This is preparation for my first attempt at realistic miniature photography scenes. I made the tree using bead wire, Milliput putty, paint and woodland scenics foliage. It took a while, but I think it turned out very nicely. The plan is to make terrain and scenery that look both real and extraordinary. The original idea to do this was from Matthew Albanese.

I’m starting off very small right now, still learning how to make little things and do photos with some of my miniatures. I will most likely start with some Battletech scenes. I have some great Xmarx models to hopefully photograph real soon.

 

Well, it’s been another year. Honestly I’ve not made nearly as much progress with all my modeling projects as I’ve wanted too, but as the kids start getting older I believe I will have more time. I can already see them taking interest in painting and sculpting. Sure, they are using watercolors and play dough, but it’s only a matter of time before I move them on to bigger and better things!

I was able to get to building a few models during Christmas break. Per usual I’m afraid to touch these with a brush, but to be honest they look pretty awesome as is. So awesome in fact they now command the top spot in my display case.

These limited edition Kingdom Death minis are by far the most highly detailed minis I have ever seen and they each come with some great artwork and a certificate with the number of your LTD cast.

The attention to detail is phenomenal; these models look completely polished and dynamic from every angle. The Kingdom Death game itself is still in development, so I cannot speak to how it will be, but after seeing the work put into these figures I have no doubt this game will be cool.

So it will be some time before I can put these figures to use, but other than just the simple coolness factor of collecting these models, the other fun part is that by purchasing these limited edition high quality resin casts, it’s actually helping to fund the project and get the game built, so in a way we get to contribute to the development of the final game.

The popularity of these models have been increasing fast, some of the models have sold out in less than a day, and one in less than 8 hours! So I have been following the site closely and waiting in anticipation for each new model release. Unfortunately I’ve missed a few of the really cool ones, like the Grand Mother, Wet Nurse, and Grom but I will continue to look into acquiring them down the road. It’s seriously gotten to the point where I’ve stayed up all night just waiting for them to be added to a cart.

One word of warning for beginners, the detail on some of these figures is so good that it’s very easy to accidentally break pieces off. If you plan on getting into the Kingdom Death line, be prepared to start a project that requires extreme patience and precision. But even after a few mishaps, these things look great.

Take a look at these pictures, and don’t forget to check out the site Kingdom Death, these are not to be missed!

 

I found this on ebay a while back and could not resist. I mean who wouldn’t want their car to be a transformer? You can get various size logos on ebay for a few bucks. It looks really good on the car.

 

So lack of posts does not mean lack of creative geekyness. I’ve got a huge backlog of great new stuff to post about, but first…

The unveiling of the new Geek pad. Our Media/Gaming/Hobby room is nearly complete! I plan on posting the specs soon, but for now I’m very excited to release some pics.

   

      

 

I’ve recently found myself completely obsessed with Doctor Who, so much in fact that I’ve recently purchased a new pair of Converse Chuck Allstars just because the Doctor had them. So as get further into the show I’ve started collecting the characters to paint.

My collection is still quite small, but so far I have have collected:
A painted TARDIS and clear resin TARDIS from Ainsty Castings. (I regret getting the painted TARDIS, it wasn’t that it was painted bad, I just know I could have done much better.)

The 9th and 10th Doctors; Dr Malcolm Ecclescake and Dr Hugh McCrimmon from Heresy Miniatures.

And one Daisy Taylor from http://www.crooked-dice.co.uk.

Next up on my wish list are some more great miniatures from http://www.crooked-dice.co.uk. I happened to stumble upon this site one late night after a couple of season one episodes and a few drinks. A bad combination when it comes to any sort of spontaneous purchase willpower. I only ordered the Daisy Taylor mini at first because I had no idea who the other characters where at the time. I was very impressed with the figure, and now that I’m farther along in the series I am now working to get the other characters. I am now on season four.

So current items of interest are, Captain Jim Barrowight (£4), Casual May Killan (£4), Scary Statue Coven (£12 set) and Corn Doll Hoedown (£10). All can be found here: http://www.crooked-dice.co.uk/minis.html.

Not sure who these are? If your not watching Doctor Who and you consider yourself a Geek, you are doing something wrong… Go watch it!

         

 

The highlight of the Detroit Fanfare for me was Robocop! You may have heard about the Detroit Robocop statue project, if not you can find more information about it here.

Ever since I heard about the project I’ve been looking for a unique way to celebrate the fact that Detroit was getting a Robocop statue. I wasn’t quite sure what to do until finally I found out that Peter Weller was going to be in Detroit.

I picked up some Robocop models from http://www.bambammodelproductions.com/blog/sci-fi/robocop/. Pictures/site probably looks familiar, I recently did the site for BamBam and did a lot of the photos for them. =)

Anyways, here’s the semi-finished model, signed by Robo himself. I still need to paint the figures, but the base is done. I had a lot of fun with this one.

Peter Weller was great, he let me take the picture even though the fanfare people did not allow it, This was a great addition to the collection. This is a hometown gem for the collection, I cant wait to finish it.

 

All in all we had a lot of fun at the convention, Xander had a blast. He was a little scared at first but he warmed up quickly. After a while he really enjoyed all the cool costumes. He even got his very own storm trooper tattoo.

 

There were some great artists at the Detroit Fanfare this weekend. These were just a few of what the ones that really stood out.

Kurt Einhaus | http://kurteinhausart.com/fantasy-painting/

Michael Calandra | http://www.calandrastudio.com/Calandra_Studio.html

Dave Aikins | http://daveaikins.com/

Dave is an interesting character, I had the pleasure of meeting him at the Motorcity Comic-con in May, this time I came prepared. Dave does the artwork for both Zombies and for Many of the Nickelodeon books such as Dora, Diego, SpongeBob and Backyardagins. So while I got my Zombies game box personalized with some cool zombie art, Xander got a few of his favorite books signed as well.

Jeremy Bastian | http://jeremybastian.blogspot.com/ Jeremy was one of the Artist for The Guild Tink one shot comic; he did the Tink tall tale story piece. Of course I had him sign the comic for me.

Diana Harlan Stein | http://www.naiadstudios.com/
Diana did a great transformer character for Xander, this is a photo of a copy, but check it out.

 

I took my son Xander to his first comic book convention this weekend, it was a great time. We had the opportunity to mean Adam Baldwin (Jayne from Firefly & Serenity) as well as Peter Weller (Robocop). The fair was at Cobo Hall in Detroit, it wasn’t quite as cool as Comic-con, but it was still fun.

Here are some of the events highlights for us:

Adam Baldwin (Jayne) signing my Hero of Canton poster.

Adam was very cool to talk to, we talked a little Firefly of course and he mentioned he would love to do it again. But the thing that really set him apart from other celebs that I’ve talked to was a chat about our kids. Having an almost 1 and almost 3 year old I asked Adam if he had any good parenting advice. His whole hearted answers seemed really out of place coming from Jayne, the same man who said “Do you know what the chain of command is here? It’s the chain I go get and beat you with to show you who’s in command.” on Firefly.

Paraphrasing an awesome ten minute conversation, his advice was 1.) Take lots of pictures and video, especially while they are still young. 2.) Don’t ever fight with your spouse in front of your kids. 3.) Tell your kids no, yes is good sometimes, but they need to hear no. 4.) Save your money, and most importantly; 5.) “Never yell at your kids with hate in your heart.” Adam advised that you should be more like a coach, be instructional and guide them.

It was just really cool to hear advice like this from him; sometimes it’s easy to forget the actors have lives just like we all do.

More to come later…

 

Hello world!

It’s been a while… We’ve recently moved the beautiful Ann Arbor Michigan. The move which took place in June has consumed most of my time, and whenever I had some free time had been working on other projects. Anyways, time to get back at it. I have some great stuff to post, stay tuned!

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