Corlock Striker

On the subject of lenses, as people are talking about them, I was recently browsing the B and H site as my father wanted a better zoom lens for his Nikon D5000. He's going out to visit some of the state parks out west. As I was browsing I happened upon a dedicated Nikon Macro lens for about $280 US, which as those of you who have done some shopping will know, is kind of a steal. It's a 40mm f/2.8, and AF-S, so it will auto-focus with the newer Nikon cameras, like the D5000. Additionally on B and H, you can pick up an IR shutter release for about $7 US. I have an older version of it when it was made by Pearstone, but this one looks exactly the same, just different company name printed on it. As to the quality of the photos, here's a photograph I just took today, it's of a miniature I painted quite a long time ago, so I wouldn't call it one of my best works. However, I took the photograph with ambient light on the dining room table, the chandellier was turned on, wall sconces were turned on and there was some light streaming in from a window. No backdrop or anything special like that. I imagine if I did all that other stuff, the picture would come out much better, but without those things, it still came out nice. Yes, I did use a tripod. Farseer

So, I posted pictures of a lot of these miniatures a while ago, but I've taken better pictures since, and learned how to adjust the levels in photoshop as well. Also, there are pictures of three miniatures that have not been posted previously. As, I have the pictures uploaded in a gallery at an external site, I'll just link to that. http://trippdinger.yolasite.com/miniatures.php'>My miniatures.

So, I'm looking to do a conversion with a power cord for a 28mm miniature, I know I should use guitar wire as that's got the right look I want for the power cord. My question is which string and what gauge do I want to use for this?

Unless of course you're like me, and while near-sighted, both your eyes have a vastly different perscription, so you need to paint with your glasses on, to make their focal length the same, so you get no benefit from being near-sighted. Goddammit!

Well, I'm not that accomplished a painter, so I can't offer you too many tips. I've recently purchased a nice Windsor and Newton brush for myself. When you get down into the smaller brush sizes, I'm not sure that the cheaper brushes offer you much of a discount, seeing as mine was a little over $4 (US). As to paints, I personally use Vallejo Model Colors, they come in a dropper bottle as well, though they don't have the triad system per se, they come pretty close to it, in that similar colors are close enough together and far enough apart that you can use them for shading and highlighting, it just takes a little more work to figure out which exact color you're supposed to use for what with Vallejo. As to what you should focus on in your first few minis, don't worry too much about the techniques, just try to get the paint to go where you want it to go. Try your hand at shading, but more important to learn is brush control, that's really the first battle.

I'll third the dogs, especially a brittany spaniel, because I own one, and I want a mini for/of my puppy.

Yes, but it's typically better to get a lens that is a telephoto that's at least got a macro mode. They tend to be able to focus on small objects much better. The one I pointed out by Tamron is less than $150, which for a lens with a macro mode is actually really reasonable. In this thread you can find links to some photos I've taken using a similar Tamron lens. The first set of photos was taken with a D100, without a remote shutter release, and they're a bit blurry due to what I suspect is camera shake from pressing the shutter. The second set of photos was taken with the same Tamron lens, on my father's D5000 with a remote shutter release. So, those are the results you can get using that kind of set up.

Well, as I said, look at the Nikons that are compatible with the remote shutter release that fits your budget. This one is compatible with many Nikon Models, the D3000, is $500, and the other d series cameras it works with are even less than that, I'm pretty sure. Nikon can in fact compete with Canon price wise, even though people might tell you differently. And again, I'm also just a Nikon fan, so of course I'm going to recommend Nikons over other cameras.

I have a Nikon D100 as well. Probably the biggest problem you're going to find with that camera, is that unless you have the MB-D100 Battery Pack attached to the camera, you can't get a remote shutter release, which means you're never really going to get rid of Camera Shake, even with a tripod. I personally love Nikons, so I can't really recommend getting away from them, as in my opinion they have the best lenses, other than Leica. So, I recommend you look into Remote Shutter Releases for Nikons and see which cameras they work with, then choose your new camera based on that. A third party infrared shutter release that I got, to use with my dad's D5000, was about $20 US, I believe. A lot of the infrared ones will work with multiple different cameras, so you can probably find one that will work with one of Nikon's digital point and shoots, as well as one of their Digital SLRs. If you decide to buy one of their point and shoots, just make sure it has a macro mode, then get yourself a good tripod, and you should be good to go. Now, if you want to stick with a Digital SLR, which is what your D100 is, it gets a bit trickier. Pick a Digital SLR body you like, that'll work with your remote shutter release, then we need to discuss what I think might be your second issue. My guess is, that the second issue you're having with taking shots is that the lens you're using doesn't have a Macro mode on it, I could be wrong though. Won't know until you give me more details on said lens. You should probably invest in a lens that either has a Macro mode, or is a dedicated Macro lens. Sadly, all the official Nikkor Macro lenses are hideously expensive. I personally have a Tamron Telephoto lens with a Macro mode that I use to my satisfaction. It wasn't too pricey. I'd still prefer a true Nikkor Macro Lens, but I'll make due until I can afford one. This Tamron Lens has a Macro mode and isn't too expensive as far as lenses go. Combine the remote shutter, with a compatible point and shoot with a Macro Mode, or a compatible Digital SLR with a Macro Lens, and a tripod, and you shouldn't have any more issues other than lighting ones when taking pictures of your minis. Trust me, the remote shutter release will be a huge help to you. So pick one of those that's in your price range first, then pick a camera that's compatible with it.

I forgot to mention one other thing in my previous post, which is probably even more important. Have a good gating system. There are two things that your gating system does. One, is it allows molten metal to get to your entire miniature. Two, it allows the air within the mold to escape. Number two is far more important than you think, as trapped air, can cause voids in your casting, which you don't want. Number one also ensures that there won't be voids, but it's easier to visualize in a sense. But yeah, you want to make a very good gating system, in this case, I'd say more is better, Remember, you can always remelt and then reuse the extra metal that makes up the gating system. Anne, if you'd like, I have some pretty good videos on Bronze Casting that I can e-mail to you. They don't talk too extensively about the gating system, but they do give a pretty good shot of at least one portion of a statue fully gated, so it might give you an idea on how to do it right.

I'd honestly love to see a Vampire Hunter D inspired mini, preferably the D from Bloodlust. So, big hat, big sword, cape, bracers, greaves, maybe add some thigh armor, then sort of regular clothing on the chest, with maybe a hint of a mail vest below the shirt, a baldric with some throwing knives. For the hat, I'd prefer it to be simple, none of that fancy ornamentation on it, that is usually depicited. I mean I know there are some assassin figures in the hat and cape getup, but they're not really what I'm looking for to depict the character whose name I use to post. And the big sword is optional, to a degree, I either want the figure with the large nodatchi like sword, or two katanas. Either will really work for me, whatever works for Reaper in terms of avoiding copyright issues and generating the interest of the sculptor works for me, I like to think I'm fairly flexible. It's really just the hat and cape with light armor that I'm looking for. Preferable a vampire, but a handsome vampire, and the fangs don't have to be showing, really. It's more important to me that the face has elven sorts of features, though I imagine the hat will cover the ears, so a handsome human will work too. I could go into far more detail on exactly what I want, but I imagine that won't do much good, since Reaper needs to sell more than one of the mini. So, I'll be happy with anything that fits the more "general" description. Plus, I think I've gone on for long enough as it is. Thank you Reaper for allowing me to make this request in the first place, as that just makes you super awesome.

I use round bases for my DHL minis, and most of my other Reaper minis, I prefer the look of round bases. That probably has to do with being a 40k gamer and not a Fantasy gamer, and probably also has to do with the fact that I play GURPS, which uses a hex grid, rather than the square grid used by D&D and I assume Pathfinder as well.

Having read Hot-Lead's article on painting fire, I can tell you it's quite good. Brings up some very good points. What sort of throws you for a loop when painting fire, and a point that Hot Lead brings up, is that sometimes you do get hints of the brighter colors on the outside of the fire. So, if you just paint it with the brightest colors on the inside of the fire, it'll look sort of unnatural. You need to bring some of them, but not too much onto the outside as well.

I have two recommendations for pouring into a gravity fed system. Use the hottest metal you can. Meaning don't let the metal cool down before you start pouring it, get it as hot as possible and start pouring immediately. The second is to pour the metal slowly. I know this might seem to sort of contradict the idea of wanting to get the metal into the mold while it's at its hottest, but trust me, pour slowly with very hot metal. At least for stuff like minis with a lot of fine details. You want the metal to be at it's most viscous state when in the mold, so it moves around in it, hence the very hot metal. You also want to make sure that it fully fills the mold and doesn't trap any pockets of air and thus creates voids in the casting, hence the slow pouring. Combine those two things and you should get a pretty decent cast.

I'd actually have to disagree with you there. Yes, I can see how it might seem that way. But having read the books since book 8, there is actually a reason for absolutely everything that takes place in the series. Without certain things having happened within the White Tower, I can't say I'd see how another person would have risen to power rather recently. Yes, I can see how one would begin to wonder how certain subplots could possibly have any bearing on the series as a whole, but keep the faith, Jordan did in fact know what he was doing.