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Another great 3d print I snagged on Etsy. The base was a test. I bought some dollar tree checkers pieces. Glued some rocks and spackle. Bam. I need to put a matte varnish on this guy to take that Gloss off it.

I've been testing out the new WizKids ready to paints. It was just the simple beasts for now, but I wasn't too impressed with the PC sculpts. I'm hoping they improve the QC for the next wave, there's some cool designs coming. The pack: The Displacer Beast: The Blink Dog:

Hey folks! People have been talking in different threads about Static Grass and Flock, and that they are either afraid to use them, or worried that when they are done, it wont look right. I am no expert, but I have based quite a few figures for Tabletop war-games such as Flames of War. I am one of those people who absolutely HATES to put unfinished figures on the Tabletop. In fact, I don't even bring unfinished figures to games, unless it is something like an escalation league... So here we go! First, What is this Stuff? Static Grass is some kind of fiber that holds static electricity to help it 'stand up' when applied to a base with some type of glue. It comes in many lengths, colors and blends from many different companies. Flock, or Flocking is some sort of foam, as far as I can tell. It is designed to mimic low vegetation and earth. It also comes in many grades, from fine to coarse, many different colors, from many different companies. Grass Tufts, or Tufts are basically pre-made clumps of Static Grass of different Colors and heights, often mixed together, and glued down in places where a bit of grass is needed, not a whole field or lawn. They come on sheets of plastic that you peel them off. Again many colors, heights, and companies. Some examples: Static Grasses This is Wild Grass, Light Beige, and is a taller (5mm vs 2mm) static Grass Harvest Gold Static Grass. 2mm This is the first type of Static Grass I ever used. It was originally packaged for Military Modelers. Farm Pasture Blend. This is a mix of Static Grass, Flock, and tiny pieces of Cork. This is called Meadow Blend, and is also Static Grass and Flock mixed. It has little bits of RED turf in it. They look like little flowers from Tabletop distance. This stuff is called 'Dead Fall Debris' and had quite a bit of stuff that was way to big for our purposes. I sifted out the big stuff, and put the smaller stuff in an old Parmesan Cheese shaker. Not sure if this is a blend of my own or a professional product.. Edit-->This is a mix of the long and short Beige Grasses, with the meadow blend. There being little tall Beige (less than an 1/8th), maybe a 1/4 of the blend is the short Beige Grass, the rest being the Meadow blend. This definitely my own Blend. It is called 'Tree Mix' because it is what I use when basing all the different trees for the tabletop games. Turfs: Tufts: These are 6 different colors and heights of Grass Tufts. This is a sampling from things that I have at hand, There are so many different types of this stuff that it would take it's own server to show all of it. That said, there are a couple of good model railroad supply companies with websites where you can see the variety of products. OK, you say what good is all this stuff? Well, I'll show you a few different uses for it. As I mentioned above, I play a Tabletop Miniature war-game called Flames of War. It is a Company level game in 15mm scale. The force levels are similar to what you would find in 40k. The biggest difference is that for infantry, you will normally have 3-5 figures per base, as opposed to one per base. (Think Froggy's Meerkat Army) Some examples: These 1st 2 are both US .30 caliber Machine gun teams. In fact 2 of the 3 figures on each base are the same. But notice the differences in the colors and amount of vegetation on each base. The 1st base is for my 3rd Armored Division troops fighting in Normandy and other parts of France after D Day. The 2nd base is for my 3rd Infantry Division troops fighting in Italy in 1943-44. Notice the green of France's hedgerow country versus the stony hillsides of Italy. People have used different flocks and such on bases to identify different platoons in the same company. More than one person actually used different colors of flock/turf/tuft Flowers to do this! This base is for my German Panzer Lehr force, also fighting in Normandy. It isn't the same as the #rd Armored base, but the mix of colors is the same. This is a Machine Gun Nest that I tried to make usable in either locale. These are some other pieces with bases and vehicles: This is my Beer Truck objective. (2nd place, Flames of War Objective, Historicon 2013) And an over-sized objective from 'Death Traps', a book about the 3rd Armored Division in France during WWII. So you can see that using these materials can change the look of your figures tremendously. Next installment will be some actual work in progress stuff. You can look at my DDS 2 thread if you are impatient. There are pics of me applying flock to the terrain pieces. Oh yeah, anyone out there ever see a movie called 'Kelly's Heroes'? Here is Oddball and his tank! Comments Welcome! Questions Too! 8) George

At long last got my sweet, sweet phase cat. Long had been lusting for one. I had a ton of fun painting it--and assembling it, even. Getting its tentacles free of their tabs I finally started figuring out how to cut my way through metal without so much trouble. Anyway, basically did him with washes. Wish I'd taken better pictures; I was really happy with how he turned out. Thanks for looking!