Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Snow from bulbs

Hi everybody,



from time to time you see this great looking snow bases and wonder how they are done. There are many methods floating around the internet creating a lovely snow base and as many professional snow products.

Which method do I prefer?

First of all I have not tested any of the commercial products like the Andrea snow which seems to be great according to several friends of mine.

I tested baking soda and baking powder but none of the two produced satisfying results.

At last I tried the "snow from bulbs" method.

You need a bulb (obviously). Only use this good old bulbs having a glow filament as the new bulbs like energy-saving bulbs or neon tubes contain toxic substances.



and something to crush the bulb



Put on your safety equipment, like protection goggles and some protective gloves. Then crush your bulb until you have smooth glass powder.



Due to the shiny look of the glass, you get the perfect snow for your miniatures.


Read more...

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Freaky Laser Line

Hi everybody,



did you ever wanted to possess a freaky, laser-based 3D model scanner? Me too!

What about a self-made 3D laser scanner?


During my research about laser scanners I found this promising laser project:

http://www.david-laserscanner.com/

All you need is some sort of gadget that produces a laser line and a web cam. For me the laser line from my hardware store tool set was sufficient. I found my old Logitech Quick Cam Pro 4000 (640px x 480px) in my basement.

I printed the calibration sheet from their website and was instantaneously able to measure 3D data of one of my miniatures. As you can see the results are promising but not usable at the moment.



If you are interested to fiddle with your webcam and lasers than you are invited to try this yourself!
Read more...

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Mycetic Spore - Part 1

Hi everybody,



today I got a package filled with 10 Sororoca fruits. I hope to build some of the new tyranid mycetic spores from those fruits. Unfortunately they are not as big as I thought, but some putty and base building should solve this problem.

Here you see the overall picture of all fruits



and a detailed comparison between a Carnifex and one of the bigger Sororoca fruits



Hopefully we will see some slimy mycetic spores from me in the future!
Read more...

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Mixing Citadel Colors

Hey guys,



I have been working hard on the topic "how should Games Workshop colors be mixed". There are a lot of tutorials about this on the internet regarding color harmonics or complementary colors. The question remains what you should do with a color wheel and your tiny Citadel pot. Everyone knows that the colors look different if they are dry. Many of you have a dot of dry color on the pot to estimate the hue of the dried color.

But where the hell does the color lie on the color wheel?

Here comes my project into play:

What's the goal?
Arrange the typical Games Workshop colors on a color wheel that is independent from an observer and independent from a printer and/or monitor.

What has to be done?
1. Apply the Games Workshop colors to a test chart.
2. Illuminate the chart with normed light.
3. Measure the reflectance spectrum of each probe.
4. Convert the spectrum to a suitable color space with equidistant perceivable color distances.

What I have done:
I applied my Games Workshop colors in 5 layers to a test chart. The brush was cleaned with extreme caution after the application of each color.



After that, each color was measured at five points with an Eye One spectro-photometer.



After that I transformed the measured reflectance spectra to the Lab color space (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab_color_space).

From the two dimensional representation of the green-red axis and the blue-yellow axis we can conclude the mixing behavior of the colors. The line between two colors represents the mixing line. If the line crosses the center of the color wheel, than we have two complementary colors. I.e. 33 Scorpion Green and 26 Liche Purple or 24 Ice blue and 18 Fiery Orange. The distance from the center of the color wheel represents the chromaticity of a color.



In addition to that I produced a chart which incorporates the luminance. Connecting two colors in the diagram shows you whether the mixture will get lighter or darker.
For 33 Scorpion Green and 26 Liche Purple the mixture will get darker. The luminance of 24 Ice blue and 18 Fiery Orange will be roughly the same.



Obviously the colors should be arranged in a 3D space (L-axis, a*-axis and b*-axis) but such a diagram would be hardly usable at all.

You will find my good quality pdf charts here:

Color wheel

Lightness diagram

Grumbler
Read more...

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