March 17, 20214 yr A Wikipedia rabbithole today took me from reading about Phil Collins to this site. Man, as a childhood collector of army men, my mind is freaking blown. They ain't cheap. To do it up right, you need Phil Collins money. Or King of Tonga money. He's another collector. Since this is a Texas site, start with the Alamo collection. As you can see it is far beyond the usual Crockett / Travis / Bowie / Santa Anna deal. He has figures for dozens of other defenders in there by name. James Murray Brown George Neggan of South Carolina Bowie And then...man. Every war and many other episodes from history, like street life in old Hong Kong, the life of Jesus, the Old West. I feel ten years old again.
March 17, 20214 yr 17 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said: James Murray Brown Was I asleep during the part of Texas history class when the teacher explained why the defenders of the Alamo wore PF Chang's sous-chef hats?
March 17, 20214 yr Author 4 hours ago, smuggs said: Raydog to the white courtesy phone. Dude, that's RayDog's girlfriend's mom.
March 18, 20214 yr 7 hours ago, smuggs said: Was I asleep during the part of Texas history class when the teacher explained why the defenders of the Alamo wore PF Chang's sous-chef hats? That was actually a pretty popular style hat in the 1830's, particularly for military or sailor types. They actually did a really good job with the clothing. Hunting shirts (basically the large overshirt that was split down the center with fringe and often fringed shoulder capes and worn to protect the nicer clothes underneath) would have been very common on the frontier still at that time. Buckskin leggings worn over pants or with just a breechclout, and moccasins or shoepacks would have completed the outfit for the more frontier types, while those from the cities would be more apt to dress like the Count of Monte Cristo or some other movie/novel set in a similar time period.
March 21, 20214 yr Just a cursory glance at some of the 1800s American soldiers, as well as WWII stuff, and they really put a lot of effort into the details - things like rank, etc. I am extremely impressed. I'm actually kind of curious about their workflow. Lot of people do a lot of WWII diorama and the like, but I can't imagine a huge demand for stuff like the WWII Nazi/SS wedding, etc. @RDCanecutter what are your thoughts?
March 22, 20214 yr 36 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said: Just a cursory glance at some of the 1800s American soldiers, as well as WWII stuff, and they really put a lot of effort into the details - things like rank, etc. I am extremely impressed. I'm actually kind of curious about their workflow. Lot of people do a lot of WWII diorama and the like, but I can't imagine a huge demand for stuff like the WWII Nazi/SS wedding, etc. @RDCanecutter what are your thoughts? These aren't gaming figures so I don't know what's up with all the SS. I have known a couple of dudes who were obsessed by the SS, and any conversation would start with how much they disliked the SS, yet there they were, libraries of SS books, maybe reenacting SS. Go figure. Maybe it's like people who obsess over vampires or monster movies. When I was a starvling student painting minis to eat, I made a big deal about not painting Nazi stuff. Possibly I was being a bit dramatic, because I never met anybody who wanted to commission an SS wedding. When I was playing WW2 games in tournaments, I had all kinds of nationalities so you could match it to your opponent. My favorites were my Americans, but I also kept a bunch of Germans I could run, because, y'know, WW2. The games were point-based and one time I saw that I had the perfect set-up to run my little Krauts as SS. So I did, except as the Charlemagne Division, a unit formed from French speakers. The main benefit of this was I got to speak in an outrageous French accent while I taunted silly English pig-dogs and such. So I'll probably burn in 1/100th scale hell.
March 22, 20214 yr 1 hour ago, RDCanecutter said: These aren't gaming figures Sorry, although I found the SS thing odd, I was more curious what you thought about all of their offerings/qualities, etc. They seem to put research into the units for which there are historical records.
March 22, 20214 yr 2 hours ago, atomheartbevo said: Egyptians had some weird tables for setting their food and drink on. NSFW Hide contents I think that chick solves the debate about whether the Egyptians invented breast implants as well as building the pyramids.
March 22, 20214 yr Has anyone found a video showing the production process of these pieces? How are they molded? Curious how they go about making them. Also wondering about the thought process where you decide to make a run of bent over backwards, topless Egyptian women with big hooters.
March 22, 20214 yr 1 hour ago, davidg said: Has anyone found a video showing the production process of these pieces? How are they molded? Curious how they go about making them. Also wondering about the thought process where you decide to make a run of bent over backwards, topless Egyptian women with big hooters. I'm insanely curious as well. There's a lot of stuff on there that makes me go "wow, that's really cool", but a lot of head-scratching stuff as well. They obviously are making what people are buying.
March 22, 20214 yr 5 hours ago, atomheartbevo said: "Longhorn basketball fan, the night of March 20, 2021" Fixed for accuracy.
March 22, 20214 yr 12 hours ago, atomheartbevo said: Sorry, although I found the SS thing odd, I was more curious what you thought about all of their offerings/qualities, etc. Sorry, once and future gamer here, it doesn't take much to send me into full nerd-babble. Obviously they have a nice product. From my brief time as an apprentice on a spin caster making bootleg models, here's how I think they do it: The "dolls" (original sculptures that they make the molds from) may be as much as three times the size of the models. Then they use some form of cadcam thingy to shrink it down to what looks to be 54mm models. Those are probably done in groups at the same time on a spin-caster where identical molds branch out like spokes of a wheel. This would all be pretty fast once you have the molds set up. Some kind of metal like pewter, or maybe it's just plain lead. The real work is the painting. I am guessing they hit them with a black spray undercoat, then they build it up with what looks like a standard 3-layer style where you start with the darkest version a color, then mid range, then pick out highlights with a brighter version. This is easy to teach new painters and would keep the whole line more consistent. No doubt they have one dude going at it on flesh colors for a bunch at a time, while somebody else does uniforms, and Mrs. Steady puts in the eyes. After that, looks like a satin acrylic coat, let dry for a couple days, then out the door. Anyway, that's my guess. If I were to paint to this standard, I'd need to charge $20/figure to make minimum wage, and I'm fast. I guess the Chinese painters get somewhat less. The buildings/tanks look like resin castings, which you can do at your kitchen table if you know how. (I don't.) Edited March 22, 20214 yr by RDCanecutter
March 22, 20214 yr 20 hours ago, RDCanecutter said: Blah, Blah... So I did, except as the Charlemagne Division, a unit formed from French speakers. The main benefit of this was I got to speak in an outrageous French accent while I taunted silly English pig-dogs and such. So I'll probably burn in 1/100th scale hell. Edited March 22, 20214 yr by TexasEd
March 22, 20214 yr 18 hours ago, castolon said: Grown men are still children. Boobs are good. End thought process. These boobs are the only ones these grown men will ever touch.
May 8, 20214 yr On 3/22/2021 at 12:01 AM, atomheartbevo said: I'm insanely curious as well. There's a lot of stuff on there that makes me go "wow, that's really cool", but a lot of head-scratching stuff as well. They obviously are making what people are buying. On 3/22/2021 at 9:18 AM, RDCanecutter said: Sorry, once and future gamer here, it doesn't take much to send me into full nerd-babble. Obviously they have a nice product. From my brief time as an apprentice on a spin caster making bootleg models, here's how I think they do it: The "dolls" (original sculptures that they make the molds from) may be as much as three times the size of the models. Then they use some form of cadcam thingy to shrink it down to what looks to be 54mm models. Those are probably done in groups at the same time on a spin-caster where identical molds branch out like spokes of a wheel. This would all be pretty fast once you have the molds set up. Some kind of metal like pewter, or maybe it's just plain lead. The real work is the painting. I am guessing they hit them with a black spray undercoat, then they build it up with what looks like a standard 3-layer style where you start with the darkest version a color, then mid range, then pick out highlights with a brighter version. This is easy to teach new painters and would keep the whole line more consistent. No doubt they have one dude going at it on flesh colors for a bunch at a time, while somebody else does uniforms, and Mrs. Steady puts in the eyes. After that, looks like a satin acrylic coat, let dry for a couple days, then out the door. Anyway, that's my guess. If I were to paint to this standard, I'd need to charge $20/figure to make minimum wage, and I'm fast. I guess the Chinese painters get somewhat less. The buildings/tanks look like resin castings, which you can do at your kitchen table if you know how. (I don't.) First, my apologies for just “busting in” on y’all’s thread/convo. I am in NO way an expert or even a novice at any of this. However, I have a buddy who is WAYYY into this stuff and insanely talented at sculpting and painting the figurines. He actually owns his own paint company that I’m sure some of you may use to paint. Anyway, he told me that he uses a 3D printer to make the figures. He scans them into the computer, then “prints” them. Anyway, again- Sorry to just jump in... Carry on! 😬🤘🏻
May 10, 20214 yr On 5/7/2021 at 10:08 PM, NTVTXN said: First, my apologies for just “busting in” on y’all’s thread/convo. I am in NO way an expert or even a novice at any of this. However, I have a buddy who is WAYYY into this stuff and insanely talented at sculpting and painting the figurines. He actually owns his own paint company that I’m sure some of you may use to paint. Anyway, he told me that he uses a 3D printer to make the figures. He scans them into the computer, then “prints” them. Anyway, again- Sorry to just jump in... Carry on! 😬🤘🏻 Reaper?
May 10, 20214 yr 8 hours ago, NTVTXN said: Scale 75 Ah. I hadn't come across them, but I'm pretty much out of the loop on anything relatively new.
May 10, 20214 yr On 3/21/2021 at 7:17 PM, RDCanecutter said: These aren't gaming figures so I don't know what's up with all the SS. I have known a couple of dudes who were obsessed by the SS, and any conversation would start with how much they disliked the SS, yet there they were, libraries of SS books, maybe reenacting SS. Go figure. Maybe it's like people who obsess over vampires or monster movies. When I was a starvling student painting minis to eat, I made a big deal about not painting Nazi stuff. Possibly I was being a bit dramatic, because I never met anybody who wanted to commission an SS wedding. When I was playing WW2 games in tournaments, I had all kinds of nationalities so you could match it to your opponent. My favorites were my Americans, but I also kept a bunch of Germans I could run, because, y'know, WW2. The games were point-based and one time I saw that I had the perfect set-up to run my little Krauts as SS. So I did, except as the Charlemagne Division, a unit formed from French speakers. The main benefit of this was I got to speak in an outrageous French accent while I taunted silly English pig-dogs and such. So I'll probably burn in 1/100th scale hell. My first girlfriend, Trudy, was the daughter of an SS Captain. At the end of the War her mom divorced him and eventually married a US Army sergeant. Trudy was nice even though her German Shepherd dawg bit the shit out of my arm one time.
May 10, 20214 yr To appreciate how far miniature painting for games has come in the last few years, I offer this example:
June 4, 20214 yr On 3/21/2021 at 7:17 PM, RDCanecutter said: When I was playing WW2 games in tournaments, I had all kinds of nationalities so you could match it to your opponent. MicroArmor?
June 4, 20214 yr 4 minutes ago, ROFL BOX said: MicroArmor? 15mm (1/100th) mostly for the Flames of War game but played a dozen others as well.
June 4, 20214 yr Sorta sad that FPS type games have nearly murderated the 1/100th games. I first came across these probably 3 decades ago @ a mini-con for gaming (D&D, etc) with hex boards & became enthralled with MicroArmor type games. They had a 4x8 sheet of wood set on sawhorses... threw down a piece of astroturf & some foam under that for terrain, plopped some random trees here & there... out came the dice (20 siders, 8 siders, 4 siders...) & bam, the game was afoot.
June 4, 20214 yr In a particularly manic phase, I made "microarmor" 1/285 scale units for a complete French and German 1914 Division, out of matchsticks glued to cardboard chits. It wasn't man for man. Two matchstick men equalled a platoon. Still made hundreds of them. I made the men 1/4" tall, and figured out ways to carve the sticks so they'd look like cavalry or artillery from a couple feet away. Well what do you know-- tossed them in a drawer more than 20 years ago, and there they are.
June 4, 20214 yr Rudimentary, for sure. Gets the point across, esp. if there's an easily referred to legend. I dig the detail of the tank I found, but for basics yours works.
June 4, 20214 yr On 3/17/2021 at 1:33 PM, smuggs said: Raydog to the white courtesy phone. Terribly inaccurate. No sloot in heels like that would be standing on grass.
June 4, 20214 yr They definitely make ancient Egypt seem far more pleasant that one would have thought.
August 9, 20214 yr The Bryan Museum in Galveston has a great hand-crafted diorama with 2000 soldiers depicting the Battle of San Jacinto. The museum sells these figures in the gift shop and I invested in three dead Mexicans. Or two dead and one resting Mexican. Or three drunk Mexicans. I don't really know what I bought but the sales lady was a little distressed that this is what I chose to buy instead of a lovely Sam Houston or ROT infantrymen.
August 9, 20214 yr Here is the diorama mentioned above. It's a really good Texas history museum if you happen to be in Galveston looking for something to do.
August 10, 20214 yr Thanks for the tip on the Bryan Museum Mr BottleRocket. I checked out the website and looks like a legit place to visit. Will be heading down that way soon.
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