Scrutiny: PK-Pro alien base set (part 2)

I managed to take some new pictures of the TK-PRO bases. Unfortunately some of those also mysteriously dissapeared. I have decided to call it quits with making new ones, figuring they are probably cursed or the like.

So I present my findings with pictures that I actually have.

The sculpts themselves are not bad, they are not incredibly detailed, but they are not bad either. I'd call them average. The shipping and shopping process was fine, simple, fast, definitely good.

This is where it started to go a bit downhill for me. Now I do not know how representable of their work the following experience is, but for me it is a reason to beware.

The casts were pretty bad. Entire flat bits of resin stuck on the edges of the bases and bases were not able to stand flat without creating extra gaps between base and floor or simply wobbling. Sometimes several millimeter slabs of extra resin were on the bottom of the bases.

This is not how a cast should be

I would have to say these casts are quite shoddy. I had to try to sand them down. Now there are a few reasons I really dislike doing that.

1. Resin dust is ridiculously dangerous if you get it in your lungs.
2. Resin is notoriously hard to sand.
3. I didn't want to take a sanding machine to them, so it had to be hand work.

This is not fun to do

The results are not all that awesome. To be specific, it is incredibly hard to create an even surface. On the picture above you can see how the darker parts on the top and lower right side are still 'higher' then the rest.

Eventually I decided to simply throw the worst away and call it a day with the rest.

I think this was not a fluke batch of bases since I ordered 25mm, 40mm and 60mm and they all suffered from this problem.

Verdict: Would not buy again. Recommend you stay clear.

Stonehaven Gnomes Kickstarter

I have always had a severe lack of certain player character models. I am talking things like half-orcs, halflings, dwarfs and gnomes!

Stonehaven is a new-ish company who have already done a kickstarter, their Dwarves of Stonehaven. It was very successful and the results are quite nice. So when they came up with a second kickstarter about gnomes, I jumped on the bandwagon immediately.

There are a bunch of sets of gnomes slowly unlocking. Picture below is one of them. I am quite intrigued. Keeping a close eye on this one.

Devils galore

I have finally been working on my devils from Otherworld Miniatures. Their stuff is high quality and leaves nothing to be desired. I recommend their mini's to every DM out there.

I have owned quite a few of theirs and I have also had their entire devil and demon range in my posession for quite a while. The plan was to mount all the devils on lava bases and all the demons on some sort of abyssal ground bases.

Then they were 'forgotten' and recently I finally figured let's finish them. So I got started on my bone devil first. This is the result.

I have also been working on my two barbed devils. Here is a WIP shot of one of them.

The lava bases are from Dark Arts miniatures. Good casts, good shipping, good company.

Taking better pictures

So a friend recently came over with some serious picture shooting skills (like pro) and we worked on my setup a bit. I might go into the actual setup a bit more later (it involves a lightbox, two daylight lamps and all kinds of cool settings on my cam), but for now this is a comparison of my Tariq mini.

On the left the 'old' shot, on the right the 'new' shot. Both have not been processed after the fact. It is very important to me that I can quickly snap a few shots with minimal editing.

Needless to say I am quite pleased with the results!

Scrutiny: PK-Pro alien base set (part 1)

So... I had these awesome photos of my unboxing and my experience with getting my new alien bases ready. I say had because I accidentally shift deleted them. I am a fool. Some of them I cannot take again, because I have since worked away the problems.

So... I'll take some more photos... at a later date. There are a few things I can already say about how I intend to use the bases though. I am collecting both a devil and a demon range. The devil range is being based on lava bases from dark arts miniatures. For my demons I was looking for an alien sort of landscape that I could paint up as the abyss. Enter PK-Pro, a german manufacturer of among other things bases!

I set my eye on these (painted by the PK-Pro people)

Imagine the same, but with more purple then green. That's the plan. The box arrived this evening after a speedy delivery. Happy me! Unfortunately I did have some issues with the casts. I do not know if this is indicative of the quality of PK-Pro casts or not. I am inclined to say it is, because I ordered 25mm, 40mm and 60mm bases and they all the same defects.

I can work around it, but it will take quite some time. That is time that I would rather not spent on bases that are supposed to be useable out of the box.

More in part 2 when I get some pictures in!

What did I commit to!?

So recently two things that happened to me connected. The first 'catalyst' was the Reaper kickstarter that I participated in. The second a dragon painting 'contest' of sorts on the Reaper forums to paint a dragon before the end of the year.

I just had to jump in! So I scrolled through the dragons I am about to recieve (in march) from the Kickstarter and my eye fell on Nethyrmaul the Undying. Sure! Why not? Well because he is bigger then your hand... stretched out. I've seen a picture, it is true.

Oh boy!

And he has just shown up in the preview gallery on the Reaper site as well. Look at that beauty.

This is going to take months! Hmm now what colorscheme to go with? I am thinking bone with a blue light... maybe too hard for me though. Any links to how to paint light effects link me! Oh and he has to arrive first as well.

*Twiddles thumbs*

It is alive!

*Goes back to drybrushing and varnishing*

Happy new year!