The Grim Squeaker gets it...

[Gadgetman! 11454]

Okay... I have a couple of this adorable mini and figured I'd try to do it the way the artist envisioned it, instead of how it had to be cast...

As it's only a minor conversion, and I'm not going to go into tedious detail, I didn't bother to make a thread in the conversion section.

 

So, first off, chop it into pieces!

 

Then chop it into more pieces, and drill holes through them!

(Look closely and you can see a beading wire run through the parts)

 

The LED I'm going to use, shown together with a part I'm not going to use, for size comparison.

It's a bit bigger than the ones I've messed with before, but that is mostly because it's an RGB LED.

(Red, Green, Blue.)

Which also explains the 4 thin wires.

 

Here the LED is in place in the scythe handle and placed in a mould of generic 'Blue Stuff'.

(The mould was made before I started cutting. I just didn't take pictures of that. Check GreenStuff World's YT videos for how-to)

Yes, the mould is two part...

 

Expect to spend an evening if you intend to do the same. Also, for [insert deity]'s sake, pick a single-colour LED as fitting an RGB LED is a pain in the...

(I used te RGB LED because I wanted Blue light, and I didn't have any Blue LEDs in my toybox)

 

 

Finally! Time to start painting...

Some Vallejo Gray primer on hands and face, Vallejo 70.614 'IDF Israeli Sand' primer on the handle.

The blade(made of clear resin, 'jewelry resin') isn't primed yet...

 

Now for the Black primer...

Note that I've been careful to use only a very thin layer on the edge part of the blade.

 

Priming done, it's time to begin slapping on paint...

And the first was 09437 Dragon Black,

That went on undiluted using a Rosemary&Co #0 filbert.

Then I mixed up a concoction I call 'Stygian night', (one drop Dragon Black, 2 drops 09423 Styx Purple) and used as the first highlight.

Second highlight is Styx Purple.

And finally a dab of 09686 Gothic Crimson for good measure.

 

I will probably need to go over some areas with Dragon Black again, and I also need to think a bit about the tears on the edge of the robe.

 

The blade will get a thin metallic coat, and the handle will get the Vallejo Old Wood weathering.

[seej 1798]

Very curious to see how this turns out. I've been interested in incorporating LEDs into minis ever my 40k days, and people inserting them into tanks.

[robinh 9580]

have you tested the LED to see how the light comes through the primer?

[Gadgetman! 11454]

Go ahead and try.

 

Get a bunch of 0402 or 0603 presoldered LEDs off of The Bay of E, a few resistors and play around with them.

Also, check out my first LED thread:

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/70655-gadgetman-messes-about-with-leds/

[Gadgetman! 11454]

have you tested the LED to see how the light comes through the primer?

Not on this one, yet, but I know from back when I messed with a Bones skeleton that you need a decent coat of black to stop the light from escaping.

[Glitterwolf 128384]

Awesome idea!!!!

 

Looking forward to see the end product!

[Gadgetman! 11454]

Weird...

 

I thought I should check the art of the Mousling in Reaper's galleries, but no...

Can't find it.

 

Can't find it in the show off section here, or anywhere, really.

And I KNOW there was a lot of 'squee' going on when it debuted.

[Spacefrog 281]

I get the distinct feeling, that it takes a certain kind of madness, to put LEDs in a mousling-sized miniature.
But it seems to have paid off so far, I am looking forward to the end result.

[Gadgetman! 11454]

Okay...

 

The RGB LED didn't work out as planned. It's possible that it got dislodged during the casting, or it just didn't have the right spread pattern. Also, the apint on the resin started cracking, so there must have been something wrong with the resin itself. 

 

I managed to find a 0402-size Blue LED online, but testing shows it to be even worse, and I didn't like the solder job done on those.

So I have ordered some  0805 and 1206 LEDs from a different supplier. Fingers crossed that those are better.

(And that they're out of China before their new years holiday)

 

I also have a couple of tricks that should help out, but they're kind of cheating, so... We'll see...

 

Anyway...

 

I did a bit of painting on the cross and the owl.

 

First I primed it black, then I added white dots in the face of the mouse.

 

The owl got a layer of Vallejo IDFSand Grey, nd the cross itself got mostly covered with Vallejo Dry Rust, then was dry-brushed with Vallejo Rust.

 

The Mouse eyes got a dab of Tamiya Clear Red, the owl got a bruhing of MSP Weathered Stone around the eyes, and MSP Rich Leather on the body and wings. The eyes and claws have been left just primered.

 

I'm pretty happy with the cross, but will need to do a bit more brushing on the mouse faces before calling it done.

The owl could be better... but I think that if I try to better it I'll probably screw it up, so I'm leaving it as is.