Question related to DnD miniature size

When I was a kid (14 or so) and I was playing The Bard's tale on an Amstrad6128, I once had a dream of buying a horse from the equipment shop. I distinctly remember that I was in fact behind the Paladin who was riding the horse (I was a barbarian dwarf) worrying that the horse might decide to kick me, when the party was in a Dungeon (I think it was the cellar in the tavern, how the horse managed to get down there I don't remember)... speaking of horses in Crpgs.
Bah, strange dreams. :shrug:

 

Remember the men in the white coats are your friends and they are there to help you.

heh heh heh

Dreams, who really knows what they're about, aye?

 

True, true... muahahahahaha (insane laughter).
I guess I had spent too many hours of playing Bard's Tale at the time (summer holidays, I think) so it must have had an effect, to actually dream of the game. Similar things happened to some of my friends (the ones who were computer geeks, like me) at the time.
Funny thing though, now the "disease" seems to have spread with the advent of LARP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJyfs_u0Nco

Dream come true?

 

And here are some images of the other rook for the other chess set. It is still unpainted, of course, but I liked that new brown modelling clay I got.
It's 3 inches from the base to the highest point of the "keep"

 

And here is the keep painted:









Hope you like.

 

Nice, but I can't help but think hmmm ... phallic symbol?

Just kidding

I like the detail, you can count the bricks in the tower.

 

These tiles did it.
Thanks, I decided to post some images of the unpainted version because this new color fits nice with buildings, as well as because this because it allows much more detail to show.

 

Hello again, it's been quite some time since I posted.
Making miniatures that can change their armor, weapons and apparel, was the first step in my whole DnD miniatures concept.
The next step was to actually make miniatires that can change their poses, like action figures.
Here is my first attempt at such a figure, still unpainted of course and with some work that still need to be done (specifically, I can see that his left shoulder and arm are somewhat lower than their right counterparts:



And here is an image of him standing upright (he can do that without a base, I don't want to use a base since that would render the whole "action figure effort" quite useless, since the legs would not move:


I intend this figure to be a monk (perhaps he could perform some martial arts moves, though I seriously doubt that he would perform kicks, I can't see him standing on one leg) . There was an attempt to give him some asian features as well, though this will show better if I can successfully paint him.

 

And here is a different pose:


I still have to llok into the issue of balance though, some of the balance problems are there because he doesn't have heels.

 

And he doesn't have CLOTHES! heh heh heh

Run, Run it's Freddy Kruger ... and he's naked!

All joking aside, can't wait to see him all painted up.

Were you going for a Japanese look?

 

lol, the Freddy Kruger bit hadn't occured to me.
Now that you mention it, the look of the hands does give a Freddyish look, with all these little wires sticking out. .
Looks like I 'll neeed to put some glue or stucco before painting them to make them look more like fingers.
I had in mind a general "asian" look, with high cheekbones and slanted eyes. I think it does seem more like a japanese look, though. The facial expressions of a mini are more of an "individual" thing, as far as my experience goes. That means that the person who makes the mini may try to give some features to the mini's face, but it seems that the mini will "acquire" some features on its own, somehow. This is particularly true when I paint them. I guess more skilled painters and sculptors can make the mini look like what they want it to look, but I find myself going for one expression, or one set of features, and never quite accomplishing exactly that.

Other than that, he will of course have a kimono or something like that. As for weapons, I was thinking of a nuntschaku and a staff for starters (if only to see the poses he could take with them), though I think that monks are better off without weapons.

 

I agree 100% about the weapons, as for the way things work out while painting ... I still can't fathom painting something so freaking small.

I believe if I were to make a mini it would have the "Dipped" painting look. heh heh

Should be cool when it's done.

 

Well, Dipping is actually a painting method, largely used in creating "shades" in a miniature, so it might be a good idea . I 've never actually used it, but here is a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXKD1zHpE7w

The fact is that sometimes paint simply doesn't work (I've noticed that sometimes it doesn't adhere to the material) and thus you have to resort to methods that are reminiscent of "dipping the whole thing into paint" .

In my experience, though, the more you paint something, the more scupting details you lose.
Getting brown clay, instead of white, for example, helped me avoid painting trees (and still keeping the "details" of treel bark as I wanted them).

Anyway, in the sculpting section, it appears that the single wire I used to connect the joints (the physical joints, not any other type) was actually rather weak to hold the pose in place. furthermore, it appears that the best approach was to place glue in the cavity ("receptor" for the wire) of one joint, then placing the wire in the glue-filled cavity, waiting for the glu to dry completely, and THEN going through the same process with the other budy part the specific joint connects to.
Some info on the process wf making this type of mini which may shed some light to that:
Unlike other minis, where the whole wire skeleton was made first, and then it was "fleshed" out by means of clay, for the "action figure" type of mini, I made each body part separately. For example, I made the arm from shoulder to elbow, using clay, then the forearm from elbow to hand. again using clay. The hand itself was completely made of wire.
For each of the parts, I punched two holes in their ends, which were meant to be filled with glue and hold a single piece of wire, that would act as the joint, connecting each part (the torso of course was a one-piece item).
It appears now, that it would have been wiser to twist two wire pieces together, since that would make a far more "steady" joint. Three wires would make the joint difficult to bend. I am also thinking of using aluminum foil twisted to resemble wire, in order to alleviate pressure to the clay parts (at times, the wire acted as a "lever", breaking the whole clay part from the inside.

For now, I used silicone to reinforce the connection between the body parts, but the mini is in the balcony until such time as the smell of silicone goes away. Hopefully painting it will make it harmless to touch (I read that silicone is not supposed to come into contact with the skin).

 

Uh oh ... I think I slipped and let a little of my own history of attempting mini's come out.

Why do you think I appreciate your work so much, because it's next to IMPOSSIBLE to get those freaking details.

Looking forward to your next update.

 

Ah, very interesting. Now I know that someone else has the habit of painting minis. I would be willing to bet that there are more people here involved in the hobby.
Thank you for the comment, I don't really think that my minis have too much detail, perhaps current minis have more detail in comparison to the ones I made in the beginning, but if one compares it to professional work, it's far behind.
Regarding the update, I 've been painting the mini for a couple of days now, but unfortunately I've run out of the color I was using for skin tone. I had a similar color, but unfortunately, after some unsuccessful attempts, I noticed that it was color for textiles (strange, though because the first color was meant for textiles, yet it worked fine on clay).
Anyway, I am going to the shop again one of these days to get some color, and I was thinking that maybe I could attempt to make a couple of tattoos, as well (I think shaolin monks have them).
Currently, though, the mini is a mess, I actually washed it (thankfully it wasn't ruined by the water), yet the black priming wouldn't go away.
thank you for following this project.