Not exactly a mini, but recently I've been working on making The One Ring with actual glowing text! It lights up when the ring is put on top of mordor on a map of middle earth.
I've been tinkering with this off and on for several months now- Originally I had the idea from LED filaments, and thought I could stick it too a base to hide where the filament gets wired in from. It worked kinda, but I wasn't too happy with it and I put the idea aside. But then I found these wireless LED kits you can get online, where you get a handful of LEDs attached to coils, and a big coil to power them with.
Took a bit to get that working with my LED filaments- ripping an LED off one of the coils that come with the kit and attaching my own filament didn't work, but by trial and error I found an inductor that would work to power the Filaments.
Then I had to actually design the ring to hold the inductor as well as the filaments- that was a bit of work, and my final design still has a bump on the inner face of the ring where the inductors hidden, but the alternative is making it too fat to look right.
After that I had a problem where the entire ring would glow, not just the text- except for where the inductor was, making it look pretty weird:
I eventually found I could fix that by using a black acrylic paint marker to cover the ring everywhere but where the engraved text is:
That was the last piece of the puzzle, and all I needed after that was some air-brushed gold and gloss clear coat to finish it off.
It was really fun to stretch my creative legs putting this together.
Not exactly a mini, but recently I've been working on making The One Ring with actual glowing text! It lights up when the ring is put on top of mordor on a map of middle earth.
I've been tinkering with this off and on for several months now- Originally I had the idea from LED filaments, and thought I could stick it too a base to hide where the filament gets wired in from. It worked kinda, but I wasn't too happy with it and I put the idea aside. But then I found these wireless LED kits you can get online, where you get a handful of LEDs attached to coils, and a big coil to power them with.
Took a bit to get that working with my LED filaments- ripping an LED off one of the coils that come with the kit and attaching my own filament didn't work, but by trial and error I found an inductor that would work to power the Filaments.
Then I had to actually design the ring to hold the inductor as well as the filaments- that was a bit of work, and my final design still has a bump on the inner face of the ring where the inductors hidden, but the alternative is making it too fat to look right.
After that I had a problem where the entire ring would glow, not just the text- except for where the inductor was, making it look pretty weird:
I eventually found I could fix that by using a black acrylic paint marker to cover the ring everywhere but where the engraved text is:
That was the last piece of the puzzle, and all I needed after that was some air-brushed gold and gloss clear coat to finish it off.
It was really fun to stretch my creative legs putting this together.
This moment near the end of act 3 grabbed me really hard, and I decided I really wanted to try recreating it in physical form, and I love the result.
Modelling Hornet in blender wasn't too hard, I mostly just got rough shapes, hit them with a subdivision modifier, and pulled vertices around till it matched my reference image.
The mask, though, was a real pain. I eventually got it by deforming a cone, mirroring it, and closing the gaps manually until the shape matched closely enough, but it took a few tries, and it's still not perfect- my result has a much sharper join where the horns meet each other.
The backdrop was a lot of fun to make- I kinda just went at it with the airbrush and a paint marker for the bubbles/tendrils. My freehanding needs work, but I think it still came out pretty good. Got that vibe of the everbloom lighting up the clouds of void around Hornet nicely.
Now I've just got to find shelf space to put the whole thing on...
(If you're wondering, this is the cutsene I was inspired by)
This moment near the end of act 3 grabbed me really hard, and I decided I really wanted to try recreating it in physical form, and I love the result.
Modelling Hornet in blender wasn't too hard, I mostly just got rough shapes, hit them with a subdivision modifier, and pulled vertices around till it matched my reference image.
The mask, though, was a real pain. I eventually got it by deforming a cone, mirroring it, and closing the gaps manually until the shape matched closely enough, but it took a few tries, and it's still not perfect- my result has a much sharper join where the horns meet each other.
The backdrop was a lot of fun to make- I kinda just went at it with the airbrush and a paint marker for the bubbles/tendrils. My freehanding needs work, but I think it still came out pretty good. Got that vibe of the everbloom lighting up the clouds of void around Hornet nicely.
Now I've just got to find shelf space to put the whole thing on...
(If you're wondering, this is the cutsene I was inspired by)
Latest project that I did not consider shelf space for prior to starting- but its ok because this one is really cool! Glowing lights make everything better!
These lights even pulse!
Mini is Bahadrax, Primordial Death (Dracolich), by Flesh of Gods.
(With edits by me to be able to add the LEDs)
This was a project and a half. I actually got a new saturn 16k for this, partly to be able to print multiple pieces at once, but mostly so I could have a heated tank to stop getting failures from it being winter and cold af down in the laundry I have my printer in.
Actually painting this was pretty fun, though it took me a few tries to figure out what I wanted to do. I wanted to have it look red and fleshy, since there's so much meat on the model, but also like it was a proper decaying corpse of a thing given how much bone was exposed. The reds as a base, with desaturated greens drybrushed over strategically works really well though, imo.
The hardest part of this mini was actually getting the LEDs into place- the one in the skull was easy, just soldered it to the end of the wires and pull them back through the body to seat the LED. The chest was a real pain in the ass, though, because its using the same wires, and I'd already taken up the slack, giving me no room to work in there- and with the constant worry I'd damage the paint trying.
In the end, rather than soldering it at all, I just cut slits into the wires' insulation, and jammed the LED in there with a battery connected so I could see when it had good contact. Then I flooded it with super glue and called it good. Probably a good thing I'm not an electrician, I think shoving lightbulbs into walls until they turn on is against code or something.
The second hardest part was when I decided that rather than just a simple coin cell battery to power the LEDs at a steady illumination, I instead wanted them to pulse, which required a 9v battery... which I hadn't left space in the base for, so I had to make an extension for the base to fit into that'd hold the battery and pulse circuit. The pulse circuit was another PITA, I prototyped it in a breadboard, had it working, copied it to a prototype board, tested it, though it was good, soldered the wires from the LEDs to it, then realised it only illuminated a steady glow- still not sure what I did wrong. I mean, I know I had a transistor backwards, but after fixing that, it still didn't work, so. ???
In the end, I remade the circuit entirely, and it worked the second time, after I laid it out much more neatly so. I guess that's a lesson.
It was worth it all in the end though, because I have a dope glowing dragon now, and that's what's really important!
Latest project that I did not consider shelf space for prior to starting- but its ok because this one is really cool! Glowing lights make everything better!
These lights even pulse!
Mini is Bahadrax, Primordial Death (Dracolich), by Flesh of Gods.
(With edits by me to be able to add the LEDs)
This was a project and a half. I actually got a new saturn 16k for this, partly to be able to print multiple pieces at once, but mostly so I could have a heated tank to stop getting failures from it being winter and cold af down in the laundry I have my printer in.
Actually painting this was pretty fun, though it took me a few tries to figure out what I wanted to do. I wanted to have it look red and fleshy, since there's so much meat on the model, but also like it was a proper decaying corpse of a thing given how much bone was exposed. The reds as a base, with desaturated greens drybrushed over strategically works really well though, imo.
The hardest part of this mini was actually getting the LEDs into place- the one in the skull was easy, just soldered it to the end of the wires and pull them back through the body to seat the LED. The chest was a real pain in the ass, though, because its using the same wires, and I'd already taken up the slack, giving me no room to work in there- and with the constant worry I'd damage the paint trying.
In the end, rather than soldering it at all, I just cut slits into the wires' insulation, and jammed the LED in there with a battery connected so I could see when it had good contact. Then I flooded it with super glue and called it good. Probably a good thing I'm not an electrician, I think shoving lightbulbs into walls until they turn on is against code or something.
The second hardest part was when I decided that rather than just a simple coin cell battery to power the LEDs at a steady illumination, I instead wanted them to pulse, which required a 9v battery... which I hadn't left space in the base for, so I had to make an extension for the base to fit into that'd hold the battery and pulse circuit. The pulse circuit was another PITA, I prototyped it in a breadboard, had it working, copied it to a prototype board, tested it, though it was good, soldered the wires from the LEDs to it, then realised it only illuminated a steady glow- still not sure what I did wrong. I mean, I know I had a transistor backwards, but after fixing that, it still didn't work, so. ???
In the end, I remade the circuit entirely, and it worked the second time, after I laid it out much more neatly so. I guess that's a lesson.
It was worth it all in the end though, because I have a dope glowing dragon now, and that's what's really important!
A couple of friends of mine have gotten me into Gaslands, so now presenting Blue Beater and Tiny Tinnitus Terror of the Wipeouts!
Just a quick pic of my team for the first real game we'll be playing soon.
Its lots of fun assembling and painting these, the wasteland vibe makes things feel so freeing- just slop glue on, and call it corrosion and sloppy welds. And doing the paint chipping and rust feels so good, all just comes together so nicely.
Next up on the list of things to do, gotta find some tiny dudes to put in the seats/harpoon nest.
Mini is Inga the Goliath Barbarian by Twin Goddess Miniatures.
Fun couple hour paint job on this one! For something different I tried underpainting her skin with blue, red and yellow (shadow, mid-tone, highlight), and painting a thinned fleshtone over top.
Worked pretty well, though the thinned paint was a tad grainy- I've noticed that before but it doesn't matter if its going over more fleshtone that's just tinted tinted darker- Might try this again with a different paint, its definitely a neat trick.
Mini is Inga the Goliath Barbarian by Twin Goddess Miniatures.
Fun couple hour paint job on this one! For something different I tried underpainting her skin with blue, red and yellow (shadow, mid-tone, highlight), and painting a thinned fleshtone over top.
Worked pretty well, though the thinned paint was a tad grainy- I've noticed that before but it doesn't matter if its going over more fleshtone that's just tinted tinted darker- Might try this again with a different paint, its definitely a neat trick.
This is Cacklecrank, my new character for a Wild beyond the Witchlight campaign! They're a jester golem sold to the circus by their creator, with a list of pre-programmed terrible jokes to tell. Gaining sentience didn't stop the spell that makes them tell the jokes, it just let them hate them.
I could not find a single warforged jester, or even just a robotic one on any of the sites I checked, so for this mini I ended up actually making them myself in Blender, which was pretty fun. It was mostly just playing with basic shapes and modifiers until I got something that looked fun.
I probably made things a little hard on myself, since I wanted Cacklecrank to look really thin and lanky, and with a sort of V body shape, with those wide shoulders and thin legs, but it worked out pretty well in the end.
I kinda want to make more things in blender, but I'm also slightly terrified of it. Cacklecrank is easy since every part of him can stay separate right up until I finish posing him, which makes edits and replacements really easy.
This is Cacklecrank, my new character for a Wild beyond the Witchlight campaign! They're a jester golem sold to the circus by their creator, with a list of pre-programmed terrible jokes to tell. Gaining sentience didn't stop the spell that makes them tell the jokes, it just let them hate them.
I could not find a single warforged jester, or even just a robotic one on any of the sites I checked, so for this mini I ended up actually making them myself in Blender, which was pretty fun. It was mostly just playing with basic shapes and modifiers until I got something that looked fun.
I probably made things a little hard on myself, since I wanted Cacklecrank to look really thin and lanky, and with a sort of V body shape, with those wide shoulders and thin legs, but it worked out pretty well in the end.
I kinda want to make more things in blender, but I'm also slightly terrified of it. Cacklecrank is easy since every part of him can stay separate right up until I finish posing him, which makes edits and replacements really easy.
Did a quick one night paint on this elf, it was a fun mini.
This mini is Yaen the Elven Sorceress by Twin Goddess Miniatures.
Tried mixing things up a bit by using dirty down moss for the cloak. It isn't quite what I expected, but I do think its a cool effect. I really should sit down and properly work out how that stuff works some time. I like the effects I get, but I never seem to be able to get it to do quite what I expect.
This guy was a bit of fun. The design is great, lots of fun textures to work with, and it feels really dynamic.
Good chance to play with my airbrush. (then screw all that work up being too heavy/careless with the washes. [Then mostly salvage it with some rushed stippling]).
I put some effort into the stones on the base, then ended up basically completely covering all of it with at least a thin layer of dirty down moss, which actually came out really nicely, I might have to try doing thin layers of that on more stuff.
I also decided to take a risk and try and make a pond on the base with some UV resin- I really wish I'd had a lighter touch with the ink I used, because its not very see through, but I still think its a good effect overall. I did use opaque painters tape though, so I had to do some rushed UV lighting after pulling it off to fix up the areas I didn't set initially, and then backfill the gaps with more resin. Really should've just waited until I could get some clear tape, but I was impatient.
The real success though is using UV resin to add some saliva dripping off the tongue. The drops pretty big because of the thickness of the resin, but on something this big I think they work pretty good, and its a fun effect. IDK, Maybe the froghemoths saliva is super thick and sticky to help its tongue grab things.
SURGE THE TENREC FIGURE/DIORAMA THING! (from the IDW Sonic comics).
Model for this is Surge the Tenrec by thekingdog over on deviantart.
I got some LED filaments recently, and was looking for something to do with them, when Surge popped up on my dash and I had this idea.
I absolutely love how this turned out, it was a tonne of fun to make. Just finding a scourge STL file was surprisingly hard. I ended up having to use a VRchat model I found.
That actually worked out really well, because I could easily pose it and apply mouth expressions, even with my limited blender knowledge.
Then I went and made that process way harder by deciding I wanted to be able to light up the eyes, meaning I needed to hollow the head, punch eyeholes out and create a tube down from the head out the foot to run wires.
After managing to get that done (had to try several times because I kept introducing slicer artifacts with my 'BOOLEAN MODIFIER IS MY FRIEND' approach), I realised the heads walls were too thin and translucent, so I had to carefully shove milliput in there without blocking up the eyeholes... and in the process didn't realise I'd covered the wire hole, and then had to carve out part of the neck and back to get access again.
Worth it all in the end though, for how dope this looks.
SURGE THE TENREC FIGURE/DIORAMA THING! (from the IDW Sonic comics).
Model for this is Surge the Tenrec by thekingdog over on deviantart.
I got some LED filaments recently, and was looking for something to do with them, when Surge popped up on my dash and I had this idea.
I absolutely love how this turned out, it was a tonne of fun to make. Just finding a scourge STL file was surprisingly hard. I ended up having to use a VRchat model I found.
That actually worked out really well, because I could easily pose it and apply mouth expressions, even with my limited blender knowledge.
Then I went and made that process way harder by deciding I wanted to be able to light up the eyes, meaning I needed to hollow the head, punch eyeholes out and create a tube down from the head out the foot to run wires.
After managing to get that done (had to try several times because I kept introducing slicer artifacts with my 'BOOLEAN MODIFIER IS MY FRIEND' approach), I realised the heads walls were too thin and translucent, so I had to carefully shove milliput in there without blocking up the eyeholes... and in the process didn't realise I'd covered the wire hole, and then had to carve out part of the neck and back to get access again.
Worth it all in the end though, for how dope this looks.
Fun bony worm monster thing! Think I'd probably call this an Ossivore or something if I ever put it on a table, maybe as some sort of creature that lurks in graveyards, emptying buried coffins until its big enough to seek more active bones...
Really like how this came out, I did the underside twice and I'm loving the fleshy look I ended up on. I went a little heavy with the ink wash in places, but overall I'm ok with that.
This mini is Death Worm by TheSurrealFactory.
A goose paints minis @gooseofthevoid - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
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