Using Water Effects to Modify Miniatures

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Benoit

If you liked my article “Dungeon Accessories: The Well and The Pool,” you may have run out to buy some Water Effects to make your own pool and well. Chances are, you also got a little sticker shock when you saw how much the stuff costs. And maybe, just maybe, you decided not to get it because you thought you would never find another use for it. We get that, and we’re here for you.

The idea for this project came to me when I was going through my miniatures, and found this mini I had started painting to be a Hexblade back in the v3.5 days. I thought it would make a perfect 4th edition Swordmage. For those of you not in the know, Swordmage is a defender that uses magic alongside their melee weapon. You can find them in the Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide.

Courtesy Reaper Miniatures. Click to view the image at their store.

The mini already looks like a mage (she’s lightly armored) and obviously has a sword, but what else could I do to really make that connection between the mini and the character? What I really wanted to do was make a threatening ball of magical energy surrounding the outstretched fist. That’s when I thought of Water Effects, and the idea grew from “magical ball of energy” to “magic connecting hand to sword.”

There was a bit of other modification that the mini required before I could start painting. I won’t go into too much detail about that since the focus of the discussion is how I used the Water Effects to make the thread of magical energy:

• I got rid of the dragonette (pseudodragon?) on her arm. I used wire cutters to clip off the bulk of it, and then used model files to file down whatever was left.

  

  The original (unfinished) paint job with dragonette filed off.

• I stripped the old paint job off because the character is a Water Genasi, and I had a different color scheme in mind. I used some spray stripper I found at the hardware store, and a toothbrush.
• The sculptor intended the miniature to be a necromancer, so she’s standing atop a pile of skulls. I used the Water Effects to cover this up as well, as pictured below:

Protip: Glue your mini to a tongue depressor with Elmers so you can manipulate it without touching.

Now, on to the real fun. Before I started painting, I needed to prep the mini by drilling a tiny hole through the end of the sword (front to back), and another about halfway through her fist (straight up from the bottom). You can kind of see the hole in the end of the sword on the left there. I did this because the “magical energy” is basically Water Effects wrapped around a piece of wire, and the holes helped support the modification when I attached it to the mini. While I believe this would work without the holes, having them makes the job much easier. I used this pin vise to drill the holes.  As an aside, a pin vise is a great investment if you work with modifying minis a lot or if you ever make multi-part minis; pinning pieces together makes the bond stronger.  A jeweler’s drill would do the trick too.

Then, I painted the mini. I would highly recommend completing the paint job before you attach the wire because working around the wire would be cumbersome.

When the mini was ready, I took a piece of 26 gauge wire (check your craft store, I’m going to guess the Jewelry & Beading aisle) and painted it purple. Because the Water Effects dries clear, the color of the wire really glows through the finished product. Then, I applied the Water Effects to the wire. I used a straightened paperclip to apply it, and as I did that, I kind of pulled it outward to create “peaks” for the “licks of flame” effect. If you’ve played with this stuff at all, you know what I’m talking about. I kept adding and pulling until I was happy with what it looked like, and then let it dry overnight.

To attach it to the miniature, I simply inserted the wire into the hole at the end of the sword, and covered it all with a generous amount of Water Effects. I also added some along the top edge of the blade for effect. I propped the wire in place, and let it dry for a couple of hours. Then, I repeated the process at the other end, around the fist. Finally, once everything was dry, I drybrushed it white.

A few notes about the final mini:

• Don’t judge the paint job too harshly; I was experimenting with new paints, blacklining, and a different washing technique.  With all that experimentation, something was bound to go wrong.  There was also a bit of finishing work I did that didn’t get photographed.
• I normally spray my finished minis with Testors Dull Coat.  When I sprayed this one, it “frosted” the Water Effects.  The end result was something not quite as crystal clear as what you see in the pictures.  Had I known that was going to happen, I would have dull coated it before attaching the wire.  If you want a frosted effect, however, that’s a great way to go.
• This was really easy to do.  If you’re thinking about getting into mini modification, start with something like this.

Does this have your creative wheels spinning?  How would you use the stuff?

Dungeon Accessories: Mirrors

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Benoit

As I’ve said before, recreating a map that someone else has made always stretches me to get better at what I do. When someone makes a two dimensional map, they usually aren’t thinking about logistical problems that may crop up for someone recreating the map in three dimensions. So it is as I work on recreating the Tyranny of Goblins dungeon tiles. But hey, you get this cool tutorial out of it, so who’s complaining?
The materials list on this one is a little flexible. There are a few options for different pieces, and you’ll have to choose the ones that you prefer, or that are available to you. Also, there are fewer steps if you just want to make a (non-smashed) mirror. In fact, making several non-smashed mirrors at the same time should go pretty quickly.
First, you will need a reflective surface for the actual mirror. There are three really good options that I came up with. The first one is silver wrapping paper. I wouldn’t expect to find this cheaply until after the holidays, but if you have some lying around, it’s a good option. The second possible material is silver ribbon. You’ll want it the widest you can find, but make sure it’s smooth. And finally, (my preferred option) you could use silver stickers. I found the ones I used in the scrapbooking section of my local craft store. (You can also find them here.) The great thing about using a sticker is that it already has adhesive on it.
You will also need a frame for your mirror. I don’t recommend using actual wood – it’s easier to use cardstock or paper. Easier to cut, and leaves a much lower profile on the wall of your dungeon. The best way to go is find an image of a frame online, resize it, and print it out. You could also just use the one I made.

If you want a smashed mirror, you’ll also need some paper with a wood grain already printed on it from the (again) scrapbooking section of the craft store. I will note that it’s not necessary that the entire sheet is wood grain, as long as there’s an area big enough for you to cut out a frame. I found a sheet that is all wood grain.
And finally, a few miscellaneous bits – glue (Elmer’s is fine), an Exacto knife, a brown and gray fine point water based marker (not Sharpies – go Crayola for this one), and a ruler. Tweezers are very helpful, but not essential.
The first thing we’re going to do is cut out our mirror. Stick the sticker to a plain piece of paper, and cut it down to size. You’ll want it to be slightly larger than the open space of the frame, but obviously not bigger than the outside dimensions of the frame. I just kind of eyeballed it, but break out the ruler if you need to.
(If you’re making a non-smashed mirror, skip the next step)
In the Dungeon Command dungeon tile, the mirror is broken, creating an area of difficult terrain. So I’m going to cut pieces off the top of the mirror until I have a nice jagged edge at the top. Keep those tiny pieces because we’re going to glue them to the floor of the dungeon. Now, take your gray marker and color the exposed edge of the paper at the top of the jagged mirror (this is called “edging”). Now, instead of white paper showing on top of the jagged edge of the mirror, it should be dark gray. Now, take your Exacto knife and scratch fine lines into the surface of the mirror to make it look like it’s cracked.
Next up is the frame. I’d suggest printing it out on cardstock, or at least anything thicker than plain copy paper. I am actually using plain paper in the pictures, however, and the project did turn out fine. So cardstock is merely recommended. Once it’s cut out, take your brown marker and color the white edges of the inside of the frame. (If the frame image you’re using isn’t brown, try to match the color of the frame.) Edging with a colored marker is an old trick of papercrafters to enhance the final look of models. It gets rid of the fine white line on the edge of paper.

Now, just glue the mirror to the back of the frame. I can’t stress this enough – don’t use too much glue! Put a drop on a piece of paper, and use a toothpick to apply it to the frame. Don’t just squeeze it out onto the frame. You may want to lay something heavy on it so it dries flat. In case some glue is still exposed, you may want to lay some parchment paper down. Ounce of prevention and all that.
(If you’re making a non-smashed mirror, skip the next step)
Now we need to cut out a piece of the “wood grained” paper to put behind the smashed mirror, to make it look like there’s a piece of wood there. First, lay your mirror on the wood grained paper, and slide it around until you find the right “look.” Pencil some lines where you need to cut out, and… well, cut it out. Glue it to the back of the mirror (apply the glue with a toothpick please!).
Once the glue is dry, go ahead and edge the outside of the mirror frame with your brown marker. Now you’re ready to glue the mirror to the dungeon wall. In this instance also, less glue is better. Alternatively, you could simply set it aside in your accessories box, and use it wherever you see fit.

Before edging the outer edge of the frame – note the faint white line

After edging the outer edge of the frame. Had I been using cardstock, I don’t believe there would be as much bleed. However, to the naked eye, the bleed isn’t that visible anyway.

(If you’re making a non-smashed mirror, skip the next step)
So, because I’m recreating something specific (a broken mirror with shards of glass on the floor) I’ve got an extra step. I have all these little “mirror shards” that I cut off the top of the mirror, and I need to glue them to the floor. First though, I want to create a little more visual interest to the area.
Take some Elmer’s glue, and add a little water to it. Then, paint that watered down glue onto the square where the glass shards will be. Finally, sprinkle a *small amount* of silver glitter in that square. When I say small amount, I mean take some tweezers and get five or six flakes of glitter on the square. Once the glue is dry, go ahead and glue the bigger shards to the floor. Using tweezers here will help with placement. Don’t be afraid to cover up some of the glitter with these bigger shards.
Now, not only do you have bigger glass shards, you also have tiny shards (glitter) scattered around that will catch light, and therefore the eye.
That’s it! By the way, check out the time lapse video of me making the “first draft” of the mirror:

(I know it’s hard to see what’s going on, since the mirror is so tiny. Future time lapses will be of bigger things…)

Dungeon Tile I’m recreating in the background.

Next week, I hope to do a tutorial on the bed. If you want to know how to do the oriental rug, well, I covered that almost two years ago.

Transforming the Blob

Transforming the Blob

That thing, up there, is the Blob from Marvel Comics, as produced for the HeroClix game. The figure is from many moons ago, and wasn't considered to be particularly useful in its prime (let alone when power creep started to skew the point system). It was, however, a common figure, so there are many available and nowadays ... for cheap. In theory, since 'Clix was nominally a 28mm game (whatever that means), this figure can be used with other 28mm. He's a little big, as we shall see, but given his size, still works well to make a big guy.

Above are some simple sumo conversions. I repositioned several of the arms on the original before priming and painting. Since he is in a tight bodysuit, it was pretty easy to trim the fabric lines to get near-nekkid figures. The sumo costuming was also pretty easy, done with Kneadatite. What really sells this figure as a sumo, IMHO, is going ahead and putting the topknot on him.
These guys won't stand up to much close-in scrutiny, but at arm's length, they makea nice flavor piece for your collection. And given thier size in comaprison to the other minis, it is best to keep them at arm's length! They are visibly, but not unreasonably, larger than the Pulp Figures minis, but not bigger than the wolfen from Confrontation that is lurking in the back (with a sinister black/violet repaint). Pretty decent for sumo size.
I'm not sure if the below conversions are more or less exotic than sumos are.
For the gentlemen, the top is fine, but you really need to add pants over the unitard. Now, I'm the king of quick and easy, but you really, really can't just paint pants over the blobby fat legs. Just a little putty will do it. The armbands on the blob figure make nice watches for the one hand. I carved the bands down on the other.
The ladies require a little more effort, but then again, ladies always do! The large formless dress is just a sheet of putty wrapped around the body. One has sleeves, the other is in a tube dress (held up by the collective will of everyone looking at her!). Hair is also important, just like on the sumos. It makes a big difference, since it is an iconic element. Braids for blondy and a bun for our brunette move them far enough away from the standard blob figure. The piece of resistance for the lady in the pink polka-dot dress is black socks and white tennis shoes. Very Wal-Mart chic!
Again, they are larger than most 28mm figures (The one in the center is some type of GW orc painted up to be a Molly Hatchet-esque barbarian.), but not unreasonably large for a person of stature.

See How This Grabs Ya!

It is amazing how much detail you can get for very little effort. Especially when you are not exactly reproducing something from real life. There are tentacles in real life, but those are not what we are doing, so we have the latitude to go for effect. This is not to say we're not going to have detail, just not a pre-ordained set of details. We'll work with what comes easy for the medium and the tools at hand.
While we will be using clay for the tentacles, we want to start with a frame. The clay we are using is Crayola Model Magic. It is easy to work with, air dries, and is non-toxic. The drawback is it isn't very firm. So we need a frame. Fortunately, the frame doesn't need to support the details. So, I rolled up a bunch of aluminum foil into tentacle and snake shapes. I even use this technique as a frame for more "traditional" or "artsy" sculpting with Fimo or Sculpey.
Some of the figures there have "teeth". You can model teeth and details yourself (I do for the ftagn ), but these are big models with big teeth, so I am using hair clips instead. They are about the right size for teeth in a mouth that can swallow a 28mm figure, and come in all sorts of shapes. NOTE: INLGames is not legally responsible for legal action resulting from your hanging around teen girl hair accessory stores in the mall. My wife picks mine up for me.
Next, we just wrap up the frames in the clay. You may not want thumb prints in your final figures, so you will need to remove them from the clay. This is pretty easy with the smooth part of the handle of a craft knife. You can also use the gnurled part of the handle to make a pattern in the clay. With clay on, you can see several of the different textures that are possible - smooth, lumpy, hashed, segmented. Have some fun making patterns in the clay with things lying around the room!
Besides lots of different textures, you are likely to want some of your tentacles to have suckers on them. These are pretty easy. Just dig a pointed tool (or toothpick) into the clay, then drag it out. Pushing in will make the succer depression, and dragging (instead of pulling directly out) will raise up a little lump around the depression. Now, rinse and repeat!

So, here we have a set of guys, ready to go. The Model Magic clay takes a couple hours to firm up, so now is a good time to go read an H. P. Lovecraft book. Once they are done, it is time to prime and paint. As always, I am a big fan of Krylon primer. Krylon sticks to multiple types of surface and presents a uniform painting surface no matter what is under it. You can get cheaper primers, but you can't get better. This is especially important for my guys since I left some tin foil showing on a few. I want a surface texture difference, but I don't want the paint to look a different color on the different surfaces.

Here are some close ups of the pieces after painting. The standard Mk1Mod0 Space Marine is provided for size reference. These are big tentacles. Some other details I haven't mentioned yet:

• A number of them were shaped to hold 28mm figures
• Spines. I just stuck in bits of old 28mm spear I had lying around
• The Sarlac-esque one has floral wire and small plastic tentacles around the mouth
• The chupacabra's arms and legs are left over from making haemonculi for my son
And last but not least, Ol'Jeb and Jethro have their hands full...

at of Human Flesh Goo

at of Human Flesh Goo

Yep, you read the title right. Pretty simple and straightforward. Just like this "found project".

That's it, up there. So how do you make it? Well ... you don't. I use various beverage and other bottle plastic caps to hold my paint while painting. After a while, it builds up. Every once in a while, I end up with a set of consistent colors swirled on the top, and I say to myself, "Self ... you should use that." Then I go on an put some more paint on it instead of setting it aside.
So this time I am setting it aside. I really like the swirling of flesh and red tones. It will work well as an opening on top of an industrial storage container for my Soylent Green factory.
Maybe now I will have the presence of mind to save the next one that is swirling yellow and metallic green, like glowing radioactive waste ... well ... what we always picture radioactive waste as looking like.

Here There Be Giants

And unlike many miniatures giants, these won't take a giant bite out of your budget. What we will work with are some pretty commonly available - and pretty cheap - figures and bits.

So here are the basics. The Games Workshop ogre bull heads are available from lots of places where you get bits, and you can get a couple dozen of them for a couple of bucks, so they are only a few pennies a piece. And they're pretty nice. Ugly without being grotesque and gory, plus, a decent number of variants, which helps mix it up a bit.
So here is a basic start. I've used Andy's body and added five different types of head on them. Using the D&D good ol' standard of classification, I am going to make them Hill, Fire, Frost, Stone, and Storm giants, from left to right. I will make a few of each, and work on a uniting color scheme for each group
Here you can see my whole troupe. I did a different color wash on each group to give them a little unique character (beyond the hair color). The hillies got a brown wash; fire giants, red; frosters, dark blue; stonies grey, and the storm giant, white (which creates an inverse shadow, kind of like a glowing or effervescent figure). Everyone but the stonies got some clothes other than Andy's Speedoes. Since these are all meant to be simple garments, for the hill, fire, and frost, I used carpet sample swatches. For the storm giant, I added a papier-mâché toga. Industrial tile glue holds them in place - acrylic seal keeps it all together and solid.
Now for a little more exotic go, I am also adding another bit, the HorrorClix Devil Imp. Again, cheap and plentiful. And that big head will look nice up on some 3" tall figures' shoulders.
Here you can see some in progress. I added a couple of GW demon-something arms. One figure gets a left, another a right, and the boss, both. I've also added a couple MechWarrior bodies under the giant heads, complete with leftover car door shields. (Let's see how that works...) Down in front, I have added the GW ogre heads to some of the bulkier HeroClix ... Incredible Hulks, the Blob, etc. And I put a couple snake heads on the Devil Imp bodies. No sense wasting those when I can get a bag of a dozen snakes for a dollar (and the bodies will make nice tentacles for something else, later on).
Here are the Efreet giants. I got the translucent fire head off of another giant Heroclix figure. (You might have noticed it in the last pic ... also it's hands.) All in all, I think the head goes well on this figure and the spandex armour bronzes up fairly decently.
And the more traditional giants. This guy got the burning hands. I attach transulcent pieces after sealing by scraping the joint down to bare plastic and using industrial adhesive. In this case, the joint is so large (almost 1/4" diameter), that it is very easy to do.
The mechabodies don't look too bad, either. There are a couple of places where the joints are too thin to realistically be a giant dude in some type of armour. But overall, it's a nice effect. If I want, I can go back an putty in some bulk and then cover it with some additional armour plates. That is, little pieces of cereal box.

And here are the last guys. More like classical Northern European trolls than giants, but the heads go with the bodies nicely since the bodies are already disproprortionate for their height.

Archive

To the Archive of Ideas...

Shoggoth

Irrational Number Line Games, LLC

home   forum   stuff-to-buy   about-us   contact  

Shoggoth

Since a thousand miles, even at 1:56, won't fit on my dinner table, I decided to make a shoggoth segment. But since they are supposed to be big, I though I would try to make as many different view of the shogggoth as I could get without it looking hinky. The goal is to allow you to photograph it with other minis from several angles to make it look like it is a lot bigger than it is.

All things must start somewhere, shoggoths ... shoggi ... shoggothen? Well, whatever the plural is, this one starts as a tin foil armature. This is a basic starter for slugs, snakes, tentacles, etc. It lets you get a basic form easily. And this one is all about form. It is important to get all those curves in all three dimensions. F'r'ex, the downlooking head will look very different when shot from the front than when shot from the top. Even the positioning of the pseudopod (with foral wire armature) in the front lets it be seen from some angles, and not from others.
After the armature comes the clay. In this case, I am using Crayola Model Magic clay. It is pretty east to work, air drys pretty firm, and is non-toxic. The trifecta for working inside the living room.

Next comes the odds and ends. The giant pseudopod in front is nice, but it really needs lots of little mouths, eyes, and various types of appendage to be a good shoggoth.
The teeth are spines cut from hair clips. So far, this is pretty much like the tentacle project. So, we are going to add a little variation now. The back end (does something like this really have a "front" or "back"?) gets an insect torso (LSH Changeling from HeroClix, actually), and a few Defiance Games bug legs are good, creepy additions. As are a few manually made clay tentacles and lumps, etc. The crowning piece, though, is the eyes. These are glass beads that I have embedded into the clay. I will prime and paint around them, so they stay clear and shiny. It is also important that the clay behind them is white. I have embedded clear beads into dark colored clay and not ended up with the effect I wanted because the backing wasn't light and reflective.
Since it is a space slug, it has to be shiny. Also, Howard says so. And I really like making this mucous project. Just take a piece of parchment paper (or wax paper) and make a few runs of fabric glue on it. Now go have a couple beers and watch some sports on TV while it drys. When dry, the glue strips will peel right off as long, shiny strips of transparent goo. These are great to add on to project AFTER you seal them. If you cover the glue with sealant, it tends to go foggy. Of course, that is also a nice effect, but not the one we want for a slavering monster.
Space slugs and Lovecraft monsters do well with putrid, sickly colors. So I went with an ochre and brown motif, and used a dark green wash. All in all, not a bad look. The eyes and slime add just the right je ne sais quoi to the monster, which is a good quality for things that come from a dimension beyond understanding.

Archive

To the Archive of Ideas...