Superhero Hair Bows

This fall I kept seeing this pic floating around the internet and thought the idea was super cute.

 

So I decided to make superhero hair bows for one of my nieces for Christmas.

Painting a Paladin: Part 2

As you know by now, I'm fond of painting for Lost Hemisphere's monthly Paint the Target posts. It's fun to see my stuff up elsewhere and it's a great motivator to get my painting a bit faster.

As a reminder, I was repainting Menoth's Paladin of the Order of the Wall. Also, I recognize that today is not a Friday and this is not a sewing post, but LH posted the Target today, so I am as well. The world won't end because of it; I am certain.

My husband's Pally as he was before

Painting a Paladin: Part 1

For this month's Paint the Target over at Lost Hemisphere (follow the link to see last month's entries, my husband's is the 'jack with the huge grin 6 down from the top) the criteria is that we paint a model that "has the highest of any stat in your faction." That kindof eliminated any of the trolls for me because the high stat Trollbloods that I'm hoping to paint soon are all things that are going to take a little more time. Instead I turned to Menoth, the other faction that we keep around, and this guy: Paladin of the Order of the Wall.

Paladin OoW painted by my husband

Sometimes painting means sacrifice. In this case it meant sacrificing an old paint job. It was an early paint job 6 or 7 years ago with a color that he really liked (Vallejo's Brick Red) that we no longer have. But he is ever generous, so into the dipping pot it went to remove all of his paint and start fresh.

The Minis of GenCon 2012: GenCon Cases

Finally, here is the last batch of pics of minis from this year's convention. These are from the GenCon painting contests. Some are from speedpainting and some are just the general awesomeness contests. They were all pretty cool. Maybe I'll enter next year.... 

:)

watching these painted was one of the high moments of the con for me

Aces XI Charity Speed Paint

Back L->R: Marketh (Skorne) by Angela Imrie, Widowmaker Leader (Khador) by Amy Stegman, Gorman Di Wulfe (Merc) by Matt DiPietro, Shepherd (Legion) by Jennifer Kaufman, Valeria Alvaro (IKRPG) by Zach Lanier

Front L->R: Journyeman Warcaster (Cygnar) by Derek Schubert, Lord of the Feast (Circle) by Jessica Rich, Arcanist (Retribution) by Sue Wachowski, Pistol Wraith (Cryx) by Marike Reimer, Exemplar Errant Officer (Menoth) by Noel Meyer

The Minis of GenCon 2012: the Tables

Continuing to post pics of minis I saw at GenCon, these are minis that I saw out and about either on the gaming tables or just from other attendees.

Mulg the Ancient painted by Dan at Wyrd Miniatures

...at least that was what the gamer who was playing with him told me.  The pic really doesn't do him justice, he's gorgeous in deep purples shaded nearly up to white.

The Minis of GenCon 2012: PP & CMON

I took a ton of pics of minis during this year's convention. I've tried to whittle those down to a reasonable number to share here.  This first batch are those I found in the Privateer Press and Cool Mini or Not cases.

Please let me know if any of these models are yours so I can put your name up with it!

the shading on this guy was beautiful

ETA: This model has been identified by its highly talented painter as Dark Young from Blackball Games painted by Jess Rich aka Brushmistress. You can also find her speedpainting entry (please please correct me if I have any of them mixed up!) over on my blog entry from the ACES charity event.

GenCon 2012 Photodump 4

This con has been awesome.  And just because we are exhausted and calling it quits for this year doesn't mean the pictures will stop flowing just yet, after all I've taken way more than what I've already posted. lol

And now having had actual sleep I have enough energy to actually get captions on some of these! :P

Me and local kid (Youngblood Golden Demon) ended up in the same class

Marike Reimer taught us about sheer fabrics and freehanding

GenCon 2012 Photodump 3

OMG best day of GenCon yet! Had a great day and a couple of really stellar moments.  Looking forward to posting all about it after all the fun is over and I've had a few hours of sleep. In the mean time here are some pics. As before, I've taken a tonne more than what I'm posting here so I'll share more later when I can get them sorted properly.

5th Doctor and the T.A.R.D.I.S.

GenCon 2012 Photodump 2

The first full day of gaming at GenCon was a blast. Super tired and sore from all of the walking so you're getting some lower quality photos and not the full set.  I took almost 200 photos today.  Missing from today's photodump are pics of all of the minis I gawked at and pics of GRiPT Games' scenarios "The Wall" and "The City." I'll come back and put captions on these at some point.

Serra Angel

Dr Who (5th) Cosplay: Ready for GenCon 2012

Ok, I've finally got the pics you've been waiting for. The costume is done and ready and so am I! I've been doing a lot of sewing and other 'making' in the last week as final preparation.

new badge holders for the Mr. and myself (front & back of each)

The red tape/cords are from badge holders that he's acquired for free in the past. We have no affiliation with Konami, I think it was free in his swag bag one year.  The black & white fabric is left over from a nursing cover I did for a friend a while back, but we both liked i for this. I added a netted section to mine in case I want to put tickets or my phone or something in there. My husband requested his as a 'badge only' badge holder and is currently sporting a badge from 2007 I used as a size guide.

Big Post of Minis

I'm way behind in showing you some of the miniature-related fun we've had going on at home lately, so since I have had zero time to sew in the last two days I think I'll show you now!

First off I painted a model last month for Lost Hemisphere's monthly Paint the Target fun.  This month's target was to paint a model with reach.  I chose the Troll's Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower.

really proud of the muscle shading & highlighting

Whereas in real life a caber looks more like a telephone pole, this troll has hoisted up a marble pillar to hurl at his enemies.  (Want to know more about caber tossing? Check this out! And for those who want something more sciencey there's this!)

 

tartan painted in the dark. I swear I'll fix it.

Remember way back when I entered Captain Spud's Make Something Amazing Contest over at Lost Hemisphere? No? Well, I've posted about it a few times, notably here and here.  Anyway, even though I didn't win, Spud sent out small prizes to everyone anyway, and very generous ones at that.

Super exciting to get mail from Canada!

My husband had entered, too and we were super excited to see what we had received. 

Inside there were things for each of us: a 6" spray and a letter. 

 

reluctantly letting me photograph his letter

Mine certifies that I am "amazing," my husband's: not so much.  He had a bit of trouble with his project, but I'm proud of him for seeing it through to the end.

The box that made up the bulk of the package was the Dire Troll plastic kit, which contains the bits and pieces to make any combo of 3 Dire Trolls: The Blitzer, the Bomber, or the Mauler.

 

a hand full of heads

a hand full of hands

We are currently working on a way to make it work so that we can actually use all three.

Hey, there's a FOURTH card there!

 What's that fourth card? It's for Rok! While I've been busy sewing away for GenCon my husband has been busy playing Warmahordes and winning. With his winnings he was able to purchase the kit for Rok that also goes with the Dire Troll kit.

And then there was this shiny that he had been wanting and that I had been wanting to paint: The Trollblood Runeshapers.

 

oh yeah, that's going to be fun hee hee

And then I made a tiny purchase of my own. It's not an exceptional model but the price was right.  I am taking a few classes at GenCon including some for painting (faces, freehanding, etc), so I wanted to have something cheap with me that I could work on while I was there.

Well, I have to rush out the door to work, so I guess that's all for now!

 

Happy Friday!

Dr Who (5th) Cosplay: the Skirt

I've been continuing to work on my Doctor Who costume and have finished the skirt.  I took a few minutes the other day to update my sketches to a digital format using the croquis I've modified from free ones available online.

I was really surprised at how boring it looked until I added the stripes to the skirt.  I am fully aware that there is a possibility that my costume won't look exactly like this, but it's a good visual reminder of my goal.

Making Mulg: Part III

With the final photos of my sculpture of Mulg and a writeup about how I did it and why I thought I deserved to win submitted to Captain Spud over at Lost Hemisphere, it was a very very long week of waiting to find out the results of the contest.  The results were posted via a post that held the judging and results in audio form (no really, feel free to head over and hear them rip us all to shreds. some salty language included.) and a link to everyone's completed projects.

Sad to say, I did not win.

Apparently no one like's Mulg's face:

Painting the Redeemer Part I

In addition to a whole mound of sewing lately I've been working on several fun geekery projects. The first I'll share to day, the second (superexcitingspiffiness) i'll share with you next week.

 Last year one of the models my husband won was this fun Menoth Warjack.

Vilmon Finished

You may (or may not) remember that awhile back I had started work painting a new miniature, High Paladin Dartan Vilmon.  I had high hopes of finishing it in time for Lost Hemisphere's Paint the Target... but that was for... January i think...? lol oh well. Life gets busy sometimes and other priorities took precedence.

Super excited to have him finished though. My freehanding still needs quite a bit of work, but it's a good start.  

I'm also not terribly happy with the shading on the green; turns out several of our paint colors need replaced... grainy chunks are bad. :P

The jewels turned out understated but ok and the hat is meh but i couldn't decide on a better color choice.

The thing i really like, though, is the metal.  I've been trying a few new things and listening and watching to other painters (we have a few really talented painters in our group of gaming friends). With that, this is the first time that I really like how my metals turned out. :)

I already have plans in the works for this month's Paint the Target entry - it's a warjack - and i'm pretty happy with the start i have on it.  I haven't ever completed a jack and have always found their lack of... well... cloth, intimidating. Cloth i know; i sew. Big flat-ish chunks of metal, though? Not so much.  It's good to have a challenge & I'm looking forward to it.

Hope your week is going well!

Progress on Projects and a Recipe

January has been a busy month with a lot of small projects starting and a lot of large projects continuing or finishing up.  So I thought I'd share some of that with you.

 First off, I've managed to eke out some time to work on my corset. (last update was here) I re-cut all of my boning (reclaimed spiral steel bones from previous corsets) and replaced the tips. The only flat steels are the busk and the steels at center back on either side of the grommets.

I'm a Winner! (and some other stuff)

A while back I entered a giveaway on Patricia's Blog Cottonmouth.  She's a writer who I met through some friends and keeps le interwebz informed about her writing through her blog. So anyway, she was giving away this neat book that contained some of her stuff, so I entered the drawing, and I WON! Seriously, I was completely shocked. I am one of those 'I never win anything' people.

Today the mailman knocked on my door and brought me this lovely package!