Crowdsourcing...

In the past couple months, I have been made aware of crowdsourcing sites such as kickstarter and indiegogo.  For the uninformed (as I once was) it is an online platform where small companies can raise capital by advertising their product to a wide audience.  Typically this is done by showcasing their product, and by giving incentives for supporters (ex if you pledge $50 you will get $60 worth of merchandise, etc.)

I was initially hooked by the amazingly successful Kings of War campaign on Kickstarter.  I am sure in line for a lot of swag once it is produced!

Letely I have been impressed by a few other active fundraisers for miniature-related projects.  The first is a small project to have the illustrious Kev Adams sculpt some pirate goblins: http://www.indiegogo.com/pirate-goblins?c=home


Basically the guy is going ahead with the goblins regardless of funding levels, but you can get a better deal through the preorder.  I will be down for some of those, as I can never seem to get enough goblins...  The greens are already done, and the models really look stellar! (photo taken from the indiegogo page)

Speaking of which, a new project on indiegogo by Titan-forge miniatures: http://www.indiegogo.com/drakskullsmenace showcases their plans for an undead greenskin army!  I like this, as there is a distinct lack of quality undead greenskins.  Sure, there are the awesome skeleton orcs from the old GW cursed company (I painted these up a couple years ago):

But those were only one pose, and have been out of production for years.  I think this will be a pretty successful project, mostly because I like the concepts and models.  Not sure if I will have the funds to join in, but its pretty cool to look at!

I say as long as we get a steady stream of high-quality, reliable projects, crowdsourcing projects like these will be a big boost to the miniature industry!

Some worthy sea dogs!

Between working and enjoying the summer weather, I have been able to put a few more strokes of paint to lead lately!  Namely, I have been trying to finish some crew for my Nipponese Junk.

First up, we have the captain.  Haru of the Shugyosha Sueshiju (my meagre attempt at a Japanese name using an online translator).  Its an old preslotta citadel oriental hero.  Also, my first model using a gradient background (wooo!).  I got the gradients for free online, here.

The base was sculpted into a woodgrain effect with greenstuff.  At the time I had no other ideas on making a decking base, so that is what I came up with.  Not my greatest result, but functional enough.

Next up I finished two Cathayan crewmen, using wargames foundry chinese pirates.  Pretty nice models, though the hands are a little big...

 

I have a couple more of the chinese pirates to add, and then there are some nice old citadel samurai awaiting my loving attention.  Though my attention has been on a different project as of late.  A secret one.  Intrigued?  Well don't worry, the project is not that *big* ;)

Also, a special thanks to the Kev Adams Challenge for posting a link to my blog and highlighting some of the WK goblins I have painted!  I hope there are many more to come!

Thats all for now!

Let there be light!

So, a good friend of mine sent me a link about a DIY lightbox.  You can read about it here: Link

After selecting a suitable target, I went to town last night and came up with my new masterful contraption!

Coincidentally, I just finished an old 4th edition empire master gunner, so I figured he would be an ideal test subject.  I would say it still needs some tweaking, namely I think I need a brighter light source, or a few more light sources, but I am well on my way!

To compare the quality of light, here is our ever-famous Gob de Leon with the new light tent:

and here he is with the old use of just light bulbs:

Personally, I think its an improvement!

While I had the camera out, I also snapped a few shots of this conversion I did a while back.  Its an old Grandmaster of the knights of the white wolf, with a converted horse head and a scenic base (I sculpted the cobblestones in greenstuff):

Hope you like 'em!