'Guns & Spurs' ...Coming soon










The title of my latest game has been revealed. 'Guns & Spurs'.
A western game with open environment, pretty graphics, horses and lots of action!
I really love this new project because all the graphics of the game are made by me only and I'm very happy with the results.

Beta version, hopefully next week...

One if by land, two if by sea... The Leviathans are coming!

At long last, pixels meet the living world as true life objects. Now the arduous task of clean up and molds.
There is a lot of work to be done, smoothing the models surface, sprueing the many components, pre production molds and finally production molds, instructions and a painting guide.

I will be posting updates here so check back.

Update of Leviathan Progress.

John over at Moddler got slammed by work. The Art Institute of California had their finals and placed a load of rush jobs that needed to be completed before he could get to my Leviathan.

He was finally able to get to my job and it will likely be in my grubby little hands for prep and clean up early next week.

Sakis25 games collection of w.i.p. and unpublished GM games



Here is a collection with some of my unpublished w.i.p. games never before seen, created with Gamemaker since 2005. I hope I will work on them again sometime. My time is very limited these days. :(

The games (working titles):
1. 1942 3D
2. New Super Mario World
3. SpongeBob Squarepants 3D
4. Spiderman
5. Street Races Underground 2
6. Your World!

Khurasan just posted some previews of the printed models.

I love seeing the prints and the approval casts... Something about seeing the pixels become real world object is very gratifying. This is about half the images he previewed on the TMP, go check it out.

Time to base


The end of the first part of my Punic Wars project is drawing very near. I only have about 40 figures to paint to play my first game.

The job I like least is basing things up. Not the base cutting, but the scenic element. I dislike it so much that I invariably put it off until the very last moment. This time I've left it until almost 700 figures have been painted. I decided, on a whim, to base half of them over the last two days; I'll do the rest after I've finished painting the 40. I finished the Romans this afternoon. I got a start on the 40, and even managed a few shots of the Romans deployed for battle. I think they look pretty good.




All figures are Renegade. All are painted in enamels.
Bases are 4mm ply wood. 'Earth' texture is sand, grit, ground oyster shell and cat litter on a thick layer of PVA. The 'earth' was painted with watered down burnt umber acrylic ink. This war dry brushed with raw umber artists acrylic then dry brushed again with raw umber acrylic mixed with ivory household emulsion paint. Grass tufts are from Mutineer Miniatures - in early and late fall colours, long. I used 3 packets for this lot. The effect is for a 'Spain' look.
Here is a link to Mutineer Miniatures:

Mold making and drop casting

Having made my master of an 'ancient' cargo ship in 1:600, I now needed to make a mold for drop casting. To recap on the master:
http://clicksofamouse.blogspot.com/2009/07/making-master-for-ancient-merchant-ship.html

To start I needed a small tray; in this case the bottom of an unused butter dish. I filled this with plasticine, making the surface relatively smooth.

I made two mould boxes out of balsa wood. One to go around the master (rubber mold box) and a bigger one (plaster box) to fit around the smaller one. Note the difference in height, width and depth. Both were glued on three sides, the last side was not glued. I reinforced the outer joined corners with paper and PVA. It is very important that these boxes are square. I painted all the inner surfaces with Vaseline.

I laid the master in the centre of the plasticine tray and gently pressed to get an outline

I chopped out a hole and placed the master in it so that half the master was buried, carefully smudging the plasticine up to the edges of the model to remove any 'gaps' around the model; and I added three location holes with the end of a brush .


I placed the smaller box around the master, pinning the fourth side into position and sealed any gaps around the bottom with plasticine. I painted the surface of the master and plasticine with a very thin coat of Vaseline. I also sealed the corners of the unglued corners of the box with Vaseline.

I then mixed up enough rubber to cover the master and poured. The rubber is 96 - 98% rubber plus 2 - 4% catalyst - which I found hard to judge.

When it had cured I removed the box, cut of the 'flash' and put on the bigger box. Preparation of this box is the same as the small box. I also made four big location holes in the plasticine (not shown).

I mixed up some plaster of paris and poured this into the large box. Do this on a level surface.

When all was set I removed the box and molds. I forgot to take a picture of what I did next so bear with me. I took out the rubber mold with the model in it. I coated the surface with a thin layer of Vaseline and put it back into the small mold box 'master up' (as shown). Then I poured in the other half of the rubber mold.

When this had cured, I removed the box, put the rubber mold back into the plaster casing, and put the whole thing into the large mold box. I painted the surfaces with more Vaseline and poured on the other half of the plaster casing. Do this on a level surface, then the plaster mold will be 'square'.

When this had set, I removed the almost completed mold

I split the mold (it comes apart easily because of the Vaseline) and cut the first air vents and pouring hole. It is important that the pouring hole is big enough to get a good 'pour'. The vents allow air to escape the mold as the lead goes in. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that your vents all end at the top of the mold: HOT LEAD LEAKING OUT SIDEWAYS (OR DOWNWARD) IS NOT VERY GOOD! Don't overdo the first vents; you can add or enlarge after test casting.


VERY VERY IMPORTANT!!!!! LEAVE THIS TO DRY OUT THOROUGHLY. IT WILL EXPLODE IF YOU POUR HOT LEAD IN BEFORE IT IS TOTALLY DRY!!!!!!

Advice: Leave to dry for at least three days on top of a radiator or on a sunny window sill. After three days, put the plaster sabots in a very low (60 C) oven for three hours. When it is dry it will make a clean 'ceramic ring' when tapped.

When it is dry cut out two pieces of paper and put them into the 'holes' behind the rubber (between plaster and the back of each rubber mold). These provide just enough of a wedge to 'pinch' the rubber when the two halves of the mold are put together.

CASTING:
LIABILITY WARNING: I will not accept any liability for accidents on your part or for accidental misinformation on mine. This post is only a non professional guide as to my methods. Casting is VERY dangerous. If you copy what I do: YOU DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

For casting I used the gas hob of a domestic oven, my melting pan (an old camping pot) and a vice. I also used a pencil, a soft brush, a sharpener and a piece of sand paper.

SAFETY: I wear thick cloth or thick leather gardening gloves (NO RUBBER OR PLASTIC!); I use goggles; I wear a cloth or leather apron and good solid leather shoes. SHOES are very important - sandals, trainers, slippers, shoes with ventilation holes or bare feet are a no-no - anything I spill is heading, by law of gravity, in the direction of my feet. Also - I NEVER MIX WATER WITH ANY PART OF THE CASTING PROCESS.



I sand down the point of a pencil, re-sharpen it and do it again about four or five times. I tip the graphite into the mold and brush about with the soft brush. I put the mold together, vice it up and pour in the lead of my first casting. This will be rubbish, the mold is cold.

When the mold warms up the casting gets better, but there will be problems with air escaping, etc. I work out where the air vents should be added to get a clear cast - remember they must end at the top of the mold or back into the casting. I had a problem with the 'swan' at the back - I had to add two air vents. I also had to widen the pour hole slightly.

Once I worked through the mold's niggles the castings were clean and easy.

This is not the best model I've ever made. It certainly isn't the best mold; I found working with the rubber I bought difficult. I've used the white stuff (RTV31) in the past and this has much better flow properties than this orange stuff. But it served its purpose.

Apart from the safety tips on working with molten lead, I have nothing to offer. Without a commercially available thermostatically controlled smelting pot it is all hit and miss to me.

Khurasan Hunter Class Gun Carriage

I made a hull variant with three weapon variations. Jon Just posted an article and preview up on TMP

"The Hunter class of Federal Marine gun carriages is designed around a lengthened Caffarata-class hull, and can mount a variety of support weapons.

Like the Caffarata infantry carrier it is a hybrid anti-grav/wheeled vehicle. The class is named for Thomas Peck Hunter, a 20th Century Royal Marine who was awarded the Victoria Cross for sacrificing his life to save others in his unit who were exposed to devastating enemy firepower. His extremely aggressive use of his gun (a Bren gun) to support his fellow marines sets the standard by which all Federal Marine Hunter batteries strive to perform."
The Hunter AAA provides vital air defense, mounting two pulse lasers as well as a launch box for an early warning drone which can be set to search for incoming aircraft and missiles beyond radar range.
The Hunter MLRS provides the corps commander with extremely long range firepower which can deploy a variety of sub-munitions.
The Hunter SPA carries a 30cm neutron howitzer into battle.
 

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