Building a table

Well, so much for my birthday resolution about posting more. It's not that I wasn't busy, I just forget to post. Then, when I do I think about it, I have no pictures. Anyway, I started work on a 4' x 8' gaming table. I wanted something that could be taken apart and stored when not in use. However, I also wanted something that could become a more permanent fixture down the road.
So, I cut some old tongue and groove paneling pieces (that were left over from a friends basement remodel) into 4' lengths. I then attached enough together to get to a 4' width. I made two so I could set them both on my dining room table to form a 4' x 8' gaming table.

The pieces underneath that hold everything together line up in the center (where the opening for the leaf is) and hang off the ends, so the gaming table lays mostly on my dining room table.

If you do this, I recommend placing an old sheet over the table for protection.

Finally remembered to take a few pics.

This is one half of the board. I decided to make two 4'x 4' sections to make it easier to handle setting up and taking down.

A Blast From The Past

I am cleaning and purging and posting stuff to ebay (well, I will be... soon..., in an effort to clear out some junk). I came across these and thought I'd share.

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Ladies and Gentlemen... The smoker...

I've been working on some "Special" infected based on the Left 4 Dead video game.
Eventually I'll post all of them but for now here's the smoker.

I tried drilling holes through the plastic base and adding pins to hold the figure in place. That way I could pull them off the base and lay them down on the table as a casualty. I don't like the effect though, so it's back to the drawing board.

Portal, Paranoia, free music, text to speech and the wish for more time!

I had an idea the other day. It dawned on me that Portal (If you don't know, you should. It's awesome, look it up. Hint: It's a video game made by Valve) would fit nicely into the world of Paranoia (It's a wacky RPG).
See, back in the day I painted miniatures for a friend of my Dad. I spent a lot of that money on games, game accessories and miniatures. I had a bunch them: Dungeons and Dragons (Basic, Expert & Advanced) Blood Bowl, Top Secret, Star Frontiers, Car Wars and Marvel Super Heroes. I wanted Boot Hill, Gamma World, Paranoia and Twilight 2000 but I stopped buying any more games because we never really played anything other than D&D.
Now I'm thinking about trying to get a Paranoia game going. Three reasons. One: because I had the idea that it would be fun to put it together and build scenery and such. Two: I want to use this music as a back drop.

http://www.thinkwithportals.com/music.php

And Three: I thought it would be awesome to use a text-to-speech program on line to "voice" the computer. Something like this:

http://cepstral.com/demos/

If you have the Paranoia game, get it, then go there and try typing in some computer "dialog" It's pretty cool.

Now I only need more time to work on this stuff. Sigh...

Happy Birthday to me!

I really need to start posting more to this thing. That'll be my new (birthday) years resolution.

Blood Bowl Helmets part 2

Well, the helmets sold on ebay. They went for what I hoped they would go for, though now I'm a little disappointed that they didn't go for more. Stupid, right? Oh well. Whatareyagonnado?
So, now I'm thinking I should make another set and sell those. I'm also thinking that I'll offer up my services to make custom order helmets. If you already have your team colors and a logo (that you can e-mail me) I can make you a custom helmet. I'm thinking $10.00 a helmet, sound fair?
Post in comments if you're interested and we can discuss.

Left 4 Dead miniatures.

Would anyone be interested in purchasing a "how to" PDF showing how to make your very own L4D miniatures? I'm thinking of documenting the process as I go through it, but am wondering if it's worth my time. I suppose I should and hope that people will get around to finding my blog and that demand will be there (which I think it will).

A little sumpthin', sumpthin'

The girlfriend and I have rented an apartment to house both of our studio spaces. It also acts as storage and serves a few other purposes. I've been packing up my stuff for the move, which means I won't have much time over the next few weeks to post anything.

So, here's a shot of a home made and unfinished Tank, Boomer & Charger figure. Based on the Left 4 Dead video game franchise.

Hulk SMASH!!! er... I mean... Ogre... SMASH!?!?!

Well, it seems I'm getting off track here.
My intent was to chronicle my way through creating a zombie apocalypse game and here I am posting Blood Bowl stuff.
Truth be told, I've been a gamer for most of my life, and by gamer I'm talking about the hobby of it. I enjoy the painting and general "world creating".
Taking existing figures and changing them into what I need, creating scenery out of everyday things, building buildings, etc.
So, I'll get to that in good time. For now, you'll (by you, I mean the hypothetical you, as no one is reading this yet) have to suffer through some other stuff first.

Namely, one of a kind Blood Bowl Ogres!

Here's how they start life. As a Heroclix Hulk figure.

I then get carving with the ol x-acto knife, add some plastic bits, some chain from an old necklace, sprinkle in a total repaint and Viola!

You have something no one else has rumbling down your pitch.
You'll be able to buy these, sometime soon, as I will be putting them up on ebay.

This guy sold on ebay for $5.00, I was hoping for a little more than that...

Blood Bowl Helmets

Years ago, I purchased a bag of about 25 mini football helmets (the kind you used to be able to get in gum ball machine type dispensers, maybe you still can?). My intent was to convert them into BloodBowl helmets. The 2nd edition BB game had 18 teams listed in the rule book so I figured I had enough to goof a few times.

You can see the 18 teams here: http://www.bloodbowl.org/index2.htm
Under illustrations, then 2nd ed team colors.

I got as far as 17 of the 18. On the last one (The Chaos All stars) I hit a wall trying to figure out the bar on the front of the helmet. So, they sat. Collecting dust.

Recently, I've found myself with some time on my hands and I managed to finish the last helmet. I can't say that I am thoroughly happy with it but it's done.

So here they are in all their "one of a kind, home made" glory.

I should be posting them to ebay soon if anyone is interested. They are now in auction on ebay.
They have sold on ebay and I am now thinking about making another set.