Last year I made a mock-up model for Dark Tech Effects, a company that does special effect attractions and theme parks (haunted houses, zombie-runs, light shows, and such). This piece was for a room-escape game based on the concept of a prison train car. The players would be locked in and have to work their way from room to room by solving puzzles to access each new section and escape.
Dark Tech provided concept art for the room layouts, and I recreated them in a three-dimensional model. The build for this used a lot of foam core board, skinned with basswood planking. One side folds open so the interiors are more accessible.
Here's a little foray into some non-miniatures wargaming modeling. A client recently commissioned me to make a neon sign for his Catwoman statue, based on the sign Selina Kyle had in her apartment in Batman Returns. If you remember, it read "hello there" and she smashed some letters so it read "hell here."
I had made some neon signs in the past for the Wild West Exodus buildings, and used a similar technique on this project. Thick gauge floral wire was bent into the shape of the letters and the back of the sign was constructed with styrene plastic pieces.
We are starting a Path to Glory at the local shop, so my Skaven have been seeing some action lately. One of the things I'm discovering is that there are a lot of different sources for buffing the units, and keeping track of it all can get pretty confusing, especially when the opponent gets a double turn and one of your units gets to fight in three rounds of combat before your hero phase comes around again. There have been many times when I wasn't sure if I was applying a bonus longer than I should have.
I've been "rewiring" my brain to think procedurally in terms of the hero phase:
1. Remove spell counters and buffs that were in play.
2. Make any special moves that occur at the start of the hero phase.
3. Roll for effects that replace models (for the undead).
4. Make any other test that occur in the hero phase.
5. Cast spells.
6. Use the general's command ability.
When it comes to the Clan Pestilens Skaven, it seems that every unit either has or benefits from abilities that give a bonus to the wound roll. And sometimes those abilities are applied to an enemy unit, and sometimes they are applied to a friendly unit.
For example, Plague Priests can Wither an enemy unit, granting +1 to any wound rolls made against it. Plague Monk units have a one-use-only scroll that will also affect an enemy unit, allowing any wound rolls of 1 to be re-rolled against that enemy unit. The Plague Furnace, however, can Bless a single friendly unit, allowing them to re-roll any of their failed wound rolls.
Keeping track of which of these buffs were in play, and which units were benefiting from them was getting pretty confusing, so I put together some counters to make things easier:
I took a break from resin casting and terrain commissions to work on a personal project that wasn't painting bones. The impending new edition of 40K and plastic Sisters of Battle has me thinking about my Black Templars again. These scouts have been in a state of near-completion for years. I knocked out the skin, hair, and metal, added some static grass, and voila!
