Friday, August 30, 2013

Snaky cultists and culty snakes

Check out this previous post for how I came up with these figures: they're mostly Caesar Miniatures undead with various headswaps. It's an idea I've seen a few other places, though the snakemen are my own invention.

This congregation would like to know why you interrupted their services.


The head cultist. I'm pleased with how the cover of his necronomicon turned out. 
Some of the more devoted cultists have taken on the aspect of their evil snake god, manifest here as an unpainted Wrath of Ashardalon gamepiece.

Bishop Ophidean kindly requests that you refrain from taking photographs until after the liturgy is completed.

Comparisons with Sven. They look a bit smaller because most of them did not come on a separate plastic base. The second mini from the left is a Hat druid from their Celtic Command set.
Here's the part of the blog where I complain about the dip: I've become convinced that something about the Caesar plastic resists the dip from curing. The bods are still a little tacky and shiny even after days of drying and layers of matte spray, while the heads are fine. The matte spray seemed to help, so I may try a hobby matte varnish.

We're doing some renovating in my hobby space, so it may be a while before my next project. I'm still trying to decide what to do next. Here are some ideas: hobgoblins (Caesar orcs painted ochre instead of green), gnolls (modded WoW gamepieces), a swarm of rats of various sizes (Reaper rats, Warhammer skaven bits, Castle Ravenloft pieces), or some larger creatures like trolls or ogres. Any preferences?

11 comments:

  1. Great conversions, love them !

    About the Caesar plastic, I've had the same problem with some of their figures too after using solvent based paints on them.

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  2. Thanks!

    There's definitely solvent in the dip I use, so that might be the issue. Weird that it affects the dip through layers of paint and primer. Did you find you could seal the Caesar minis to eliminate the stickiness?

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    1. I've not tried that, perhaps it's the answer.

      The plastic Caesar uses seems to vary from lot to lot, some are fine and others not so.

      The figures must have some kind of chemical to keep the plastic soft, like the HaT chewing-gum plastic maybe, but not so much.

      Strangely enough, I have a huge number of their modern figures and I found that the unpainted figures have gone rigid after a couple of years - so maybe the chemical in the plastic eventually all leeches out.

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  3. Nice job with the serpent cultists. They look like they would go well with the old Grenadier serpent men from their Call of Cthulhu line.

    You might want to try coating the Caesar miniatures with Future or something similar before dipping. Not sure what the composition of the dip is, but it sounds like it may have organic solvents in it that are reacting with the plastic.

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    1. Thanks! And that's a good suggestion for next time. I appreciate it!

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    2. Also, you weren't kidding about those old Grenadier minis.

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  4. Great conversions..especially the necronomicon

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  5. That's a great snake~ the conversions are wonderful too.

    Mike Bunkermeister Creek
    http://bunkermeister.blogspot.com/

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  6. Just found and LOVE your blog. definetely, one of the most creative I found!
    I have a small post on my blog (which it's months I have to update -_-)regarding 1/72 sci fi that migh be of interest for you.
    congratulation for your models,

    cheers
    Andrea

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    1. Thanks! I found the post you mentioned: Nice conversions! Are those Micro Machine battle droids they are fighting?

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  7. Yes, they are! direct way from my childhood! :)

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