Casting Your Own Bases.

             Howdy fellow Hobby Heroes.  I’m just throwing up a quick article to show how easy it is to cast your own bases if you have the right equipment.  When I was putting my Wild West Exodus Posse together, I determined that I wanted to do something more with the basing than just sand and grass.  Therefore, I purchased the WWX Town Base Insert Sprue from Outlaw Miniatures and decided to use those.  I knew I was going to need more base inserts than I wanted to spend, so I decided to try my hand at casting.  I am lucky in the fact that Joe has done some casting in the past so I had him to bounce questions off of. 

 

                Here are the bases I am going to cast and to do that, I am using some Instant Mold to make my molds.  I picked Instant Mold up a couple years ago at Adepticon and it is truly an amazing product.  What you do is pop it in some hot water and it becomes very malleable and all you do is press it around the item that you want to duplicate.  Let it cool down to room temp, then pop the item out of the mold.  Now the molds are ready for the resin.  As a bonus, once you are done with the molds, you can put it back into some hot water and they are good to go again for your next project.  I’m telling you, this is one of the best hobby tools I have found, and is well worth the investment.

 

                Next you need the casting material.  I am using Alumilite’s AlumiRes.  I believe it runs about $35, but you get a ton of it to do future projects with, and I was able to use the Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon to get it much cheaper.  Then you just need a cup to mix the resin, and something to stir it.  I went the simple route and picked up some Dixie cups and Popsicle sticks.  Makes clean up easy because you just throw it away when you are done.  All you need to do at this point is mix a 50/50 mix of the AlumiRes and give it a good stir.  Carefully pour the mix into the molds, and give them about 15 mins to sit and harden up.

 

                After it has hardened, carefully pry the resin out of the mold and Shazaam you have your base.  Now, just carefully clean them up with either a file or a hobby knife.  WARNING: this is resin, and when you clean it, you need to avoid breathing it in.  Go to your local hardware store and you can buy a cheap painters mask and that will do the trick.  Now they are ready for priming and painting.  Below are a few that I have painted up as examples. 

 

                Good luck everyone.  Hope some of you can get something out of this.  I thoroughly enjoyed pushing myself to do something new, and will continue to use this podcast and blog to try new tricks and techniques to advance my hobby.  If you got any questions or suggestions, hit me up at ryan@hobbyheroes.com. 

Be Excellent to Each Other,

Ryan G

Rise of Legends; Ryan G; Post 3

Howdy all,
     It's the end of the month, so that means it's time for a Rise of Legends update.  To start, I ended up changing my regiment.  It seems that most people are going with a 6-10 troops, so I wanted to try a more elite type list.  I took an all cavalry list that I feel is still balanced.  Here it is:

Dragon Prince
     - Champ upgrade
     - Enchated Shield
     - Luckstone
     - Potion of Foolhardiness

Silver Helm
     - Dashing Cloak of Heroic Renown

Silver Helm
     - Steel Lined Cloak

Ellyrian Reaver
     - Bow
     - Last Chance

As you can see it is very few models, but I am relying on armor saves to keep them around. 

     Next, I got a little bit of hobbying done and mostly completed 3 out of 4 model bases. 

    I used random wood chips that I "borrowed" from work to give them a rocky or mountainous look.  I am very please with how they came out, and once I get the models on them, I am also going to try flocking snow on them as well.
     Finally, I finished up one of the Silver Helm horses.  I have come to the conclusion that I am going to be hard pressed to get all four of these models done even though I have until November.  Just not enough hours in the day for me at this point.  That being said, I copped out and have not done any conversions so far, and I am not sure I am going to.  I am hopeing that he basing and painting will be good enough to make up for that. 

 

     There you go.  Progress is being made, but it is certainly slow progress.  See ya next month.

Cheers,
Ryan G

Ryan G; Rise of Legends Part 2

Hello again,

     Sad to say I do not have much to report this month on the modeling front.  I have severely underestimated home much of your free time a 1 month old takes up.  Anyway, I am getting more and more hobby time with each passing week. I have, however, gotten the models out of the box and now have them on my hobby desk so that I can see them everytime I walk by and can feel guilty for just keep on walking.

     I have not changed my list at all, but that is not to say that I won't.  August should be a much better month for me, and I promise to get some progress done on some modeling, if not some painting as well.  Sorry for the short post, but I'll make up for it by the time we are done. 

Cheers,
Ryan G

Rise of Legends: Ryan G: High Elves

Hey Gang,

                My name is Ryan G, and I am playing Regiments of Renown!  John has been nice enough to invite me to join this campaign project, and I appreciate the opportunity.  If you have listened to the most recent Unstable Dice Podcast, you heard Joe F mention that he would ask his buddy Ryan to join this campaign to give us an even number.  Well, that is me.  I have been playing Fantasy off and on for the past 15ish years.  You can also hear me a bit coming up on future episodes of the Waaaghcast with Joe F.

                For the RoR, I have chosen to do High Elves.  I narrowed it down to either High Elves or Wood Elves, but considering that I already have enough High Elves sitting in a box, and no Wood Elves in sight, it made my decision even easier. 

My tentative force list is:

Pheonix Guard – Leader

Spearman

Spearman

Silver Helm

Silver Helm

Shadow Warrior

 

                The current idea is to do a winter theme for them.  I have always liked the look of well done snow bases, but have never tried it myself so thought this would be a great opportunity.  The army force choices were completely made due to background/theme, and models that I already have.  I purposely took some duplicate model choices to force myself to do some conversion work to make them look different.  I know the Shadow Warrior is not a very good choice because you can’t Scout in RoR, but I like the model and like the theme.  A brief background is that my force is chasing a Dark Elf Assassin into Naggarorth for retribution for killing the High Elf King and Queen.  Because of the assassination of the King and Queen, the princess, now Queen, does not have the time to deploy an entire army so she is sending a elite scouting force to snuff out this assassin. 

                Anyway, I am really looking forward to doing this, and because it is only 6 models, I can really put some time and effort into these and do the best I can.  Only the Shadow warrior is metal, so the rest of the models will hopefully have some small conversions to them due to them being plastic. 

Take care,

Ryan G

Ryan G: Tale of 2 Guys: Firebelly

     July went zooming by, but I did manage to get a couple of things painted for the Ogre Kingdoms.  The main model was my Firebelly.

     I really like the GW Firebelly, but I have never been great at painting fire so I chose to use an alternate model for my Firebelly.  I tracked this guy down from a company called Titan Forge.  They have some great models, and if I can find a way to fit some of their other Ogres into my army I will.  I just wanted to start small to make sure the scale was correct.  This guy is a little taller, but fits in just fine.

     I have used him a few times now, and I do like the Firebelly character.  I don't think he fits into every army, but I have found him great for low point games. 

     Next, is one more sabertusk.  This now gives me three and I am happy with that.  I have yet to use 3 Tusks in a a game, but we'll see how it goes.  I dislike the fact that they can cause panic, and they may just cause me to start tripping over myself, or just plan getting in the way.





     I have two local tournaments coming up over the next two saturdays, but not sure what list I will be doing for the 2000 pts this month.  Both my Firebelly and extra cat will be in my 1600 pt tourny list, but does not look like either will be in my 2000 point one.  Either way it should be fun, and I am considering a few different things to do for next month.  I really should do my Ironblaster because they are awesome, but I really want to paint up a Giant, which are fun, but far from awesome.  Only time will tell.

Cheers,
Ryan G

Ryan G: 1500 + Mournfang pt 2

     For July I finished up my other two mournfang to round out the unit to four.

     Mournfang completely live up to the hype.  They are awesome!  I have been having a fun time running these guys around the table.  They are not unbeatable though.  Tough 4 and Armour 2+ goes a long way, but not far enough.  You still gotta be careful with them, but once they get into combat, they stand a good chance against most units. 

     My 1500 point list consisted of the following.

Firebelly - lvl 2

Bruiser - BSB

7 Ironguts

6 Ogres

Stonehorn

2 Mournfang

2 Single Sabertusks

     My game with Joe ended as a win for me, but not sure how it really happened.  I really owe it all to my 2 Sabertusks which killed a Volly gun, Engineer, and 12 Handgunner.  I spent most of the rest of the game backing away from Joe's spearmen horde because he kept getting Mindrazor off on them.  I thought eventually I would be able to stop a casting of it, but never did, and his spears finally trounced my Ironguts.  However, because I spent most of the game running, he did not get very many other points, and I squeaked out a win.

     I would like to review my first go with the Firebelly, but he miscast on his first spell and lost all of his wizard levels.  He did get to use his breath weapon in a challenge with the battle priest and kill him before the rest of the unit went, thanks to the Sigil Sword, and took away their hatred.  That saved one Irongut left and preserved the points of the unit. 

     I am liking Joe's empire, but I agree that he is too magic reliant at this time and needs to get some hammers into his army.  2000 should be an interesting battle.

Cheers,

Ryan G

    

Ryan G: 1k + Morunfang

     As you have read, Joe and I got our 1000 pt game in last week, and I thought I would just throw up some thoughts on it and update you on my Mournfang.  The games went pretty well, and my army did about as good as I expected.  Here are a few things that I took away from these games. 
     First, fear is a complete game changer at low points.  It seemed like every time I got into combat with Joe's Spear horde, he failed his fear test and I just slaughtered him. 
     Second, when artillary is on, it is very tough to get to it.  I had 2 sabertusks, and the first game they got to the hellblaster and the cannon blew itself up.  Very easy win for the first game for me.  Game 2, his artillary could not miss, and it brought the pain.  I ran every thing I could towards it, but to no avail.  Engineers are key.

     I also finished 2 of my Mourngfang for the up coming Blood in the Sun tourny.  I like how they came out, but there is somthing about the models that just doesn't sit right with me.  I don't know what it is, but as far as I can tell, it is the model and not my paint job that has me taking a 2nd look at them.  However, with the way they play, i'll take them.  I have used them in a couple of games now, and except for the one were Joe's hellblaster took them off, they have always gotyen their points worth.  I think I will stop at 4 of them though.  Multiple units of them are really good, but I can not see it being a very fun army to play.  Anyway, here are the 2 that are finished. 

Thanks,
Ryan G