Cthulu Subject

Time for a chuckle:

http://www.youtube.com/user/badadvicegoodtimes#p/a/u/1/FnbYcB9ctu8

You can never stop learning enough about anything :)

Painted Wagon

Not that kind of wagon, beer etc, but the basic one that I slapped some paint on for use tonight with our D&D group.

So there is the encampment site, which Im sure will be swarmed with all sorts of bad guys.... :)

Wagon Ho!

I'm in a D&D game group..again.. and our group has been so mobile and traveling that we were stymied at haveing somewhere to stash gear, food, and other assorted materials. Enter... The Wagon! Of course a wagon in a D&D setting has drawbacks, but, at least its mobile vs The Inn, where things that are left seem to just vanish.

After dealing with ink ovals, bits of paper and what have you to represent it, time to model one up. Wagon wheels are store bought Circus Wheels from the Train Store. Coffee stir sticks to the rescue for everything else! Wagon bed is 3 inches long, and 1.5 inches wide. Some paint to go! Figure to stand horses in place when needed, I would have attached the horses but they seem to be in Every creatures food chain!

River Rolling test

So, rolled up my new small creek / stream. Left it rolled up for a couple of days.

And here it is a few minutes after being unrolled

About half an hour of room temperature and it was very flat. Total thickness of this smaller creek was about half of my fast water river piece, which I suspect makes a difference in how flat it will lie when totaly relaxed from being rolled up.

Latest Rubble Building Update

Few more building sessions in and RRsize has progressed on his partially demolished building.

Work proceeds around christmas shopping and decorating a 1:1 scale tree.

Off topic BUT Tis the Season!

Here is a link that sums up a lot of the pre christmas maddness:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E-47VmFopE

I chuckled through it and thought it worth sharing :)

New Camera

With a sigh our 6 year old digital camera decided it needed to have some repairs on it, Estimate charges for labor and parts $150.00 Enter new camera! Hmmm have to figure out how to take pics...... experiments ensue:

Much higher resolution pictures, and there by, longer to load up for making articles, I guess I'll live with it. Purchased this plastic purple worm, it was prepainted, and broke out the paints to highlight what had been a purple / lavender 2 tone with a smear of silver done each edge.

Then a shot of Skrapwelder who had dropped over to have a cold one with me and discuss current building operations of various resin projects. Lots of projects in the works! Hmm to much time split to many ways means little progress anywhere. On top of it all had to get all the plants in from the Patio due to temp dropping to 24 degrees here in usually sunny Sacramento, CA...

Have to have a shot of one of our Watch Cats on duty. Neitchi is a rare Tinyus Tigerus breed, hair triggered to attack!

Rubbled Buildings Mark 2

Started a new and updated rubble building collection utilizing what I learned from the previous, studying pictures, comparing notes and turning RRsize loose with some mats. He was itching to try his hand after touching up my last rubbled buildings so here's some starter pics of WIP.

VSF humor

Got a laugh from one of my web comics I follow on a VSF theme:

http://www.twolumps.net/d/20091120.html

http://www.twolumps.net/

its a 2 parter, second part on Monday.

Pulp Action Work

Build scenery and such is basic work for most of my gaming needs, but time to grind some of the people and creatures to actually run some Pulp Action games soon. Break out the mini's and paints! Here's some of "where I am" figures works in progress.

On the left are plastic zombies and on the right are plastic ghouls, primed and some base coating done. The Ghouls are primed and have a blue green wash on them only at the moment. The zombies have an assortment of washes and inks for skin and corruption, still have the clothing to work out, to be done with more wash and dry brush. Not to worried about the final look of these guys, a slightly bad job will get the viewer into more of an "Eeeeewwww" frame of mind rather than "these are soo cool" . Fear those monsters!

Works in Progress

Thought I would post some pics of whats taking up my hobby time currently.

So first are interior corner roof supports for my long delayed brick buildings. Followed by the Tar paper roof sections.

So here is a foam core roof section assembled. Paper masking tape layerd with a slight overlap, then painted black. Light dry brush of grey. Edges of the foam were coated with pva and then taped over when dry.

Checked the fit of the roof to the inset corners design, just a bit of trimming and also marked the underside of the roof panels with a number to coinscide with the number on the interiro wall of the building, along with guide marks on which way to position the roof to fit the same way every time.

This shot is a bit to close for the figure, came out a bit blury, but shows the roof dry brushed for the over lapping tar paper effect I am trying for. Might try doing a dark grey surface and black wash for a different effect.

Here is a tar and gravel look, in scale gravel is larger than sand but gives a game scene look of sand... Also the PVA curled the shape of the roof placard, so if I do this style again I think it would be cover the top in Tape, side by side and then use a Spray Tac Glue, sand, and then use a matt finish sealer to help hold t he sand down or simply paint stain it to help hold it down.

Lastly is my photo buddy who followed me around, to and from the cpu to download various photos. Machi really found the Flash worth trying to chase down.

Cthulu Art / Props Site

Found this to be quite inspirational overal, nice prop works of investigators and scientists.

http://alexcf.com/blog/?page_id=6

May have to cut and paste the link but definetly worth perusing.

Small Curving Stream

So pushing along with the river making idea to test it for a smaller creek, fast water setting. This time I thought to lay out the waterway with lots of small pieces of masking tape to get lots of curves in the 6 foot length.

So moving along, here is a shot of the beginning layout of masking tape. Using lots of small pieces of 2 " tape. I tore many small pieces and hung them on the edge of the work board. I tried not to fall into a fixed back and forth pattern for a more natural look to the creeks bed layout.

Now the picture of the basic layout after much pulling up and relaying tape, I smoothed the tape down but did not press it hard to the board, as I will have to pull it up to turn it over later. So, overall a good start to the creek. I am fairly sure that the thin coats of KS will still tend to curl the first surface upwards, so that when dry it will make the edges cup downwards when I flip it over to do the Water side.  Thoughts are that I will use a putty knife to smooth the KS onto the piece after a fist brush application. Might try pressing the river gravel into the smoother coat as most creeks are loaded with smooth rock.

Hmmm edges of the creek sides are not smooth, they are jagged pieces of tape sticking out this way and that, so out comes the box knife. I also applied a bit more tape over the joints in a few places where I had not given much of an overlap in the first place to help insure that the tape will pull up in one continuous piece.

 Next shot is the process of smoothing the Inside curls of the creek. Which while slowly cutting excess tape off it struck me that I didn't have any widening spots in the creek. Most creeks widen and narrow along their course, so out came the roll of tape with some more trimming.

Sample shot of a widened piece of the creek tape bed along with a reinforcement of the section. I thought about and then decided not to put in a pond on this piece. I am also thinking that I will need some 4 foot and a 5 foot section of creek. I use a 4' x 6' play board matt and the 5 foot will be long enough to allow me to place the creek in an angled direction rather than straight across the board.
First coat of KS went on with a brush, but due to wanting to keep the KS On the tape, I used my finger to smooth it out.

On to the spreading of the thin coats of Kel Seal brushable caulking, same as I did on the roads and large river project.

So here is the flip side after the top side received its 3 layers of caulking and dried. Not much noticeable cupping of the topside when dried. This particular picture is before the last coat, which I tried to apply really smooth, so that it would not appear to be flowing fast but slower.

The smooth coat did not go on a smooth as I was hoping, I used a flat stick to pull over the entire length of the creek in one pass once I had the coating applied. A mix of blue and green paint in equal amounts, thinned with water was brushed on and left to dry. As an aide to keeping the creek "flat" to the board I added small pieces of tape here and there where ever it seemed it wanted to not cooperate.

On with a new experiment. Silicone caulking can be clear, so wanting to know what a "wet" look would do to the piece, on with the experiment. I used a caulking gun to squeeze a line of clear down the middle of the creek, then it was time to get sticky with the finger and spread it over the entire surface of the creek. I deepened the muddy color that I had applied as a was from the previous picture. The gloss coat of Silicone made the color become Darker, when I had tried to Lighten it this go.

To show the glossy finish I took this overhead shot to show the light reflection from the flash. Very shinny indeed. Overall, smaller is not better than the larger 4" wide river compared to the 2" creek pictured here. Is more finicky about lying flat and staying there.  The clear silicone is being slow to fully cure, still a few very slightly tacky places, though I might break out the verathane spray and give it a sealer coat to end that problem. Final thought is that the creek will still be a usable addition to the fast terrain box I take to games. Still have to find a way to apply a coat smoothly without the ripples or streakiness. Also Discovered that its best not to lay one road / river on top of another and then place a heavy object on them Unless both sides have been painted and fully dried, or else the un painted side can stick to the other piece where the weight was. Live and Learn, I painted And applied a new coat of TAPE over the back to make SURE they do not stick to one another :)

Fast River, really

Using the same procedure to make the roads in the fairly previous article on making roads, I made a fast water river section. I laid out a curving Masking Tape river outline and then applied 3 thin coats of Kel Seal brushable caulking to the top of the masking tape, covering nearly all of the tape with those 3 thin coats. When fully dried I carefully pulled up the tape from the work board, flipped it over. Next 1 very thin coat was applied over the sticky side of the tape that was now the "top" side. Let dry, then a second thin coat and after it was on I dabbed the surface in various ways till I got patterns I thought looked "right". Still to be added with be river bank rocks, some plants etc to help visually define it better.

Click on the picture to get a better look at it. I figure to shave off the spiky bits, add a few river rocks here and there, an a touch of white water color

So far I have resisted tearing the excess tape of the edge of the river as I did on the road section, water just seems to have a smoother edge from flow than a dirt packed and worn road surface. Updates on this project as I get to them.

So here's a shot of a dressed river edge setting using some of my "edge filler" brush mounted on Popsicle sticks.  I didn't trim the excess tape off of the river as I did on the road sections to keep it smooth and also was able to use some of those areas to glue on smooth river rock, Aquarium gravel, here and there, plus a few scattered stones sticking up out of the water course.

Here's a close up of the a river rock section. Its just pva glue with the smooth gravel applied, may go and apply another coat of pva over it, give it a very slightly wet look and help to prevent the rock from falling off when I roll up the river for a test of portability.

And a final distance shot of a longer stretch of the river, which has a total length of 6 feet. Still a bit of dry brushing to do as I found that shaving the spiky bits of the dried caulk to be necessary to improve the look, but shaved After I had used the blue wash.... well, it is an experimental piece!

Clash of the Titans, trailor, remake of a classic

Here you go, right to it with out any further fan fare

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcBNHZEiX0g

Dirt Roads

So the attempt of putting the Kel Seal over the tape on a pine board to keep it from warping the edges up.... did not work. The KS when it dried still tended to curl upwards... So what the heck, I flipped the entire length over and thought I would slap some more KS on the back to warp it back the other way so the first production side would provide me with the finished road surface.... which did not make it change shape...

Then I said, well, the underside, with a coat of KS on it made a nice surface anyways, and it is shaped sort of cup sides down, but the Tape straight edges were not desirable. So pulling carefully and not so carefully I stripped off the excess tape.                                     

So here is a shot of tape stripping in progress. The blue color of the tape came from a quick idea to see how it would look as a stream... Not very well, though I have ideas now on how to use the same process to make streams with slightly raised edges.

The whole strip is a bit over 6 feet long. I plan a storage box tray slightly over 6 feet to keep them in and keep them flat, even though the dried KS is flexible, and can be rolled over a tube to store it in a smaller place. Stored flat there is no, "going flat" time required when setting up a game.

Here is an overhead shot of the edge, its lying flat against the wood board under it, and has an apparent rough edge to it. After painting I think I will try gluing a bit of rock and such along the edges to give it character? Though that would make it difficult to stack and store in my long flat box idea... hmmmm And a final "down the road" shot.

Here's another picture of 2 roads done at the same time, both are 4 foot in length.

Somewhere in the South Of England

My name is Hans Velsing, hunter of extraordinary creatures, in particular, a type of were creature called a Forvalaka, rumored to have arrived at a sea port town in the south of England. Shortly after entering the edge of this town things began to go badly indeed......So after running thru the woods till dawn it is only now that I have composed myself enough to assemble my thoughts to attempt to record what occurred last night.

Notice the building in the center of the shot, it is there that crated filled with earthen dirt from France were addressed to be shipped. The miss management of the care of that building left it leaning dangerously such that it needed massive props to keep it upright at all. As the sun set, groups of people were in the streets when, the Full Moon appeared and there was heard much moaning in the wind.

Shambling hordes of Zombies seemed to appear from no where and everywhere forcing me to take cover in a building only to have a wave of rotting flesh pounding thru the door and into the room where I had taken a stand. Summoning up my Piety I unleashed a blast of doom through their ranks, mowing down many and buying myself a brief respite. In this next shot, from upper left, center and right are the Local Constables, a group of American Cowboy adventurers and a sole survivor shop keeper after his handymen had been taken down by Vampire Assistants, spreaders of Zombie smoke clouds.

These groups shot it out with many a zombie, the veritable wave of them shambling back and forth as whims of Brains over came their tiny abilities to home in on the living. Slowly, even for zombies, they reduced the Cowboys to a sole survivor who time after time managaed to hold off certain death, time to do what he had to ...... finish consuming the entire bottle of Red Eye Whiskey. The Shop keeper fared no better, even though he did manage to mix in with the zombies for a bit, shambling along with them, till..... his screams rang thru the darkness....

Here the towns Judge is being overwhelmed by Thosts , then zombies and Vampire Assistants.  His Butler did a stand up job dispatching one after the other, while the Judge wrung his hands and worried over the property destruction all about him, especially his manor house. Shortly after seeing this, the next picture shows what I had to undergo; crashing through the brush and trees to a different local, dispatching Zombies to the left and to the right as I went.

It seems 2 very power undead creatures had a wedding date in the Graveyard.

Where  the Bride had mentally overpowered the local Priest, so as to force him to perform the ceremony, while all about the remainder of the town, anyone who had not vacated, was soon being converted over to the darker side.

I survived only by the speed of my feet as it turns out, the Were creature simply eliminated the men of Torchwood, and the remainder of the Judge and his Butler.  Now, finally we see a closing picture of the host of the game / grand encounter master, Skrapwelder in the Stovepipe hat. Next to him is Leadfool who had the honor of commanding the Judge to the most spectacular end that I witnessed that evening, surrounded by Ghosts, Vampires, Zombies and the Forvalaka.

Road Way started

Trying a new approach to an old problem, have a good material to make roads out of, but what it gets spread on seems to be a difficult approach. I am using Kel Seal brushable caulking material for the actual road surface, which works fine, but the taping down wax paper as the surface led to the road way curling up so much that I had to flip the finished road over and use the other side. New idea, use Tape for the road bed surface material to put the Kel Seal over. It sticks to the board so won't curl up as it dries.

So I affixed the tape down to a long pine board for the start of the project. Total length is 6 feet plus a few inches. Road is to be about 3 inches wide. Material will be brushed on in thin coats about half an hour apart as I paint buildings.

So, here is the first 3 coats. I figure to apply 2 more and then let it dry over night. When completely dry I can then pull the tape up and see if the material curls or not in a day or two. For the taped side I will use a coat of paint to seal the sticky in, or if it curls some, I will apply another think coat of Kel Seal to the tape side and let it dry fully. Overall the thickness of the Kel Seal will allow it to, eventually, lie flat. Some washes for color after I put a bit of brown into the last coat of KS to final dry and it will be ready for use. Oh.. and my wife's cat thought this was a great run way for her to walk up and down, fortunately after it had been drying for an hour.