A ghost in the attic – Experimenting with object source lighting

I always shied away from Object Source Lighting effects (or short OSL). The idea is that you paint a light source and the light it casts on surfaces. As you can imagine, it ain’t easy to do that on a miniature. I decided to give it finally a try. Did I succeed? You will be the judge.

Leather face – Leisynn to Lich Conversion

This weeks showcase features leathery skin, the pungent smell of decay and everlasting hatred. My, what a menu! We take the fairly funky Reaper sculpt Leisynn Mercenary Mage and convert it to an ancient Lich. I will also focus on how to paint illuminated book pages. So keep your smelling salts at the ready and descent into the lair of the Lich.

Stick and Stone – Nienna Elven Ranger by Reaper Miniatures

Back on track dear readers with a new post. Life is busy with a toddler, who would have thought! In any case, today I would like to showcase a heavily converted Reaper Bones Miniature Nienna Elven Ranger.

I’ll cover my cloth texturing technique, paints used and finally give some sculpting advise. Enjoy!

Vlad Dracul – The curse of Immortality

It took several years, but finally my slightly converted Judas Bloodpsire by Reaper Miniatures is finished. Why did it take me so long, you may ask? Well, I was stuck with his fancy headdress and only recently found a solution to depicting the pearls. I also got a new miniature called James. He is extremely well cast and keeps us quite busy. So despite a creative draught and a new baby in the house, I managed to get some hobby time in.

I will elaborate on the headdress’s construction, colours used and last but not least show you the results of my new ring light and smart phone photo setup.

Luxuriant Braids and Magical Staves – Conversions 101

While we are spoilt for choice these days if it comes to miniatures,  it still happens that I really love a miniature, but there is this one detail that really does not work for me. For instance the pose is awesome and the garments are beautifully rendered, but instead of a spear the miniature is wielding a ‘tree log’ or a sword is as thick as a wooden plank. With Bones miniatures (or any other miniature really) miscasts can be an issue and may ruin an otherwise  wonderful sculpt.

Fortunately we have greenstuff and bits and bobs from other sets at our disposal to change or enhance the look of a miniature. In this first installment of a semi-regular feature on conversions I will talk about the basics and provide an example for making thin braids and wooden staffs. This tutorial is meant for the conversion novice, mainly because I am one also :P, but I hope future installments will add complexity.