I Painted Some More Bones 4 Miniatures

Hey, I painted some more Bones 4 miniatures.

From left to right:

I'm not fond of vampires, but I do like Goths.  I was finally inspired to paint the Vampire bride like a seductive Marceline the Vampire Queen.  Unfortunately, the lacquer on her went haywire and I caused a disaster while trying to fix it; I will explain this below.

The big bug man is a Burrowing Behemoth (by Kevin Williams) inspired by the classic D&D Umber Hulk monster.  Accordingly, I painted this guy in shades of Raw Umber and Burnt Umber.  Sometimes it's convenient to get color hints from source material.

These snake people are Nagendra, inspired by D&D Yuan-Ti monstrous humanoids.  I wanted these characters to look like they had an exotic and developed culture, so I painted them flamboyantly with lots of scarlet and bronze, and purple leather.  More about this red later.

The pointy character with tentacles is a Stone Lurker (by Jason Wiebe), inspired by the D&D Roper monster.  This monster pulls its tentacles inside and pretends to be a cave stalagmite, sometimes whispering beckoning words in an echoey cave to an unsuspecting human ("Hello?  Is someone there?  Please help me!"), until the poor guy gets within tentacle range.

Lukesia D'Vandra (by Bobby Jackson) is a vision in blue (denim?).  I suspect that she shovels really well.

Juliana the Herbalist (by Bobby Jackson) has 2 hedgehogs for familiars.  I asked my wife: what color should I paint the hedgehogs?  "Blue!"

And finally there is a wizard with an orb.  I recall that I mixed up some red paint for his wizard's robe, and then I had all this red paint left over, so I put it on the Vampire bride ('Why not red?  Marceline loves red!'), and then the snake people ('Why not red?  It looks expensive and exotic!'), and the herbalist ('Why not red?  Seriously, why not?')...

Not-So Protective Lacquer

I used Games Workshop's "Purity Seal" protective lacquer on this batch of miniatures on a rainy rainy day, and half of the miniatures got exhibited the "frosted" effect.  I think this happens because the "Purity Seal" lacquer isn't sticking to the mini so well, and the gap between the lacquer and the model creates a cloudy appearance.

I got some acetone nail polish remover, cotton swabs, and cotton balls.  This was kind of a mistake.

My best results came from using cotton balls, by gently dabbing and saturating the surface of the mini with the acetone, apparently re-dissolving the Purity Seal lacquer, and allowing it to re-adhere to the surface of the mini.  This worked for several of the snake people.

My big mistake came from using cotton swabs to try to "brush" the mini.  The acetone is a much more powerful solvent than I expected; it dissolved the lacquer, the polyurethane varnish, the paint, the primer, and it made the plastic gummy; the swab scrubbed my painting efforts right off and mushed the plastic model, as a result.  I severely compromised the details of my vampire bride model.  I tried to (gently) wipe the remaining paint off the model with cotton swabs and the acetone, but there was a lot of paint left in wrinkles and tight corners, obscuring detail.  Her nose is severely flattened, and the headstone's carvings are eroded away.  I tried to repaint it.  The resulting mini is smoothed out as a result, like a rough wall that's got several coats of paint on it.  I probably should have soaked it in "Simple Green" overnight, and started over from scratch, but I thought I could wipe off the lacquer and leave the paint behind.  Live and learn!

Nonetheless, it's very frustrating.  Many other users have complained about "Purity Seal," and one theory is that this "frosted" effect is caused by high humidity; another theory is that the spray just goes bad in the can with age.  It was certainly humid when I used it, but the can is old, too.  I assume the matte surface is generated by microscopic particles which deform the surface of the drying lacquer; maybe these particles get concentrated if the user doesn't shake the spray can long enough prior to use, and you wind up with the wrong proportions of particles-to-lacquer.  Whatever the case, I plan to switch to other sprays with future models.

I painted some Bones 4 Minis

I finally got my Reaper Miniatures Bones 4 Kickstarter pledge rewards, and I could hardly wait to start painting them.  The Kickstarter ended at the beginning of September 2017, and my rewards arrived in mid-April 2019, so I'd been waiting over 19 months for these--pretty much according to schedule, but still a delight when it happens.  Others have referred to these events as "Reapermas."

I was a little surprised to discover that the Bones 4 Miniatures are made of "Bones Black," a more rigid (and brittle) plastic material than the rubbery vinyl-like material of previous Bones Kickstarters, but I am not disappointed; in almost every regard it has proven to be a superior material for miniatures.  These Bones Black miniatures were easily realigned with my Wagner Heat Tool, the plastic accepted Games Workshop's Skull White (primer) spray, and cyanoacrylate glue sticks them together well.

My previous batch was adventurer-heavy, so this batch of miniatures is almost all monsters.

 

From left to right, we have 3 "Hell Hounds," a parrot/lizard/mantis monster ("Gloom Stalker"), a tentacled lobster monster ("Tidal Lurker"), an Owlbear, a Flail Snail, 3 giant bats, and 2 catfolk warriors.

I saw the cracks and rifts in the Hell Hounds, and I was reminded of the cracks in stone.  I imagined that these Hell Hounds might be full of molten lava, so I painted them to look like basalt and lava rocks I've seen in Duluth and Hawaii (respectively); with the cracks painted fluorescent orange, revealing the glowing lava inside.

Because I already immortalized my black Maine Coon cats as sabertooth tigers, I painted the catfolk to represent my Bengal kitten.

Making Mini Terrain

I was so excited when I got my Bones 4 Kickstarter rewards from Reaper Miniatures; so many amazing miniatures!  I picked out 12 miniatures for a batch run, but when I made plans to attach them to a pedestal, I realized that several of these miniatures did not come with a base attached.  The Bones 4 package included some simple plastic bases, and I glued these minis to the plastic discs, but the minis looked out of place on the flat featureless disc, like they're sitting on someone's kitchen countertop rather than a dungeon.

It's possible to buy various styles of cast resin miniature bases, or laser-cut plywood miniature bases.  They look good, but they are pricey, I'm kind of cheap, and I don't want the base to be so nice that it distracts from the miniature.

Tiny Piece of Terrain

I decided to look into how to make a tiny scrap of terrain surface for the base.  I've tried gluing sand to the base after attaching the mini, but it doesn't work so well; the tiny feet get swallowed in the layer of sand and glue.  You gotta put the terrain down first.  Terrain is typically somewhat chaotic and amorphous, and this stuff needs to stick to the base and the mini. 

Don't fight forces, use them.

-- Richard Buckminster Fuller

If you've ever used Gorilla Glue, you've probaly made a mess with it.  Gorilla Glue is kind of a cross between varnish and expanding foam.  Like a good varnish, it's main ingredient is tough polyurethane; but it cures using airborne moisture and it turns into a foam, bulking up like a foam blob until it is several times its original size, thereby expanding into the gap you're gluing.  It goes on looking like maple syrup, but it foams into hard yellow spittle and makes a mess. 

It occurs to me that the randomness of this glue could provide me with the randomness I need to make convincing terrain.  But how random is it?  How big will it foam up?  I decided to experiment with white Gorilla Glue, sand, and gravel. 

Experiments

I thoroughly washed an old food package lid, drew 1-inch circles on the back with a Sharpie, and numbered them 1 through 7. 
In each circle, I put a drop of white Gorilla Glue. 
In circle 1, I left the drop in the center of the circle.
In circles 2 through 7, I smeared the drop around to basically cover the whole circle.
In circle 3, I sprinkled sand on the glue.  The sand came out of a 50-pound bag I bought at a hardware store, and it has some tiny bits of gravel mixed in. 
In circle 4, I sprinkled gravel on the glue.
In circle 5, I sprinkled gravel on the glue, then poured on sand to fill the gaps.
In circle 6, I let the glue foam up, then I mixed sand into the sticky glue to form a gritty paste.
In circle 7, I let the glue foam up, then I mixed gravel into the sticky glue.
I devised some of these experiments to prevent something I call the "chocolate chip cookie" effect, wherein glue foams around pieces of gravel, resembling the way cookie dough rises around chocolate chips; this is unlike the way rocks appear on the ground, poking up through dirt which washes away from the rock. 

Here I let the glue cure overnight, and shook the excess sand and gravel off it.  In circle 1, you can see the glue in circle 1 hardened on the outside, then foamed and expanded through a hole, kind of like a volcanic ejection.  In most of the other circles, you can see the glue has neatly foamed to resemble white spittle, where it is not mixed with sand.

Here I sprayed white primer on the terrain.  #4 and #7 have a little of the chocolate chip cookie effect.  Honestly, though, all of them (except for #1) look like believable terrain.

Here I painted #2 through #7 with dirt- and rock-colored paint.  They mostly look believable, but #3 looks the nicest; you can see there is only a little gravel on #3, so I suspect that a few pieces of "accent" gravel provide decent contrast with the appearance of dirt and sand from the other experiments.  It could also be a psychological effect wherein my mind doesn't like the more gravelly sections because they look too rocky and irregular to walk on without twisting my ankle. 

Conclusions

A little gravel goes a long way, but in general the sand on the glue works pretty well. 

But even if you wind up with terrain that REALLY looks like a chocolate chip cookie, there's at least 1 monster for whom you have the perfect terrain!

He doesn't want to eat your adventurers, he wants their rations.

Latest batch of Miniatures

I got burned out on miniatures...for about a year.  I paint miniatures in batches of 12 at a time, and I just stopped right in the middle of a batch, and let them sit in the corner, gathering dust.  I don't know why I didn't get back to them.  Video games were definitely one distraction.

Then I got my Bones 4 Kickstarter rewards, and I had a lot of awesome miniatures to paint!  That got me to finish my current batch in a hurry. 

Only one monster!

It's adventurer vs. adventurer!

Most of these are Reaper Bones, some are metal miniatures from various manufacturers, and 1 of them is sculpted my me out of Green Stuff epoxy putty. 

Farewell, Google+

I don't WANT to go to Twitter, but where else should I go to post brief status updates?  I'll never go back to those F***ing B***ards at that other social network site. 

Shadow Blaster

If you like D&D and other role-playing games, you probably like dice.  Unfortunately, one of the standard RPG dice is problematic: the d4; it's hard to pick up, it doesn't roll so easily, and it's a hazard on the floor.

The typical d4 is shaped like a Platonic tetrahedron.  In its most stable state, it presents only angled sides, making it difficult to pick up.  If the weather (and your hand) is dry enough, squeezing it will only force it to slip out of your fingers.

You may be able to slide it off the edge of the table into your other hand, but if you drop it, the sharp peak on the top makes it hazardous to step on; it's the caltrop of dice.

The solution is to roll the d4 without ever needing to pick it up, or even letting it loose in the gaming environment.

Shadow Blast

Many years ago, my Game Master ran a game wherein me and my friends played as extra-dimensional creatures who posessed some kind of weird raygun-like ranged attack called the Shadow Blast.  The Shadow Blast did multiple d4s of damage.  At some point, we were expected to roll 20d4 for damage.  Picking up all those d4s made the attack a ridiculous time-waster at the game table.

The Pop-O-Matic bubble is a classic way to "roll" dice without picking them up, and lots of people have hacked the Pop-O-Matic bubbles out of old board games in order to fill them with other dice.  Unfortunately, you can only roll about 4 d4s in one of those little domes.  It would be neat to craft your own, but I have been unable to find a source for the "popping" spring at the heart of a Pop-O-Matic, other than by sawing apart old Pop-O-Matics.

Enter the Shadow Blaster

That's why I invented The Shadow Blaster.  The Shadow Blaster meant that I never needed to pick up a d4 ever again.  It's stupidly simple: it's a jar filled with d4s.

For a jar, you want a wide, squat glass jar with a flat bottom, like a salsa jar, or maybe some other kind of chip dip/vegetable dip/pickle jar.  The flatter the bottom, the less likely the dice will end up 'cocked' at an angle.  The wider the jar, the more d4s you can put in it.

Wash the jar.  Use Citra-Solv to remove any label stickum, and maybe try to dissolve out any stale chili pepper smell from the lid.  Let it air out for a while.  Drop in some minty chewing gum.  You will never completely remove the stale chili pepper smell.  But once you put dice in the Shadow Blaster, you will never need to open it again, so who cares what they smell like.

Now get various d4s.  You want to pick d4s with numbers at the peak (so you can read them when they're crowded together).

You will also want to get these d4s in color groupings such that you can call out how many dice you roll by color.  For example, my Shadow Blaster has 12d4 in it, colored much like this:
4 dark d4s
3 red d4s
2 yellow d4s
2 green d4s
1 blue d4

In this way, if I wanted to roll any number of d4s from 1 to 12, I could specify which colors I would read (or "all of them") before rolling.

Put the dice in the jar, seal it up, glue on a cool label, and you're set.  Shake up the jar!  The dice should make a satisfying popping and clinking rattle.

Let the dice settle at the bottom, and read your random numbers.

Need a cool label?  I've got you covered; print out this logo, cut it out, and glue-stick it to your jar.

Cool Tool for the Disabled

You might think this stupidly simple idea isn't valuable; that you never had much trouble picking up a d4 in your life, and you never needed to roll more than one d4 at any time.  But suppose you have a friend with a motor-control disability (maybe Parkinson's disease, a broken arm, arthritis, or Carpal Tunnel syndrome) which makes picking up small slippery dice difficult or even impossible.  If they can pick up a jar, then Shadow Blaster to the rescue!  Just drop a complete set of 7 dice in the jar (or whichever dice your game needs), and if they all lay flat at the bottom, have your friend shake the whole jar every time they need to roll a die, and only read the one die they need.

Polar Vortex

POLAR VORTEX: Coming to a front yard near YOU.