Saturday, January 6, 2024

The 12 Days of Kit-Bash (Part 2)

 One of the things that I didn't expect to be a challenge was the photography part... but wow, this was actually much harder than I expected, especially as I had to do quite a bit of it after sundown and electric lights don't produce as good results as daylight (unless you have proper equipment, I suppose...).  Still and all, I did my best.  Here's the back half of my kit-bashing run:


Day 7

Ruined pillars made with dollar store clay, pressed inside a ring of crayons, dried and then hit with a hammer.



Day 8

These zombies were my first project and the reason I got interested in kit bashing in the first place.  I had ordered a bag-o-knights from amazon for ten or 15 bucks and got like, a hundred minis.  Great deal, right? Well, the scale was off... I joked with my D&D buddies that I had bought an army of halflings.  Since I had so many, I figured I could try an experiment and 'stretch' them, cutting off their limbs and cutting the waist, then adding a bit of hot glue in the gap.  These would deform them, sure, but... that could make for cool zombies.  I think it worked alright.



Day 9

Got this idea from The Dungeon Minister, who suggested buying Xmas model trees and using caulking to make snow.  I combined that Idea with Professor Dungeon Master's 'Dungeon Pizza' and, voila!




Day 10

Giant Frogs.  Is this even kit-bash?  I glued kitty litter onto some toy frogs' backs, glued the rubbery ones to a base, used a dude from the bag-o-halflings as a tasty treat, then a uniform paintjob.  This one was super easy and looks quite good.



Day 11

For Day 11, I was, to be honest, getting worried that I wouldn't actually be able to finish on time.  It took me all day and I shot the photos at night, but in the end, I managed to get a cool looking scene together with some fairly simple dungeon dressing bits.  This is true mixed medium.  The stairs are jenga blocks and foam; the crates are wooden blocks with cardboard details. The trapdoor is just cardboard with a bent wire pull. The altar (I'm quite proud of it) is clay with a fimo skull earring casting as a detail. The sarcophagus is clay with a foam lid. Tower round, curved stairs and wall are all clay.  I hand made a texture roller with 3-D paint on a bottle that worked a charm for the floor pattern. (I'd highly recommend making one of these. I liked it so much, I made another.)







Day 12

The only way I was able to get all 12 done was by doing a few each day.  In a way, these were the most successful, though I kind of ruined them by sealing the finished models with Mod Podge.  [Turns out, spray varnish (which I used on the dwarves) is better.  Mod Podge dries too thick and I lost some hard-won detail, especially in the skulls/faces.]  Still, the wire armature coated with 3D paint, fimo or soldered ribcages, and the fimo skulls worked well.  Weapons and shields are from the endless bag-o-knights, mostly.  The archer is the worst of the lot - an experiment on using a twist tie armature and not stripping off the plastic (it shows). Cultists are fimo with soldered hands and faces cast from a real mini.









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