Big Nuts: Customized

To affix a heavy mini to a wooden display base, I need to somehow thread the base. This is done by placing a customized nut into one of the existing cavities of the mini's sculpted base, and securing it with either resin or epoxy. I first hack a bunch of notches into the nut (in this case it was a square one) with a file and hacksaw: this 'keys' the nut for the epoxy to lock into.

The griffon's base is actually two pieces, and quite difficult to place together, much like a 3-dimensional puzzle. I had to strap the whole thing to a block of wood, to create a flat plain, while adding some pins and epoxy. Everything worked out, but gaps needed filling all over.

A smaller bolt was nested into the metal (after having been drilled and milled) for the back portion of the base. Two points secured to the display base made sense for a mini of such significant weight. Ultimately it worked out well and the beast is now ready for wing-attachment and priming.

But first - the ears need some attention - as cast they are not so imposing, so a little Kneadatite Green Stuff Epoxy and the bird has more attitude.

Bird Brain: Grenadier Dragon Lords Giant Griffon

I got abducted by aliens. I didn't take it personally. But I'm back, and so, striking back into working up some old minis, I turn my attentions and affections to the Grenadier Giant Griffon, a Dragon Lords branded release, obtained for about $40 (which I thought was a dandy price for such a massive and heavy piece). It was glued a bit here and there by previous owner, so I scraped that off. Now - to join these big chunks together as solidly as possible:

Holier Thank Thou
This thing is seriously solid metal, a few large bores are done, half to reduce the weight slightly, half to allow space to install some anchor pins between the parts...

Screwed
...which in these case were just some large screws with the heads cut off.

A little padding of Aves Apoxy Sculpt in between to make sure the two mate-comfortably (...oh... to mate comfortably)

And then the parts come together, with some two part epoxy, making sure the threads of those screws are really soaked.

That's all for now. Hopefully that light outside the windows tonight is not my 'friends from the stars' back for more... and more progress will be posted soon.

Ral Partha Dead Skeleton Guy

This Ral Partha skeleton was one of those minis I've got that refused to be painted properly. I remember getting this guy in the blister back in time. His first colors came in enamels, and stayed that way for some time before being stripped in the late 2000s.

I tried another pass but the anatomy of the sculpt was not readily very paint-able: there are areas bulked out of proportion for purposes of strength and ease of casting, that render the bones far too thick for a sensible final display.

The final attempt was done straight over top the previous paintwork, and centered on a dark base coat that built up through off-white bones, which are painted on top of the physical bones. I guess there's no easy way to describe this: because of the thickness of the bone-members, I had to depict the bones atop the sculpt several times, around the girth of the sculpt. So if one reviews a 360 circumnavigation of this guy he will appear to have more bones than anatomically feasible, but from any one angle he looks really good, with gangly thin bones.

The shreds of cloak clicked into being after several frustrating failed attempts, I started washing it with a gross pea green color and some other vomity earthtones and it seemed to operate nicely. A little rustiness on the scythe blade and some chalky and juvenile wood-grain stuff on the handle-pole and suddenly I had a decent looking mini... nicely balanced overall and conquering the awkward thick parts by simply keeping them in the dark colors.

Seeing this mini complete also made me decide that from here on out all restored minis must have decorated bases, and in most cases cannot be on the base they were cast in. This guy could do so much better were he standing on something interesting, it would carry so much better. NOTE: This post was originally published somewhere in 2020, but I yanked it to rinse out all the wierd spam comments that showed up. It is hopeful some lovely new posts will come with pictures of various Grenadier projects underway. But hope is a funny thing...