Dragonblood Closed for Business

From their Website

Dragonblood Closed for Business
3/19/2010

Enough, time to find a buyer. Anyone interested in the sculpts or castings let me know.

Existing inventory will still be for sale until whatever transition occurs. All figures will be sold from the ebay store here.

I wonder what they want for their molds…

Cephalid Telepath

Custom White Balance (huh?)

Let’s continue our discussion of some basic photography concepts. Since the miniatures hobby is so visual, and since my website is so image heavy, I figure it’s somewhat pertinent.

You’ve all probably seen pictures on various websites and forums, where images have heavy yellow or orange tints. That, my friend, is usually the result of using incorrect white balance value.

What is white balance? Here’s the explanation from Wikipedia:

… color balance (sometimes gray balance, neutral balance, or white balance) refers to the adjustment of the relative amounts of red, green, and blue primary colors in an image such that neutral colors are reproduced correctly.

Let’s think this through. All sources of light have different color temperatures, measured in kelvin. I won’t go into the theoretical explanation of color temperatures, of which I myself only have a tenuous understanding. Suffice it to say that different types of light sources — the sun, a fluorescent light bulb, halogen light, tungsten light, etc. — all give off different color temperature. Our brain can “interpret” the different sources on the fly without us being aware of it and render the colors correctly regardless of the source. So a red ball has the same color whether we look at it in the sun or indoors or under a light bulb. Read the rest of this entry »

Mechwarrior Repair Bay: Disfiguration

In this basic tutorial I will show you step by step how to fix your mechwarrior miniatures that may have slight disfiguration due to bent limbs and other extremities. In this tutorial I will show you an example by using my vulture with a defective arm. The arm will not rotate due to the fact it is bent.

Disfigured arm

First remove the dial from the miniatures base. This is important as it will keep your dial from becoming damaged by later steps.

Remove the Dial

Select your hair dryer

Grab a hair dryer. Any hair dryer with variable speeds will work. Set your blow dryer to high. This is important as timing is key with this procedure. The plastic needs to be heated at a fast rate.

Place the setting on High

Be carefull not to over heat the mech!

Aim the dryer while on high heat to the specific area that needs adjustment. It is highly recommended that you heat the part for 5 to 10 seconds. If your miniature is a little thicker you can heat for a few seconds longer but do not exceed 15 seconds. It is also recommended that you rotate your miniature as to focus the heat on the specific part you are adjusting. The heat will loosen the plastic allowing it to bend easily

Rotate the Mech slowly

Hold the disfigured part

When you have reached the apropriate heating time quickly turn off your blow dryer and position the piece you heated where you would like it. It is important to be very careful as it will bend very easily. While holding your thumb over your heat dial and keeping your hand on the disired position of the part you are fixing, quickly run the miniature under cold running water. When the cold water meets the warm plastic it will cause it to instantly cool and shock the plastic to stay in the position that you are holding it in.

Coolant Flush!

Pat or air dry and reattatch the dial. You now have successfuly fixed a disfigured mechwarrior miniature. On a side note it is imporant to cover the heat dial as there is no lamination of the sticker and your heat dial could face water damage if not protected.

Fully repaired!

I would like to thank my good friend Zecks for taking the time to write up this article and for taking the pictures to help explain the entire process.  If you would like to see more photos on this Mechwarrior Repair Bay article please check the forums HERE

Doctor Who Miniature Game

I had the chance to play the free Doctor Who Miniature Game this weekend.  It has been a while since a game has had me this excited!

The rules found here are free to download.  You can play mass pitched battles but this game is more focused on the story line and the ability to recreate your favorite episodes!

The rules are quick and simple and I have a brief write up with pictures here.  You can get Doctor Who miniatures from Black Tree Miniatures.  You can also get some paper miniatures from here

If you have some free time I highly recommend this game!

WIZKIDS ANNOUNCES HALO ACTIONCLIX COLLECTABLE MINIATURES GAME

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WizKids Inc., creator of runaway hit games like HeroClix® and Pirates of the Spanish Main, announced today its agreement with Bungie Studios and Microsoft to develop a new collectable miniatures game (CMG) called Halo® ActionClix.

The Halo ActionClix CMG brings the incredible content of the Halo universe to the tabletop via the award-winning Clix miniatures game engine. Players familiar with HeroClix and HorrorClix will be able to jump right into the action and enjoy brand-new game mechanics, including weapon swaps, figure respawning and vehicle-based combat.

Read the rest of this entry »