Down by the Bayou

I've just used the magic of Excel to draw the winner for the base competition I was running before I realised I have enough spare bases for everyone who entered, so I'll be contacting people shortly to arrange type/size/style etc. for their prize :)

In other news;
- No I haven't re-tagged historic posts, I've not had time :(

- DnD went really well the other day, and I'll be trying to book the guys in for the next instalment ASAP, strike while the iron is hot, y'know?

- I have a desk full of Gators. I managed to get Posse number two up to the stage that my original posse is at, and made a start on the second set of bases too.  I'm hoping to be able to get the details and final touches done during the week, but there will be some definite progress to show in the weekly WIP next week :) there are very few models to re-base (Calaban, two Wrastlers and a Snapper) and I've added sand to the bases of all my small based models (Croak Hunter, Bog Trogs and the Bone Grinders) so they'll be ready for undercoating once the glue & sand is dry. Lots to do, for the BCB event in October, but I think I've left plenty of time to get through it all.
Now, if only I could decide on what lists to take!

That's pretty much it for now, hopefully have some WIP shots by mid-week :)

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Last Chance Giveaway

After the less than expected response rate I had for this, I've decided to extend it until Sunday.  Please post on this comment or HERE to be in with a chance to win

Thanks!

Weekly WIP

This week, I've been mostly working on bases to get at least one Gatorman Posse up and based.  Both Posse's are close to done painting wise, so I'm hoping that having the bases ready for them will be an added bit of motivation.  I've a fair amount of work to do to be ready for the Breast Cancer Brawl event in October.




 I've also Been working on the bases for my Destors, both sets are pretty much finished and awaiting models & water effects to be added.



Other than that, I'm waiting for the winner of the giveaway (the only entrant) to respond about the base they will win, then I can start on that.

I'm also in the process of re-organising the tags on the blog in order to make it more accessible, and have some kind of structure to the posts. It's turning out to be a bigger job than I had anticipated though, so I'll have to do it one weekend when I'm more free.

I didn't get chance to do any airbrushing this weekend just gone, as we were invited to a friend's daughter's baptism (I'm not religious, neither is my wife or the parents of the baptised child, so that was strange), and it's likely to be a similar story this weekend unfortunately as we have house viewings booked, as well as a lengthy D&D session. Hopefully I'll be able to keep on with the painting though and have more to show next week.

The only other thing I've got going at the moment is something that I'll be keeping secret until completion, so I won't go into any detail, but I may include some sneak peaks in coming weeks.

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Blog Week 2012 Finalé & Giveaway

That's right, it's finally over. I had a lot to say, and I've said it all. Thanks for stopping by to listen!

So to the important part: The Giveaway.  I really hope this works the way I had planned it to...

Everyone who comments on this post will be entered into a random name generator machine (Excel!) and picked out at random. The winner will receive a 40mm or 50mm base made and painted to specification by me and posted at my expense.  I love making bases, and I'm happy to consider any requirements/specifications by the winner. I was at one point considering trying to setup a commission based basing site, but a friend pointed out that people quite like to base things themselves. Either way, this will be a good way to get my work to a wider audience.

The only requirement on the part of the winner is that they write a blog post or a forum entry on the PP forums showing the base and linking back here to this blog. Win, win right?

Thanks for sticking with it this week,
Comment away!
Lofty

De-baser (Blog Week post3)

When I saw that the minions book was coming out, I was very keen on picking up the Blindwater congregation, and was very inspired by the work some people had done on the forums with "hollow" bases used to create a water effect in a swamp environment.

My first attempt at creating my own version of this base went pretty well;
(water effects haven't set yet in below pic don't worry :))

But with the tools/materials I had at that time, I really couldn't foresee my self recreating this base for all the Gators I would be using in the force.

A few google/ebay searches later I found a british webstore selling hollowed out resin bases in privateer press size/style bases, happy days.

Skip forward a year or so, and I've used a fair few of these new resin bases to make my gators look rather spiffy.

(yes I know the water effects is still missing, it's on it's way I promise).

What's the point of all this you may ask? Why am I even telling you this seemingly anectodatal tale? Well dear readers, all is not as it seems. As you are aware I recently purchased myself some tourney trays, which was something I've been wanting a while after a few tournaments involving table hopping etc. As I begin to put models in the trays to test & photograph, it became glaringly apparent that the resin bases are larger (by a reasonable margin) than standard privateer bases.

Besides being pretty miffed that my Blindwater guys won't fit into the tourny trays, I was also miffed that the bases sold to me as 40mm/50mm bases were actually more like 42mm/52mm. This made me feel ridiculously guilty before realising that I'd never used the Gators in a tournament, but nonetheless, the bases are wrong.

I'm not going to name the webstore I got the bases from, but I will just leave you guys with this cautionary tale, and a piece of advice: if you are ordering resin bases as replacements for standards, it might be worth checking them 'back to back' with an official base, as they may need sending back to where you bought them :)

Finally we come to the point of this post, which is basically that I'll be re-basing a few of my minion models onto Privateer bases which I have modded to allow for depth & water effects.

It just so happens that I photographed the last two bases I made for my newly purchased Destors, so without anymore rambling, I humbly present;

Lofty's Water Base Tutorial 

There are two types of bases that I usually make, the fully sunken base, and the sunken ledge. This tutorial will cover the sunken ledge, but it is more than simple to apply this methodology to the entire base.

The tools I use are shown below, and consist of;
Hobby Knife
Clippers
Circle Cutter
Plasticard
Green Stuff
Pin vice drill (I use a 2mm bit for this process)

Step 1:
Use the circle cutters to cut a circle of plasticard with a diameter which will allow it to fit inside the underneath of the base.  This should be as snug a fit as possible, but if it isn't exact, it wont matter as you will see in later steps

Step 2:
Begin by taking your base of choice (I've only made these bases from medium and large bases, but I'm sure it would work with a small base, albeit with more fiddling) and drill holes around the edge, keep them as close together as possible.

Step 3:
Using either clippers or a hoby knife, connect these holes together and remove the resultant area of plastic.  This will give you a rough hole in the base.  This could look good in some circumstances withj a water effect, perhaps as some kind of pothole or some such, but I prefer to have a clean edge to the base in order to pad out later with cork/gravel.
Depending on what you would prefer, you will need to run your hobby knife around the edge to remove the excess plastic, and maybe even a file to get a smooth edge.

Step 4:
For a sunken ledge base, cut the plasticard so that the curved edge is flush with the inside front of the base underneath, and the cut edge is flush with the centre tab underneath the base. For a fully sunken base, simply ensure that the circle of plasticard is flush inside the base underneath.

I don't use any glue to secure the plasticard, as I find this to be more fiddle than it is worth, and I have to use 
greenstuff to seal the join anyway, so I use greenstuff as the adhesive as well.

Roll a length of GS and push this into the areas where the base joins the plasticard, and using a sculpting tool, pad this in, and smooth it of as best as possible.

Step 4:
This stage is essentially dressing the base to look how you want it to look. I add slabs of cork on the raised part of the base, and gravel/sand in the lower part. I occasionally leave the gravel off to create the illusion of deeper water, and with the fully sunken bases, I use thinner slabs of cork, if only to give the model something to be glued/pinned onto.
Something I usually try to do though is to mask the join between raised area and the sunken area.  I do this my using small pieces of cork up against the join area to simulate the effect of a river bank or simillar instead of a just the sheer drop which would be there otherwise.

Here's an example of one base I've made towards my Destors unit using the sunken ledge method

Hopefully this has been useful, there are a number of YouTube videos covering this type of base, with a few variations on my methodology.  This has worked great for me in the past though and I'm pleased with the look it gives in the end.
I've a fair few bases ahead of me to make to replace the ones I've used on my Blindwater congregation, but once hey're all made, I can get to painting them, which is the part I'm looking forward to with all the new airbrush paints I've got coming :)
Let me know what you think, or if there are any parts which need clarification etc. I'd love to see the results of anyone trying this method for themselves

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Blog Week 2012

There are plenty of things that I need to update the blog with at the moment, so instead of making back to back posts, and spam the IABN etc, I've decided to do a blog entry per day on various topics to get everything covered that I'd like to.

As well as this, I'm going to be spending time this week editing some tags on old posts to make the blog a bit more comprehensive and easier to navigate :)

I'd love to do some kind of give away at the end of this week, as The blog is also coming up to the 3year mark but I'm really not sure if there's enough interest/readers to make this interesting.

If it were to work, I'd have a post at the end of the week, and draw a name from comments on that post to win a base made and painted to requirements by me and sent out. I'd love to be able to do that so let's hope this works out!

I'll be making my first blog week post later on today, so until thank,
thanks for stopping by :)
Lofty