Community Showcase: Lance Cardinal

Today I am highlighting an amazing artist that creates wonderful miniature scenes. Lance Cardinal has a great collection of themed projects he has built including Dr. Seuss, Evil Dead, Little Shop of Horrors, Nightmare before Christmas. Here I am showcasing his scratch built Muppets Theatre Playset. From his posts the Palisades brand produced the Muppet characters and a number of stage scenes. Each were wonderfully detailed and accurate to the TV/Movie versions. The backstage playset was not produced, so he took it for himself to visualize and craft this wonderful piece. Enjoy and be sure to check out his other works...

View the finished model

View the making of this

Twelve Days of Christmas / Wargaming Style

For the wargaming modeler in all of us,
I introduce to you the 12 Days of Christmas...

On the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

 One can of Testors Dullcote!

On the 2nd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Two Tubes of Green Stuff,

On the 3rd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Three Color Shapers,

On the 4th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Four Tree Armatures,

On the 5th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Five Golden Demons, 

On the 6th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Six Ounces Clump Foliage,

On the 7th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Seven Sable Brushes,

On the 8th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

 Eight Vallejo Washes,

On the 9th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Nine Needle Files,

On the 10th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Ten Scenic Bases,

On the 11th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

 Eleven Band-Aids,

On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... 

 Twelve Spruces of Minis!

Haqqislam W I P

I thought I'd give you all a little update on the infinity stuff I have been working on, I'm not super stoked on the paint jobs, but i think the are progress, and I am getting better (at least I hope). I also made some mine counters camo tokens and E/Maulers.

Carnival of Chaos -=- WIP -=- Part 5

The Plague Cart for my Carnival of Chaos Mordheim warband is built finally. Yay! Here are some shots of it before it got a spray of primer.If you've seen the movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, then you will be familiar with the cart's design. Since that is my source of inspiration for the piece.

The first thing to note is that this is an extra large "cart." I am not sure of the feasibility of using it as a vehicle in the game. Many people do use rules that allow for movement and to carry guys. But due to it's size, both to get around terrain and being an extra large target, I think I may opt to use it more as scenery. It is up for debate if I can include this in my list and receive the benefits from it. Ideas are welcome.

 

 As described before, I built the cart completely out of plasticard. The wheels are from a Scaven vehicle. I have added some nurgle rot with green stuff around the cart. I wanted some, but not too much. Like the fiction for CoC says, the town's people welcome in the Carnival only to realize their true intentions too late. 

 The driver is from the Dark Age range of figures. He originally held a spear and shield. Those were shaved off and his arms positioned to hold the reins for the horses.

 The main characteristic of my plague cart was a fold down stage. I had seen this on a few other models people had built, but not to this scale. The whole side of the cart is hinges down to form the stage floor. Magnets keep the door shut, and fold out support lowered to help support the stage.

The interior features some green stuff drapes that carry the performance/circus theme inside. A stove and misc stuff are there. I dropped a fish in there being a repeating theme in Mordheim. A few models can fit inside with the door shut.

 The back of the cart features lots of stuff stowed away. Plus some things trying to escape...

I hope you like. Cart has been primed along with the whole warband. So it is all ready for some paint. Cheers for now.

Tutorial: Wood Texturing on Plastic Card

A Guide to creating wood texture using plasticard.

I've found using plasticard is a good alternative to balsa wood for building. Large panels of it can be created, and overall strength is higher than gluing wood together. Below is a guide I created based on how I used it to construct a Mordheim Plague Cart for a Carnival of Chaos warband recently. Technique can be done on a small scale to create wood flooring for bases or smaller projects.

Step 1: I measured off a square of 3mm plastic (maybe 4 inch square) and cut it out. (This particular piece of plastic is from a display sign made of PVC) Then measured and marked off parallel lines with a 4mm spacing for the individual planks.

Step 2: I use a utility blade for cutting. Be sure to keep the blade sharp. A dull knife is not your friend. I pre-scored each parallel plank line with the blade, then used a pointed jewelers file to widen the gap between each plank.

Step 3: Here I have begun the scoring between the individual planks. When making the cross cuts to end each plank, be sure to focus on keeping them as random as possible. You don't want them all to line up. So varying the lengths helps alittle.

Step 4: Here you see I am laying in the wood texture of the individual planks. I push the file straight in to create some random knot holes. You can see a few to the left before the texture is done. Then I drag the tip of the file down each plank to create each texture line. Go from top to bottom, and keep it moving around. Trees are living and naturally have variation. Push hard enough to score the plastic, but not deeper than the lines between the planks.

Step 5: Here are a few final pieces constructed. If you look closely, you'll notice 2 small nail holes at the ends of each plank. I used a very small drill bit to drill shallow holes to simulate the nail holes. Hope this helps.

For the Glory of Menoth!

Check out this Menoth Battle Engine taken to the next level.


Check out the progress on this model here

He started out with creating a clear resin base and illuminating the underside with LED's. The model is also hollowed out with LED's all that flicker like fire. WOW!

 

BTW, he has made casts of this base that he is selling.

Build a Better Hill

3T-Studios doesn't like ugly hills, and neither do we. Check out his guide to correct this problem plaguing our gaming tables. Here's a hint, step one is toss our current hill terrain....

Read more

Stuff I've been working on

So I thought I'd just add a few things that I have been working on lately to the blog.

This is the start of my Tomb Guardians Mordhiem warband.



Chaos Khorne Terminator painted in a blue Tzench theme to match the rest of the army but with some distinctly Khorne accents (red shoulder pads loads of Brass)



Peice of Terrain for Gary, I mounted it on plastic card and based it to give it some more style.







This is the start of a Warhammer Dark Elves Commission I am doing for Dave.



My Tomb Kings Snake Rider

Here is my D&D character, he is a Holy Avenger in service to the Raven Queen



Some Ogre Bulls



here is a few pics of Sisters of battle that I painted for a bartertown trade





What have you guys been doing to keep busy?

Rick Priestley interview at Tales from the Maelstrom

Tales from the Maelstrom has a fantastic new interview with Rick Priestley with, among other things, insights into the early days of Rogue Trader—the impetus and inspirations, the play style of the time and the rapid evolution of 40k into the two-player, tournament-based, abstract, competitive game of today. Can't recommend it enough. What are still doing on this blog? Go!

Infinity - Alien Scum

Been working on getting my Infinity Combined Army stuff painted up to a tabletop standard. This is a little wierd, because they are my LEAST favorite Infinity models in my collection. The play style is super sweet though and I don't feel a ton of pressure to spend too much time on them. They are actually surprisingly cool minis having put the brush to them, I think I am just not a big fan of the studio color scheme.



Here's the core group of my alien scum...

Charontid: Big bad scary alien AI controlled death bot. Packing either MSV3 - super thermo x-ray vision that can shoot at anything and see through almost anything or Sepositor - short wave weapon that hacks your brain and turns the enemy model into an alien pod person. Other weaponry includes the devestating Plasma Rifle (template blasts that inflict both physical and EMP damage), nanopulser - nanobot flamer, and Monofiliment CCW - you have armor, so what! This thing is sick, but expensive and can die quick if you get unlucky like anything in Infinity.

Vector Operator with Heavy Machine Gun - Annoying space tick. Has super jump and MSV2 - another visor that ignores smoke and camo, so this bug jumps all over the place spraying your face with extra-terrestial lead before dropping back down out of sight. He rocks!

Daturazi Witch Soldiers - Morat space monkey kung fu masters. Run around throwing smoke grenades, dodging, spraying you down with chain rifles, and then chop you up with Martial Arts level 4 (cue Mortal Combat theme music...). These guys are cheap for aliens and are hard to control because of the impetuous rule, but are super fun when you run them around hunting human meatbags. Synergize well with the Chartontid and Vector Op. since both of them can see through their smoke grenades.

Shrouded Minelayer - Shasvastii...I don't know exactly what these wierd aliens are supposed to be...plants, lizards...pod people I guess, but they are sneaky bastards! This guy is an camo infiltrator that drops mines all over. Nice! Miniature is actually a malignos model, but works well as a shrouded.



Speculo Killer - Just finished her up this week. Sorry for the blurry iPhone pic. You'll just have to see her in person. The rad thing about the SK is she's an Impersonater, than means she sneaks into your base, kills all of your dudes, and looks like a friend as she's doing it. Cool mechanics allow her to move with impunity until she either strikes, or the enemy concentrates tons of resources discovering her true identity. I was never a huge fan of the model, but it is starting to grow on me after painting her up.

Other models:

Imetrons: AI beacons, just little pods that provide orders in Infinity. Scratch built these using bits and they are painted, but not cool enough to show in this blog post.

Malignos Sniper: Painting in progress. Thermo-optic camo sniper (think predator style light bending stuff). Head shot!

Rasyat: Morat Drop Trooper. Violence - check! Big gun - check! Bad Attitude - check! This guy drops into the middle of it and wrecks face. Cool model too.

Cadmus: Another Shasvastii pod person model that drops in in a pod, hatches out, and shoots you in the face! Resembles earth worm Jim! (I think that is a good thing)

Seed Soldiers: Shasvastii scrubs. Start in camo pods then hatch. Nothing special, just wierd little pod person grunts.

How Miniatures are Born

Here is a great video showing the process of casting miniatures from Zombiesmith Miniatures. DIY style!

Read any good books lately...?

Carnival of Chaos -=- WIP -=- Part 4

Quick/Teaser update:
The Carnival of Chaos Plague Cart construction is underway. I have most all the main structure built now. It will turn out some size larger than the official model, so I am unclear if I will be using it in gameplay or just for added cool factor to the warband. Below is a picture of most the parts piled up before assembling. You'll see the two horses and the model I will be using for the Guardian driver (he is a neat Dark Age model I got at the paint n' take at KublaCon this year)


Wood Working For Dummies
Per Op-For's recommendation (which I highly regard for his conversion skills) I used plastic card for the construction material. The main model is made from 3mm PVC. It was either that or balsa wood. But I felt the plastic would add strength to the model, and I would be able to control it better. I am glad I did! It does take alot more work to prepare, but I think the end result will be great.

All the wood work in the picture was done by first laying out the wood paneling design with pencil, then scoring the lines with a knife, followed by enlarging the cuts with a small pointed file (like seen below).
Then on the plastic's surface I used that same file to randomly lay down lines to simulate the wood grain pattern. Finally, I used a small pin vice to add nail holes to the ends of each wood panel created. It's that simple folks! Maybe I can take some closeup pictures of how to do the wood.

I will be assembling and building the cart now. I am excited to see it take shape from my drawing sketches to 3D.

Community Showcase: Two Sides Of The Coin

After seeing this diorama on Massive Voodoo, I wanted to post it here to share with others in hopes more people will enjoy it. It is called The Return Of The Warlord – Two Sides Of The Coin and was created by Matt Cexwish. It appears to have won both a Golden Demon and a Slayer Sword, and it is deserving of them for sure.


The diorama (or two) is a city street scene that rotates as you turn the crank it is mounted to. A music box also plays a tune as the scene revolves. Watch Video. One side of the scene depicts a soldier going off to war, and everyone cheers and it is upbeat. The second side, he has returned slain, and the city is broken and in shambles. Here are a few pictures...

View more detailed shots on it's CMON pages: Life Scene | Death Scene

A neat view of each scene: Life | Death

Enjoy and share...