Mark A. Morin

A couple of figures that I saw on eBay caught my eye.  They were retro-looking astronauts/cosmonauts that had no provenance.  I could not tell that they were probably 54mm from the photo, but I did believe that they would be great for future sci-fi games.  They also looked fun to cast!

After a little research on Lost Mini’s Wiki  – http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Main_Page  I found that these were Archive figures from a board game called Cosmic Encounter.

Originally these were Archive 2103, “Macron and the Mind”.

I do not have the brain figure, but I did have two Macrons.  I decided to mold them, thinking they could be “Space Giants”.

They were both in good shape.  I made a two-piece mold with Quick-Sil from Castaldo with one of the Macrons.  I made this mold rather tall to accommodate a large plug that would give the figures better detail.  I also experimented with using golf tees (that had “Merry Christmas Love Lynn” on them and an old pharma pen top for my mold opening.  I also added toothpicks for venting.

 

The mold desighn worked fine, and I was able to cast 24 satisfactory examples with a mix of 67% tin and 33% lead at 565° F.  The mold did not need much tapping at all which was great.  They did use up a lot of metal though relative to smaller figures, as one would expect.

 

I sent off half to Buck Surdu, and I kept the rest.  I am looking forward to getting them painted soon!

I have been a bit behind on blogging but I hope to catch up over the next few days.  I have been quite busy with work and projects on the weekend (and golf of course!).  I also sent Buck Surdu some of these miniatures, and I did not want his first look to be on my blog.  His trip to Costa Rica meant that I’d need to wait a week while the figures awaited his return and inspection (he is after all an Infantry Officer).

I wanted to wait to do this as he inspired this project.  During an April conversation with Buck about my recent casting project to resurrect the 1977 Ral Partha “Rooman War Party” (01-044), he suggested that I was somewhat adept at making Quick-Sil molds and casting. Perhaps I should consider making “Space Roomans”?  Intrigued, I pondered how to do this in a quality way.  Luckily I have been getting good ideas about conversions by reading other blogs, such as Buck’s and Chris Palmer’s.

I started by searching eBay for a nice jewelry saw – as I thought this would work better than my Dremel for fine cutting of metal.  I found one cheap, and then looked for a suitable sci-fi miniature that was worthy of conversion.  There was a large lot of 38 resin figures from a Reaper Kickstarter that I got for $29 that included pulp figures and science fiction figures.  I was taking a chance, but it worked out. Once the figures arrived, I looked at all of them for possibilities, and one stood out.

 

This figure was Reaper 80010, “Nova Corp Sergeant”, by Bobby Jackson.

 

I then looked for a suitable Rooman to convert as well.  I did not have the heart to sacrifice an original Rooman, so I used one of my castings.  There are two types, one with a shield on the front, and one with a shield on the side –  and only the one with the shield on the side looked capable of conversion.  I used the jewelry saw and an Exacto knife to cut the shield from the Rooman.  I then cut the Rooman in half and removed his head (sounds brutal doesn’t it?).  The Nova Corp Sergeant was a lot easier to cut being made of resin!  I used the Exacto knife to cut off his head and carefully remove his legs, preserving his body armor.  Simultaneously, I sculpted some bases to assist in my casting.  These I made from Aves® Apoxie Sculpt modeling compound that I got in Bel Air, MD at a Hobby Shop that I found when I attended HARCON.  It’s a modeling shop and not the gaming shop that Buck suggested to me, but my error proved fruitful as I found this product to be is much easier to use than Milliput.  I have found that I need these bases to create better castings – the older miniatures had pretty thin bases that did not always come out when I molded and cast them.

After I had done my Dr. Frankenstein cutting, I drilled a small hole in the Rooman and the torso of the Nova Corp Sergeant, and pinned the two with a paper clip wire and super glue.  This allowed me to get a proper angle between the two figures.  Then, I carefully carved out space for the Rooman head, and it fit well in the armor.  Lastly, after a 24 hour cure for the Apoxie Sculpt bases, I affixed the conversion to one.

 

 

 

 

The next step would be to create a two-piece mold using Castaldo Quick-Sil.  I tried this time to create a better flow of molten metal via three channels made from pens and pencils – which worked great for gravity casting.  I found that pointing the tips at the edge of the base worked well.  I also used toothpicks for venting the mold and helping with flow.  This, with some excision with my Exacto knife, made a very large plug at the top that would get all the mold filled by virtue of its weight.

 

I then mixed together approximately 66% tin, and 34% lead (probably some trace bismuth in there too), and melted the alloy to 560° F.

I tapped the mold on my steel-sheeted table after pouring, and employed all the safety equipment that I have previously described in this blog.  As always, this is dangerous!

I must say that the final product exceeded my expectations.  Very few of the molds failed to come out as desired which I attribute to my design above.  I ended up with 26, and sent a lucky 13 to Buck for use in sci-fi games!

I saw an item on eBay that was listed as “Ogre Baleesta”.  As I already had an Elven Ballista, I thought it a good idea to have a crew-served weapon for the bad guys.  Little did I know that this would turn out to be a pretty involved project!  I paid a little more than $30 for the three figures and the ballista.

I love doing a little research on Lost Mini’s Wiki site: http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Main_Page.  I want to document my figures as best as possible, and I have gotten a bit more familiar with digging into the catalogs there.  I found these all in the 1994 Grenadier catalog.   However, they were not Ogres, but “Trolls” and a separately listed “Heavy Bolt Thrower with Hunchback Gunner”.

The set of Trolls is #3107, sculpted by Sandra Garrity, and included both Trolls in a blister pack.  It was part of the “Fantasy Legends Blisters” line.  The figures themselves had “1992” and SM-33 and SM-34 and “Garrity” on the bases.

The ballista and gunner was #9204, and was in the “Fantasy Warriors Grand Pack Line”.  I then proceeded to treat them all as a Troll crew and a ballista.  To call them Ogres when they were Trolls seemed so inappropriate!

The ballista had been crudely cemented, and that took some work to correct.  I was happy that a string had been attached to the ballista as that saved me some work.

 

I removed the old cement and disassembled the ballista.  I then primed the set in Jeff Smith’s workshop on a cold February day with Krylon “Ultra Flat Black” and mounted as below for painting.

I used Citadel’s “Dryad Bark ” as a base coat for the ballista wooden elements.  I subsequently employed two inks in succession as washes – Secret Weapon’s Washes “Heavy Body Black” and P3’s “Brown Ink”.  On this I applied a dry brush application of Citadel’s “Scrag Brown”, followed by a wash with Citadel’s “Agrax Earthshade”.  For the bolt and other iron parts, I used Tamiya’s “Gun Metal” and Polly-S “Rust”.  Finally, I used Citadel’s “Nuln Oil”  as a light wash to darken the iron components even more.  Eventually I was able to apply a couple of coats of varnish to the ballista.  As I needed to apply coats of varnish to the undercarriage and the top of the ballista, and as New England would not warm up, this took longer than I wanted!  I was able to apply Krylon “Clear Glossy” followed by Krylon “Clear Matte” varnish and moved on to the crew.

I base coated the crew with Armory “Dark Green” on the skin, with Armory “Chestnut” and Americana “Zinc” on pants and cloaks and stones at the figures’ bases.  For the clubs and handles I used Citadel’s “Dryad Bark”.  The gunner’s boots got Americana “Black”.  Then I applied a wash with two inks – Secret Weapon Washes “Storm Cloud” and Citadel’s Agrax Earthshade on the skin.  For the eyes, I used Citadel’s “Ushabti Bone” and  Americana “Lamp Black”.  I further wanted to get the right tone for the skin – I wanted greasy, sweaty Trolls!  To accomplish this, Citadel’s “Waaagh! Flesh” and Polly-S “Slime Green” worked well when highlighted with Citadel’s “Niblet Green”.  Then I used Americana “Lamp Black” on all the Trolls’ hairy parts.  For the gunner’s telescope, I used Martha Stewart Craft’s “Pale Bronze”.  I proceeded to add highlights (with Americana “Black Tie” on the hair and lightened “Zinc” on the cloak) and depth to the skin with the use of washes (more “Nuln Oil”, “Agrax Earthshade”, and Secret Weapons Washes “Stone”.  Then I varnished them the same way as the ballista.

 

My concept was to craft a hex base large enough to deploy the set.  I cut out a hex base from 1/8″ plywood (luan), and primed it with Deka-Lack “Grun”.  On the bottom of the base I glued several  washers for the model to be stored on magnetic sheets.  I flocked the base with Ziterdes “Alpine Meadows” and painted any rocks “Skrag Brown”.  Using my Dremel, I carefully removed enough wood to install magnetic sheets in the base so that I could have the crew leave the ballista.  These sheets proved insufficient to the task in terms of being able to hold the figures to the base.  I fixed this by drilling 1/4″ holes with a spade bit and adding neodymium magnets (1/4″) in the middle of each base.  These are powerful magnets.  The figures can hang upside down from the base without falling now!

I wanted the idea of the model to be that the large Troll was the locomotive force for the large ballista, with the other Troll being the loader and the small Troll the gunner.  The large Troll would push the ballista through the turf leaving wheel ruts.  Therefore, I used more “Skrag Brown” to create the image of the wheel ruts.  I then reflocked the bases of the figures and the main base and added more rocks, grass, and meadow flowers from Army Painter.  After a couple of iterations, I was able to disguise the fact that the crew  could be removed.

 

All in all, I am happy with the way that it all came out.  I like the deployability of the crew, and will use this technique in other models.  I hope that they are fun to control in my next game!