Banners (part 1)

This is going to be the first in a series about making banners. The old school way. Back in the ‘90s GW sold banner stickers in blister packs. While it was a fast and easy way to make banners, it was very boring. I mean, who wants their flags to look like the other guy’s? Back then color printers were hard to come by and 3D printing was science fiction. Plus, you want your stuff to have soul and art and stuff, don’t you? 

If you’re seeing this before you’ve checked out Orlygg’s awesome series of posts on banners, you should definitely check it out: http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.com/2013/05/arcane-armorials-constructing-oldhammer.html?m=1

Basically, the only real difference between me and Orlygg is the raw materials used. I like to use aluminum cans because it was and is very common and accessible then and today. “Tall boys” are perfect because they give you lots of material to work with. I start by cutting the top and bottom off with some shop scissors.

After the the top and bottom is cut off, cut the cylinder long ways.

Don’t worry about being precise here, that comes later. And here it comes.

Take a straight edge and a sharp blade and cut the can into smaller rectangles. I went with 2” x 4” for army standards and 1” x 2” for unit standards.

The size and shape is really up to you. We’ll be getting into that in the next episode on banners so stay turned and let’s see where this takes us.

New digs

Moved the set up from the kitchen to the office.

Much to my girlfriend’s delight!

Do you even dungeon bro? (Part 1)

My dungeon crawl project started on February 2 2019. It’s been quite the journey and more than a year into it, I have amassed some tiles. This post is a year in the making so I’ll try to remember it all as best I can. Please join me and let’s get down, you dungeon degenerates:

My girlfriend and I made some test pieces to prototype with. My girlfriend made this piece. It is by far the best one from our efforts.

I think the brick work is excellent. I failed to produce anything close to this. She used a ballpoint pen and drew directly onto a piece of 1/2” foam. Sadly this was the only one she made.

The floors are 1” thick foam cut into 12” x 12” squares. The walls are 1/2” thick foam 3” tall.

I tried to glue the exterior walls on top of the floor but this was way too fiddly and kept falling apart. I ended up gluing the walls to the side of the floor. If that makes sense? Much more stable and very solid. It wound up making the walls 2” high. Which is about perfect for being able to reach miniatures on (in?) the tile. Here’s one of the first ones.
 

The first group had hand drawn flagstones or bricks. Adding interior features such as walls, stairs and   other stuff really brings the tiles to life. Painted black then dry brushed grey. More shots of the WIP.

After our first game on these tiles I figured it would be a lot more interesting if they had doors! So I set about making some to add to them.

The next batch that I made were built a little different. I made the walls with built in doors added texture with glued on sand. Hand drawing all those flagstones is labor intensive! 

Admittedly, they are a bit generic but do add a maze like feel to the experience. It maybe hard to see in these pictures but there is green blotches painted into the floor. This is to represent dungeon slime making these tiles more dangerous to the unwary adventurer.

Almost done degenerates, one more tile for this post! This one is something that I have wanted to make since the beginning of my Warhammering way back in the day. A terrain piece with a giant Chaos Wheel!

I want to do a post later on just on this tile.

Tiny head, hairy legs

So this guy is a solid throwback straight before 3rd WH. His tab has 1985 on it. Let me think for a minute and I could probably come up with some scenario why he has the mutations. I guess I’m too intoxicated to come up with something right now. Here he is:

I don’t know who sculpted this Minotaur but whoever it was had a thing against proportions. The tiny head and big giant hands, upper body is gigantic. It’s actually a great model and fits very much so into the whole Realms of Chaos stuff from the late 80’s. I painted the small head and furry legs strawberry blonde. The upper body is different shades of P3 Bootstrap Leather. The hands, muzzle and tail are a fleshy color. I made the tail bright to make it seem like it could be prehensile.

Anyone know who sculpted this buff beast of a Minotaur?

UPDATE: Stuff of Legends is an awesome site. This Minotaur is C25 series and his name is Bhovus. Sculpted by Nick Bibby.

Behead the Gorgon

Xuezea stepped around the pillar of the ancient and decaying temple. The ignorant man that had come here had no idea what he was facing. His gaze met hers and in an instant he was now one of the many stone statues that littered the temple floor.

The title of this blog post is in reference to the song Behead the Gorgon by the band Lair of the Minotaur.
https://youtu.be/-S9HWMdNnO4
The miniature is from Otherworld Miniatures
https://otherworldminiatures.co.uk/
 If you haven’t bought anything from them yet, you should. What are you waiting for? They make some excellent miniatures in an old school style. (I am in no way affiliated, employed, sponsored, paid, or compensated for my endorsement of this company). They make good stuff, ‘nuff said.

I’m not so happy about how her dress turned out but her skin looks dope in real life. She’ll make a great enemy for my players. Good thing their main characters just got some magic weapons. Their henchmen on the other hand are definitely going to have a very tough time.