Dell Minis

Work in progress pics of a modification to my Foul Blightspawn, “nurgling tank.”

1) After assembling the main tank area, I drilled holes in the ‘glass’ part of the tank in a ring shape using my pin vice, then carefully carved out the ‘glass’ portion up to the rim of the tank with an X-acto knife.

2) I painted the outer and inner rim in bronze so I’d be able to see the inner surface later once the final effect had been done.  I also painted the rest of the inside of the tank Caliban Green (Citadel) in case any appeared through the later effects.

3) I took the grenade nurgling from the Blightspawn set and found I had to trim the grenade head and feet off in order to fit it into the tank.  Fully painted him separately.

4) Stuck the nurgling into the tank using a tiny piece of poster tack.

5) For the goo effect, I used Wurm Green (Formula P3) and Secret Weapon Realistic Water Effect.  The Citadel equivalent of the color is Moot Green.  Wurm Green is the color that I typically use to paint any green slime on my Death Guard figures, which is why I used it here.

6) I put in about 8 parts Water Effect to one part Wurm Green to make the goo.

7) Using an eye dropper, I added the mixed goo liquid into the tank until it was just slightly shallower than the nurgling.  Any higher and the green in the Water Effect would fully hide the nurgling.

8) After the previous layer had dried(about 24 hours), I filled the tank to the very surface of the rim using direct drops of the SW Realistic Water Effect.

Use ‘push moulds’ to make 100s of themed bases, each unique, for about 30c each!

I have thought about making moulds to make bases for a while now, but had run into several issues. Cost and availability of moulding materials, difficulty/mess of casts, repetitiveness of having several of the same bases in the army. Then I had an idea, and did a bunch of experiments/tests and while I’m not going to say this is the bestest method ever! It definitely works for me and might for you.

Concept The idea was to make a large stamp, (15cm x 15cm or so) that you could then make individual bases from, offsetting each base to a slightly different place on the stamp so that no two bases are exactly alike. By making it a stamp, I could use the easier and cheaper ‘push’ method rather then pouring and casting with expensive and hard to source materials. Instead I would use polymer clay.

The Master To start with you have to make an original sculpt to make a cast from. It works well if you have an idea of what kind of bases/location you want for your miniatures. I am working on a stormcast army atm and I wanted them to be based on a stone ruins, in a city reclaimed by a red desert. I decided I would add the sand later, so its the stones I would be making now. The base of the sculpt and the materials used in its construction will need to be resistant to force. Substances like plaster of paris, will crumble and crack and will not be suitable, but you can use whatever you think will work. Myself I used a couple of sheets of mdf for the base, 15x15cm For the stone work, I cut and carved ‘foamed pvc’ which is great stuff, costs about $4 per A4 sheet, depending on thickness. I used less then ½ sheet all up, a mix of 1mm and 2mm thicknesses. I made roots from greenstuff and added skulls from GW, so maybe $1 worth of additional materials. Total build cost for the master base, about $3.     Note, this master should not look like a 'scene’ it should instead be a collection of elements, thin stone, thick stone, level changes etc, so that you can get the most diversity for your bases in as little area as possible.

The Mould This is the most expensive part of the build, costing $12ish for a 400g block of polymer clay. I used about $10 worth on the mould. Worked the clay to 'condition’ it. Roll it out with a rolling pin to the depth needed to capture all the detail, do this on baking paper so that it wont stick to your surface and you can pop it in the oven after. The highest point on my master was 7mm so I needed around 10-12mm thickness of clay to be safe. You then coat both the surface of the clay and the master, in a releasing agent, cornflower in this case.  Place the master on the clay and apply pressure, as much as you can muster. I went as far as placing it on the ground and standing on it with a little gentle bopping up and down. But try not to go side to side as it can deform the mould details. Remove the master, and if you are happy with the mould, pop it in the oven to bake. Once cooled you have a mould. Note, if the mould looks rubbish, just rework the clay and try again till you are happy with it.

Other materials: I tried a few other materials before settling on polymer clay. Cold porcelain was terrible for details (and a mess to make)  Air dry clay can get ok details if you really work it before hand. It’s cheaper, and if you use polymer clay for the final casts, you wont need much in the way of releasing agent as the two really don’t stick. But in the end I was not happy with the loss in detail with air dry clay. You can also use talc as a releasing agent, but it can be slightly more expensive then cornflower.

The Casts. To make each base you will need a small amount of  polymer clay, a base of the correct size, baking paper, releasing agent, the mould and a 'cookie cutter’ Condition the clay, and then press a small amount onto the miniature base with baking paper between them (else it will stick to the base). Smush the clay around till it roughly covers the surface area of the base. Coat the top of the clay and the mould in releasing agent, pick a interesting spot on your mould and place the clay there. Push down on the clay using the miniature base as a convenient tool and applying a decent amount of force. Then separate the clay from the mould. If you have used enough releasing agent, the clay should lightly adhere to the baking paper and not the mould and should come loose by lifting the paper. You can then use the 'cookie cutter’ to trim the excess and give you a sharp outer edge, but remember to coat the cutter in releasing agent also, or the clay will stick to it and distort. Pop the cast in the oven and bake. Once done, the cast is ready to be stuck on your choice on miniature base. I made 40mm bases and they cost between 15 to 20c worth of clay each.

The Cookie Cutter You will most likely need to make a custom cookie cutter of the correct size for your bases. There are many online tutorial about this. For me I took a plastic shot glass, and used a dremmel to cut the top off till it was the right size.  

Final Costs $3 for the original sculpt $10 for the mould materials 20c per base.

This process really worked for me, and I hope it does for you also. I’m looking forward to making a jungle stamp for my lizard men next.

I ordered some treats for myself last month and they all came today. I’m most excited for these heads from Shapeways. The painted examples aren’t mine. The set I got are on the right and listed as Warfaces2 - African Female$12.98.

I been thinking about trying those heads. I know the ones in the right aren’t yours but nice to see how they scale with gw models.

What. The. Fuck.

Men really can’t think of any way to do sisters of battle themed stuff without tits, even if it’s a fucking giant mech, can they?

Fuck’s sake.

@empressofmankind @neshtasplace @tha-kaptain

I’m talking dozens of animals being wiped out for the want of a 20$ shot. From diseases that never show up in even the shitty puppy mill fed pet store in the mall.

Have a story about an Imperial Guard regiment being sent to put down a chaos invasion on an agriworld, only to find its just people who don’t want to be worked to death in fields  and ground up by machines if they don’t get out of the way fast enough. 

Say someone’s falling to chaos and refusing to fight for the Emperor, when really it’s a scared draftee teenager who has PTSD and just doesn’t want to be forced to fight the horrors of Actual Chaos once again, say it’s heresy when really it’s just someone with a different opinion being targeted by political rivals.

Tell us it’s heresy and Chaos, and then directly fucking contradict that with evidence to show the Imperium is a cruel, unjust system that uses chaos and heresy as a blunt hammer to keep oppressive structures in place.

Make it clear the people in power value staying in power over the lives, wellbeing, and health of millions, and show how they justify it and why it’s wrong. 

The Inquisition is often too cruel but it is not unnecessary. You have to remember the world itself, this is a universe where yes, chaos cults can literally sacrifice entire world to horrific daemon monsters and undermine an entire star system. They have a very good reason for keeping around the inquisition.

Of course the Imperium’s leaders are cruel and unjust, they have never been shown to be anything else.

First: “They have never been shown as anything but”

Okay uh. All the loyalist primarchs are described as noble, pure, loyal, oftentimes even being explicitly stated to care about the Imperium’s citizenry (the case of “My entire schitck is committing warcrimes with incendiary weapons” Vulkan stands out to me). Many of the famous commissars are described as noble, steadfast, and ultimately doing the best for the Imperium that they can. Inquisitors? Also noble and pure. They’re very rarely, if ever, shown to be explicitly incorrect in their paranoia. If anything, even the most paranoid of inquisitors is vindicated more often than not. 

If they think something’s a chaos cult? It is. If someone’s being corrupted by Chaos to their mind? They are. 

Can you, possibly, just maybe, spot the issue with constantly speaking about the leaders and enablers of theocratic fascism in terms of their inherent nobility and rightness of cause? That’s the shit I take issue with. 

My point was “show the imperial leaders as being Explicitly, Completely, off the mark and wrong, and show them using the terminology of the Imperium to oppress innocent people who disagree with their methods or just want an okay life.”

If you even read my examples, you’d see what I was talking about. Good people, with understandable causes, unrelated to chaos, being stuck with that label because they’re threats to the existing power structure. That’s the kind of shit that would turn the Imperium into a villain, but we don’t see that. How many stories are there about an imperial guardsman being sent to put down a rebellion where Chaos isn’t involved at all? How many times do drop-pods land in the village square because the sector lords don’t like an agitator for better working conditions? It’s always, always shown to be Chaos running the show, making people hate the Imperium of Man. 

If the setting really is that hardcore, that’s fine! Hell, that’s probably the way it should be! But make sure that it goes too far, make sure that the Inquisition is wrong more often than it’s right, that people who want to take down the Imperium may have completely valid reasons to do so, and that not every problem that threatens the Imperium’s power is born from insanity. 

Chaos is so infectious that the second you deviate from what the Imperium wants, it gets you.

Now, I feel like the Emperor protects, by virtue of being a ludicrously powerful psyker. I also feel like the Imperium has gone astray from the Emperor's vision. That what we see, post-Heresy, is Old Major's decaying head on a spike and the other pigs walking on their hind legs.

Serious even if your use the same molds and just make them plastic they would sell SO many more models.

I would perfer complete new sets but even the above will do.