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Sunday, December 12, 2010

Basing, with candles

Some basework for my Necromancer:



Cork isn't very imaginative, but it is pretty easy, and I like the way it looks.

And... Bonus content! NSA's totally amazing simple method for sculpting candles!

Now, I'm neither skilled at nor enthusiastic about sculpting, but we often have to do it to get the miniatures we want. In this case, I wanted a skull with a drippy wax candle on it; something that says "sinister ritual" without taking up too much space. Anyway, this method isn't Golden Demon quality, but it does produce credible-looking drippy candles in only a couple of minutes.



Obviously, before you start this process, you can just fix the wire into the surface on the mini that the candle will be sitting on, or you can hold it in a pin vice or forceps.

4 comments:

  1. Animated GIF FTW. Nicely done, and simple, effective technique.

    Cork is good, but I like to fill it to dimish the "corkiness" with various fillers. Vallejo black lava has some volume to it and it dries to a nice texture. That way you can get the irregular shapes without that distinctive cross-section cut.

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  2. I actually don't mind the flat surface of cork because it's easier to get the mini standing solidly on it without any "hovering" effect, and because it can simulate a flat stone floor that has fractured, or a dried lava flow (which can be pretty flat).

    That black lava stuff seems to be very similar to artists' textured acrylic medium, but at least they didn't triple the price. Thanks for mentioning it! It seems about par with buying Golden brand medium... Though that does have the advantage that you can tint it any way you like.

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  3. Vallejo lava rock FTW! it even has a kind of multicolor shine of petroleum.

    Besides... candles that aren't red (white won't match on top of a skull) do feel weird.

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  4. I've been thinking all day long about the sculpting candle method (pretty good results for such little effort needed) while epic failing at making shushi that even a dog wouldn't eat...

    I came to a conclusion:

    1.- Putting a blob of white (wood/paper purpose) glue on top of it and using a toothpick to run down some dips would work well too (may take 2 layers to get a nice 3D effect). I often use small drops of white glue to make quick and regular bolts on armor/gauntlets.

    2.- It's cheaper and way better to pay others to cook sushi for you.

    --

    Can wait to see the necromancer painted and based, I'm so lazy lately that rather preffer to cheer you up and see the results than doing something myself.

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Thanks for commenting!