Nowadays wargame miniatures are mounted on more and more elaborate bases. And one of the more popular types are the dynamic rock bases, where a commanding figure can look even more impressive mounted on top of a rocky boulder. Today, I’ll show you how this is done.

Here’s what you’ll need: The miniature to be based (of course), craft size wire snips, copper wire (thin) - or a paper clip will do in a pinch, super glue, razor, pin vice, and craft corks.

STEP ONE: Keep the base you’re going to use close at hand and start tearing the cork down to size using needle nose pliers or just your finger nails. Keep in the mind the basic shape you’re shooting for, and keep the miniature at hand to make sure it’ll stand on the base correctly. You’re basically wanting a nice and rocky edge with a flat top and bottom. After you get the rock base shaped the way you want it, cut it from the rest of the cork.

STEP TWO: Mount the rock you just cut onto the base using a generous amount of super glue, and set it aside to dry. Next, take your snips, and cut off the slotta-tab of the miniature. File it down flat if you wish.

STEP THREE: Using your pin vice, drill into one of the legs (or any part that contacts the base) from underneath. This will be where a wire will be mounted that will connect the miniature to the rock and base.

STEP FOUR: Cut the wire so that once placed, the wire will extend clear down though the rock and break the surface of the plastic base.

STEP FIVE: Find out where the wire will go into the rock, and using the pin vice, drill through the rock and plastic base.

STEP SIX: Coat the wire with super glue and any surface of the miniature that will contact the rock. Insert this into the hole you just drilled.

STEP SEVEN: Secure the miniature to the base with a rubber band and let it sit for a few hours while the glue cures. Once dry, the combination of super glue and wire rod will make for a sturdy miniature, even on a flexible cork.

FINAL WORD: There you have it! A dynamic base for a dynamic miniature. To strengthen the base even more, use green stuff to surround the area where the wire breaks the surface of the plastic base from underneath. If the rock isn’t completely flush with the surface of the plastic base, use green stuff to fill in the gaps. You can also use green stuff around the areas on the miniature that connect to the rock to strengthen the joint. When you’re ready, just paint the cork rock like you would any other base, and you’re all set!

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DEACON

Filed under: Games - Game Craft, Modeling Rock Bases by DEACON
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Making durable and convincing snow coverage for simple displays and wargaming miniature bases has been a long-standing difficulty for many modelers. This how-to article outlines the way I make mine. Certainly there are better methods to achieve a higher level of realism but I have gotten many compliments on the appearance of my snow bases and have yet to have any “yellow” with age, or degrade in effect with handling.

MATERIALS:

Above are the materials I will use to illustrate my methods:

-white glue

-blue ink

-baking soda

-liquitex texture medium

One could omit the texture medium if it is too expensive or hard to come by in your area. This will make your snow covering more smooth but still convincing. One can also substitute blue acrylic paint for the ink, but as the ink is a more concentrated pigment and has some nice qualities to it, I would not recommend the switch unless you have no other option.

STEP 1: Mixing the Ingredients

While I don’t follow any hard and fast measurements for this mixture, I do roughly recommend equal portions of white glue and texture medium, with an amount of baking soda equal to both glue and medium combined. This can be a rough “to the eye” assessment as you can always add a little water or baking soda if the mix is too thick or thin.

Slowly start to mix all the ingredients together with a stirring stick or a small bit of plastic. An old brush will work well in a pinch if you have nothing else suitable. When the parts are thoroughly mixed you should have a bubbly, thick goo the consistency of toothpaste. It is at this point that I add a tiny amount of blue ink. I cannot stress enough that a little ink goes a long way. Wet a brush completely in water then dip the tip into your ink bottle. Let any excess drip off. Then very lightly touch the tip of the brush in the center of your snow mixture. A small amount of dilute ink should be left over. Mix the color into the snow and judge if it is too dark or too light. If too light, repeat the step above for adding the ink. If too dark add a bit more glue and a bit of clean water. It is far better to be too light than too dark as the color will become more apparent as the mixture dries. Below is an example of the snow mixture with blue ink added.

STEP 2: Applying the Snow

Now that our mix is complete we need to apply it to our base. When applying a lot of snow I use the spatula I mixed with, but if the mixture is just for a miniature base, an old brush will do just fine. Very carefully pile on the mixture in your base making sure to keep it off the sides and off any models. Apply it thickly and in mounds to provide a little variation in coverage. The mixture reduces in size quite a bit when it is fully dried and thin areas of coverage will appear slightly translucent. This can work to your advantage, or disadvantage depending on the effect you are after.

As you can see above, the mixture is applied smoothly in slight humps to provide a bit more visual interest than a plain even surface.

When this is done take a small handful of baking soda and sprinkle it liberally over anywhere coated with the mixture. This will add a needed level of surface texture as well as a slight bit of sparkle on the finished product.

Allow the whole pile to dry 24 hours before removing the baking soda. Do not rush this step as I have ruined many bases by being impatient. The baking soda on top of the mixture creates a crust on the mixture that may lend the appearance of hardness, but when manipulated, or dry-brushed, crumbles apart.

STEP 3: Finishing the Base

When 24 hours have passed, remove all the baking soda with a soft brush. What you are left with should resemble the base below:

As you can see there is a slight blue cast and sparkle to the snow. You can leave the snow as is at this point if you are satisfied with the results, but I prefer to give it a quick dry-brushing with some pure white paint to bring out the texture and small mounds a bit more.

Simply clean up any of the base edges that got hit with the dry-brushing with a little black paint and there you have your finished icy, snowy gaming base.

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Number 9

Filed under: Games - Game Craft, Modeling Snow by DEACON
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A little known trick of skilled model converters and sculptors is to take an aspect of a model, say a shield or shoulder plate decoration, copy it, and transfer it to other parts of the model or use it on an entirely different model. This process goes by many names, but I’m going to call it Green Stuff Casting, or GSC. GSC is a great technique, but it can be a bit on the fiddly side, so don’t get frustrated if it takes you a few tries to get right. You’ll get better the more you try. Today I’m going to show you how I used GSC to copy a Khador icon from a Juggernaut model for use on the models fists - I thought they looked a bit plain

Here’s what you’ll need. The model detail to copy, green stuff, vaseline, and a exacto knife with a few brand new blades. You’ll also want a desk lamp with a high watt bulb to aid in the curing process.

STEP 1: Spread a small amount of vaseline on the area to be copied. Keep in mind to use just enough to slick up the surface. If you use too much to where gobs form in corners and details of the area to be copied, use an exacto knife to scrape out the excess - it will show up in the mold you make. Be careful to get any surface that will be touched by the green stuff, if you don’t, it will bond to the surface of the model.

STEP 2: Mix equal parts of blue and yellow stuff into a glob of green just big enough to cover the area to be copied. Make sure it’s thick enough to be easily pulled off when the time comes. Once mixed, rub in a little vaseline and mix again - this will make the green stuff very slick, and will keep it from bonding to any unlubricated surfaces of the model in case you missed any

STEP 3: Press the mixed putty firmly over the area. You’ll want to leave plenty of space on the sides of whatever you’re duplicating for ease of removal later. Make sure you apply enough pressure to capture all the detail, but not so much as to run the element straight through the putty. Let this sit until it cures fully, usually 24 hours.

NOTE: You can speed up the curing process by placing wet putty in front of a high watt bulb for about 20-30 minutes. Don’t place it right next to the bulb, because if the temp is too high, it will cause the putty to swell. After the heat soaks in, the putty will begin to look glossy - remove it and allow it to cool. Test the hardness of the putty by lightly poking it with your knife. It may take a few tries to get fully cured.  WARNING!  Dont heat if you are copying plastic parts.  Plastic + heat = BAD.

STEP 4: Slowly remove the cured putty with your knife. If it bends at all, it’s not ready - allow it to cure more before removing. You should get a perfect copy of the detail - this is the “mold” that you can use over and over. This is the hardest thing to get right - it may take a few tries to get all the detail. The biggest cause of ruined molds is excess vaseline in corners and such that much up the detail.

STEP 5: Mix some green stuff with vaseline like you did to make the mold, and make as many blobs as you need copies. Press them firmly into the mold and remove. Set these aside on a lubricated surface to prevent bonding, and allow them to cure. You may want to make a few extras in case you make a mistake in the next step.

STEP 6: Once cured, use a brand new blade and carefully remove the copy. Just take your time and do it right the first time. You may need to trim up the edges after you’ve removed it.

Now place wherever you want! Just use super glue to affix it in place. Whats cool about the green stuff is that even cured, it’s flexable, allowing you to glue it to surfaces that are unlike the original location. Once in place, you can use your knife to fix up any imperfections.
Using the GSC method, you can do all sorts of conversions from the simple to the complex.

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DEACON

Filed under: Games - Game Craft, Green Stuff Casting by DEACON
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Ever since I played Blood Bowl I have played strength teams. So finally I thought that it was time to play an agility team. So I looked into the different flavors of Elf available (Dark Elf,High Elf, Pro Elf and Wood Elf) and finally settled on Dark Elf - the Elf team that plays like a strength team - no need to get too experimental.

As always I did not like the officially available Dark Elf models. The team currently available was originally sculpted for the 3rd edition of the game. And I think they were some of the worst looking models that GW ever produced. So I had to make my own team again. The new WHFB Dark Elf plastics looked very good, so i decided to make a team based on the plastic Corsairs and Cold One Knights with the odd metal model thrown in. As usual all models were based on Heresy Flagstone bases.

 The picture shows the assembled team. For the main team color I had chosen Warlock Purple, shaded with a wash of black. To give it a nice contrast I chose bone and black stripes as the secondary color. This was also done to cover up the rather bland pants of the Corsairs. Since the back of the original models was meant to be covered by the sea dragon cloaks the pants were mostly feature-less and the striped pattern would help to cover that. The team name had to be suitably “Dark Elvish” enough, so I named them the “Hellbound Heart”.

The Blitzers were made from Knight torsos and arms and corsair legs. The heads/masks were converted with green stuff. They all had the Knight crests added or two or three horns sculpted/added from the existing helmets. They were also painted with all the metal parts in gold color to show their specialist status (or the fact that they would be of noble origin).

The Linemen were also made with Knight torsos, to show that they also had AV8. Only in their case I used arms from the Corsair sprue instead of the Knights sprue. I also gave all of them the classical Dark Elf helmets with the single spike/crest on the front, so that they could be the “rank and file”. For the same reason all their metallic bits were painted in silver color.

The Witchelves were metal WHFB models taken straight out of the blister. The only thing I had to do was clip the weapons off. I particularly liked the taunting witch - and I liked her with the dagger behind her back, so I left it in place. The color scheme was slightly reversed on them, since their clothing was different from the rest of the team.

The runners were made with Corsair parts alone, to show their low AV7. However I though that having a model with a cloak on the field would not look right (that is not an Assassin). So I made the back of the armor/model with green stuff. I also sculpted the single shoulder pad on each model. I also used the heads without helmets on them, again to show their low armor value.

The assassins were metal WHFB models - this time without any modification. The assassin with the running pose was pretty much a perfect fit for use in Blood Bowl. Again, the slightly different equipment and clothing required a slight change in the way they were painted, but in general I stuck to the overall colors and paint scheme.

The team also had coaching staff added. I did not get around to actually painting the assistant coaches, so only the cheerleaders were added. The models were 2nd Edition Dark Elf Cheerleaders, as available from GW. No change or conversion was necessary. In their case I changed the striping a little bit, to accommodate the different sculpt.

Our league allowed 1,000,000 gc as the starting team value. So for my initial line up I decided to go for four Blitzers, seven Linemen and two rerolls with 10,000 left in the treasury. The initial purchases were to be the Witchelves and the Apothecary followed by the third reroll. And then - depending on the opponents in the league - I would purchase the Runners and/or Assassins.

Until next time - Lamenter

Filed under: Galleries - Mini Showcase, Hellbound Heart by Lamenter
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Howdy Drunk Dwarves Fans!  Today I’m going to review an awesome little game called “Dice Town”.  I happened to stumble upon this gem by complete accident while putting together an online board game purchase.  I was initially attracted by it’s theme and amazing artwork, and was pleased to discover that those are just icing on a very entertaining cake.

At it’s core, Dice Town is a strategic game of chance.  Players are presented with a set of five 6-sided dice, the faces of which depict standard playing cards - nine, ten, jack, queen, king, ace.  The very basic goal each round is to put together the best poker hand possible. 

Players begin each round by shaking their dice up in one of the provided dice cups, and slam it down on the table.  You then secretly look at the result, and keep one of the dice, leaving it under the cup, taking the rest back into your hand.  When everyone has decided what they’re keepin’, all players reveal at the same time.  You are provided with a few dollars at the beginning of the game, which can be spent to help your rolls.  You can spend one dollar to re-roll all of the dice in the case of a crap roll, or a dollar for each additional dice you want to keep in the case of a lucky one.  So if you happened to roll 3 kings for example, you could keep them all for 2 bucks.  Once one player has their entire hand set in stone - the remaining players get one more throw, keeping whatever result is rolled.

Now the fun part begins.  There’s a map of dice town set off to the side, showing all of the places players can visit.  You basically start at the gold mine on the left side of the board, and work your way to the right, stopping at each location to see who gets to visit based on their dice “hand”. 

At the gold mine, the player with the most “9’s” gets to visit, and takes a gold nugget for each 9 they have in their hand.  Next, the player with the most “10’s” gets to rob the bank, and takes all the dollar bills there. (When players spend money on dice rolls, their money ends up in the bank.)  After the bank, the player with the most jacks goes to the general store, and draws a general store card for each jack they have, keeping one.  (General store cards grant powerful abilities and sometimes victory points to the player who holds them.)  Next up is the Saloon - the player with the most queens gets to hire the lovely gals working there to rob another player or players of their hard won cards.  (For each queen rolled, the player visiting the Saloon can take a card, (general store or land) from another player.  After looking at them, he can keep one, and returns the others to their rightful owners.)  After the Saloon, the player with the most kings becomes the new sheriff of Dice Town.  The Sheriff decides who wins ties, and can be bribed with anything - be it gold, land, items, even cold hard cash.  Naturally, being the sheriff is pretty lucrative in Dice Town.  Then  you have the Town Hall.  The town hall is where most of your victory points will come from, and thus is the most fought over.  There’s a stack of land cards at the town hall, each with a value between one and five.  Three land cards are placed face up next to the stack for all to see their worth.  The player with the best poker hand gets to take the first face up card, and an additional face up card for each ace in their hand - to a maximum of all three face up cards.  Cleaning out the Town Hall of all the land cards is a big deal most of the time.  Last in line is Doc Badluck - his cart offers those unlucky players that didn’t win anything a single consolatory prize.  If you have at least one 9 or 10, he’ll sell yah some razor wire.  Razor wire allows you to turn 2 land cards you own face up, and from then on they cannot be stolen by the Saloon girls.  A jack or queen will get you a single general store card, drawn randomly from the general store deck.  A king will allow you to rob all the other players of 2 dollars each, and an ace will allow you to rob every player of a single gold nugget.

After a trip through the town is complete, a new round begins.  If at any time all 30 of the starting gold nuggets are taken, or all of the land cards are snatched up, the game ends, and points are counted.  Players gain 1 point for each nugget they have, 1 point for every 2 bucks they have, 5 points if they are the sheriff, and various points for all the land and general store cards they possess.  The highest point value wins the game.

Dice Town is for between 2 and 5 players, and plays in about an hour.  I’ve played with a group of just two, and a group of five.  In my opinion, the more players that are involved, the more the game becomes about pure dumb luck, whereas smaller games are more strategy based.  The number of players really changes the feel of the game, and I’d personally recommend games between 2 or 3 players if you want the most out of Dice Town. 

After five games, I’m hooked, and would recommend this game to just about anyone who doesn’t have a hatred of dice.  The theme is strong, the art is awesome, and the mechanics are just plain solid, a great value in my book that has won its place on my game shelf.

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DEACON

Filed under: Dice Town, Games - Dice Games by DEACON
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