Custom Flier Terrain Concept

I've been putting together and painting my gargoyle brood (approximately 20 models). I've heard a lot of complaints about the flying bases and how unstable they are. My concept is to create a solid  custom base and still use the clear pole that came with the model.

I think I will use the clear base as the basis for my custom terrain (ie. forming the air-dry clay right on top of it). I am working on making some crystals to put into the clay, to add variety.

I scoured the web for crystal ideas and everything seemed too large a scale or too small (the large being insulation foam from a hardware store (the pink stuff), and the too small being made from sprue). So I had this idea... I had a whole bunch of sea glass in a bag in my storage unit left over from a different project. The bag was about $7 at Michael's craft store.  (I just searched for it at Michael's but couldn't find it). A place like this would probably work. (Search for 'bag of sea glass' for other results).

Anyways, I have made a rather thick wash from some purple paints (along with metallics and pearlizing medium) and then started picking out the smaller pieces from the bag. As a note: Sea glass bags can have lots of glass dust in them, be careful and wash your hands when you are done, or, wear gloves. Some of the pieces will not be completely edge-free. I simply discarded the ones I thought might be dangerous to use on a board with a lot of handling. I got out two paper plates. One to dump part of the bag into, and one to sort the pieces I wanted onto.

Once I filled one paper plate, I pulled out a nice largish brush (for miniatures modelling, it was large, to everyone else, it was a small flat brush - not even a centimeter wide). I made sure to swirl the water a lot, especially stirring up the bottom (with all the particles in it) got rid of some of the liquid on the side of the bowl (made out of a warmachine blister pack - so I could close it and not worry about the kitties drinking from it), and started coating the side facing up on all of the glass pieces.

That done, I'm currently letting them dry. Just remember, it won't be perfect. However, we will see how well this works. If it works really well, I'll eventually post a page tutorial on it. I've been taking pictures, but since they're on my phone, I haven't uploaded them yet.

Happy Modding!

-Mad Doc Kala

PolyCon

Making arrangements to go to the PolyCon gaming convention June 22-24 for a weekend of RPGs and Tabletop war gaming! PolyCon is located in San Luis Obispo, California and is packed with awesome gaming. It's a very small convention, but it's got a great staff, GMs and attendees.

I know for a fact that there's a Warhammer Fantasy and 40k tournament, as well as one for Warmachine, and they're doing some RPGA stuff as well. They've got a vendor's room, attached to the open gaming pit, giant Settler's of Catan, as well as LARPs. They have an annual Independent Game Developer award, but the submission period for this year has already ended.

There's a free BBQ Saturday with your badge, and an ice cream social. $35 at the door for the whole weekend with daily badges available, as well. So, if you are anywhere in easy driving distance, it's a great con to go to! Hotels can be a bit pricy, since it's central coast California in summer, so plan a little bit ahead if you can.