Monday 30 January 2017

CXIII. New Growths in the Garden

I've been neglecting the blog for too long... A new year is upon us and I have big plans for it. I'll briefly go through them, shall I.

  • I am to convert and paint a Zoraida crew for Malifaux in time for Agram Arena Summer in July, complete with a display base and all necessary markers and tokens. In the meantime I'll be taking part in a campaign, gradually adding painted models as the Crew develops from the starting 35 Stones. The image above is a 30mm Scheme Marker, first of about a dozen I aim to produce. It's a way to push myself to paint things other than miniatures. I need more practice making artwork.
  • A few of my clubmates and I are preparing to get into Frostgrave in the foreseeable future, so I'll be making a warband and some monsters for that. And custom gaming aids, of course.
  • I wish to make at least one display piece this year. I remember how much I enjoyed last year's attempts.
So the blog will expand in the subject matter it covers since I'll be documenting and publishing all those things here (and possibly more). The main worldbuilding project will be pushed into the background, but the plus is there might finally be some battle reports featured in my posts. And all of it will be aesthetically close to what I've shown so far.  

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I've already started working towards my goals. My first offering:

 CONDITION TOKENS for Malifaux


I've been plaing the game for years, yet I've never had gaming aids for keeping track of conditions on models. Making some was a fine opportunity to get creative. After some thought and several design ideas I opted for round, 25mm or smaller, two-sided and hand-painted. I set off to make twelve Poisoned tokens (1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8), three Defensive1/Defensive2, two Focused1/Focused2, three Paralyzed/Reactivate and four Slow/Fast. That should do for now. 

The tokens started as coins, with a thin layer of Milliput to cover the embossing. I like the weight of the coins.
When this cured I painted the faces of the tokens black. This was followed by some filing to clean up the metal edges and then a tidy-up of the black.
Doing the freehand writing was the most tedious part of the process.

The final step is applying Vallejo Still Water. It works as very thick gloss varnish in this case.
Poison tokens have an image instead of words. They were actually faster and easier to make, though before I started I expected it would be the other way round.

 Condition Token CONTAINER


Because I really like boxes, I painted one to carry my fancy new tokens.

The little box came unpainted, so first I glazed the light wood with diluted acrylic dark browns. I painted the interior black and covered some of the surfaces with black felt. This will make the tokens more comfortable inside.
I wanted to decorate the lid with some freehand. I masked off an area for that purpose.
Neat.
After sketching the design with a pencil I moved on to colouring it in. It's the same paints I use for miniatures.
 
 
 
Done. It looks too clean, though. Time for some Agrax Earthshade and Typhus Corrosion.
This is it. A couple coats of varnish to keep it protected and the box is done.
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Finished tokens and container.

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Just a small update for the end: the textured board I commissioned in mid-2016 finally arrived around Christmas. I took a shot of the Wilderness scenery on it. A big improvement, in my humble opinion.

23 comments:

  1. This is truly inspiring Ana.

    The counters and their box are so lovely I want to eat them and the wilderness scenery is beyond beautiful. Fantastic job!

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  2. We can see a load of wood boxes and stuff these days in the Grimdark scene but for once I'm seeing something that combines both the practical and graphical sides in one.
    Your focused style and very personnal take on this hobby are definitely refreshing and eye opening.

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  3. There's so much atmosphere in that board and those tokens. Great work!

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  4. You never cease to be a wellspring of inspiration, Ana! <3

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  5. Tremendous inspiring post today!
    Alan

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  6. So simple ideas made to look thoroughly professional in their execution. Beautiful freehand as usual Ana and that table is a thing to drool over!

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  7. Lovely work, and obviously useful too!

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  8. Some lovely work there: wonderful little details that really improve the gaming experience.

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  9. Your work is always enjoyable to see but... wow... when it all comes together like this! What a joy!

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  10. You consistently raise this hobby of ours to the level of art. Outstanding work, Ana.

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  11. Great stuff! It's always a joy to read through your posts.

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  12. That terrain is amazing! The board looks beautiful all together, great work with the box too. . .

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  13. Glad to see you posting again Ana, i love the aesthetic of your work and your terrain pieces always inspire me to push myself further and make some of my own.

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  14. Class act job with your custom tokens and carrying case. The free-hand work is wonderful!

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  15. Great job and inspiring post! Very well done! :)

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  16. Very nice! Thank you for the tutorial!

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  17. I'm finally getting around to catching up on what i missed out on earlier this year.
    Those tokens are wonderful! I had bought myself some cheap lots of small cameo settings to make some fitting tokens for Age of Sigmar to go with my bone dice.
    I'd planned on getting some of the acrylic or glass cabochons/domes to cover them when done, I hadn't thought about using something like still water to protect them.
    May have to try that, thanks for the inspiration.

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