Testing out my new Foldio360

This is the first "image" taken using my new Foldio360 turntable and light studio.   It uses my iPhone and Bluetooth enabled turntable.  Using the app, it takes 24 (or more) shots as it rotates the object 360 degrees and then stitches them together into the interactive image.  It took me very little time to set up and appears to have worked well on the first go around.  I did notice that I didn't center the miniature very well and it seems that she rotates around her left foot rather than the very center of the base.  I thought I had marked the center on the turntable and placed the mini on the correct spot.  I'm guessing that this will continue to be an inexact science.  I probably need more practice.

More Super Dungeon Explore w/ an Airbrush Warning

The above picture shows one of each villain from Super Dungeon Explore: Von Drakk Manor.  There are actually many more skeletons like the ones seen on the left.  Total model count for this expansion is 43.  To save time, I relied on my trusty airbrush.  Unfortunately, the airbrush did not provide the instantly amazing results that I have come to love (and rave about on previous posts).  With the vehicles, buildings, and [sparsely detailed] space marines that I've airbrushed in the past, the minis could be considered 60+% complete after the airbrushing was done.  That is not the case with smaller and/or more detailed models.  Despite the fact that I've upgraded my airbrush to the much more precise Hi-Line Iwata ($200), small details are hard to paint and splatter is much more noticeable.  The skeleton on the far left, the green-glowy bases on the witch and flying skull and the smokey "feet" on the grim-reaper mini are examples of the bad aspects of the airbrush.  I was hoping to get a smooth fade, but the results came out less snappy than I like.  For contrast sake, the three characters in the middle were painted without any airbrush and they have the snap I like.  Unfortunately, these models also took the longest to paint.  Long story short: I've found that airbrushes should only be used to  base coat smaller minis to provide the foundation and guide for your hand-painted shadows and highlights.  For example, the giant bat in the back row was based with the airbrush, to include shadowing and zenithal highlights, but significant brush work went over almost ever inch again to clean up edges and add more contrast.  Despite the fact that I'm still brush-painting every inch, the pre-blended base coat provided by the airbrush saves a lot of the normal brush-blending-effort and is quicker over-all.  The model below is a similar case of where I based with the airbrush to get a difficult [to brush paint] purple and brown fade, but I still went over that coat with brush work using thinned downed paints to smooth the splatter.

           

Super Dungeon Explore: Part 3

The above pic is the finished Druid and his alternate bear form.  This is probably my favorite character; due purely to the look and theme.  The most significant characteristic of the bear model is how it was painted, since this is the first model that I've used an airbrush on.  I borrowed Kenndog's new airbrush last week and did a little experimentation.  I decided to start conservatively and only used it for the base coat and the early stages of blending.  Results are in the picture below. Significant refinements to the blending had to be made with a brush and extra highlights and shadows were added.  Nevertheless, it provided an extremely smooth coat and a good indicator of shadow location.  Details were completed with a brush, as normal.  The Druid was only hand painted.

Super Dungeon Explore: Part 2

Unlike other dungeon crawling games like Descent or Warhammer Quest; Super Dungeon Explore uses large square dungeon tiles, that fit flush together along their edge, to represented the layout of the dungeon.  Descent and Quest use irregular shapes that often touch only a few neighboring pieces so the negative spaces between the tiles represent walls or null zones that the characters cannot move or see through.  On the SDE boards, the walls and such are drawn onto the map.Unfortunately, they are not always easy to see and determining line of sight and movement paths can be tricky.  I am not the first and only person to feel this way, nor the first person who thought it might be fun to fix that problem by adding 3 dimensional features on the board to represent the sight-blocking nature of the room's objects.  The following link shows one of the more extreme examples; where the maps have been completely recreated with painted plaster terrain: tabletopgeeks .

Although I thought it would be fun to explore the wonderful world of mass plaster production, I still have 30+ more models to paint and a host of other projects that also want my attention.  Therefore, I selected a solution somewhere in the middle.  I continue to use the colorful cardboard tiles, but I have recreated the 3-dimensional elements with carved and painted polystyrene foam.  The foam took about 26 hours to shape and 10 hours to paint. 

The pictures below show the hot wire cutter I used to cut the straight geometrical shapes.  A tinfoil ball rolled over the surface of the foam was used to create a stone-like texture.  The bricks and other shapes were made with a very sharp exaco knife.  Inexpensive acrylic craft paints were dry-brushed on for the color.  The other pictures show the final outcome of the more interesting map sections.  A picture of the map's art is given on the left side of each image for reference.  Recreating the illumination of the lava and crystals from the map onto the 3D parts was a lot of fun.  The final picture shows an example of each of the three wall connectors used between the map tiles to mark the dividing walls.  I left them modular to allow for variable shape combinations among the tiles.

Super Dungeon Explore. Part 1

The above pic shows the first 6 models (heroes) painted in my newest minature game, Super Dungeon Explore.  I was introduced to and purchased this game at Origins back in June.  Apprently, Sodapopminiatures had just released the second printing of the game and I got one of the first copies.  Changes in the new release include the replacement of the metal hero models with these fantastic plastic ones.  Other blogs show that the newer models are also a little bit larger.

I immediately fell in love with these minatures after seeing the display booth at Origins and examining the images on the box.  My miniature painting style had taken on a cartoony-ness over the past 5 years and these models would definatley accentuate that more than the "realistic" sci-fi models (40k) I had been working on.  I am very pleased with how these first six came out.  I think that my high contrast blends and hardlined boarders and edges replicate the techniques used by comicbook artists and makes these models look very similar to their fantastic art work.

The box came with 40 models; 9 of them heroes; and all of them gorgeous.  I can't wait to see how the rest turn out.