in 10 pieces instead of 5. So, I very carefully cut the pieces for one guardian out fo the sprue, made sure they my cuts were clean and satisfactory, then began meticulously glueing them together in sequence. It went really slow, but went well. So I tried another, my morale boosted, quicker, but just as well-assembled. So here I was now fully sure of what I was doing, and what sorts of freedoms and lee-ways I had when assembling the figures and I began to carefully stream-line the process. By the time I had finished the first 4, I had determined a method to quickly, effectively, and easily assemble the last 4 guardians simultaneously, adding slight variations to poses and placements to make the squad look more dynamic and life-like. Take a look:

Hanging with the Heavies

So far I’m very pleased with my progress so far, next up is likely going to be the war-walker and then the dire avengers. The Wave Serpent I’m likely going to leave for last as I need to do it in two parts since I have to prime and paint the cockpit before I can fully glue the thing together. So, I’ll leave you with two more pics, one of my Seer Council units, and a very blurry one of my currently fieldable army.

I don’t play alot of flash games these days (and I know I JUST posted another one), but a blog I read mentioned this and I was so blown away I had to mention it here. I’m not going to say anything about the game, cause I don’t want to spoil it, just see for yourselves.

Closure.

This is extremely cool. It’s basically a bunch of people making interpretations of modern games as they might’ve appeared on the old black-and-white Game Boy. Just a note, if you click on the images, they get bigger, but if you keep clicking, they just keep growing. There’s no way to shrink them back down without refreshing.

Check it out here.

And here’s why.

I’m no master artist or anything, and this picture isn’t even that great, but it was so comfortable to draw, I’d even hazard to say that it’s even better than paper!

Capcom has put up an official art site for Okami to celebrate it’s re-release on the Wii. Check it out here.

I quite liked the game when I played it on the PS2, but always thought it’d be better on the Wii. I can’t wait to try it on said console.

Well I commented in Curts 1st post that I would post pictures of the progress on this end. I have to say it has been pretty fun tossing our techniques back and forth and actually seeing results. I am so jealous of the primer spray Curt had but will so be buying one next time

So here is the setup that I am currently working with. I pretty much kicked everyone from the kitchen table and confiscated it for the greater good that is miniature painting. I typically used my computer desk but me and Marie are sharing it right now for office space so that is a no go.

Here are some pictures of my figures in various angles. There is quite a bit of detail, some of which I have no even got to yet like skulls hanging from their belts. But it give you an idea. I probably plan to drybrush some blood color on a few of the orcs blades, that should give them a more menacing (as if the severed head on the belt was not enough) look. I have 34 Orcs, 34 Empire soldiers, Cavalry, Wagons, Artillery and much more to paint so it is gonna take some time lol

I have learned a lot though in the past day about various brushes and what works well with what. Also coloring and inking are quite cool but difficult to implement at times. I would say the hardest part so far is painting the tiny studs in the armor as well as the leather ties on the back of their uniforms as it is such a tiny area. Go fine brush go!

And last but not least Warhammer Fantasy is endorsed by my cat Eigan. Cats are indeed wise

This guy is an amazing artist. He only uses a pencil, photoshop and an optical mouse. I found him in this forum post, but he also has a big portfolio in his deviant art page.

Click on the links, come on… I dare you.

Is the personal experimental project and digital playground of Antonio Costa.

Seeing is Believing

Odd doesn’t describe the Awe inspired art.