experiments with Simple Green part one

I recently picked up Simple Green, a cleaning product that I've heard nothing but good things about for stripping paint off miniatures. Picking three miniatures that had one too many coats of paint applied (products of pushing my luck changing my mind on what mini will go with what force) and a scrap lump of green stuff to test the product. While I've seen glowing reports of how well Simple Green strips paint, but I've never seen anyone comment on how it treated materials like green stuff and plastic.

*update 1*
I've had some luck with my experiments already. First of all, Simple Green does NOT affect greenstuff or plastic. From what I can tell from the initial minis that were dunked superglue joints that are bare pewter to pewter seem to survive well, while glue joints with any paint or other stuff between the pewter and the glue will come apart fairly easy. Paint starts bubbling off the miniature in around an hour and is almost floating off in sheets after a day. After a day in Simple Green paint just wipes off with napkins or paper towels, leaving just a little paint residue in deep crevices that will easily peel free with a nudge from a toothpick. Before and after pictures will come soon,

*update 2*
My mistake - its actually Simple Green, corrected to show the right name.

coming soon!

I haven't been posting much as I've been trying to track down the information for a project I hope to move forward with, a small cnc router setup for cutting thin sheets of styrene. More to be posted as I work out more on the control electronics.

•update•
First of all, stepper motors are more complicated to control than I originally expected. I need to track down more on how stepper motor controllers work and how to have be interact with an arduino or how to build up an arduino so it will function as a stepper motor controller.

Second, I need to look into what size of shaft I need dor the trimming router I hope to use.

And finally I need to rescale the drawings for the machine to fit the size I want for stage one and two.

Magic the Gathering as a roleplaying tool

Once upon a time I discovered a new game at my very first game store I discovered a weird little game called Magic the Gathering something like twelve or more years ago. I've been into the game on and off since then and watched as the game has gone through stages. Some of the sets have fascinating plots and others have at best some good art.

What does this have to do with RPGs? Mostly as a source of inspiration, with ready made art from real artists to spawn descriptions. A cool picture or a good piece of fluff can spawn all sorts of ideas. However my favorite Magic sets see the older arts that didn't have a metaplot but just focused on describing a world. While I know WOTC created plot lines for many of these sets I'm focusing just on what is in the cards.

Where am I going with this? Well the magic set I got into the game with and that I'm trying to cheaply collect a full set of is Fallen Empires. Some of the concepts covered in this set really dovetails with my primary project for an old school roleplaying setting I call Bryn Mawr. As my setting is based on the concept of a land built on the ruins of a fallen magical empire. Sounds a lot like Fallen Empires to me. Now to just sit down and cycle through my collection and add details and ideas to my setting notebook.

experiments in white

White is miserable to paint. Its a simple statement and is pretty obvious when you stop to think about the issues of highlighting what is already one of the lightest colors to paint (I'm speaking of paint rather than true color theory). Since I'm rather set on my small detachment of pre-heresy World Eater space marines, with their white with blue trim paint scheme, I'm forced to deal with the issue of painting white. Ill attach pictures as soon as I have some of the current stage of the 5 test pieces.

My plan so far is the following;
1) primer the models in white (a major shift as I usually work from a black base)
2) stain the White with various GW washes
3) apply a thin glaze of Vallejo Foundation White mixed with Vallejo Glaze Medium
4) repeat

That's where I'm at

*update*
heres the pictures I mentioned..






the plasma pistol trooper



One of my favorite coversions that really fit the descriptions in the fiction of the World Eaters before they descended into worship of Khorne.




A sergeant packing a powerfist, which I may look into doing light sourcing for the energy field that surrounds the fingers of glove.




A nice brutal axe, this may be the first mini I paint for the Gladiator company.




His left knee doesnt look right otherwise I really like how this conversion worked out.

*note* the Photos are all from my Blackberry - works pretty good I think

And so it begins...

I've finally taken that first step into a greater world... blogging. I have a couple hopes for this blog.

1. Help maintain momentum on painting projects through pressure to post updates
2. Gain feedback on ideas, both painting and other projects
3. Explore some ideas for my roleplaying games
   
4. Special project