Artisan Dice, Kickstarter, Warmachine, Dice Bags, Writing

A veritable gallimaufry of topics.

 

The Artisan Dice Kickstarter has almost finished, and will almost certainly be done by the time you read this post. Originally asking for only $300, the campaign has exceeded all expectations, and is now at just over $80,000. It’s incredible. I emailed Charlie Brumfield, the guy who is running it and making all of these amazing wooden dice, and asked him if he would be interested in some of Greyed Out’s dice bags. He said yes, so I mailed him several, and they’re listed as part of some of the rewards levels. Being involved in the Kickstarter, even only very marginally as I am, is ridiculously exciting, and I really liked being able to see a project as cool as this one gain momentum. I’m really glad that it’s getting funded.

I’m posting another update to Airships of Marrakesh tomorrow, and I’m hoping to make it another 1,000 words or so. Stay tuned for that. I’ll try to post to my Twitter when the update goes live. (Find me at @greylikestorms) I’m excited about the project, and I’m thinking of delving into art with it as well, doing some thumbnails in a Moleskine and seeing if I can’t make a short comic out of Janus’ earlier adventure(s).

I’ve been working on Beast-09 the past few days, and I broke out my gesso and got to priming the Beast. He’s currently in 4 pieces – torso, legs, and arms. The arms will get put on last, since that lets me get into most nooks and crannies. I really like the model, and the pose ability, although I went with a fairly stock pose, nothing too action-oriented. Expect pictures as soon as he’s done, as well. The legs have been posted already, and I’m excited to see how the base will turn out once I have it fully painted. …on a random note, I literally just remembered that I wanted to try adding a back banner to Beast, and it completely slipped my mind until just now. I might have to dig through my remaining GW bitz tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

I’m also eyeing the Portable Warfare bags again – the Tactical Orange is very tempting, because it’s such an unusual color that it’s hard to miss, and stands out so much. The bag I threw together on the sewing machine to carry my foam trays is starting to show its age, and I’m afraid that one of these days it’s simply going to rip a shoulder strap and throw my miniatures across the concrete. I’d love to get a Portable Warfare bag with a full foam load-out, and those are priced reasonably at $85 for the load out I’m looking at, but even an empty one would be amazing. Unfortunately, it’s not an expense I can justify right now, so I just wanted to mention here that I sew some pretty cool dice bags, and have an Etsy store which can be found here. I have the Freestanding Drawstring Bag in Brown Suede up, and I can also make them in a smoky gray suede. If you’ve got a friend that needs a new dice bag, pass the word along! These hold a huge amount of dice, and by huge I’m talking upwards of 120 dice, provided that your collection includes some of the 12mm d6′s like mine does.

Tomorrow is going to be a writing/painting/sketching day, and I can’t wait. Thanks for reading!

Beast-09 From the Ground Up

I started work on my Beast-09 a few days ago, after tons of inner debate on how I wanted to pose him.  I’m still not entirely sure about the posing the arms will take, but I got his legs and base done tonight.

 

This will be the base.  I wanted Beast standing with a leg up on a slightly raised edge, both to give him extra height and to make him look more menacing.  The base here is cork with plasticard layered on top.  The idea is that it’s a concrete/shale slab that’s cracked.

 

 

This is the position the legs will take.  No glue, no pins, just the legs standing flat on the plasticard.  I’ve cut off and filed down the pegs on the bottoms of the feet.  Initially I planned to pin one of both feet.

 

 

And here is the final position of legs+waist on the base.  I used green stuff in the peg-holes, and made sure to position both feet flat on the card of the base.  The green stuff will be curing overnight.  Instead of pinning the feet, I glued them down so that the green stuff will be in the position I want it to cure in.  I’m hoping that the final model will be stable enough to stand without pins, especially once the cork is glued to the actual base.  Here I’m using a Games Workshop monster base as a square platform for the cork to rest on.  Previously I used a pencil to trace the inner circle of the 50mm Privateer Press base onto the monster base, so I can easily tell where the edges are, to avoid too much cork overhang.  (Hint: the outside edge of a Privateer Press 40mm base fits perfectly into the inner ring of a 50mm base.)

 

 

This is the first model in a very long time that I’ve started putting together before priming/painting.  I’m curious to see how well it goes, since I’m so used to doing everything in pieces and then glueing at the very end.  Originally I wasn’t planning on glueing the legs to the card, but wanted to make sure that the legs stayed flat while the green stuff epoxy cures.

That’s it for this update.  Thanks for reading!

Sketch Bomb. Wherein I Show Art and Muse

The past week or so has been filled with sketches and ideas.  I’m still trying to improve my skills, and that means drawing as much as possible.  Unfortunately, there’s always the interwebs, and that means distractions galore.  I spend a lot of time on Etsy, the Regretsy forums, miniature wargaming websites like Privateer Press, and illustration/art blogs.  However, I still have some images to show in today’s post.

I’m finding that I can get a little bit more work done when I’m away from my laptop altogether, and so I’ve occasionally been heading to Panera Bread in the early mornings to grab some coffee and sketch.  My wife often works an early shift, which means I can be at Panera from about 6:30 to 8:30 or 9am, when I catch public transit back home.  Panera Bread is a great venue, because they allow free refills on their coffee, and a small coffee is less than two dollars.  I’ll grab a coffee and then drink maybe 2 or 3 cups total over the time I’m there.  Not too bad, and right now it’s the only little pleasure I’m allowing myself when it comes to treats.  I know a lot of people grab coffee/lattes every day before work, which seems like a crazy amount of money to me, but I feel like $2 every week or so is worth the quiet sketching time.

What I’m currently working on is a storyboard for an idea I had regarding dwarves.  I have a few small thumbnail sketches worked out, and those will be posted below.  I’m playing with the idea of a greedy, out-for-gain group of dwarves holding a town hostage by blocking off the only exit roads.  It’s just a basic idea for now, but I’d love to explore it some more.  I’m not sure what direction I’ll take the final pieces in.  Karl Kerschl does a webcomic called The Abominable Charles Christopher, and he inks his works and then adds grey toned washes in Photoshop.  I lack Photoshop or a scanner, so I may have to do everything on paper.  We’ll see.

For my Etsy, I’m toying with the idea of doing some Halloween-themed items.  Unfortunately, everybody and their grandmother is jumping on the same scheme… which means it might be hard to jump out of the pack and get noticed regardless of what I do.  I did get a bat in a creepy mask painted up, and that will probably get photographed today.  I also have another small crooked house in the works, with a new roof design that I managed to stumble across on Pinterest, on a kid-sized gnome house.  I’m going to paint it up in fairy/dark colors and list it soon as well.  The hand-cut tiles look really great on it.

And now…. pictures!  Enjoy.  :)

A Bit of Whimsy

I’m not usually one to call out other people, but I found a few awesome things tonight, so I thought I would share before bedtime.

The first is a shop filled with magic, art, and whimsy.  You should all check it out.  It’s called Art by Kristin Kemper, and can be found here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Kecky?ref=pr_shop_more

The second is a shop focused on spiders, spiderwebs, and other little creatures that crawl.  It’s called SpiderwoodHollow, and it’s all about the arachnids.  Take a look here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SpiderwoodHollow

That’s pretty much it for today.  I finished another drawstring bag, this time created from a fabric with keys printed all over it.  Also, I plan to draw more(again), since I need to catch up on my drawing and want to improve my skills.  I recently stumbled across an artist’s Tumblr post, in which he states several important things that he wishes had been taught in art school.  One of the tenets was “Draw awesome stuff and put it on the internet.”  I think I’m going to try and strive for that… and with daily sketching/drawing, I should see improvement, and so will you(if you keep reading my blog, that is).  I’m going to try to draw every day, snap a quick picture or two of my sketches(no scanner, alas), and post them here and on my Tumblr.  Which can be found at thekiltedgerman.tumblr.com

Here is that drawstring bag with keys that  I mentioned above.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/74678012/the-key-drawstring-bag-by-greyedout