Holy Warhammer, Batman. What a mod!
July 29, 2010
Red Dead
The music of Red Dead Redemption. Brilliant short vid. I’d love to be one of these guys (either playing, recording, or writing). Video has an annoying age check, but it’s worth it.
July 12, 2010
July 7, 2010
Civilized
“when Gandhi threatens you with nuclear weapons,” Meier says with a chuckle, “well, it’s a moment you remember for the rest of your life.”
I’m hearing some great buzz on Civ V. I might have to grab a copy when it comes out. Haven’t played a lot of long-investment games lately (and the Civ franchise games are VERY long), so it might be time to jump back in.
June 29, 2010
June 25, 2010
June 23, 2010
Tiny Things
I’m a builder. I love making things. All kinds things: furniture, props, models, small and large- if it can be built, there’s a good chance I want to build it. And if I can make it truly from scratch then sign me up. There’s just something about the act of taking a pile of raw materials and turning it into a finished, professional-looking product that provides me with a sense of deep satisfaction.
Several years ago I became intrigued with the process of casting. Making a part, then creating a mold from special material and then using that mold to make copies of the original part out of plaster, plastic, or even metal, is something that seems like magic to me. So out of this came my desire to make my own mold. Here’s the story from a few Christmases ago if you’re interested.
Anyway, I built another small structure (two actually) recently and decided that they needed to be populated. So I went down to our local game store (the excellent Dragon’s Lair) and bought some miniature figures. Since I was building the Inn I decided it needed to have a bartender and a couple of bar wenches, plus a small dwarf customer. I also picked up some paints and some very (very!) small paint brushes. Luckily, Hobby Lobby was having a 50% off sale on their high quality paint brushes so I was able to get some really good ones for a decent price.
I hooked up the magnifiers and got to work. These mini figures are all of about 2″ tall, and the detail can be intense on some of them, so it takes a really steady hand, great brushes, and several tries to get the paint just right. In the end, though, I was happy to see that my inexperienced hands were able to do a fairly decent job. I’ve never been the best at color coordination, but I’m pretty happy with the pallet I chose. Here are some pics that Sean took with his nice new camera. They show the figurines, the Dragon’s Inn, and some internal furniture. The figs are cast from lead and tin and the Inn and furnishings are cast from dental stone- one brick at a time. Then everything is painted by hand. I’m pretty pleased with the results.
Enjoy!
Top down view of the inside of the Inn. All pieces are hand-cast and painted/drybrushed with several different coats of paint.
Bar wench and big tub-’o-meade
Bar wench #2. Yes, she has pupils. Yes, they’re really small (about 1/10th of a millimeter). I had to get paint on a single strand of hair from my smallest brush and hold VERY still. Took a couple tries to get it right.
Gront! He’s about 1.5″ tall. I’m particularly happy with the way his black front armor is weathered to look worn.
Top-down view of the Inn
Peeping Tom view
Shingle Detail. The roof is covered with 4 different colors of paint with the last two coats being a drybrush detail coat.
Better view of the roof color detail. I’m really happy with the way it turned out.
Thanks to Sean for the pictures, and for hosting a great gaming day last weekend. Don’t miss his great flickr feed. The guy is pretty good with a camera.
March 30, 2010
February 8, 2010
This is the Only Level
Clever little game! My stats: finished in 8:19 with 36 deaths. Can you beat that?
January 12, 2010
December 21, 2009
December 1, 2009
BioShocking
Propmaker and artist Harrison Krix designed and built a Big Daddy prop suit from Bioshock. Amazing, amazing stuff. The arm works, the LED’s work, it has 4 cooling fans, and is absolutely full of win. Here are actual pictures (with his awesome partner in crime, seamstress, and fiancee as a Little Sister).
More pics here.
and it’s for sale on ebay! (limited time link)
November 24, 2009
November 6, 2009
August 13, 2009
June 11, 2009
May 2, 2009
Lego Bunratty
A neat site by a Lego fiend who specializes in building reproductions of European castles. Kinda nifty to see some of the castles we saw in Ireland reproduced here.
http://www.carneycastle.com/index.htm
Original Castle (being attacked by a dragon)
img src=”http://thebigthink.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/bunratty-attacked.jpg” border=”0″ height=”192″ width=”256″ alt=”Bunratty Attacked!.jpg” align=”" />
Lego version (no dragon, unfortunately):
img src=”http://thebigthink.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/south.jpg” border=”0″ height=”297″ width=”230″ alt=”south.jpg” align=”" />
Neat stuff! Check it out:
http://www.carneycastle.com/index.htm
**Just checked this after posting. I’m really sorry, everybody. The company that hosts this knows that there are issues but they’re really dragging their feet fixing things. Knowing that nothing I post will display correctly has taken most of the joy out of blogging for me, which is why you haven’t seen many posts the past few months. They’ve been saying it’ll be fixed “soon” or “next week” or “within the week” since early March. I think fixing this is so low on their list of priorities that they’re not going to ever really get around to it. Sigh. Really sorry you have to come here only to see messed up code, but it really is out of my hands. Drat.
April 8, 2009
Nerdvana
wherein my compatriot Sean recounts the fearless adventures of Gront and company. Thanks Sean, I had a blast!
http://www.mcmains.net/2009/04/07/tabletop-roleplaying-the-nerdiest-post-of-the-year/
February 3, 2009
Two Rooms
Timewaster of the day. I’m quitting now so I can get some work done… You have been warned.
November 15, 2008
Wee Play
Any Wii friends out there up for a game, our number is 3193 7016 2384 5914.
Drop us a line!
Comments Off